Not trying to hide anything? Then why conveniently leave out "he told me about how he would trash my name and that I would learn how destructive the internet can be to someones business". I'll tell you why. You were being vindictive and purposefully trying to harm his reputation. You absolutely ignored this since Colin posted. THAT is not a misunderstanding..in my opinion, the wrong person has that bid red X by their name. Poor excuse.
Actually, what I did "conveniently leave out" was his name calling, profanity, and that he wanted to fight me because of this. But that was after the snakes were sold and irrelevant at that point. Stop being so quick to judge because you really have no clue what you are talking about. You seem to think you are a lot smarter than you really are.
It is also clear that you are not a business owner, because if you were, you would understand how business works a little better. Successful businesses have policies such as "return policies", "refund policies", "exchange policies", "minimum order policies", and low and behold "DEPOSIT POLICIES". These are put in place to avoid misunderstandings like I just experienced. Big businesses take it a step further and have terms and conditions agreements that outline how YOU have to do business with them IF you want to do business with them.
I have inventions being sold in big box stores across the US and even the world. I deal with many businesses every week and understand how it works.
I have agreed to and signed 20 page terms and conditions agreements so that I could do business with big box stores, as well as many small businesses. I even get penalized for shipping product a day late, or forgetting a bar code, or not writing sku #'s on the outside of boxes.
If I was a reptile breeder, I would have a few basic policies clearly stated on my website saying if you want to reserve a particular reptile then you have to leave a 50% non-refundable deposit and I will hold the the animal for ten days, or whatever is fair. I would also have a shopping cart on my site that would allow my customers to make a deposit or pay in full for a particular reptile without them even having to contact me. I would also not promise someone "pick" of a particular clutch and show them part the clutch before selling them off to others. I would wait till the whole clutch hatched before showing them to anyone. The East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, is the only herp store that has survived in my area for more than a decade and they do that. Without these guidelines in place, I do not think I am unreasonable to assume that a small business owner should keep his word if he makes a promise.
How many pet and reptile stores have you seen come and go over the years?
It's kinda sad for me so see all my favorite herp stores disappear because they are run by knowledgeable breeders and herpetologists, not knowledgeable businessmen. Why do you think the large corporate chains are forcing these guys out of business? Because they are run by smart business people who know how to run a business. In most cases their selection is terrible and they have limited knowledge of the animals they sell, and they still do well. Problem now is that most people think they can sign up for a GoDaddy account and file a LLC on Legal Zoom and they think they can run a online business, which is just not the case.