Describe in your own words how you have been victimized.
on 7/6/08 I contacted Dan Scolaro of DTS Herps, Inc. about an ad posted on Kingsnake.com regarding the
sale of some Blue Marine File Snakes. Each snake was being sold for $250.00. I negotiated a price of
$950.00 for two pairs of these snakes(2 females, two males)plus a $60.00 shippping fee for a total of
$1010.00. These animals where supposed to be blue(blue and black stripes), fungus free, and healthy
according to his ad. There was also a live arrival guarantee. The money ($1010.00) paid to him on 7/6/08
through Paypal(ID: 4YF06400736055425). Mr Scolaro was advised that I was presently working in Alaska
and would remain at work for an indefinite amount of time therefore the animals would have to be shipped
to my roommate, Lemuel Burciaga, in San Marcos TX so shipping would have to be coordinated with him
which he agreed to. The snakes were shipped through FEDEX (tracking number:865633436043) on
Monday 7/21/08 to arrive on Tuesday 7/22/08. When the animals were received on 7/22/08 by Mr.
Burciaga one was dead on arrival, one had a lesion on the ventral side, and all four snakes were heavily
infected with fungus. In addition 2 of the animals were not blue(striped) but completely black (all black
animals can be obtained regularly for $100.00 or less) which is not what was advertised and not what I
paid the extra expense for. When Mr. Burciaga received these animals he immediately contacted me in
Alaska at which time I instructed him to take photo documentation of the condition of the animals to be
submitted to Mr. Scolaro. I contacted Mr. Scolaro on 7/22/08 and forwarded the photos Mr. Burciaga had
emailed me. Mr. Scolaro apologized profusely and promised to send four new healthy, blue animals. It was
at this time Mr. Scolaro informed me he had a third party(Justyn Miller) in Texas ship these animals to me.
In phone and email conversations on 7/22/08 and7/23/08 Mr. Scolaro requested the animals that had been
shipped to be sent back to the shipper(Mr. Miller).
I told him I could have Mr. Burciaga ship the animals back if he needed although shipping back might be a
couple of days due to Mr. Burciaga's work schedule and most importantly due to the animals extremely
sickly condition and rapid progression of the illness due to shipping stress if they were to be shipped back
they would probably not survive the transit back. He then said he would get back to me regarding the
return of the animals. On 7/23/08 the snake with the ventral lesion died. On 7/24/08 Mr. Scolaro specifically
instructed Mr. Burciaga and I not ship the animals back because it would probably be a wasted of money
and that we would receive four new, healthy, blue, specimens as soon a new shipment of them arrived
(according to him he had none left at this time). The other two remaining snakes also eventually perished
even after extensive medical treatment. Over the course of the next three months I repeatedly contacted
Mr. Scolaro about the new shipment of animals. For the two months he continued to tell me the
export/import permits for the animals hadn't been approved and so the shipper(Mr. Miller) in Texas had
been unable to acquire new animals , but the permits would be approved soon and new animals would
arrive soon afterwards. On 10/17/08 after contacting Mr. Scolaro about the new snake shipment he
informed me the permits had been approved and the shipper/importer(Mr. Miller) was in the process of
acquiring more animals. On 10/29/08 I returned to Texas from Alaska. On 11/3/08 I contacted Mr Scolaro
to check on the status of things. He Informed me he had been unable to contact Mr Miller for sometime and
asked how long I would be back in Texas for to which I responded two weeks and that this situation whould
have to be settled within this time period. Mr. Scolaro agreed, said he would either refund my money, or
send me the four animals he had retained form the original shipment for himself unless he was able to get
a hold of Mr. Miller and get me four new snakes through him. I told him that either one of those options
would be fine. Mr. Scolaro then said he would attempt to contact Mr. Miller and contact me with his
decision. He never called back and on 11/10/08 I once again contacted Mr. Scolaro about the status of the
ongoing situation. He once again said he'd been unable to get a hold of Mr. Miller and what he was
thinking of doing was either sending me his four snakes, or refunding me my money, or sending me 2 of
the snakes he had and a partial refund (which I told him was unacceptable). He then said he would try to
contact Mr. Miller once more and call me back to inform me of what would be done. A few minutes later Mr.
Scolaro called me back and informed me he'd been able to contact Mr. Miller and Mr. Miller was scheduled
to receive a new shipment of animals on Wednesday 11/12/08. He then sent me Mr. Miller's contact
information so i could get in contact with him and coordinate shipping. I contacted Mr. Miller on 11/10/08
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and he confirmed a shipment should arrive on Wednesday. On Wednesday 11/12/08 I contacted Mr. Miller
regarding the shipments and I was informed the shipment had not arrived and perhaps might arrive next
Wednesday. I then contacted Mr. Scolaro and asked him to settle things with me with the two week period
we had agreed on ending on 11/16/08 by either sending me the four snakes he has inn his possession or
by refunding my money to which he answered I would have to wait indefinitely until the new shipment of animals happened to arrive at which point he would send me some new animals.
