PythonGoddess5587
New member
Ok, first, my name is Candace Owings.
I've been following Ben's auctions on facebook for awhile, since he started posting them really. Never heard any negative comments about any of the animals. I had bid a few times but never won anything.
I bid on this male blood last week http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1761791704254&set=t.1313541453&type=1 I have been searching for a male, for a female I already have, for over a year and this one appeared to be a suitable match so I went for it and won. Not "the" male I had been searching for but he would work. I figured all of the pictures I'd seen of everyone who posted pics after receiving animals from Ben looked better then in his pics so why not.
I received the male this morning, unboxed him and gently took him out of the bag to look him over. While removing him from the bag I noticed something on his neck and when I got him to the light I was a bit shocked at what I saw (see below pictures)
I immediately called the store to notify them that the snake was injured but there was no blood in the bag and to ask if they knew about it and what was going to be done about it. I spoke with Stacy, she asked me to send her pictures, which I did via text because my computer was not turned on yet and I already had my phone with me and it was faster. I hung up, took the below pictures, sent them and then called back. I spoke with another girl at the store at that point at which time I was told Ben was not in yet and they would have him call me as soon as he walked in the door. This was all over the phone so I have no documentation. It was also at 11:00 am, I was told Ben would be in by 1:00. At 2:00 I still had not heard anything back so I called again, spoke with the second girl again and was told, again, Ben would call me that he still was not back yet.
At 3:00 I received a text from Stacy saying that they were sorry it had gotten over looked, she must have missed it while bagging the snake and I was entitled to a full credit of the amount in auction credit. Now yes, i've read Ben's rules multiple times and this is what it says:
"GUARANTEES--We have a 7 day live arrival guarantee on retail animals. All claims are handled with store credit. Regular purchase store credit cannot be used on auctions. Would be very hard to keep up with. Auction animals carry the same guarantee however any replacements for auctions will be auction bucks in the amount of the winning bid. Being that auction animals are often unique this seems like the fairest way to handle any loss. WE RARELY RARELY have any doas or loss, so this is just to clarify in case."
Nowhere does that note if the snake shows up injured, to me the way that is written makes it sounds like that only applies to dead on arrival or dead within a week animals. I thought, since i still wanted to keep the animal, maybe a partial refund because I didnt want to bid on anything else but I also didnt really think $120 was fair for an injured animal.
I texted Stacy back asking if there was anyway they could just do a credit back to my paypal account instead and around 5:00 got a responce of "No, sorry, we can only give you auction credit"
Well I did not really want auction credit because being as they did not even have the decency to have Ben call me and talk to me in person to handle this, I'm not sure if I would want any other animals from him. Me being upset by all this, I posted a status on my facebook about it but never mentioned any names and as I have about 4,700 friends, it got a lot of attention. One girl in particular asked me who it was, I told her if she really wanted to know she could PM me and I would tell her but I didnt want to post it for the world to see yet because Ben still had a chance to make things right with me. I figured, ok, you want to keep is as a credit, thats fine, what if you send me pictures of the bloods you have in the store that you would be willing to part with for $120 shipped and I can pick one out and buy it from you, I was told no, that it MUST be used to bid in an auction that i'm not guaranteed to win or guaranteed that he would post anything I would remotely be interested in anytime soon. I dont make a habit of watching his auctions as I am busy and have other things to do and I dont like having money sitting around when I have bills that I could use it towards but since I wasnt allowed a true refund, I thought that letting me buy an animal with the credit was a fair offer, apperently Ben thought different. So I then asked him what would happen if I were to submit a claim on paypal about it.
Back to the PM comment from earlier, mind you, it's called a private message because it's a private message, I'm allowed to voice my opinion to whoever I want, that's called freedom of speech, Ben seemed to think differently because at that time he commented on my status, outted himself as the seller, called me rude and asked me to stop "smearing his name online" which I had not done. He then proceeded to call me from the store phone and then Stacy's cell phone at which point I answered.
I have never been good with conflict, I don't like arguing, my mind freezes, I can't think, I cant talk. I was bullied a lot in school and the phone conversation with Ben took me right back to that time. He kept asking me why I was upset and why him offering to let me keep the snake for free and give me auction credit for the amount paid wasn't sufficient. How do you explain to someone who sells so many animals everyday that I didn't bid on him just so I could have another blood, I don't collect them, I selectively buy good stock that I can work with because I am a blood breeder and just because he posts up a blood python and tags me in the picture means nothing to me. Having auction credit sitting there waiting till god knows when he has something else that peaks my interest is a completely waste to me not only because they money could be used for other, more important things, but also to the fact that it's an auction, there is no guarantees i'm going to win anything. If he is willing to give me my money back, then give me the money back and be done with it but dont force me to use it to bid on other stuff you have just because you want more business. And more to the fact, who is going to say that the next one wont come in injured either?
Ben openly admitted to me on the phone that I was not the first person that this has happened to but all the others thought his offer was fair and accepted it, ok fine, I am not like everyone else, I actually care about the well being of the animals I buy and am very picky about which ones I will actually purchase. By this point in the phone call I was crying, he had actually upset me that much. He was asking for me to apologize to him for smearing his name, which I never did, this is the first post I have made about it. That man is manipulative and knows how to use his words to make you think that it actually is your fault, he will take anything you say and flip it around to make it sound like you are the one who did wrong.
Now he did admit that they over looked the injury BUT there's no way that it wasn't seen, note the last picture I posted, the one from the auction. The part where I have circled, only now that I know where to look, you can see the injury. So this poor, little, sweet, snake has been injured since before the auction even went up. Also note how the snake is positioned in the pic so the injury is not really visible, almost like whoever was taking the picture knew it was there and was trying to hide it. Yes I saw that section of the photo beforehand but it just looked pixelated to me and I thought nothing of it at the time. Ben still swears up and down that no one noticed the injury on this snake but I find that hard to believe as it is 3/4" long and fairly open. it looks to be only about a week into the healing process.
At this point I was so fed up with dealing with Ben that I told him to keep my money, I'll keep the snake, he will have a good home with me, I will get him healed, he will have a scar for the rest of his life and the fact that it is in the shape of a lightning bolt is why I named him H.P. (short for harry potter, yes I'm a dork and I love it
lol ) but I'm ok with that. Ben then emailed me a UPS label with which I was suppose to pack the snake back up and ship him out tonight. I never wanted to do that, that was never an option, nor is it going to happen. I'm more upset that the snake was misrepresented, arrived injured and the "compensation" I was offered, to me, was bull, I don't want to bid on more snakes, I don't want to ship the snake back to you, I just wanted at least a partial refund, it didn't even have to be the whole thing but apparently that was too much to ask and required yelling at me and prodding on the phone till I was in tears. That if you ask me is highly unprofessional and is not the way you handle anything but according to Ben, I'm the one who is wrong and I need to be apologizing to him.
Unfortunately with me getting upset, I deleted my status off of facebook and Ben knows I am posting this and I'm sure will jump in with a counter. I am NOT bashing him, just stating what happened today and how things were handled because I don't think it was right. At this point, I don't care if I get my money back or not. All I care about is the well being of the snake and knowing that he will have a good home with me and if that's wrong then I guess I'm wrong
I've been following Ben's auctions on facebook for awhile, since he started posting them really. Never heard any negative comments about any of the animals. I had bid a few times but never won anything.
I bid on this male blood last week http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1761791704254&set=t.1313541453&type=1 I have been searching for a male, for a female I already have, for over a year and this one appeared to be a suitable match so I went for it and won. Not "the" male I had been searching for but he would work. I figured all of the pictures I'd seen of everyone who posted pics after receiving animals from Ben looked better then in his pics so why not.
I received the male this morning, unboxed him and gently took him out of the bag to look him over. While removing him from the bag I noticed something on his neck and when I got him to the light I was a bit shocked at what I saw (see below pictures)
I immediately called the store to notify them that the snake was injured but there was no blood in the bag and to ask if they knew about it and what was going to be done about it. I spoke with Stacy, she asked me to send her pictures, which I did via text because my computer was not turned on yet and I already had my phone with me and it was faster. I hung up, took the below pictures, sent them and then called back. I spoke with another girl at the store at that point at which time I was told Ben was not in yet and they would have him call me as soon as he walked in the door. This was all over the phone so I have no documentation. It was also at 11:00 am, I was told Ben would be in by 1:00. At 2:00 I still had not heard anything back so I called again, spoke with the second girl again and was told, again, Ben would call me that he still was not back yet.
At 3:00 I received a text from Stacy saying that they were sorry it had gotten over looked, she must have missed it while bagging the snake and I was entitled to a full credit of the amount in auction credit. Now yes, i've read Ben's rules multiple times and this is what it says:
"GUARANTEES--We have a 7 day live arrival guarantee on retail animals. All claims are handled with store credit. Regular purchase store credit cannot be used on auctions. Would be very hard to keep up with. Auction animals carry the same guarantee however any replacements for auctions will be auction bucks in the amount of the winning bid. Being that auction animals are often unique this seems like the fairest way to handle any loss. WE RARELY RARELY have any doas or loss, so this is just to clarify in case."
Nowhere does that note if the snake shows up injured, to me the way that is written makes it sounds like that only applies to dead on arrival or dead within a week animals. I thought, since i still wanted to keep the animal, maybe a partial refund because I didnt want to bid on anything else but I also didnt really think $120 was fair for an injured animal.
I texted Stacy back asking if there was anyway they could just do a credit back to my paypal account instead and around 5:00 got a responce of "No, sorry, we can only give you auction credit"
Well I did not really want auction credit because being as they did not even have the decency to have Ben call me and talk to me in person to handle this, I'm not sure if I would want any other animals from him. Me being upset by all this, I posted a status on my facebook about it but never mentioned any names and as I have about 4,700 friends, it got a lot of attention. One girl in particular asked me who it was, I told her if she really wanted to know she could PM me and I would tell her but I didnt want to post it for the world to see yet because Ben still had a chance to make things right with me. I figured, ok, you want to keep is as a credit, thats fine, what if you send me pictures of the bloods you have in the store that you would be willing to part with for $120 shipped and I can pick one out and buy it from you, I was told no, that it MUST be used to bid in an auction that i'm not guaranteed to win or guaranteed that he would post anything I would remotely be interested in anytime soon. I dont make a habit of watching his auctions as I am busy and have other things to do and I dont like having money sitting around when I have bills that I could use it towards but since I wasnt allowed a true refund, I thought that letting me buy an animal with the credit was a fair offer, apperently Ben thought different. So I then asked him what would happen if I were to submit a claim on paypal about it.
Back to the PM comment from earlier, mind you, it's called a private message because it's a private message, I'm allowed to voice my opinion to whoever I want, that's called freedom of speech, Ben seemed to think differently because at that time he commented on my status, outted himself as the seller, called me rude and asked me to stop "smearing his name online" which I had not done. He then proceeded to call me from the store phone and then Stacy's cell phone at which point I answered.
I have never been good with conflict, I don't like arguing, my mind freezes, I can't think, I cant talk. I was bullied a lot in school and the phone conversation with Ben took me right back to that time. He kept asking me why I was upset and why him offering to let me keep the snake for free and give me auction credit for the amount paid wasn't sufficient. How do you explain to someone who sells so many animals everyday that I didn't bid on him just so I could have another blood, I don't collect them, I selectively buy good stock that I can work with because I am a blood breeder and just because he posts up a blood python and tags me in the picture means nothing to me. Having auction credit sitting there waiting till god knows when he has something else that peaks my interest is a completely waste to me not only because they money could be used for other, more important things, but also to the fact that it's an auction, there is no guarantees i'm going to win anything. If he is willing to give me my money back, then give me the money back and be done with it but dont force me to use it to bid on other stuff you have just because you want more business. And more to the fact, who is going to say that the next one wont come in injured either?
Ben openly admitted to me on the phone that I was not the first person that this has happened to but all the others thought his offer was fair and accepted it, ok fine, I am not like everyone else, I actually care about the well being of the animals I buy and am very picky about which ones I will actually purchase. By this point in the phone call I was crying, he had actually upset me that much. He was asking for me to apologize to him for smearing his name, which I never did, this is the first post I have made about it. That man is manipulative and knows how to use his words to make you think that it actually is your fault, he will take anything you say and flip it around to make it sound like you are the one who did wrong.
Now he did admit that they over looked the injury BUT there's no way that it wasn't seen, note the last picture I posted, the one from the auction. The part where I have circled, only now that I know where to look, you can see the injury. So this poor, little, sweet, snake has been injured since before the auction even went up. Also note how the snake is positioned in the pic so the injury is not really visible, almost like whoever was taking the picture knew it was there and was trying to hide it. Yes I saw that section of the photo beforehand but it just looked pixelated to me and I thought nothing of it at the time. Ben still swears up and down that no one noticed the injury on this snake but I find that hard to believe as it is 3/4" long and fairly open. it looks to be only about a week into the healing process.
At this point I was so fed up with dealing with Ben that I told him to keep my money, I'll keep the snake, he will have a good home with me, I will get him healed, he will have a scar for the rest of his life and the fact that it is in the shape of a lightning bolt is why I named him H.P. (short for harry potter, yes I'm a dork and I love it
lol ) but I'm ok with that. Ben then emailed me a UPS label with which I was suppose to pack the snake back up and ship him out tonight. I never wanted to do that, that was never an option, nor is it going to happen. I'm more upset that the snake was misrepresented, arrived injured and the "compensation" I was offered, to me, was bull, I don't want to bid on more snakes, I don't want to ship the snake back to you, I just wanted at least a partial refund, it didn't even have to be the whole thing but apparently that was too much to ask and required yelling at me and prodding on the phone till I was in tears. That if you ask me is highly unprofessional and is not the way you handle anything but according to Ben, I'm the one who is wrong and I need to be apologizing to him.Unfortunately with me getting upset, I deleted my status off of facebook and Ben knows I am posting this and I'm sure will jump in with a counter. I am NOT bashing him, just stating what happened today and how things were handled because I don't think it was right. At this point, I don't care if I get my money back or not. All I care about is the well being of the snake and knowing that he will have a good home with me and if that's wrong then I guess I'm wrong
