• In the past two days I have gotten emails asking about being requested to provide credit card info in order to register and also to make a post in the classifieds forums. PLEASE NOTE: In no instance will this site ask you for this sort of information. The only time any request for payment is made is if you choose to opt-in for a higher membership level, and that is done SOLELY through PayPal. Anything else is coming from a source other than this site. My guess is that this is coming through Google Adsense, but when I can get someone to send me a screen shot of this sort of request, I will know more.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Bad Guy BUYERS BEWARE! BEN SHOTTS of VIVID DRAGONS- dishonest man, possible scammer

Sgambino94 said:
Yep that's exactly what I mean. He says it in the text messages I posted, though I realize they might be kind of hard to read:/
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Unbelievable. Smh
Have never heard of anyone charging extra for Live Arrival Guarantee. LAG should be a "given" for most reptiles (including Beardies).

....
 
If the animal was shipped via SYR.com then the 5.00 would be the DOA insurance that SYR provides (2.50 per 100.00 insured).

However, that insurance refers to an animal being DOA due to late delivery.

If the animal arrives dead and the package was not late then it is the seller's responsibility to figure out why and refund accordingly.
 
I am confused a tad .. doesn't take much ... lol! In post #7 there is a picture of the dragon ordered and indicates sold ... where did that picture and posting come from and when was it sold? Also .. says it was $400.00 as opposed to 250.00 in all other posts?
 
The dragon posted for 400 is the same as the dragon I was purchasing for 250. Difference is its on his website vividdragons.com where he consistently posts for different prices. Even on his fauna posts he was constantly changing prices. I posted the one shown on is website to show 1) he marked it sold there too and 2) even he thought the one he gave me was a lesser quality dragon cuz it was priced at 225 as opposed to the one I ordered that he proced on there for 400. Im assuming he marked the 400 one sold the same time he marked the 250 one "SOLD SOLD SOLD....." on Aug. 5.
 
Sgambino94 said:
Yep that's exactly what I mean. He says it in the text messages I posted, though I realize they might be kind of hard to read:/

And thanks beauboi. Guess I just have to take this as a lesson learned and hope karma does her job.
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Wow, I would never dream of asking the buyer to pay extra for live arrival. That should always be a given. And if it was for insurance like someone else said, he should have paid that out of his own pocket not make you pay more. Reptiles express has the insurance option and if I did choose to insure, it would be out of my own pocket.

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ElexisOrtiz said:
Wow, I would never dream of asking the buyer to pay extra for live arrival. That should always be a given. And if it was for insurance like someone else said, he should have paid that out of his own pocket not make you pay more. Reptiles express has the insurance option and if I did choose to insure, it would be out of my own pocket.

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While I do pay for the insurance out of pocket as a seller, it's not a big deal to me if someone asks me to pay if I want it. It's an optional thing to cover if a package is late or an animal dies because of late delivery. Live arrival should be guaranteed, but since this goes above that, I find it ok for someone to ask if they want it and then charge them for it. They could have just added it to the price along with the boxes and supplies and the buyer wouldn't know any better anyways. It does add up and with supplies, paypal fees, gas to fed ex, the sellers often times eat a lot of additional costs. I've actually gotten refunds for a few late packages and all the money goes back to the buyer. I don't get refunded for the insurance or any money I'm out. So I look at it as a positive thing for any buyer to have. It's an extra optional cost, so I find no reason to not offer it to the buyer at their expense.
 
Kristi23 said:
While I do pay for the insurance out of pocket as a seller, it's not a big deal to me if someone asks me to pay if I want it. It's an optional thing to cover if a package is late or an animal dies because of late delivery. Live arrival should be guaranteed, but since this goes above that, I find it ok for someone to ask if they want it and then charge them for it. They could have just added it to the price along with the boxes and supplies and the buyer wouldn't know any better anyways. It does add up and with supplies, paypal fees, gas to fed ex, the sellers often times eat a lot of additional costs. I've actually gotten refunds for a few late packages and all the money goes back to the buyer. I don't get refunded for the insurance or any money I'm out. So I look at it as a positive thing for any buyer to have. It's an extra optional cost, so I find no reason to not offer it to the buyer at their expense.
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The insurance thing I just through in because someone else brought up that that could have been it, but the way she worded it was he charged her extra just to get the guarantee not for insurance

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ElexisOrtiz said:
The insurance thing I just through in because someone else brought up that that could have been it, but the way she worded it was he charged her extra just to get the guarantee not for insurance

Sent from my N9132 using Tapatalk
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I'm not sure how he worded it to her, but the price makes sense. It's $2.50 per $100. So $5 if he insured it for $200. I agree that it shouldn't be worded with live arrival guarantee because that should be on every seller anyways.
 
And here are three of his dragons for sale by Whirlwind matched with those by Vivid Dragons/Ben Shotts
 

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Look at the light colored dorsal markings down the spine. That's the easiest way to tell they're the same dragon.
 

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Must admit he does a good job of taking the pics at opposite sides and angles so that it's harder to spot at first glance.
 
Sgambino94 said:
Let me know if you guys agree. I want to be 200% sure before I spread the word more
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Strange. Not only do Harry J Cowells aka whirlwind and Ben schotts from vivid dragons both sell bearded dragons with the same genetics, but they also live in the same town in MI (st Clair shores and Roseville are 10 minutes apart). What a coincidence ;)
 
I think if anyone wasn't sure that this guy was shady, creating a fake name to sell under after his first business got called into question should be evidence enough. Good catch on that.
 
Looked up this Harry j Cowells guy. Also lives in saint clair, MI... Then looked up friends of Ben Shotts on fb. Found a Harry Shotts , father of Ben. Also lives in Saint Clair/ Roseville , MI... I dunno.... All very suspicious...
 

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