• 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....

Bad Guy DO NOT deal with JAMES EARL !!!!

indacountry

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Suffolk, Virginia
I hate to "throw people under the bus" but when someone deserves it this is the only way to let others know. Sunday night I seen an ad in the Pythons section of a guy selling most of his collection. He was selling retics, boas, kings, a hogg, a tegu, and 8 four foot boamasters for $500 !!!!! I sent him a pm as quick as I could to make sure this price was accurate for all these snakes and cages. He replied to me that the price was correct and if I had any questions to just ask. I called him while I was at work on Monday and what I thought was going to be a short phone call turned into over an hour conversation. This was great because I would like to get a feel of who I am selling my snakes too also. He proceeded to tell me that he was a disabled vet and his wife was active Navy and they had to move quickly because of a duty change. He then told me that I would have to bring a big truck or trailer and a friend to help carry the cages downstairs because he was disabled. I told him that would be no problem and I would be there Wed. or Thurs. to pick everything up. So far everything is going well. I then proceeded to set everything up to be able to pick up the snakes and cages. Got my truck and trailer ready, got a friend to help, gtt the snake room ready to accept 8 more cages etc...... I call back Tuesday to confirm everything is still a go. NO ANSWER or a callback ! I leave him another pm on Fauna and still NO ANSWER. Hmm....wonder if everything is ok ? I proceed to call his phone and pm him on Fauna at least 3 times everyday with NO RESPONCE ! Today is now Thurs. and I load up my trailer and drive 50 minutes to the address he gave me. I arrive at his house and walk up to the front door to look thru the window to see that the house is EMPTY !!!!!:angry: I am now pissed off beyond belief !!! I go back home and get on Fauna to see who this guy knows so I can find out where he went and get an answer on why he would do this to someone in the reptile community. I found out who he sold the collection to on Fauna and am not upset with the buyer at all, in fact the buyer was sorry he bought the collection knowing now that I had already told the seller that I was buying it. I just want everyone on Fauna to know that this guy is a total dirtbag and to stay away from him if possible. I know he keeps venomous too so please beware of this guy on the venomous forum too. The reptile community is a tight knit group who needs to look out for each other when a dirtbag like this with no morals shows up.

His name is JAMES EARL and his cell # is 757-770-4500. Please protect yourself from him. Thank you.
 
Wow that sucks! I would be pissed off too! Especially with gas prices and a truck doesnt help at all either. I've had this kind of thing happen before where your all ready to buy something and they already sell it and don't tell you. Hopefully is snakes weren't sick...
 
Did James definitively tell you that he would hold his collection until you could pick them up? You seem to not have mentioned that. Also, it sounds like he had them posted and priced to move very quickly, so you can't really fault him for going with the first person to show up with the money. Personally, I wouldn't drive anywhere if I could not confirm a pending transaction the day of...no response=no deal.

He should have spared the minute or 2 it would have taken to let you know he sold his collection though.
 
Sorry you went through all this Bryon.

The thing about a deal like this is you have to act fast or risk losing it all to someone that shows up before you.
 
Wow ok i just saw this. Now i have no intention of returning discourtesy with discourtesy but you are not telling people the facts. First when we talked i told you they were available your right. But i also didn't promise anything. Second you said you were going to call me back to make sure in which i never talked to you again. Now your right that is partly my fault as my daughter dropped my cell in a glass of grape kool aid so i have not talked to anyone in 2 days. Why you would have driven all the ay down without even talking to me in 2 days is a little odd to me but i can't say i feel responsible for you not using common sense. Now since i had not talked to you i got a PM and the man wanted to by them he showed up and i sold them and i'm not going to feel bad about it either. I think my reputation on here is pretty good. I have been honest paid for what i have bought and went above and beyond to make good on the things i have sold. So if you want to have at me feel free as i am not going to lose any sleep over it. If people want to do business with me fine if not i respect that too but you are not telling the whole truth and that is something i will not return in kind. I have been at my home all day so if you drove here that is news to me. I will go ahead and issue a formal apology for your inconvenience but i do think you should have been a little more honest in what you said, although i am sure you were frustrated at the time you wrote it. I have been keeping reptiles for a very long time and there is no way your going to please everyone, so there it is. Take care all.
 
James, I have been calling you all week and no answer. Now I see that your phone was out of service. I still think you should have had enough respect to get in contact with me. We talked for an hour on the phone and I thought we had come to a conclusion that I WAS going to buy the cages and snakes. I also sent you pm's trying to get in touch with you with no replies. The house I went to was the address you gave me at Wickwood Rd. You never told me you were moving out of that house in 2 days. Im sorry you dont feel the need to have the common courtesy to call me and let me know that you sold the snakes, but I will have to chaulk it up as my loss. There is a tight knit reptile community here where we live and I am right in the middle of it. Most of the people you deal with know me personally and are not happy how you handled this. I have been calling and talking to everyone you know locally to try and get in touch with you with no success. Sorry it had to come to this, you have my phone number in your pm so feel free to call me.
 
Thanks Bobby, if i would have had my phone i would have made that attempt. But your still right that i could have logged on to FAUNA and sent a PM i just got busy and didn't think about it. As i said can't make everyone happy :).
 
I will go ahead and issue a formal apology for your inconvenience but i do think you should have been a little more honest in what you said, although i am sure you were frustrated at the time you wrote it.

So how does one issue a formal apology? Is it the same as an engraved invitation, but has different wording on it?

I'm wondering what the feduciary circumstances are here. Did the OP offer to send money to hold or purchase the goods immediately the same day they spoke on the phone, or was it a verbal agreement? If the seller agreed to sell the stuff to the OP and said, in essence, "SOLD", then yeah, pretty crappy seller. However, if he said something like "Ok kid, there your's when I see some money, but it's still whoever comes up with the money first", then the OP really doesn't have a leg to stand on. I know in a recent transaction I did over the phone, the seller had not even listed the animals yet, and I made sure I payed him before we got off the phone and the deal was done so this sort of thing would not happen. If the OP didn't offer to at least pay something to hold them, then the seller really didn't do anything wrong, but probably should have at least listed the items and animals as sold on the auction. It does suck royally to have a truck and friends ready to haul stuff and not have any stuff.
 
I don't blame the potential buyer for being upset, that was a great price. If I lived a little closer I'd have probably tried to pick it up myself.
 
Anthony, as for the apology i just meant that i would say it out on the board so everyone including the person in question could see it. To answer your other questions, no at no time was any money given in anyway. We had a conversation and he said he was pretty sure he wanted them then a couple days past and another person sent a PM and said he wanted them and was coming to pick them up. I said ok and kida just waited as i had a few people say they were coming and didn't show. Once the person actually showed up and decided to take them i sold them. At that point i had not heard back from (indacountry). Now i can't say if he tried to call as my daughter had her way with my cell :). So i am not going to say he didn't i can only say i didn't have any further communication. But i at no time promised to hold anything nor did i take any of his money as i would NEVER do that. That said as i mentioned earlier i could have and should have logged on and sent a PM i just didn't think about it and that is what i was apologizing for. You learn something every day and all you can do is try to do better the next time.
 
Sounds to me like it was a first come first served thing. If no money was given to hold the animals till a situated date then James had every right to sell the animals. Now as far as not contacting the potential buyer to notify him that the animals were already gone is not exactley noble thing to do. As far as the bad guy thread on this, im 50/50 about the situation.
 
Also blasting his phone number on the net might not be the smartest thing to do, if he didn't optionally put it there im sure you can end up running into some issues with that.
 
Thanks Matt and i hear on the contacting, i did have a phone issue but again could have sent a PM i just didn't think about it as i got busy i didn't think someone would drive down without confirming the deal. As for the it not being noble i agree 100% and all i can say is that is what not a malicious effort to do anyone wrong it was just me not thinking about it after they were sold and other things were happening.
 
I understand completley of what was going on, and things can be forgotton. I personally don't think this should have been posted as a bad guy thread, but more so about miscommunication. Hopefully your apology will be good enough, and drop it at that. Just let this be a lesson to you for future buisness practice, reptile related or not.
 
FWIW, if I had loosely defined plans to pick up animals, and was suddenly unable to reach the seller to nail down the arrangements....my butt would be staying home. I'm sorry, but I'll be there Wednesday or Thursday to pick them up is pretty useless. If the arrangement was I'll be there Wednesday, between 3-3:30. See you then., then the OP might have had a beef.
It's great that he wanted the animals, and didn't want to stand the seller up...but if the seller didn't know when to expect him, why should he be there?
 
I have to say I side with James on this one. If the OP only said he was 'pretty sure' he'd take them, then that and $1.25 will get you a cup of coffee. If I had a nickel for everytime I had some potential buyer say they were going to come look or buy something, and then never hear from them again, why I'd have about $5.00 about now I suppose.

BTW, I tried calling the number, and all I got was "OH YEAH - Koolaids here!" in a bubbly voice. Ok, so I didn't really call the number. But, that kinda brings up another point. I think I'd be a little angry if someone posted my c-phone on the internet just because I sold something to the first person that actually handed me money. Not trying to open up another can o' worms here, but I think the OP has a slight case of premature-e-postulation.
 
I don't feel JamesEarl did anything wrong. I probably would have done the same thing. Minus, of course the not contacting the OP. But he did apologize for that mistake.
 
I agree. If I couldn't get ahold of the seller for a few days, there's no way I would've wasted the gas. People flake out on sellers all the time. In times past, I have contacted sellers about a particular animal, even if I didn't have the cash right then. I would show interest and then tell the seller that I would check back with them at a later date to check the availability of the animal. If i have the money a week later and the animal sold, well that's life and I don't complain because I didn't pay for anything. I see fault on both ends of this transaction.
 
Back
Top