Well, I really wish I'd found this thread much sooner.
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Rick, but my friends call me Tattoo or Tat. I've been a lover of reptiles since I was a teen, and started keeping them as pets in my early 20's. I've had periods of not owning any, mainly due to living in apartments and such. 2 years ago I moved to a small town away from Houston (where i lived most of my life) and now have the room and time to own several herps. I now also run a makeshift reptile rescue here, appropriately named the East Texas Reptile Rescue.
Well, my story is this. I've wanted a piebald ball ever since I first saw the morph, but the prices always deterred me. As I researched more, and discovered hets, I figured this was the best solution for me. I discovered Kingsnake.com and I was hooked, finding several great deals on reptiles that we now own. One of these was a 100% het for pied male from Alan Bosch. The snake was beautiful, in great health, and ate like a champ immediately.
Now comes the problem. With female 100% hets costing around $1000, and finances the way they are (i've been running and advertising ETRR for 6 months now, and though we've taken in several reptiles, no donations have come so far), a female 100% was out of my reach.
Then I found an ad on Kingsnake that was too good to be true. Little did i know. Carolina Reptile Exchange would sell me a 100% het for pied female for $600? I was excited and anxious, but even $600 in one chunk was more than i could afford at the time. But wait! After talking to someone at CRE, they would let me pay in installments and ship the snake once the balance was paid. They even gave me 60 days to pay off the snake. This was too good to be true! (here we go again)
Well, to make a long story short, the snake was paid off a bit over 30 days later, and 2 weeks later they shipped my snake. The snake arrived and looked quite pretty. A bit of a stripe along the neck and tail. I'd expected this as they stated they were sending me a holdback of theirs to make of for the delay in shipment. I couldn't believe the deal I was getting. The snake was full-bodied, and appeared healthy. She ate readily 2 days later, after getting acclimated. All was well I thought.
Then the problems started. I noticed little black spots on the paper towels in her cage. I haven't had any experience with reptile mites until now. Sure enough, they were mites. I hadn't seen any on her when she arrived or in the container she was shipped in, but I know none of my other animals have these, and they are isolated to her tank only. Well, I'm currently treating her (I'm still assuming it's a "her"). Then today, she has her first bowel movement. It wasn't a nice lump of fecal matter. More like a dark stain on the paper towel. Nothing solid to it. *sigh*
Well, I've got an appointment with my vet tomorrow. Hopefully it will at least be female, and not a wild caught. My vet has mentioned testing her for internal parasites, and said that wild caught carry some specific bacteria. Hopefully these tests come up negative, and the worst CRE is guilty of is housing these "investment quality animals" in very very poor conditions.
I've filed the ads from kingsnake, and all correspondence CRE and I exchanged with my lawyer. Hopefully this turns out to be just precaution, but I've been burned before, and learned my lesson.
If anyone has any advice, please contact me. And thanks for this thread. Just wish I'd been smarter and searched for information about this company sooner.
owners will not know anything about it..... 
