• 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....

Greg Power (Bad Guy)

S

SnakeIntheGrass

New member
Joined
Feb 16, 2004
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
43
Location
Washington State
I met this guy Greg Power through my kingsnake add listing my pair of adult Argus/Flav cross monitors. He said he would trade me for a 03 male Dwarf Tiger retic from Mike Wilbanks. I agreed to the trade and even shipped first since he seemed like a reputable person and I had alot of addresses and phone numbers with which to get ahold of him. Well everything was going good until the snake showed up. It looks like a 250 dollar tiger not a Dwarf Tiger. I have compared the animal to dwarf tigers from each of wilbanks clutches from last year and it has a lot lighter color, alot more striping than any dwarf tiger since the first ones in 99 and it has completely different head scalation you cannot even tell that there is any jampea influence. Usually the jampea influence keeps the pattern broken up all the way down and makes the snake have a boxy head but not this guy. He is even lighter the het tigers from wilbanks. I emailed greg and told him the tiger did not look dwarf it just looked like and underfed tiger to me. It came in pretty skinny even for a retic, he got indignant about the skinny comment but I know what a well fed retic looks like and it was not well fed. I told him I wanted confirmation that it was a wilbanks animal and even called mike myself but mike said he had never heard of the guy. Greg told me that the snake had been purchased by his pet shop at the first bob clark show from wilbanks table. I told greg to call wilbanks and try to figure it out. His last email told me he would call mike right away get back to me in a couple days time but I have not heard from the guy since. I shipped the monitors on jan 26 and have not heard from him since about a week after. I told him if mike recognized that he had sold him the animal then I would take his word for it. I warned him in an email that ignoring me would get him on the boi but he never responded so here it is. I would just like to know that I didn't get a 250 dollar snake for 750 bucks worth of monitors. I can take some pictures if anyone wants to judge the animal but he does not look dwarf tiger to me. Hopefully I can resolve this issue. Thanks for your time. Thomas Grass, Snake In the Grass Herpetoculture
 
Is it Greg Power or Greg Powers? I know a Greg Powers really well, he lives near Plano, Tx. I don't see how it could be the same guy but I figured I would ask. What is the name of the pet store, do you know?
 
I am not trying to pour alcohol on a fresh wound, but I have some questions.

1. What makes he 'seem' like a reputable person? Everyone is 'reputable', now it is just a matter of whether the reputation is good or bad.

2. I have owned retics, but have not worked with the dwarfs. How can you tell, unless it was a hatchling of course it would be smaller than a normal baby reitc or a full adult, that it is not a dwarf? I understand the scale count that you mentioed, but are they that easy to identify as a dwarf or not a dwarf? I have no clue, I really am asking because I am curious.

Lastly, and it is just a way of life for me. I would NEVER send my animal first when someone contacts me on something and offers a trade. No way, no how, never. I state that right in all my ads that I put up IF indeed I am accepting trades at the time.

In the future, as I am sure you now know, it ALWAYS pays to do some research no matter how many contacts he gives you etc. For all you know, they could have been taken at randon out of a phone book!
 
I should have known I guess.

I'm going to respond to both replys with one so I will try and make sure I cover all the questions. First of all it could be powers that may be my mistake because that is what I wrote on the shipping stuff but I have not been able to find threads on either name. Second it doesnt seem like the same person he seemed to know his stuff over the phone and I even told him I was interested in purchasing some blackheaded and freckled monitors from him and maybe part of his blue spot timor group so I assumed he would do good business with me because it was not just a single transaction. I spoke with him quite a few times on the phone I had phone numbers to his business and I also used his UPS account to ship him the monitors because I did not want to pay 125 bucks to ship those big lizards. Between that and the way the monitors eat I figured I may as well ship first because it seemed like a safe trade. On the Dwarf looking like a dwarf it has been proposed that the jampea dwarf retics and the animals from kayudi become a seperate subspecies based morpological differences between them and the other reticulated pythons based on head scalation that is easliy distinguishable is you have a true jampea and normal to look at. Their are some scales in normals that are fused or missing on the jampeas. My friend edgar from woodland park zoo gave a copy of the original research to my buddy Shaun Debord and we took the scalation drawings into his snake room and compared the heads on his jampea breeders, babies and dwarf tiger crosses with the paper and the normal retics heads. It is very obvious when the jampea influence is present. Jampea retics also typically have broader head with less neck where normal retics have a more angular head and neck junction. On every Dwarf tiger Shaun or I have ever seen even ones from the first ever breeding they have always had a complete lack of connected tiger pattern or striping because the jampea influence screws up the pattern. When the snake got in he was pretty cold and a little dark but as soon as I put him in my rack he turned lighter than any dwarf tiger I have ever seen and stayed that way. The snake also came in with some head rub and a scar midbody which are no big deal but when I sell a snake I try to be honest about everything about it from feeding to appearance. As far as hatchling size the average hatch weight of Shauns jampea babies last year was 65 grams which is a far cry from the 185 gram average weight of normal retics. The dwarf tigers were produced by a jampea male and super tiger female so the babies are pretty big because of the mother being big. I think a dwarf tiger male to dwarf female breeding would make the babies hatch a little closer to the true dwarfs. All I really want is a nod from wilbanks on this animal that will be good enough for me he is a good snake I have been trying to get him to a respectable weight, for an almost year old retic, he feeds great now he was extremely shy at first dropping the food at the slightest movement but now he takes it right from the tongs and swallows it without even bothering to take the food out of my grasp. If anyone could help me out on this one thanks alot I told greg if he could give me some peace of mind on the animal I would apologize to him about the accusation but like I told him unless he got the lightest, most striped dwarf tiger ever produced by wilbanks then the animal is suspect and you can never be too safe. Thanks. Thomas Grass, Snake In the Grass Herpetoculture.
 
By the way

I'm not here to start crap and kick up dust I like to send and receive quality animals and I don't like to be ignored when someone should be trying to resolve an issue. If anyone ever has a problem with one of my animals I will bend over backwards to make sure that person is pleased. Thanks.

"The reptile industry is too small to do bad business"
Personal business philosophy
Thomas Grass
 
The BOI works I guess.

I received an email today from greg I will post the body of the email in this text.

sorry things have just been really busy. i havent been able to get ahold of mike either. i will keep trying though. if it isnt a dwarf, i will make it up to you! GReg

Thank you Greg that is all I ask. Thank you to the BOI as well.

Thomas Grass
 
i just recently found out about this thread. in my defense i told tom from the begining that one of my employees from the store purchased the retic from wilbanks as a 50% dwarf tiger. i am not a retic aficionado so i do not know exactly what they look like, scale detail, color differences etc from normal tigers. i also told him after the transaction that if he wasnt happy to let me know what he wanted me to do in order make him feel better about the situation and never really got anywhere. i was more than willing to pay what ever difference he thought fair. eventually he decided to take a pair of v. tristis when hatched this season. i agreed and i know that a pair of tristis are worth a bit more but i just wanted to fix whatever wrong he thought transpired. i do not wish to have a bad name! last i spoke to him he was happy with the situation. i have plenty of refferences and have sold plenty of quality animals. lastly if i was going to screw him i would not have given him my biz address, home address, home phone, work phone.
 
Greg dont pretend to act like you even care that you screwed that guy royally. We were supposedly your friends and you did it to us. You have no respect for the animals you keep, hence why none of your tegus had tails, and from the stories we heard from your "friends" at the pet store you dont care about the animals you are selling. You think you know everything about all animals yet you seem to kill so many. What about the day gecko you mangled in the store. ....Oh and by the way when you offered to keep our dog and give it medicine that was ILLEGAL. You adminstering rx drugs with out a script is ILLEGAL and when we were give medicine for its supposed cocidia that was ILLEGAL! And you telling me the vet didnt know what she was talking about was a load of crap. You and your store has messed up that poor dog for the rest of its short life! I could give you a list a page long of all the medicine she has to take and the health problems she has. Thanks for all your wonderful help! A word to the wise selling CKC dogs as AKC registered is illegal too, ever heard of fraud (oh wait thats all you know).


Angela Kerss
 
Oh and how many times did we stick up for you and your store? Too many times I guess? What about the time on Bob Clarks forum ryan told you about the post so you would know what people were saying about you? Hrmmm I guess this is how you repay us.


Angela Kerss
 
first of all i didnt sell you the dog i wasnt even there when you came in to purchase it. secondly offering you albon for the coccidiosis isnt illegal it may be purchased on line by anyone. i was just trying to save you a few bucks. as for my tegus two of them had regrown tails not missing and were like that when i aquired them. i am sorry your dog has health problems i wish that it didnt! however i am not personaly responsible for them, if there was something i could have done i would have and if memory serves me right i offered. im sorry your upset at the situation but i dont think i am the one you need to take it out on. if you want to get in a pissing match piss away i am going to keep it in my pants. i wish things would have ended up differently, i enjoyed hanging out with you guys.

Greg Power
 
You might have been trying to help but you arent a vet. If we had let you keep her you probably would have killed her or made her worse. I can over look the cocididia thing b/c Will did that but according to the vet and the ASPCA it is illegal to give dogs what she was given without a rx and you are the manager so i guess you should know that. And the dog in part is your fault cause as I recall when Ryan told you we couldnt get her to the vet within two days you told him not to worry about it, you'll take care of it. And then when we brought her back from the vet and showed you the paperwork, you were basically like oh there is nothing i can do. "My hands are tied". If you knew all the trouble and money we've been through with that dog you would understand why we are upset with you and your store....And I still stand by my statement that you have no respect for your reptiles and you arent a good person to do business with in the store or outside of it. If you want i can give you few good reasons to why i believe this, but like you said this isnt a pissing match and i'll leave it at that.

Angela Kerss
 
Jeez, what pet store is this so I'll know never to buy anything there. My guess is Plano Pets but maybe I'm wrong.
 
Your guess is right. (Oh and its not slander if its fact, just in case. I remember the threats going around from the bob clark forum thing)

Angela Kerss
 
Yep, I figured as much. You are right about it being a fact, it's all very well documented in the huge file I saw at the SPCA.
 
Wow, i wish i had seen that before i bought a dog from them. Oh well its just one more poor dog to add to the file.

Angela Kerss
 
Greg Power @ Plano Pets

I am writing this on behalf of Greg Power at Plano Pets.
First I want to state that I do not know any of the details behind what happened with either Angela Kerss or Thomas Grass, nor will I try to be disrespectful to either of them based on their dealings Greg because that is between them. I have no idea of any communication between them, nor do I know either of those individuals.
All I can speak of are my personal dealings with Greg.
I have been in Plano for about 7 years. I have been a customer at Plano Pets since then, and I have seen a lot of things go down at that store. On average, I am in that store 2-3x per week because I need feeders, mice, and various things for my animals. I have had some crappy dealings in the past, and there have been several transactions that could have gone better, but none of them ever concerned Greg. In fact, the major quality changes in the store hadn't even taken place until Greg came. There are better displays for the animals, as well as better habitat set-ups. There are also better quality animals and products now available. Let's face it, Plano Pets does have the best selections of Birds, reptiles, supplies, and feeders. THAT is the only reason why I stayed a customer to that store. There was no other reason to stay there. Anytime I go in for rat feeders, Greg takes care of it for me. If he doesn't have it, he orders it. Greg hand picks all of the reptiles to ensure the best quality, and he refuses to sell to people that won't purchase basic requirements for the reptiles such as heating and lighting. There was another instance that I purchased a pug puppy from Plano Pets. As he grew, I noticed that his stance was too wide in front like a bulldog, and he would tremble when he put his weight on it. I took the dog back, without a doctors note, and Greg exchanged it for another male pug with no questions asked. Most stores wouldn't do that because it would have been outside of the 48-72 hours that a vet would have to have provided proof that the dog is defective. But he did it. He also got the owner involved which proved to me that it wasn't an exception that was done just for me---it would have been done for anybody. There have been times when I called to get information, but Greg wasn't available because he was running both the pet store and the pest-control store next door alone. I also talked to a couple of other employees to confirm this before I wrote about it--but he puts in about 50-60 hour work weeks at that store. This may be a reason why it's hard to get a hold of him sometimes. He always calls me back asap though, that's why I can't complain. I really think that he cares.
Again, guys I need to state that I am not trying to dismiss Angela Kerss or Thomas Grass because I don't know the story, nor do I want to take sides. I feel really bad for what happened to you guys and your animals. I respect you for caring about your animals so much because I also want the best for my dogs and reptiles. It is extremely frustrating when you deal with someone and your animal dies, and you feel like you are getting a run-around. It's frustrating, and I have been there quite a few times. But this has never happened to me with Greg Power, and I only stay a customer to Plano Pets completely because of his care towards the animals and his great service to customers.

Andre'
 
I do not know Greg , but have been to Plano pets in the past. At that time it was bad. This may have been before greg arrived, I dod not know.
What I do know is this. I work at UPS at the Mesquite hub in tthe evenings. I happen to work on the air dock, or where all the packages shipped using an express service. I was sorting packages when one came through that caught my eye. It was a small cricket box, with two sides having the cloth mesh. I first thoought crickets of course. But after a second or two of seeing the box, I picked it up before it went down the bellt to be loaded. Being into reptiles I decided to take a closer look.
And inside was a decent sized bearded dragon, at least 10" long or bigger. This poor lizard was shipped in tis box with maybe a half dozen folded napkins and thats it. The poor thing was sliding all around the box, not secure at all. I know beardies can stand higher temps, but the trucks get well over 110 degrees during the day. Especially when our daytime temps down here are at 98 degrees or higher. If the driver does not put the animal in the cab with hm.
I couldn't believe someone had shipped this lizard so carelessly. It will be lucky to make it to its destination safely. I tried to contact the reciver with no luck. But could not contact Mr powers, because it was shipped from a parcel store. So no shipper info was on the label.
After seeing this thread and not being able to contact either party, I had to vent my disgust. This may not be common practice for Mr. powers but it was done none the less. And does not speak well of him. Sine his name was on the shipping label as the sender, out of Plano. I just hope the beardie arrived in decent shape.
 
Just an update.

It is now august 8th and I have not had any recent communication from Greg. By recent I mean I havent heard from him since he told me he would ship me some lizards to make up for the previous trade. I know that monitors can sometimes be tricky and he may not have any offspring to ship me but I have not recieved any updates or anything. If it was not for this thread I guess I would not know whether or not Greg was even alive. He told me he would make it up to me but so far I have not heard anything. It seems to me that if I had promised someone animals from my next breeding I would let them know if I had observed copulation or had some eggs in the incubator. Maybe thats just me. Anyway I'm still waiting.

Thomas Grass

Snake In the Grass Herpetoculture.
 
Back
Top