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Carolina Reptile Exchange

jwpdcp

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About three weeks ago I made a deal with Carolina Reptile Exchange. This is just a beware message. I have wanted some Gaboon Vipers since I was a kid. Well I had been trying to sell my lavender phase albino retic. They came across it and said they would do a cash deal or a trade. I saw that they had some good sized gaboons. So I said that I would trade them my male retic for a reverse trio of the gaboons. My son boxed and shipped the order. But he screwed up, instead of shipping my 10’ 25 Lb male. He shipped my 8’ 12lb purple phase female. (he is in deep s--t!) An awesome snake. I contacted them and tried to correct the matter I told them I would pay shipping both ways since it was my mistake. They said that the snake that they got was a male. No way! She had been probed, and Bob Clark sold her to me as a female, a year ago. They will not answer my emails, they will not return phone calls. I just think that is bad. I addition, the Gaboons that they sent were 2 days late, it took me 4 days for them to tell me which one was the female, and they were not the snakes that they sent photos of, nor or they as large as they said they were. So be careful if you deal with them. As far as me, guess I will just have to bite the bullet on this, and chalk it up as a learning experience.

John
 
John,

This is not meant as a mean post man, but you really shoulda checked out the boi before you made a purchase with these guys, there is a ton of stuff on here about what scam artists they are!
TOM
 
I'm sorry you got a bad deal. In the future, please check out companies or individuals on the BOI before entering into a deal. Just for kicks, go ahead and do a search on "Carolina Reptile Exchange" here. I think if you read for just an hour or so, you'll realize you could have saved yourself some heartache.
 
I won I won...lol...In all seriousness John, Sorry that happened to you, hopefully you will check everyone out on here in the future..the BOI is a tool with endless possiblities and potential, you just need to use it to find that out.
TOM
 
I just now became a paid member here. I should have checked. I guess I will be ALOT more careful next time.

John
 
John,

Sorry to hear you got taken. If you really want to know who you have just dealt with, do a search also for "Harry Eisenmann" and "Digital Reptiles". You will need of course a lot of free time and a huge cup of coffee!

Regards.
 
Well after leaving a lot of bad talk on several different forums, he finally called me a dirt bag and admitted that he had the female. I paid shipping both ways, when I got her she was loose in the box because the bag had a hole in it. I was just glad to have her back. I guess he did not like the truth being spread all over the web. I have another problem I do not believe the the reverse trio of gaboon vipers that he gave me is what I traded for. I will know more next week. I have two that are 3+ feet and one that is barely 2' they were all supposed to be over 3.5'. I believe that the smallest one is the female. The female was supposed to be the largest one. He said 4'. I have a restraining tube coming next week, so I will probe them to make sure. If so I will never deal with them again and, I will advise many people I know to do the same. If the smallest on is the female I will have to sell her and get a larger one. From what I know to breed them they pretty much need to be the same size.
 
jwpdcp said:
I just now became a paid member here. I should have checked. I guess I will be ALOT more careful next time.

John

Join Date: 10-17-2005

The BOI is available to anyone to read free of charge.

Mistakes happen, but shipping the wrong animal to them in the first place by your son? It's hard for me to imagine how a serious error like this occurred.

Keeping Gaboons requires a high level of experience and responsibility that comes along with them. You should not have allowed the wrong snake to be shipped in the first place. It was your transaction and responsibility to make sure that your son shipped the right snake, you fell down on that responsibility.

You have been a member here at the BOI since 10-17-05, you could have checked on CRE, you wanted the Gaboons and were willing to take the risk of dealing with CRE even though you already had the tools at your fingertips to help you prevent a bad transaction. You didn't use them.

I'm sorry I have no sympathy for you in this transaction, I pray that you are responsible enough to properly care for your Gaboons. You got your trio from CRE, I'd consider yourself very lucky at a successful transaction with them even if they are not exactly what you hoped for. If the female is the small one, too bad... grow her up, get some experience under your belt before reproducing this deadly species.
 
jwpdcp said:
Well after leaving a lot of bad talk on several different forums, he finally called me a dirt bag and admitted that he had the female. I paid shipping both ways, when I got her she was loose in the box because the bag had a hole in it. I was just glad to have her back. I guess he did not like the truth being spread all over the web. I have another problem I do not believe the the reverse trio of gaboon vipers that he gave me is what I traded for. I will know more next week. I have two that are 3+ feet and one that is barely 2' they were all supposed to be over 3.5'. I believe that the smallest one is the female. The female was supposed to be the largest one. He said 4'. I have a restraining tube coming next week, so I will probe them to make sure. If so I will never deal with them again and, I will advise many people I know to do the same. If the smallest on is the female I will have to sell her and get a larger one. From what I know to breed them they pretty much need to be the same size.

John,

Cathy made very good points. Please tell us that the gaboons were shipped Delta in a wooden box and not through any of the other carriers.

Thanks.
 
Dear Maynard,
I stated before that it was my fault. I do not need anyone to be remind me. I have lots of experience with both venomous and constrictors. About 31 years. I do not want to grow the Gaboon. I want a breeder female, and one way or another I will get one. I have been a member here since 10/17/05 as you pointed out. But I could count on one hand how many times I have been on here. I have enough of my own problems, to be worried about someone else's. I usually am tending to more pressing issues. The thread was started because I did not want anyone else to get taken. By the way if someone sent me the wrong snake, I would have called and told them. This was not the case. They denied ever getting a female. Anyway I really do not know why I am explaining myself to you. Oh I remember now!

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
--Albert Einstein
 
John,

They kept a snake that was sent by mistake and they may have misrepresented what they sold to you. Bad business practices without a doubt. But there's one thing that's even more disturbing as there's a potential risk to human lives. A Gaboon loose inside a box!? Was this a cardboard box? Which carrier did they use to send those Gaboons?

Thanks.
 
The BoidSmith said:
John,

They kept a snake that was sent by mistake and they may have misrepresented what they sold to you. Bad business practices without a doubt. But there's one thing that's even more disturbing as there's a potential risk to human lives. A Gaboon loose inside a box!? Was this a cardboard box? Which carrier did they use to send those Gaboons?

jwpdcp said:
Well after leaving a lot of bad talk on several different forums, he finally called me a dirt bag and admitted that he had the female. I paid shipping both ways, when I got her she was loose in the box because the bag had a hole in it. I was just glad to have her back.

maybe he was speaking of the retic that was shipped back to him???
 
The BoidSmith said:
John,

They kept a snake that was sent by mistake and they may have misrepresented what they sold to you. Bad business practices without a doubt. But there's one thing that's even more disturbing as there's a potential risk to human lives. A Gaboon loose inside a box!? Was this a cardboard box? Which carrier did they use to send those Gaboons?

Thanks.

That is a scary, scary thought.
Hot keepers are being regulated unmercifully, but when you see something like this, you have to consider the safety of the general public and you begin to understand where some of those restrictions are coming from.
Like Dan, I would like to hear more details about the box and circumstances.
 
Yes it was the Retic that was loose, not the Gaboon. Point is this he would never return calls or emails until he got word of the bad publicity he was receiving. He would have kept the female had that not happened. I usually post on another forum about ALL of my snakes and how they are doing. He got word of it and called me a dirt bag. The female was of absolutely no value to him for breeding she is too young. But she is a purple phase and worth about twice as much as the lavender male. All of the Gaboons have been regurgitating. I do not know at this point what is the matter. Happens about 6 or 7 days after they eat. Maybe stress, or temperature variants.
 
Are the gaboons CB or WC? When dealing with bitis, especially gaboons and rhinos, CB's are really the only way to go. WC animals of the sort are notorious for regurging, that is if they even take food in the first place, and tend to not make it long enough for propagation-something about their diet in the wild and of course parasites. Just curious-also...have you checked the prices around on gaboons?-this was a bad trade anyhow, in my opinion at least. Sorry you got screwed-be more careful next time-
Trey
 
John,

Thanks for clearing up the issue of which snake was the one that escaped from the bag. There's one important question that remains unanswered, which carrier did they use to ship those Gaboon vipers?

Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks John. For a moment I thought they would have tried to send them through one of the other carriers.

Regards.
 
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