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BEWARE of BOBBY GIN OR GALOPAGOBOY

T

tortoise rich

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DO Not Buy From Bobby Gin Galopagoboy

He sells Sick tortoises that will eventually die like the spider tortoises he sent me.
 
I have a lot of questions (since I was thinking of getting a tortoise someday).
Did you vet the animal? How do you know it was ill? How long after you received it did you notice the illness and are you positive it was the vendor's fault? Even the best vendors can occasionally have a mishap in transit or possibly an undetected illness in their animals; good vendors will see to it that the animal is treated or replaced. What did he say when you reported the illness of the tortoise?
IMHO one of the purposes of the BOI is to let the reptile community know which vendors are excellent and which are not so it is my opinion that the discussion should not go through private email but should be public so that others can decide whether a vendor is worth purchasing from.
 
DO Not Buy From Bobby Gin Galopagoboy
He sells Sick tortoises that will eventually die like the spider tortoises he sent me.
Click to expand...

Rich,

Can you be a little more specific with what happened? You have posted your disatisfaction with this deal and suggested no one to buy from this person (your side). There is not enough information provided on the transaction between both of you for people to decide whether or not buying from Bobby Gin or not. Do you care to expand on the details?

Thanks.
 
Hi,

I live near Bobby and have been over at his facility. The set-ups for his tortoises are excellent. He keeps them on proper lighting and also feed them their proper diet. I have purcahsed a number of sulcattas and other animals from him without a single problem. They were all super healthy. This Star might have been a fluke. I am one of his comeptitors in a sense so believe you me that I would very happy to see all the bad apples flushed out of the business but Bobby and his animals are great and I would not hesitate nor should you, about buying his tortoises. I know for a fact that he brings many of his tortoises to the vet. Also, people have to understand that as vendors, many thousands of animals may come through our facilities. It is near impossible to make sure every single animal is 100% healthy. some problems may take weeks to months to show. Don't write off a guy just because he had 1 bad animal out of many thousands. I am sure Bobby will take care of you and rectify the situation.

Sincerely,
Andrew Yau
 
I purchesed a pair of Spider Tortoises from him in October of 2003. Upon arrivial I sensed there would be problems just by the way they were shiped. Thyey were stacked on top of each other, with no insulation or pading to protect the tortoises and no source of heat.I live in NY and it gets cold here in October and obvisouly he knew this. After geting them out of the box and soking them, I atempted to feed them only the female ate and it was sparingly. I noticed heavy breathing and heavy weezing coming from the male and he was very lathargic. Well to make a long story short, After $300 in vet bill's the male has since passed and the female barley eats and is steadly loosing weight. I contacted him and he said he would do nothing about it. The tortoises he sent were defintly sick on arivial. I have been keeping Tortoises for at least nine years and currently own ninetene differnt species of Cheleona.
Thank you,
Rich
 
How long after they arrived did you contact him to tell him of your dissatisfaction with the shipping and the health of the animals?

Did you take pictures when they arrived?

What is the guarantee from the seller?

Do you have any of the emails?
 
The details

I purchased a pair of Spider Tortoises from him in October of 2003. Upon arrival I sensed there would be problems just by the way they were shipped. They were stacked on top of each other, with no insulation or padding to protect the tortoises and no source of heat. I live in NY and it gets cold here in October and obviously he knew this. After getting them out of the box and soaking them, I attempted to feed them only the female ate and it was sparingly. I noticed heavy breathing and heavy wheezing coming from the male and he was very lethargic. Well to make a long story short, after $300 in vet bill's the male has since passed and the female barley eats and is steadily loosing weight. I contacted him and he said he would do nothing about it. The tortoises he sent were defiantly sick on arrival. I have been keeping Tortoises for at least nine years and currently own nineteen different species of Chelonia.
Thank you,
Rich
 
Bobby AKA Turtleland

I actually bought several animals from bobby this past summer. I recieved several of his light colored sulcattas and some mata matas. Out of the 12 animals I purchased I had one Mata die. I told him the day I recieved them that it may possibly be a problem feeder only because it seemed more put off than the others. Bobby's packing was a+ and everything else was great. After talking with him he told me not to stress the animal out and reship it to him but to hang onto it and work with it(Which actually shows he cares about the animal!), and just to keep him up to speed if it was looking like I was going to lose it. After 3 weeks or so it did eventually die, after the fact it was way out of his guarante time! Long story short Bobby stood behind his word and and resolved the issue in a very timely matter. I look forward to purchasing some more animals from him this summer! I would talk to bobby and see what he can do for you. I think it also depends on when you first initally told him that there may be a problem with your torts. I am sorry for your loss but spiders can be tricky expecially in low temps! Talk to him I am sure he will work with you.
EE
 
bobby gin

does anyone have his email address? i would like to talk to him about purchasing one of his baby sulcatas.......
thanks in advance, kevin love (stingray)
 
tortoise purchase

I purchased 1.2 CB adult Pancakes from Bobby Gin last year. He was very easy to get along with and the whole transaction went well. I sent him a company check, he shipped without holding it and the tortoises were perfect. I currently have four eggs in the incubator. I couldn't be happier with the tortoises I recieved. I live in Florida and it was warm, he shipped from California via UPS.
We discussed the shipping and decided to use a heatpack away from the tortoises because it was cold in Louisville at the time. The package came the next day in a very well insulated box with a heatpack away from the tortoises and the tortoises were fine.
A+ on shipping and communication and quality of tortoises.
Mike Stuhlman
 
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