inquiry, Barry Lambert

[James Baiz]

Saw his ad for spotteds and was thinking about emailing him on some females, Any info from anyone on him?

Thanks
James

 

[Sal Thomas]

Barry from San Diego?

Hello,

If this is the same Barry Lambert from San Diego, then I had an experience with him about 4-5 years ago...he advertised a corn snake on KS...I belive it was an albino...anywayz, we agreed on a price, and since I live in LA, we agreed to meet in S.D. on a Sunday before a football game... I was also meeting Joe Romley and was traveling with friends for the game so we worked out a meeting place that was good for everyone...Joe even volunteered to drive a further distance to accomodate me and Barry, 'cause Barry lived near the stadium, my eventual destination....well, Barry never showed up....my friends, Joe and I waited until it was clear he wasn't showing and we had to get to the game...the next day, when ,I had to contact him FIRST, BTW, he laughed and told me he just forgot about it and for "just a forty dollar snake" he really didn't have the time to worry about it, or me...or feel any remorse for my lost time...like I told him then, "Class act, dude"...then the corn snake went back on sale on KS...repeatedly...I emailed Barry asking where he found the time to keep posting/advertising a snake he didn't have time to sell...he didn't seem to find it as funny as I did....but then, a funny thing DID happen: the corn all of a sudden turned into a "sunglow"! ...which was the "hot" morph at the time...when I emailed Bary about that, I was told to mind my own business...which I proceeded to.
That was my experience...was it good, bad or just petty?...you decide!

 

[odatria]

I inquired about a group of proven breeder yellow ackies last year. When he got around to answering my email, he changed the ad on kingsnake to say they were actually red ackies. I asked for pictures, which he did end up sending about a week later. He said he was selling them for a friend. I agreed to purchase the group and asked for a mailing address for payment. This is where the deal went bad.

I understand him not wanting to give me his home address. What I do not understand is his comment about the "kids etc..." getting ahold of the payment at his physical address when the physical address he gave me was a pet store that he doesnt even work at. He seems like a very nice guy. However, I have to disagree with his last comment about my being "a bit paranoid". After all we werent talking about $50. The deal was for $1400!!!

Here are the emails.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Michael,

Sorry for taking soo long to get you the pics. Ok....Here is the deal. There is 2.5 red ackies in this group (not 3.4) . NONE have any toes missing. The only flaw is one female has a slight hump on her back, hear her shoulders. Amost a calcium build up of some sort. Not an abcess....Not affecting any potential breeding. All come flying out of the cage to eat and will sometimes grab your fingers if you don't pay attention. The group price is $1,400.00 FIRM. Just let me know ASAP if you want them before I re-post them.

Thanks,
Barry

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Barry, just wanted to keep the contact to a daily regimine to avoid any further confusion. I know exactly what you mean about people that contact you wanting to buy and then flake. The sad thing is that you never know which ones will come through or not until you have the money in your hand. I have been breeding and selling reptiles for over 12 years and the people (dealers and customers) get more and more flakey every year. Anyway, Im glad we got things cleared up last night. I will be catching my train in about an hour and a half, and it doesnt arrive in Bakersfield until midnight. So I will contact you tomorrow again to let you know about the possibility of meeting on Sunday. It really all depends on what happens with my kid at the doctor today. I'll keep you posted.

Best regards.

Mike

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello again Barry. Just wanted to drop you a line to inform you that due to my sons health, I will not be able to get away to meet you this weekend to purchase the monitors as I had hoped. Instead, on Monday I will overnight you a Postal Money Order for the total with shipping. That way your friend wont have to wait for his money to clear Paypal, and I wont have to pay the fees. I will email you on Monday with a tracking number. What shipping method will you be using to overnight the animals to me? Also, do you have heatpacks? Please include your full name and mailing address in the email.

Thanks again.

Mike

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Mike,

No problem. Yes, I will use a heat pack and I have an account with Airborne Express. Shipping will be roughly $40.00 and if it's anymore, I'll pay the difference. Make check payable ($1,440.00 total) to and send to:

Barry Lambert
P.O. Box 15469
San Diego, CA 92175

I'll email you or call you once I get it and we'll talk about shipping then. Feel free to email me or call me if you need any additional info.

Thanks,
Barry


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for getting back to me so soon Barry. I have two requests. I have a personal policy against mailing payments to P.O. boxes. If you would provide me with a physical address for payment I would appreciate it. Also, I would like to have all shipping details agreed to before payment is sent. Open ended shipping seldom works in my favor. I have carefully and thoughtfully decided that this is the best way to do business to keep everyone honest and to prevent any misunderstandings from turning the deal sour. After more than 10 years in the business, only a handful have declined. And as bad as I wanted their animals, I have never regreted the fact that I politely excused myself from those transactions. If these two terms are not acceptable to you, for any reason, please let me know.

Best regards,

Mike

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Mike,

No problem. I use my P.O. Box because my customers send payment to me there and I know I'll get my mail there vs. using my home address....(kids,etc.....) My physical address is: 3191 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego, CA.....92110. I don't blame you for being a bit gun-shy. Now that you have the physical address, I'd still prefer you to send payment to the P.O. Box because like I said, I know I'll get it without a hitch. As for shipping, all I can promise you is that I'll ship within 3 business days of getting the funds. My work is sometimes spur of the moment and I don't want to promise you a monday or tues if one of my customers call me for an emergency and you think I'm trying to play games. I too have been into reptiles for a LONG time and have not been screwed (knock on wood). I don't ship any later than weds. unless requested by the buyer and I can't be responsible for any screw ups from the shipper if I send on a thurs and something happens.......Sound fair? If you need any rock solid references, just let me know. You have my number and feel free to call me anytime during the day if you have any questions. That is my work/business number. Just let me know what you'd like to do......

Thanks,
Barry

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barry, I have thought long and hard about this since recieving your last email and have decided to forego the transaction for the following reason. When someone asks me for a physical address and I do not want to give it to them, I just tell them "I dont want to give you my address." If that was the case here, then I would have respected your privacy and politely declined to send funds. Instead, when I asked for a physical address you responded by explaining quote "No problem. I use my P.O. Box because my customers send payment to me there and I know I'll get my mail there vs. using my home address....(kids,etc.....) My physical address is: 3191 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego, CA.....92110"... Now that you have the physical address, I'd still prefer you to send payment to the P.O. Box because like I said, I know I'll get it without a hitch." So, I go to mapquest.com to verify the address you gave and I looked at the arial photo and clicked zoom. I was quite surprised to see the strip mall, rather than your house. So, I type the address into the google search and several businesses appear. No problem, I thought, he gave me his business address instead of his home address. Not the one I would prefer, but it is a physical address. So I start looking for a pressure washing business and I dont see one. But I did see Pet Kingdom. So this morning I called Pet Kingdom and asked if you worked there and was told no. I asked to speak to someone in reptiles and was placed on hold. When Ron in reptiles answered the phone he said he did know you and that you do your shipping from there, but that you didnt work there. He was very polite and spoke highly of you. The problem is that you didnt give me your physical address, you gave me the address to Pet Kingdom. Im scratching my head here because in the quote above you specifically mention your home and kids then you give the address to Pet Kingdom. As you know, I operate a Reptile store. I have several customers who ship and recieve animals from my store. They are great guys too, as I am sure you are. But if someone came here to collect on a deal that went wrong between them, I would'nt be able to do a thing about it. Neither would Pet Kingdom, which is why I asked for a physical address, so if things went bad I would at least know where to find you. Unfortunately, as bad as I want those monitors, I'm going to have to decline.

Best Regards,

Mike

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike,

I'm surprised Ron didn't tell you that those are his monitors. And no, I don't work there. Ron is a great friend and I sometimes help him out selling some of his animals as well as mine. The monitors are currently at his store, but the ackies are his personal animals. As I also said I'd give you a bunch of rock solid references of people who are more than happy with the animals I have sent them and said that I represented them honestly. So, with that in mind, no problem if you choose not to buy them. Leary and cautious is good. I've given you more info and you have more info on me than anyone has ever requested.....Being a bit paranoid can sometimes not be.....

Best wishes,
Barry

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in short, if you ask someone for a physical address then you are "Leary and Cautious", but if someone misrepresents their physical address and you call them on it you are "Paranoid"?

Anyway, he seems like a nice guy. I have since heard some good comments about him when discussing the above communication with others. This does not mean I would do business with him in the future. It simply means that those who have had positive dealings were obviously not as "paranoid" as I was.

Good luck and let us know how things turn out if you decide to purchase from him.

 

[James Baiz]

Thanks

Thanks Guys, i guess i will keep my eyes out for another deal.
Im not into spotty transactions.

 

[Spectrum Reptiles]

James,

Just for the record. Mike had every opportunity to buy those ackies without getting screwed. He is the first guy I ever encountered that wanted everything but my SSN...(I'm surprised he didn't ask for that). Those ackies got sold and the customer was elated to have them. As for Sal, I did accidentally forget to show up, but then you should have heard the attitude and arrogance of this guy.....Even after seeing pics of the animals, he decided to be a real jerk and try and school me on the color morph of the corn snake. At that point, I didn't even care what this guy had to say or even care if he bought it.......Major pain in the a**....I have bought and sold more animals that this guy ever will and there always seems to be a bad apple somewhere.......Oh well....

Barry Lambert

 

[odatria]

James,

Just for the record. Mike had every opportunity to buy those ackies without getting screwed. He is the first guy I ever encountered that wanted everything but my SSN...(I'm surprised he didn't ask for that).

Barry Lambert

Barry, "Just for the Record" the above email communication comprises my requests in thier entirety. The ONLY information I asked of you was your physical address. There was no feedback on the BOI about you and I couldnt find even one person that had done business with you. The outcome of the transaction was simple. You misrepresented your physical address and then askem me to still send the payment to the P.O. box. You dont tell someone "heres my physical address but dont send payment there because my kids might get it" and then give me an address of someone elses store. That is dishonest no matter how you explain it. Well, unless of course your kids work there.

As for your comments about my asking for everything but your ssn, that is obviously untrue as can be seen in the emails above. I am extremely glad that the ackies found a satisfied home, but have no regrets about terminating the deal. As you can see from my above posting, I did not slam you as a bad guy. In fact I said I thought you seemed nice and that I had since heard good things of you (from my buddy Steve Angeli and a couple of others). I then asked for the guy who started the thread to let us know how things went. But instead I see that the only response I have recieved here is a defensive Barry Lambert making me out to be some kind of obsessed buyer when the ONLY question I asked pertaining to your information was your physical address. If you didnt want to give it, you should have just said so. Instead you resorted to dishonesty in giving me another address. You are now also being dishonest in misrepresenting the nature of my request for your personal information.

I think that the email correspondence shown above and your response to my post paint a fairly accurate picture of your character. That reafirms that I made the right decision whaen I terminted the deal.

So with that said, how about answering the following questions in a manner that the good folks on the BOI can understand so they can make an informed decision about the way you do business.

1) Why did you misrepresent your physical address as Pet Kingdoms and insist that I still send payment to a PO Box so your family doesnt get the payment when you knew that your family would not be intercepting the payment at Pet Kingdom because it is NOT your physical address?

2) Why are you accusing me of asking for "everything but your ssn" when the emails posted above clearly show that the only information I asked for was your physical address, which you then misrepresented?

3) Why do you charge your clients the Paypal fees when it is a direct violation of their terms of service? Especially since there are other ethical ways to ensure that you do not have to eat those fees (like raising the asking price)?

4) Why is it that you are trying to justify the fact that you forgot to met Sal by saying "As for Sal, I did accidentally forget to show up, but then you should have heard the attitude and arrogance of this guy...At that point, I didn't even care what this guy had to say or even care if he bought it.......Major pain in the a**"

5) Why do you accuse Sal of being arrogant and then say "I have bought and sold more animals that this guy ever will...?

6) When you say "and there always seems to be a bad apple somewhere.......Oh well...." whom exactly are you refering to and why?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions if you will. While some people use the BOI to attack, harrass and slander others, I think that it is important that a person be given the chance to explain their actions. If you can explain why you thought it was o.k. to misrepresent your physical address, falsely accuse me of asking for more information than your phyical address and then take no responsibilty for your dishonest statements then that will be a step in the right direction.

 

[Spectrum Reptiles]

Mike,

Like I mentioned, YOU are the first guy I ever met who was "that cautious" about buying animals from me. As for me using Pet Kingdom's address, I am affiliated with the store at times depending on if they have some of my animals for sale physically in the store. Therefore, it's much easier for me to accept funds at my P.O. Box, then have the store send out the animals to my buyers. I'm sorry if the animals weren't in my hands from start to finish. You read it as being "dishonest". I tried to handle it out of "conveinence". I don't know if you sell reptiles to pay your bills, but I don't and have a full time job. As for asking for the paypal fees, isn't that being honest? Whether it's in "violation" of their terms or not. Isn't hiding, or raising the price as you recommend really the dishonest part? As for Sal, I'm sure he doesn't need you to run to his rescue because the bad apple part was referring to him, not you. Sal's whole attitude changed when I accidentally forgot to meet with him to buy a cornsnake. I didn't lose an ounce of sleep over you buying the ackies or not personally. My comments about Sal's post were completely separate from my take on your investigative skills and slightly paranoid take on the potential deal we had. I sold the animals to a happy buyer and you didn't get burnt. That is the part I'd like the BOI folks to know. Right? Your post was trying to portray me as someone who would take the money and run or disapear. Your right, I am going to defend that part and I'm truly sorry if someone has taken your money in the past and disappeared. If there is one thing that I've learned from buying and selling reptiles as a hobby.....You can't make everyone happy. It's too bad you didn't talk to Steve Angeli before all this took place.

Barry

 

[Mark Allen]

Barry Lambert

I wonder if there are any good references out there for Barry.

Barry was going to buy some turtles earlier this year from me. I emailed him pix and spoke to him about pricing. We discussed shipping and had set up a shipping date. He was going to send a money order the next day.

Lo and behold, I never heard from him again. Of course I did not ship but it was still a major pain to pull the turtles from the pen and get the shipping boxes all ready.

Never did hear what happened but based on other BOI posts this guy doesn't seem to have much class

Mark

 

[Spectrum Reptiles]

Mark,

Like I said...Please remind me of our "turtle deal" and what turtles you had because I have yet to remember you. As for good posts, they are there if you look, and there are TONS of happy customers that don't post here. I would be willing to bet the quality of my references far out weigh the little posts you make about me, especially since I can't remember a thing about you.........

Barry

 

[Spectrum Reptiles]

Mark....P.S.

I happed to read alot of your posts and I sure didn't see anything promising on your behalf. Your posts appear to be made by a young, whining, little kid. Also, please tell me what I said that deemed me a "jerk"? I don't even know you dude....

Barry

 

[odatria]

Barry, thanks for your reply.

Your post clearly explains what I expected. That you use their address out of convenience is not a bad idea, nor is it grounds for not completing a deal. Wouldnt it have been much easier to come out and say "the ackies are at Pet Kingdom, and will be shipped from there"? I think that would have been much better than beating around the bush, dont you? You are right, I have had my money taken in the past and as you can see from my " paranoid investigative tactics" it is not likely to happen again anytime soon.

As far as Steve Angeli is concerned, I wish that I had known him when our deal was pending. I met him soon after and consider his word as good as gold. That is why I wrote that I had since heard good things about you in my original post. Your toned down response leads me to feel that my original post was correct. You do seem like a nice guy, however we were not able to complete the deal due to the itemized email responses listed on page 1. That in no way makes my statement a bad guy post in regards to you. It was simply an EXACT refernce of my dealing with you followed by a few kind words, as well as a few cautious words.

The only other question I have is why you said I asked for everything but your social when in fact I only asked for 1 (ONE) item of information? If you would have said that I found out everything but your ssn while trying to verify your physical address that would have been closer to the truth. But to insist that I asked for more than a simple, physical address is not even close to being acurate.

Once again, thanks for clearing things up. Hopefully we will have the oportunity to do business again sometime.

 

[Spectrum Reptiles]

Michael,

Thank you for your humble post. While Steve is a good guy, he and I are somewhat alike. And while he wouldn't necessarily get fired up, I do sometimes when I feel as if my integrity is being questioned.

Yes, my communication with you might have been poor on my part. I'll take responsibility for that, but my integrity was there the whole time which can be confusing to some folks if we aren't reading each other. While people have screwed you which your rightfully gun shy about, I've also sold people animals who have totally lied about what what I told them the animals were about.

For instance, I sold some folks a pair of sub adult Guyanan Redtail boas recently and not once did my ad state they are CB. In fact, I even noted the old healing scar on the females nose. Once the wife got them, she proceeded to tell me that they are not CB and wants her money back. Of course I refunded her money once I received them back, but her husband spoke with my partner and told him that I told the wife that they are CB. TOTAL LIE!! That was all in her head. The looked AWESOME in the pics and in person, but because they were not CB, her husband didn't want them. Sorry for the rant. I just get frustrated at some buyers motives and their ideas about the way they twist things all around. I guess what it comes down to is having to spell every little word out for people because alot of people assume too much. Anway, thanks again for the understanding, mature post.

Barry