Well, to quote Monty Python "There's only one thing worse then being talked about. That's not being talked about".
I see several issues raised here, so I'll do my best to tackle them.
First to Scott. I got in a bunch of animals on a trade. One of them was an Eastern Milksnake. It was a bit thin when I got it, but it did eat two live fuzzies for me. Scott called and we sent it to him. I told him over the phone it was a bit thin, but was eating good. I have no reason to mislead him about it. After about 2 months, he emailed me or called me (I don't recall) and said the snake had just died, and that it was loaded with mites. He insinuated that the mites killed the snake. This was about 2 months after I sent it to him. I asked him why he had not contacted me right away if there was a problem, and he told me the snake had just died, and he'd been nursing it along for the two months. Because it had been so long, and he'd never bothered to even email me about the problem before this time, I opted to give him a full store credit for the price he paid for the snake. He agreed to this with no hesitation. I told him to select anything else I had listed, which is a pretty good selection. He picked out a nice hypo Brook's kingsnake, and sent me the difference for the snake. I sent it to him right away. I never questioned why he really took so long to contact me. I just wanted him to be happy with our service and animals. I have no clue why the milksnake died, and it bothers me that it did. He called me the day he got the kingsnake and tole me how please he was with it, and that's the last I heard from him. I was happy he was happy, and I thought that was it. I thought wrong.
Mites. Mites suck. It's also part of life. I checked that Brook's personally to make sure it was perfect so Scott would think I'm just great. Did I miss some mites? Beats me. I sure don't think so. As one poster on here said, sending out snakes with mites is inexcusable. It makes you look tacky. Do I think Scott is making it up? Nope. Do I think I must have missed the mites, yep. Mites happen, especially in a retail store. Today I have no mites ( I think and hope), but you can be that tomorrow I will. Then I'll battle them to the death, and someone will walk in a week later with a mite infested snake, or have mites hit chiking on their cloths and it will start all over again. There's nothing any store can do but battle them when and where you can. We use Provent a Mite on a daily basis. We spray the substrate we use before we even put them in the cages with the snakes, everytime we clean them. I do everything possible to get rid of them, and there's just not much more I can tell ya. As far as the health of the Brook's goes, it is perfect. It will eat every day if you let it. It's active, healthy and I thought it was a pretty good deal considering how much time passed before Scott contacted me. By the way, Scott was nothing but nice and polite over the phone. I'm kind of baffled as to why he would come to the BOI. But if he thought he was getting ripped off I guess this was one option to him. I've done all I can for Scott. I'm sorry he's unhappy. I'm more then happy to take the Brook's king back if he'll pay for the shipping back to me, and I'll refund him in full. That's about all I can do in this case.
Peachthroats. I bought these from a man out of Singapore. I buy turtles from them mostly. They offered me two captive bred Peachthroat monitors along with some other animals. I had them add them to the shipment. I have no reason to doubt their word, since I would have bought them wc or cb. Made no difference to me. But it's only their word I'm going by. When I was asked for proof, I could not supply it. Seemed simple enough. When asked for proof, I said I have none. I don't. The buyer passed. Life goes on. They sure are cute, and I'm very happy with them. Someone will buy them. It will more then likely be someone that just walks into the store looking for a new pet to take home and care for and love. I hope so. Perhaps it will be someone like.............
Chis Balkenbush. He's 14. He has two adult Colombian tegus. He bought them from me with his parents a few years ago. We lucked out and it turned out to be a pair. One of them laid 8 eggs (I assume this was the female, but I could be wrong). He was very excited and brought the eggs to me. I put them in some hatchright and put them in one of my incubators, and pretty much forgot about them. And then 6 of them hatched. His parents would only let him have one to keep, so I gave him a store credit for the rest. He'll most likely use it for food or caging for some of the animals he has. Chris Balkenbush. Please remember his name. I'm sure he'll be selling herps himself someday. We can only hope. I know he sure is jazzed about herps right now. He just got his first cornsnakes eggs, and I talked his folks into letting him incubate them himself. So far so good. It's the reason I like my job, it's the best part.
I'm sure there will be more said. I thank you all for the interest, and for the kind words from some of you. Oh, and thanks Riley. Where are you now, by the way? Also, thank you CAT for bringing this to my attention. You're great.
Ken
