DO NOT SEND HIM MONEY
I hate resorting to this but I unfortunately did not read these posts until it was too late. I had purchased a tegu from him in 2010/2011 with no issues so it did not occur to me to check before putting a deposit down last year on an all american. I didn't hear anything from him when they should have been close to due, so I emailed him and got a few short words back, "due in Aug." Never heard or saw another invoice or anything. I also breed other stuff and have a full time job. I realized I never got anything this year and delayed on getting around to contact him (my fault) until a couple of weeks ago. So now it has been over a year. He dug through all of his stuff, responded, said he had never gotten my deposit, etc. I emailed him while he was on the phone with the paypal verification. He said he would have to contact paypal but sent me an invoice for the balance. I did not really want a tegu at this point because I have since acquired some rehabs and now have 4, however, he did not seem inclined to refund and I did not want to mess with it any further since part of the delay was my fault. I got the invoice and paid it promptly on paypal. We agreed he would ship the following Tues or Wed if temps were okay. He called me mon 9/10 and I do not like things shipped on Thursdays for fear of lost animals over weekends so we agreed to ship the following Tues. That was the last contact I had with him. I attempted to call him when I did not get a tracking number on wed and then each day after through the following week. After receiving no response, I emailed him. Each time I gave him the opportunity to explain or swap out the tegu w an extreme giant. I sent him a copy of the paypal payment. I finally emailed him 2 days ago demanding a refund within 48 hours or I would be posting this and telling this board what someone has has already pointed out. I am an attorney and a former prosecutor. Conducting business like this is a federal crime, particularly in a larger group like this. It becomes the jurisdiction of the US Attorneys because it is wire fraud and involves the post office, which Varnyard uses to conduct business, thereby making him subject to charges of fraud by US Mail. Between just the couple of us that have posted, the aggregate amount is now over $1,000 and there are multiple counts. Given that there appear to be more victims out there, I see this actually being up there in a much higher range, each punishable by prison and fines. Paypal has already escalated this because when I asked for a refund, they stated that the seller was unable to respond (translation: he has been cut off from paypal) and they were escalating and asking for my cooperation in the fraud investigation. This is very similar to ebay investigations and scam investigations where I have seen it pushed to the Feds due to a rapid influx of complaints and theft. What does this mean? Anyone who thinks they are getting a tegu needs to immediately contact paypal and request a refund. It would also be a really good idea to get a list of anyone who is in the position because it is a lot easier to have it all investigated under one case with multiple charges instead of a lot of people running around trying to get someone at a local DAs office to pay attention to them. Do I wish trouble on Bobby? NO...Did I give him every opportunity under the sun to resolve this? YES!! And the bottom line is...stuff like this make it hard for legitimate reptile breeders to do business honestly because someone out there is not conducting business in an ethical way. I also spent most of my career as a prosecutor dealing with people who took things from hard working people and I have issues with anyone who takes someone else's hard earned money and does not hold up their end of the bargain. Last time I checked $350 was not just sitting around burning a hole in most people's pocket. I won't get all of mine back because I let the first part go too long, but there is no reason anyone else should pay the price for this dishonesty.
