Greater Nashville Reptile Show?!?! Warning / Potential problems.

[DAND]

Damn, the place was packed.

 

[Sherry Howell]

Yeah, it was so packed it was hard to fight your way through the crowd. It was that way all Saturday and all Sunday.

Thanks for the words, Michael. We just keep getting calls about iguanas. I'm about out of room until I place some. I wish I had a bigger house.

 

[audrypayne]

I can't afford any more iguanas. Mine will easily clean out their jumbo food bowls several times a day. I'm seriously considering getting another fridge. Mine stays so packed with mustard greens, collared greens, turnip greens, fruits, squashes, and carrots that I don't have much room for the household groceries.

 

[EbayReptiles]

Man, what a fun show! I loved meeting the other three or so venders there. This was the first show i have ever attended where it was alright to leave you booth, unsupervised, for hours on end! Theft not an issue, considering there were more people working the booths than customers. Oh, and about kelly (I choose not to capitolize that) and that whole counting money thing...I wonder how much was really made ... supposedly Roark's paycheck bounced about as high as thier expectations for the show. oh.....and lies, according to Premium Cricket, who hosted thier website, there were not 6000 tickets pre-sold, but 2 (not 2,000 or 200...but 2[two])! I called the shiesters a week before the show, where they said that 8 or so tables where still availabls, the rest taken by a total of 39 vendors, but they were still waiting on people from Memphis to claim the rest. I also recieved a call the day prior to ther show...kelly wanted to try to borrow $1570 for insurance on the building, which she claimed to pay back! What do they think, we're smokin' crack? Wow, that seems sooooo professional! I bet the show operated without any insurance the whole weekend, too bad one of those heathen kids running around with out shirts or shoes didn't fall and hurt themselves. I would have laughed if e2a had to go to court for something like that. I don't know of any vendors that even so much as broke even! I have been to bad shows, but never one played up like this!!!! The only plus side is that there was plently probe set K Y to relieve the fact that we were all getting screwed!!


www.ebayfish.com

 

[rujonesin]

I think the kids you are referring to were theirs. It was really heartbreaking to see their baby crying from lack of attention and watching one go an entire day without a diaper change. It was pretty easy to tell as that was all it was wearing. I really feel for the kids. I have to admit it was pretty funny watching them catch crickets and throw them on people as they walked by.

 

[HISSREPTILES]

Ok i have sat back long enough without saying a word! My name is DENNIS MOORE owner of "HISS REPTILES" and "THE LAND OF ODDZ" I have had business dealings with TROY and KELLY since SEPT 04 which left a verry bad taste in my mouth not to mention a hole in my pocket and damaged reputation! I moved my store location next door to them in Smyrna in NOVEMBER 04. They seemed like nice people trying to get a small business off the ground and i thought i could help them as well as myself by relieving my wholesale reptile inventory from my "hippy gift shop" I tried to teach troy as much as i could and was appaulled at the fact that he was telling every body he owned half of my store and we were partners NOT TRUE! Not to mention he is also using my dads business name "SNAKES ALIVE SHOWS" troy and kelly ripped off many "consignment" animals from customers,reptile auction,and many other people. They used their store to stock inventory promising to sell animals for people and not paying them! as for the children they lived for the most part in the pet shop.baby under the counter with a filthy bottle and diaper crying for attention the store was a mess also i recieved many complaints from customers about the condition of the children and animals they hired help to try and keep things clean but everybody wound up being a babysitter! we verbally had our differences in march 05 the pet shop had been closed due to kelly having another baby! animals were left locked inside! the landlord would not let anyone in! the electricity was shut off the fish died the freezer thawed and stunk the place to high heaven! needless to say my store wasnt doing so hot [location sucked also] I closed down! I tried for some time to get the smyrna expo to have a reptile show i do educational programs but Richard at the expo had some reservations about it! I was dumbfounded to hear troy and kelly pulled it off i recieved an ivitation via email to headline a reptile program there! I guess his way of smoothing things out i didnt believe it was going to happen anyway {another scam} needless to say i did not answer. some weeks go by and i hear more about THE SHOW i checked into it and found it true! i was mad at myself for not getting in on it! my wife told me i would be making a mistake trusting them again she was right! I am deeply sorry for all of you who got scamed i wish i could have been of some help to all at least giving a heads up on them but i really believed they had turned around again for what its worth im sorry.

 

[HISSREPTILES]

Wow, some things don't change I am from near Troy's home town in California. I hate to admit it, but we were friends years ago, before I really got to know him. I actually stumbled upon this thread as I was "googling him" to see what he was doing as i heard a rumor that he had a recording contract with a country music recording studio out there in TN. I would like to say I'm surprised by this, but that statement would be as false as the things he reportedly stated about the show. Saw the web site too as well as a write up in the Tennessean.com
Link


BTW if ya need a pic there is one there of both of them. I have never met Kellie nor do I have anything to say about her as I believe statemets of character need to be made based on personal experience. However, I could go on for hours about TW. Perhaps it's best that I don't as it appears all you good people have plenty of your own to reflect on.. I regret that I didn't do the search earlier. I might have been able to save some of you the trouble that was caused, or at least made you all more informed about his history. I really had hopes that this time he had turned things around. He's a very personable guy, and was quite successful in things that he didn't hork up with his (I'm sure now patented form of) BS. Sadly, it was a rare occasion indeed, when his BS didn't get in the way.

Well I guess its safe to say that this is still his best move.

troy also told me he was LAPD and an agent for home land security i also feel sorry for his dad larry i am sure he is getting the brunt of it due to the fact his kung fu studio is still in town troy and kelly and their homeless friends have taken over his house!

 

[audrypayne]

I have a friend that took lots of pictures of the show. I have requested a copy of these. I'll post them as soon as I receive them.
Cricket

 

[sschind]

Here's some of the info requested but I'm not giving you names. You'll have to actually read the thread to find out that info because if you had actually read the thread you would not agree with paying thieves and liars.

Strange you used the words "freely admitted" when that's the exact wording another person used when they said they didn't pay for their table.

Fortunately, I refused to pay in advance and then stopped payment on the check I wrote Saturday. I am freely admitting that I did this here, because I have plenty of witnesses that this event was a scam from the beginning and they were basically trying to rob us.

Are you a journalist Karen. Your selective use and careful editing of quotes would seem to indicate that you are.

I am not sure how to include multiple quotes in a reply so I will cut and paste the ENTIRE paragraph that Karen is refering to above.

"Fortunately, I refused to pay in advance and then stopped payment on the check I wrote Saturday after my "encounter" with them and my departure. I am freely admitting that I did this here, because I have plenty of witnesses that this event was a scam from the beginning and they were basically trying to rob us. I later sent them an email telling them I would remove the hold on the check because I made a deal in good faith and am a man of my word, but I think y'all will forgive me for going back on it in this case - I sure don't feel guilty. Once I realized the extent to which they had premeditated the scam I made sure I had no role in lining their pockets (other than the admission of a dozen or so attendees who came specifically to buy from me)."

it was this line:

"I later sent them an email telling them I would remove the hold on the check because I made a deal in good faith and am a man of my word"

that indicated to me that the poster had indeed paid for the table. Of course, the following line would seem to indicate that he had in fact not released the hold and thus in fact did not pay for the table but since it was unclear to me I did not include him in my original post.

"but I think y'all will forgive me for going back on it in this case - I sure don't feel guilty. Once I realized the extent to which they had premeditated the scam I made sure I had no role in lining their pockets"

You could probably make any speech appear to be saying the opposite using selective quotations and deletions. Making sure you have the entire quote is important in conveying a complete thought or comment

[/QUOTE]It has been noted that they left Sunday way early so in theory there could still be people who didn't pay just because they didn't have a chance before the crooks left.


I started packing up at 2:00 Sunday, and they were already gone. As for the other post above concerning boasnkc, it's hard to pay for your tables if the promoters have already left.[/QUOTE]

Its hard to pay when the people your supposed to pay are not around. I hardly think this is an admission of intentionally not paying for a table. For these people It is important to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that had intentions of paying.

This will be my last post in this thread. It is pretty clear that kellie and troy are worthless pieces of crap. I guess there are two ways to look at it, "paying thieves and liars" as Karen likes to refer to it which I never said I agreed with, or honoring your commitments up to the point where you know you are being taken advantage of (or possibly even past that point as some apparently have done.) I too would have been upset with the way the situation presented itself. I can not say that I would have followed up on my entire commitment and returned for the Sunday portion of the show the way that Sherry did (thats a business ethic that I do respect Sherry) although in retrospect you are probably wondering if you did the right thing, but I certainly would have paid for my table on Saturday. The time to walk away from a bad situation is as soon as you realize it is happening.

Steve

 

[audrypayne]

Most people(including myself), stayed mostly because we had already paid for at least two nights in a hotel. K&T kept promising things were going to get better. I only stayed to give it an honest chance. None of us wanted to waste our time & money doing a worthless show, but we did want to at least make back our expenses.
If nothing else, I had a great time with my friends, and made a lot of new friends in the process. We goofed off & messed around with other vendors, trying to make the best of a horrible situation. Like we have all stated earlier, nothing else to do since no buyers were in the building. I guess we should have the next vendor get-together at my house. No table charge & no admission cost. You won't even have to stress your animals with packing them up.
Cricket

 

[Michael Jacobi]

@ sschind

Mr. Schindler,

Since you apparently were neither a vendor nor an attendee of this "show", and don't seem to have any personal experience with the scam artists who put this "show" on, I wonder what your interest is and why you have time to post here.

Since you are interested, I will clarify my post. I wrote a check for $125 made out to "Kellie Wikel" on Saturday morning. Our deal was that I would pay that for three tables. After I was ordered to leave the show I told them I would cancel the check. Driving home I, being a professional exotic animal dealer for 23 years with a spotless reputation, decided that I wouldn't sink to their level and wrote them to tell them I would pay what I agreed even after being insulted by them and provoked into a potential physical altercation, and the check would be good. I then received numerous reports and looked back through emails and realized that this was a premeditated scam from the beginning, not just a bunch of lies. I then decided that I would be more wrong to contribute to lining criminals' pockets and stopped payment on the check after all. I "freely admitted" it because I think I had justification and the corroborating posts affirm that. Thanks for your interest; you have contributed a great deal to this thread.

Cheers,

Michael Jacobi

 

[SCReptiles]

There is a great deal of negativity directed toward Troy, Kelly, and their show. The beginnings of which pre-date the show. I did not know either prior to the Friday night event. I interested in mostly in venomous and that keeps me out of the TN circuit for the most part. I have a neighbor with an extensive boa collection and I rode up with him. I was hoping to find some feeder snakes/lizards for my coral snakes. Friday night was the only day I attended, and that was by far not the worst show I have been to. Venders, so some extent, priced themselves out of the market. I had money on hand to spend, but every thing that interested me was way over priced by show standards. The one vender, over by the back wall had some reasonably priced animals, but every other table that had snakes I have dealt with were trying to get “retail store prices.” You can’t do that at a show and expect to sell. (This only applies to dealers of animals I am familiar with. I am completely ignorant things such as chameleons.) But anyway, back to my point. I talked with Kelly to a great extent and Troy to a lesser degree. I liked both of them. I will concede that if they stated they pre-sold more tickets then they did, that was deceitful and grounds for a vender to be upset. However, take a look at what they did do. First, they provided a large and nice venue to set up and sell. They put forth an incredible effort to advertise. They had internet, news papers, radio, and TV putting over the show. And look at the food they provided for you. Haven’t you been to shows where the promised food turned out to be cold pizza? I know that I have. They provided an extravagant meal for you guys. The things that were within their control, such as the venue, food, etc was exemplary. They can not control how many people came thru the door. It seems they did everything possible to get the word out. Sometimes promotional ideas don’t fly. Maybe doing the show on a high traveled holiday weekend wasn’t marketing genius, but it was a fresh idea and worth exploring. It didn’t work, but how can you blame them? They told me that they have an interest in promoting a show in Chattanooga and one in Memphis. I was happy to share my ideas with them for both, and if they are still interested in Chattanooga, I will be helping them put that one together. Most of you are familiar with the Columbia show, one of the most successful in the nation. Recently a rival promoter booked the same venue and promoted a show using a very similar name. That is more deceitful then anything these guys did. They opened a fresh venue, used a fresh name. Did massive amounts of leg work and tried to pull together a nice show. They contacted venders from all over and as most of you have said, were very persistent. Looks to me like they were not trying to scam anyone. Looks like they wanted a large expo and did what they could to achieve that. The varying prices on tables is not dishonestly, that is only business. Do you think every vender pays the same price at Daytona? Sure if there are tables left at show time, they will cut deals to get them full. There is nothing wrong with that, anyone will business sense would do the same thing. Sorry some of you guys lost money, but that is the nature of business. There is always risk involved in any venture. I think they were definitely over optimistic on how well the turnout would be, but in all honesty, I left there Friday night thinking they would do pretty well based on what I had seen there. I couldn’t go back Saturday or Sunday due to holiday plans and of course I couldn’t pay $50 each for snakes to feed my corals either, but I was surprised to find out it did not draw well.

 

[KCRD.com]

It's easy to say when you wern't there....

You know this floors me that you would have to gull to make a comment like you are a better business man than I because you "would pay for your tables". Okay, so maybe you would that is your descsision.

I on the otherhand go into a show with the frame of mind that the promoter sold me on the idea that the show was going to be a great show with lots of attendees. This was very far from what happened, especially since I called to cancel mid-week and was still promised that the show would be a success. When I drive 9 hours to a lie and then half to still drive back another 9 hours with now having to pay for expenses out of pocket this becomes personal. As I told the other vendors at the show, if even half of the promised vendors would have showed and I still would have made no money then I would have cut my losses and said well you know maybe I just didn't have what people were looking for. But in this case with all that went down or in many cases didn't go down, I felt lied to and honestly stolen from. I commited to a three day show on a 4th of July weekend to be away from my wife and kids due to a pile of lies from a crooked pair of "promoters".

I have done over 100 different kinds of conventions since I was 13 years old, so for the last 15 years I have done good shows and bad shows. This being the worst by far. This is the first time I have ever been lied to to the point that I refused to pay for the tables. I want to clarify that if Troy and his piece of sh*t wife would have asked me for money for the tables I probably would have told them to walk away before it got ugly. I was so pissed Saturday night after the show that I was shaking driving back to the hotel. These people stole three days from me that I will never get back. To me it's more than just the money, it's the idea that I trusted them enough to drive that far for a first time show. It's going to be very hard for me to trust someone like this again.

In closing, I have a hard time believing that you have experienced a show as crappy as this. So DO NOT make me sound like the bad guy for not paying for my tables. I did it once and if I had to I would do it again in the same conditions. I will not be taken advantage of by a couple of crooked hill billy pieces of crap.

I WISH they would come to KC or St. Louis and set up as vendors or even attend for that matter.

 

[GoLizards.com]

You hit the nail on the head.....

Boy, you summed that up very nicely. Hearing from quite a handful of vendors, this was absolutely awful. I know that promoting our own 2 shows (as my husband had discussed with Kelly) (its so sad that we have the same name.... ) she would at least keep it real with someone who puts on shows himself. But like was stated over and over again- all that they did was lie.
So mr. SCReptiles how could you fully comment on something that you were just a visitor for what an hour???? Did you really think that they would tell you the truth too.....? I mean not paying the help or catering people- come on. How can you pay for the tables when the promoters left before the show even ended! Get real..... this wasn't a kindergarden circus......... or was it?

 

[KCRD.com]

This just in.......

It appears that the building that was rented from the MAYOR was also paid for by using a fraudulent check.

I really think that I would consider all that's in this thread before I "teamed" up with them on another show.

 

[GoLizards.com]

Table fees??....

And someone has the audacity to question why people didn't pay for their tables.??? These are some nasty fraudulent people! Why give in and try to support their bad check writing habbits.
Cricket how many people are you expecting at the next vendor get-to-gether??? Or should I say how many tickets are pre-sold???

 

[SCReptiles]

So mr. SCReptiles how could you fully comment on something that you were just a visitor for what an hour???? Did you really think that they would tell you the truth too.....? I mean not paying the help or catering people- come on. How can you pay for the tables when the promoters left before the show even ended! Get real

I was there probably 3 or 4 hours Friday night. Roark is a friend, so I spent some time chatting with him. I saw handful of other people I know and visited with them. I needed to buy a ball python for a friend, so I was hoping another venders would show with some “show priced” balls, but I finally broke down and haggled for one. My neighbor talked to all the boa people for a while. We were not just in and out. My point is, based on what went on Friday night, I was optimistic for the weekend. I helped promote a show in VA 2003 and I think we ended up drawing about 2300 thru the door and after talking to Kellie, I figured they would do better. They did everything we did and had a bigger city to draw from.

My whole point is, the things within their direct control for the venders was very well done. Can you honestly say it was not a nice venue? Can you honestly say it was not good food? Can you honestly say they did not promote it well?

Now, if you have direct evidence they did not pay the catering service, then you have a point. But do you have evidence or just hearsay? Kellie told me that night, the food was pre-paid, along with the building. And just the building and the food service was priced to the point they would not turn profit just by scamming venders into buying tables. That is why I do not think this was a pre-conceived scam. They put out too much money for it to make anything back for them.

As I said, Roark is a friend. I will know shortly if his check bounced or if that was more rumors. I just met the people once, so it may be as some as saying here….time will tell. But I think before inflammatory remarks are cast out, there should be some evidence that there was intent to con. And to the credit of other posters, if the statements about them claiming 6000 pre-sold tickets are true, that was dishonestly on their part. But that could very well have been more of a high hopes thing rather then a con thing. Where are we getting that info? Was it on their website?

Thus far, I am still comfortable working with them in Chattanooga. The only thing I have gathered so far is a bad business venture on the Nashville show. That is the nature of the beast, they can’t all be like Daytona. I am not trying to upset anyone here, as I said, I hate that anyone lost money….but did these people intentionally con you out of it? If everyone there paid $100 for each table, they would still not have broke even. I don’t see a motive to con venders into coming. I honestly think they expected a big turn out and were just as disappointed as everyone else.

 

[Khaman]

Need proof...

I have already sold 6000 tickets online for the show and will expect a whole lot more at the door.

Kelly's words.

 

[KCRD.com]

Why in God's name?

Why would anyone put on a show where they loose money? That is just insaine to try to justify. I know as a promoter of shows in the past, that I would NEVER put myelf in a position to loose money on one of my shows. I also know that I would never lie about my adverstising budget nor my supposed pre-sold tickets. I'm telling you man you need to open your eyes before they rob you blind like they did several other people.


Most of the information that has been given about their bad checks has been from people that have either received their bad checks or from people that know people that got screwed.

 

[rujonesin]

I'll tell you what professor Sam. You go right ahead and publically associate yourself with these guys. You go ahead and do a Chatanooga show. It might be worth the drive to see a show with one vendor. I already stated that it's my belief that they wanted the show to be a success. They didn't promote it in a manner to where it was advertised to the herp community. It was promoted as a "show of exotics". COME RIGHT IN, STEP RIGHT UP AND SEE THE AMAZING BOA CONSTRICTOR!!!!!. This was bring your kids to the zoo day in Nashville. If they would have been walking around apologizing for improper advertising it would have been different. Instead they were walking around preparing everyone fopr the news crews or talking about the $30,000 advertising budget. All that money and they couldn't place a free ad in reptiles magazine. You're looking for proof that they didn't pay people when Sherry's shelter has already testified that they worked all weekend and got screwed. Like I said, go ahead and start promoting your show with them as partners. We'll see you back on here. As for your "overpriced" comments.
I personally saw balls there for $20-$40. If you wanted some that were on their death bed from the guy in the back corner you mentioned he was dumping non-eaters for $5. Of course the story you wouldn't have gotten was the one about him getting them for free because they were lost in shipping for a while and half dead when he got them. It amazes me what people expect at a show.

PROFESSOR, "UH, Let me see. You say you fed the parents of this baby for 2 years, gave them supplements the whole time. The baby is now 6 weeks old and had to be fed for that whole time too. Verygood, very good. Oh really. You have to spend money on electricity to give them lights and heat? You mean you have to clean the cages too. Actually do work?? That's all great but why are you asking $40 for that lizard?"

WHAT DO PEOPLE WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get a life! Go do a show and sell your babies for a loss.