Bad Guy Bruno Ferrante (Lowcountry Exotics), Angelo Corsi (CHUYDAWG LLC.)

[EctoThermz]

On 11/2/2013 I came across a auction being held by Bruno Ferrante (Lowcountry Exotics) in the 'Reptile Auctions' FB group. He was offering a adult female butter ball python along with 2 or 3 other auctions offering adult female single mutation ball pythons. He also had a list of other proven breeders posted for sale in the KS classifieds.

On 11/3/2013 I won the FB auction for $410 shipped.

On 11/4/2013 We agreed on a total price for 1 female butter and 1 male sugarblast. I then sent a PayPal payment to [email protected] (Bruno). Upon completing the instant payment the [email protected] the user name turned into CHUYDAWG LLC. This gave me a funny feeling so I googled the name, it showed Angelo Corsi as the president. After reading this individuals reviews I was concerned.

On 11/5/2013 Another FB user had posted to the 'Reptile Auctions' group a few photos of a adult female BP that she had received earlier in the day from Bruno. The animal was deceased. It was shipped improperly with out any type of heat or padding. My animals were due to be sent out the following day 11/6. That night he contacted me and stated that he was unable to ship 11/6 and he would get them out the following Monday which he did.

On 11/12/13 I received the FedEx package sent by Bruno from the driver. Upon opening the 12x9 box I found one cool but live 600gr sugar blast in one bag and a 1600gr cold stiff butter in the other, the jaw was in full rigor and I smelled a faint odor of decomposition. I contacted him and sent photos to inform him that she had not made the trip. He stated that he would get back to me with a list of available replacement animals when he got home.

On 11/18/13 he finally sent me a list. He had another larger butter on it so I requested that he just send me her as the replacement. He agreed to ship her out on 11/20/13.

On 11/21/13 10:30 came and I was yet to see the FedEx truck, I messaged him asking for a tracking number so I could figure out what was going on.
He never replied but I saw that my messaged had been received at 5:30. Around 11pm I opened a Dispute with PayPal on the transaction.

On 11/22/13 He escalated the dispute to a claim stating in his comments to PayPal 'Both ball python (live snakes) were packaged in good health and were the exact animals that were to be purchased by the buyer.. I packaged the snakes properly with proper heat packs in an appropriate insulated shipping box. They were shipped priority express over night via fedex.'

 

[EctoThermz]

messages

 

[EctoThermz]

files

 

[EctoThermz]

I notified Reptiles Express of this situation last night. The following is their reply.

Debbie Price <[email protected]>

6:10 AM (12 hours ago)

Cory,
Thank you for the email.

I had just recently heard of a customer whom did not receive what he had ordered from this customer as well and I was working on this. I do know the customer whom account these labels were made on and I am not sure exactly what is going on but that is NOT THE name of the customer on the account . Either he gave out his info or he is somehow allowing this to go on. His name is Angelo and my other customer had already figured that out. When I contacted Angelo he said he was actually out of the country and did not know of this and was suppose to call me back.

That being said you are correct WE can not always control this but do not want to knowingly allow this and his account has been blocked until I speak with him and he works these things out. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

 

[JColt]

I hope you get money back but you are already breeding the male? Good way to lose your collection.

 

[Mistyck]

I hope you get money back but you are already breeding the male? Good way to lose your collection.

Hope you get your money back as well, but damn...

You didn't quarantine the snake?

 

[meowmeowkazoo]

I'd like to see a better picture of the dead snake and the box it was shipped in.

 

[teetee]

I too hope you get reimbursed. I have to agree with the others however.Never a good move to NOT quarantine.Every species I have gets quarantined.It is a pain at times(and extra work)but I rest a lot easier knowing everyone is safe.

 

[KORBIN5895]

Amazing. This exact thread was already locked once. Brilliant move op.

 

[hhmoore]

Since the moderator that closed the first thread was satisfied with the explanation given, and gave the green light on the posting of a new one (so the connection could be made more clearly), I think that comment was off the mark.
Sometimes biting sarcasm is the wrong choice

 

[ballchick90]

Hmm, interesting...
This past summer I won an auction for a couple of boas from Angelo Corsi "Corsi Morphs". I changed the ship date with him once because of being called in to work. He also changed the ship date another time on me because of "work". He finally said he was shipping them. I never got an email. Never received a tracking number. I asked him to send it to me so I knew they were shipped, he "read" the message and never responded. The snakes make it to my house. Two boas in ONE bag. It was an insulated (styro padded) box, but with NO padding otherwise. there was one piece of brown wrapping paper in the bottom of the box. Luckily the snakes were fine, but I would never buy from him again because of his shady shipping habits. I had heard he was a shady character, so it doesn't surprise me he's using multiple names.

I do agree with everyone, breeding an animal with zero quarantine...not a good move...

I really hope you get your replacement but I'm doubtful.

 

[67mustang]

Bruno Ferrante

I bought 2 snakes from bruno off kingsnake. 1. lesser firefly proven breeder and a .1 super pastel 1462g. i paid for them 11-13 he said he would ship them monday 11-18 overnight i would get them 11-19. 11-18 he said he would ship them after work. i got a tracking number but it said they would arrive 11-20. So the box shows up 11-20 i open it and there is a 600g pastel looking at me, the bag it was in had a hole in it. and i open the other bag to find a spider with bad head wobble. i emailed him right away and told him he sent the wrong snakes. I emailed him later that night and asked what he was going to do about this and have not got a single email back. So the snakes i got are not even close to what i paid for and it took 2 days to overnight them with no heat packs

 

[hhmoore]

I bought 2 snakes from bruno off kingsnake. 1. lesser firefly proven breeder and a .1 super pastel 1462g. i paid for them 11-13 he said he would ship them monday 11-18 overnight i would get them 11-19. 11-18 he said he would ship them after work. i got a tracking number but it said they would arrive 11-20. So the box shows up 11-20 i open it and there is a 600g pastel looking at me, the bag it was in had a hole in it. and i open the other bag to find a spider with bad head wobble. i emailed him right away and told him he sent the wrong snakes. I emailed him later that night and asked what he was going to do about this and have not got a single email back. So the snakes i got are not even close to what i paid for and it took 2 days to overnight them with no heat packs

Does your PayPal record also reflect that payment going to Chuydawg?
Would you mind posting the tracking number?

 

[67mustang]

yes. he said send it to [email protected] and it shows up as CHUYDAWG LLC
tracking number 797188740039

 

[hhmoore]

Thank you.
To clarify on the package/delivery - it didn't take two days...the item was never tendered to FedEx until the 19th. Glad R.E is on top of this, and blocked the account; but that won't stop him from shipping other ways.

---------------------------
On to other thoughts....
According to a couple of Angelo's past posts here, he was banned from KS. His activities here have shown he's not averse to creating new accounts; and his name has been connected to accounts registered under other names (off the top of my head - John Deluca, Parkway Reptiles).
It wouldn't be surprising to me that he created a new name with which to access KS; however, that is nothing more than speculation at this point in time.

The OPs package was shipped on Angelo's account, from Angelo's location, with payment made to Angelo's PayPal via an email associated with another name...but Angelo knows nothing about it because he is out of the country? Not impossible, I suppose. My guess is that Angelo's explanation is that while he was gone, he had this Bruno person taking care of his animals and handling sales. Again, not impossible; but, given the history, I'll believe it when I see some proof.

Angelo hasn't posted in 2 months - not unusual...but he was here on Nov 26 (presumably because his name was on this thread. I'm only slightly surprised that he didn't comment.

I did some looking when this first came up; and found that there was a shop in SC - Lowcountry Exotic Pets (aka Lowcountry Exotics). The shop closed in 2011; and the name associated with it was not Bruno. It could be circumstance that Angelo's name became associated with somebody else's business name (as it did with Black Rock Captives) - but we likely won't get any insight on that unless Angelo or Bruno decide to offer it.