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Inquiry IRandy: Randy Gonzales Gainsville FLA

snakemansnakes

snakemansnakes

Have u seen my 'tapler?
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Just curious if anyone has recently had any transactions with him? Just wanna make sure my gut is telling me the right thing about him being trustworthy.
 
Randy recently purchased some western hognose from me and everything went smooth. I personally would not hesitate to do business with him. He is trustworthy
 
A few months ago i was going to buy some balls from irandy,i sent him an email and he responded back wanting my references of who i had bought snakes from,i thought that was kind of backwards but i gave him about 10 people that i had dealings with.I was looking for females close to 600 g and he said he could get them,a couple of days later he was only able to get them around 300g.i didnt seal the deal,i cant say he was bad to deal with,just a little strange how the snakes changed sizes so much in such a few days.
 
I'm currently in the process of completing a trade with him for a high white male piebald. He is shipping tuesday and I cannot wait. He has been outstanding the whole time I've been in contact with him. He even wrote up a written agreement so if something were to happen we would have everything in writing.

I will post on this thread after he has shipped my piebald to me tuesday. I shipped my snakes out to him two weeks ago, and he picked me up the piebald from the myrtle beach expo that was last weekend. (He sent me text messages all day with pictures of piebalds that he could get for me, and I got to choose :) )

PM me for more info if you would like.

Carly Messenger
 
I recently did a deal with Randy for several ball pythons. The deal started in early July and was a bit rocky. I like to keep things in writing because so much is lost in translation when chatting on the phone and I have been burned in the past. He prefers to do things over the phone.

As the buyer, I felt all along that it was my choice to decide how our dealings went down, but he insisted on his way. I relented. I purchased a female albino ball python on July 2, 2011. He called me up the next day telling me had an amazing clutch of spiders and pastels hatch out and he offered me a great deal, I accepted.

Now, both times he wanted me to send payment as a “gift” on paypal which is a no-no. The first time I sent it as a gift (even though I still had to eat a fee because I paid with a credit card) but I got in writing that he was guaranteeing her health and gender. The second time I was more cautious and just paid the 3% myself so I still had a leg to stand.

So, I have now purchased 5 ball pythons, over the phone, and paid the fees myself. I am pleased with my purchases, disappointed that there is no paper trail for me to reflect on, and irked at the additional funds I had to pay to paypal. But in the end, I agreed to these terms so I move on.

Randy was supposed to ship the following week but did not because he didn’t have cold packs. Then he was supposed to ship the week after that but did not because he was concerned that FedEx wasn’t doing their job right. I am growing concerned that I am being scammed. Based on certain things said over the phone, I am now thinking he has sold me snakes he doesn’t have. I am seeing red flags everywhere. He promises me that the snakes are in his home and eating great. All five of them (this is important to note) are in his possession.

As a gesture of good will he volunteers an additional spider ball python from a clutch that just hatched recently. He said it was the only female of the clutch and that she is 66% het pied. He spoke of her beauty and said that he would offer to me as a free gift since I have been so patient and understanding. That bought my patience a little longer. ;)

He never did end up shipping. We wound up meeting at the Myrtle Beach show. I never got refunded the money I paid toward shipping. That apparently went to pay for his gas to get him there. Which is fine. The next hang up at this point was that when we met up he only had 4 out of the 5 snakes I paid for. He had sworn up and down all along he had all my snakes, but he only had 4. He gave me the option of a refund of the purchase price of that snake OR I could put that money toward the purchase of a super pastel male. I chose the refund. He said I would have to wait until the funds were there and we parted ways. Again, I was happy with what I had (the snakes were nice), but upset that I was one short after all his talk of how they were all with him for the better part of a month). And there was ZERO mention of the free snake. I brought it up and he looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Lost. My. Mind.

He called me that night to tell me he had forgotten he had another spider female (where was she hiding??) and could we meet up again. I have to think he was just trying to get a bit more money out of me, but I am just theorizing.

So, long story short. It was like pulling teeth at times, but I got all my snakes!
 
Carlene16 said:
I'm currently in the process of completing a trade with him for a high white male piebald. He is shipping tuesday and I cannot wait. He has been outstanding the whole time I've been in contact with him. He even wrote up a written agreement so if something were to happen we would have everything in writing.

I will post on this thread after he has shipped my piebald to me tuesday. I shipped my snakes out to him two weeks ago, and he picked me up the piebald from the myrtle beach expo that was last weekend. (He sent me text messages all day with pictures of piebalds that he could get for me, and I got to choose :) )

PM me for more info if you would like.

Carly Messenger
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, Carly, did you know at the start of this that he didn't HAVE the male high white piebald that you were trading for? From an outsider's perspective (an extremely picky outsider), it seems like a bit of a gamble to send your animals in advance & HOPE that he would find and acquire one you liked at a show he would be going to later.

Kind of makes me think back to the one time I had contact with him. He had an ad up (I believe it was for female enchis). I sent him a message, asking for pics; but was told that the snakes were 40 miles away (or something like that) at a friend's house. I described what I was looking for, and he assured me he had one I'd love. I didn't bite, so he eventually sent me a couple of pics that weren't even close to anything I would purchase. When I declined, he offered to pick one up for me at a show (I'm pretty sure it was stated that I would have to pay in advance; but it was long enough ago that I'm not positive).
I've got no problem with resellers...but if they don't have the snake in hand when they're advertising, I don't want anything to do with the situation.
 
Sushi Dragons said:
he only had 4. He gave me the option of a refund of the purchase price of that snake OR I could put that money toward the purchase of a super pastel male. I chose the refund. He said I would have to wait until the funds were there and we parted ways. Again, I was happy with what I had (the snakes were nice), but upset that I was one short after all his talk of how they were all with him for the better part of a month). And there was ZERO mention of the free snake. I brought it up and he looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Lost. My. Mind......
So, long story short. It was like pulling teeth at times, but I got all my snakes!
Click to expand...
Perhaps I am misreading things, but you didn't get all your snakes.....you went to the show anticipating that you would receive 6 snakes, and you only received 4. You were promised a refund on one (the other was a freebie, so no refund was required), but you had to wait for it. Your closing statement seems to indicate that the deal is now complete - does that mean you received the refund?

I would also like to add that the last sentence in my previous post was not phrased as well as it could have been. I did not mean to suggest that Randy does not breed some of the animals he sells - it seems many people focus too hard on the "flipper" label, and disregard whatever actual breedings a person that buys and sells may do. I don't know Randy, or anything about his business (other than what I have seen him post, and what has been posted in this thread)....he could breed 90% of what he sells, 10%, or anywhere in between.
 
hhmoore said:
I've got no problem with resellers...but if they don't have the snake in hand when they're advertising, I don't want anything to do with the situation.
Click to expand...

i agree completely. you cant sell something you dont have. and i would never send money or snakes to someone in anticipation that they would "find" what i was looking for.
i too have looked at many of his animals for sale online and almost inquired on some but for what ever reason decided against it.
adam jeffery
 
hhmoore said:
Perhaps I am misreading things, but you didn't get all your snakes.....you went to the show anticipating that you would receive 6 snakes, and you only received 4. You were promised a refund on one (the other was a freebie, so no refund was required), but you had to wait for it. Your closing statement seems to indicate that the deal is now complete - does that mean you received the refund?

I would also like to add that the last sentence in my previous post was not phrased as well as it could have been. I did not mean to suggest that Randy does not breed some of the animals he sells - it seems many people focus too hard on the "flipper" label, and disregard whatever actual breedings a person that buys and sells may do. I don't know Randy, or anything about his business (other than what I have seen him post, and what has been posted in this thread)....he could breed 90% of what he sells, 10%, or anywhere in between.
Click to expand...

You're correct. I didn't get all that I was promised, but I did get all that I paid for. At this point, I will call it a done deal. Since the promise of a free snake was said over the phone there is no way to really fight it.
 
I paid for 5 snakes - one albino, 2 pastels, 2 spiders. The sixth snake was a "freebie" that never amounted to anything.

The refund was for when he showed up with 4 snakes - one albino, 2 pastels, 2 spider. He wanted me to put the credit toward a larger purchase, I declined. Then suddenly, within hours, he found my missing snake. So no refund was required.

I guess the confusion is from the fact that the freebie and the purchased snake were both spiders.

I got what I paid for, eventually, but the free gift for my long wait was a false promise.
 
Thank you for clarifying....my confusion was because I wasn't aware you had gotten together for delivery of the last snake.
Sorry to have belated the point.
 
it seems the issues at hand are:

length of waiting time: temperatures were too high (I had to wait for cold packs)
I was not the only one who could not safely ship to her. ( I could provide documentation of this )

I then also had an unexpected emergency room visit that set shipping back as well.
( Documentation of this could also be provided )

Free snake: I never promised a free snake. I was only taking one of her female spiders and replacing it with a 66% pos het pied spider female.

I try to do the best I can to make every person I work with
as happy as possible. I now see that's not always achievable.
 
no one can ever make everyone happy....thats a fact for sure.
the only question i have for you that doesnt pertain to a specific transaction is weather you advertise animals that are not in your possession?
its the impression i got from reading the previous posts.
im not talking about the one where you were at a show looking for a snake for someone.
thanks
adam jeffery
 
hhmoore said:
Just to clarify, Carly, did you know at the start of this that he didn't HAVE the male high white piebald that you were trading for? From an outsider's perspective (an extremely picky outsider), it seems like a bit of a gamble to send your animals in advance & HOPE that he would find and acquire one you liked at a show he would be going to later.
Click to expand...

Yes I did, which was fine with me. At that point he had promised me a piebald that was 50% or more white, and the one I'm getting is about 80% white so I'm happy as long as shipping goes fine. I did understand it was a gamble sending my snakes while he was hopefully going to find a piebald I liked.

I first inquired on his ad about his piebald female but he then informed me that someone had already began paying for her. Then he sent me photos of another female piebald he had in HIS possession, but I didn't like the amount of white on it. Then he worked it out that he would go to the myrtle beach expo (8 hour drive from where he is he told me) and pick me out a piebald, either sex, as long as it was high white. He sent me photos (through picture messaging) both days of the expo and I either approved or didn't and I actually ended up getting just the one I wanted :) He has since then sent me two more photos of the animal.

As long as shipping goes without a hitch I will be a very happy customer. He really did everything in my situation to keep me happy and feeling comfortable with the deal. Thanks Randy :thumbsup:
 
Thank you, Carlene. I was hoping that would be your response.

When Randy offered to try to find me an enchi at an upcoming show, I took it as nothing more than a helpful gesture; but, after seeing some of the posts made here, it made me wonder.
 
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