• 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.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Chris Kaleta: take caution with this one

Otter

Otter

Hands on Herp Lover
Joined
Feb 22, 2002
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
in the herp room
While Chris seemed like a good guy to deal with at first, things went way down hill on this one. I held an adult female rosy boa for him awaiting payment for three weeks. His money order finally arrived on the same day he decided managed to get paypal worked ou with help from a friend. Having accepted the pay-pal payment, I held onto the money order in case he was unable to cancel it on his end and needed it returned.
It was agreed the snake would be sent on Monday for Tuesday morning delivery. She was packed in a styrfoam lined box with three heat packs. Temps were below freezing in my area, where she would be overnight.
When she was delivered at 9:53 Arizona time to Chris in Arizona, there was no one there to pick up the package, Tracking says delivery failed. He finally picked her up at 2:25 his time. When he opened the bow she was dead. We are guessing it was due to heat exhaustion, though his temps were only in the 60's. Tuesday night he confronted us over telephone with the news and said he would e-mail pics and get back with us the next morning. After reviewing the pics we decided to refund him the price of the snake. We heard nothing from him Wednesday before 2pm and were gone from the house the rest of the day.
Later I found I had an e-mail from paypal saying that he was filing a claim through them. I've heard nothing from Chris since.
As I'd already decided to refund him the money, I've done so through pay-pal to his friend's address, as it was sent to me. I'm going to have to eat the shipping cost. But the real problem I'm having is that I would have liked to work things out together, and made every effort to do so, even with the suspicios circumstances surrounding the delivery.
Did I do the right thing?

Otter
 
What kind of guarantee do you offer? Was he told 'live arrival, IF someone accepts the package when they try to deliver it' ?

I would have been hesitant to refund his money, since he wasn't there to accept the snake.

Also, paypal won't do anything b/c an animal was
involved....


1. General. PayPal's Money Back Guarantee program, which applies to selected physical goods transactions for less than $1,000, ensures that if you buy the Guarantee, you will be satisfied with your purchase or have an option to resell the merchandise to PayPal for the price you paid for it for the first 30 calendar days following the date of payment or seven days after receipt, whichever is earlier. PayPal will not reimburse you for the Guarantee fee or for any shipping costs you incur in returning the merchandise. PayPal's obligation to reimburse you if you buy the Guarantee is subject to the requirements specified in sections ii and iii below and to your filing a complete and accurate reimbursement request as described in section iv below. This Guarantee is applied in addition to any protection you may already have.


Specific item exclusions. Items or situations which fit any of the following exclusions are not eligible for protection under the Guarantee:

h. Animals, plants, or any parts thereof
Click to expand...

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_guarantee-outside
 
the only problem i see here is miscommunications and poor shipping practices..
in my opinion, it shouldn't have been shipped below freezing, and 3 heat packs in a sealed styro will kill and cook just about anything!

we need to realize that the heat packs reach levels around 110 degrees, and in a sealed styro!!
when i ship with heat packs I make sure either the styro is not sealed or I make holes in it.. enough for some ventilation atleast, and sometimes in a way that the heat pack is kind of half in/half out of the styro..

if the snake almost freezes, it can come out of it..
it may trigger hibernation, off-feed, even R.I.

but if a snake overheats, it dies. period.
if it doesn't, it basically becomes brain damaged and can no longer function and/or eat properly = death.

if you returned paypal to his friends address, maybe he doesn't know yet..
obviously he's not paypal savvy.. so this means his 'claim' is most likely not to convict you, but simply the only way he knows to recooperate the funds...

i think this all just needs a little patience and discussion

don't think it's fair to say he is the bad guy, or to take caution with him...

just my opinions
thanks
 
Sorry if I misread - I see it wasn't a sealed styro..

I also agree it is not favorable to wait 3 weeks for payment..

and although I understand, I don't think it was best to accept Paypal AFTER already receiving the money order.

Maybe the paypal was more convenient for you, but if you took my payment twice, i'd be worried too.

not coming down on you, just pointing out what i see here...

thanks
 
Chris Kaleta

Actually I recieved the paypal payment shortly before the money order on the same day. I believe he had already cancelled the money order, but I held onto it incase he needed it returned (which he never specified)
The lack of communication is the problem I'm seeing here as well. I have tried to contact him but am receiving no replies. I am trying to resolve this. It's not necessarily a bad guy post, just a head's up.

Otter
 
Gotcha - thanks

He does obviously sound like a novice, perhaps quite young too
so he probably thinks he's being scammed and is scared or unsure of contact and/or what to say..

I do think this will be a bit of a challenge to smooth out...

hope everything works out for you both!

take care
 
Another bad deal with Chris of Predators

Chris has had a reptile store in Mesa, Arizona called "Predators". He is aggressive and trying to be a major player in local reptile expo's. My African fire skinks were producing 5-6 eggs per month and I asked Chris if he would be interested in the offspring. He told me that was one of his favorites and he would "take all he could get" for $20.00 each, once I put a little size on them. So I continued to breed the fire skinks, producing more than I am interested in caring for. As they reached about 4-5 inches I contacted Chris. He said he was definately still interested but couldn't come up with the cash, get back with him in a few weeks. I called him regularly and even brought some of the skinks to his store to show him that they were indeed beautiful young animals, he never made good on his offer. After about 2 more months of this run-around, I gave up on him. He is not a man of his word. I had to maintain, sell, and find homes for about 2 dozen skinks that I never would have produced if not for his word that he would buy them. I sold most of them, a few at a time over several months to Arizona Reptile Center, and Pet's Inc. They were pleased with the quality and personalites of what I had. They would only take what they could retail though. Not "all they could get". In case you aren't familiar with African Fire Skinks, they are very aggressive feeders and go through crickets...LOTS of crickets... Paul
 
In MHO if there was no one there to receive the package that's enough reason to void any live-arrival guarantee. Having said this I will also say I agree with Joe. Three heat packs was probably excessive. In reality it depends on the dimensions of the box, but I would assume it was a rather small package. For a 12x9x6 styro lined box, 1 heat-pack is plenty even when shipping in the 30's. The problem though is that oftentimes we are shipping to different regions/temperatures. Hope this works out for the best. :)

Regards.
 
Follow-up

I kind of hate to post this here, because it brings a negative thread back to the top, but he does have a good guy thread and this is relevant here. I met Christian again at a local reptile expo last weekend. As soon as he saw me he rushed out to shake my hand and apologize for our last interaction. In the years that have passed since that occurred, I have heard nothing but positive remarks about Christian and his business from local enthusiasts, as well as from my herp vet! I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone.
Paul Fisher
 
Bowsback???

I posted to this thread in response to my own post from over 4 years ago. I'm sure the issue regarding # of heat packs versus pickup time and Paypal has long since been resolved by those involved. Adding a positive post to his positive thread could be missed by someone whose search terms only resulted in this thread, so I posted my update here. I'm sorry if I caused any confusion here.
Paul Fisher
 
Christian Kaleta, the one in mention, has ALWAYS taken good care of me and some partners here in the valley.. Just FYI.. I am confident that he will stand behind his animals.. And, yes, three heat packs was definitely and issue here.. Two cents, and dunne..
 
I have known Christian for many years, and would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone. I have purchased many animals from him, and he stands behind his word.
 
My experience

I just received a beautiful tiger retic from Christian today. He's absolutely beautiful and the shipping and customer service was perfect. I would definitely recommend :p
 
I have been dealing with Christian quite frequently since January. He has been so helpful with any questions and the animals I have received from him have been top notch and healthy! I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone!
 
Back
Top