Classified’s “three strikes, you’re out” rule could provide a course of action concerned forum members can take to protect others. The post is a bit lengthy, and I apologize, but it provides those so inclined with all of the steps necessary to file a complaint. It really was not that time-consuming either.
Like many on this forum, I have had a negative experience with Carolina Reptile Exchange. Although their website indicates that the company adheres to standards set by the leaders in the industry, my experience, as well as the experiences of many others on this forum, indicates otherwise. I have spent a considerable amount of time researching the owner’s criminal background, advertisements, customer feedback, etc. It has troubled me that CRE continues to, according to reports, provide unsafe/unsanitary housing for their animals, misrepresent the origin of the animals they have for sale, misrepresent the genetics and/or size/age of the animals they have for sale, and much more. I have wondered why they are allowed to continue to advertise on a reputable site like Kingsnake, despite the many negative experiences reported. I contacted the abuse department (
[email protected]), describing my experience and concerns. For those of you who have stated that you feel helpless or know of no action that can be taken, here is the response I received:
“Thank you for contacting our abuse department. Please note that due to federal and state privacy laws we can neither reply to your complaint specifically or release information about users or accounts. We can and will release this information to the proper authorities upon their request. In order for your complaint to be considered a formal complaint against an individual or a business, we require that you file a complaint at the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) located at
http://www.ic3.gov/. Once you have completed filing a complaint there, they will e-mail you an username and password. Please forward this to us and we will begin an internal investigation of your complaint. Please be aware that we take internet fraud seriously and so does IC3. Please help us control fraud and theft on our site and help protect yourself and others.”
I filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center and provided my username and password to pethobbyist.com. I then received the following response:
“Your complaint and subsequent FBI report have been placed in our files. At this point we must defer to the FBI as we are not a law enforcement office and are not equipped to chase down vendor complaints and suspected internet fraud. We are here in a strictly unbiased third party role. Should your claims against the vendor be proven to have merit by the appropriate authorities, our records can be accessed by you for any subsequent legal action that may
ensue. However, having said that, we do have a three-strikes rule that states; should a vendor at any time have three independant, unresolved complaints against them, their account will be
suspended immediately until proof can be given that all complaints have been resolved to the customers satisfaction. The complaint you have filed with us at this point is used internally for
tracking "supposed" bad vendors. Should you require any further assistance from this office please do not hesitate to contact us.” (Received from Melody/Classifieds Coordinator
[email protected]).
The BOI provides an excellent means for us to express our experiences, positive or negative. In addition, there are steps that interested parties can take that may prevent, or at least minimize, future abuse on the part of CRE. Judging from some of the posts on this forum, I thought that several of you might benefit from this information and want to take action.
