Alrighty! Let's do a review of our business with Jon's Jungle. I don't mean to step in for Terese, but I was the one that (mostly) had the contact with Jon and thankfully I have saved all email contact I've had with him.
This is not a good guy or a bad guy post, just relaying the transaction as it played out. The only time I really got riled up is upon learning that I'd been hearing "She's shipping tomorrow" or "She's shipping this week", when in reality Jon was still looking for a suitable animal.
Here is the basic outline of the transaction we had with Jon's Jungle-
An ad was placed for a Labyrinth Burmese Python by
Jon's Jungle. I replied to it right away and sent the money for it the next day after reviewing his terms and doing some checking up. The money was sent via PayPal.
The snake arrived and we spent some time trying to get it to feed. After some time (and having emailed with Jon a few times) we paid for the snake to be shipped back to him to have him start it feeding again.
Now comes months and months of waiting for the snake to feed for Jon and to be returned. After approximately half a year Jon telling us she's feeding and would be ready to ship soon, and she's ship out tomorrow, and she'd ship out next week....he sent an email and said he wasn't able to ship the snake and had been looking for a replacement animal instead.
We took that in stride and agreed. He told us he was sorry and he'd have a replacement sent and refund us our original PayPal. Again, after months of waiting we finally received a replacement animal but no refund. I asked one last time and received no reply from Jon.
So that's the basic outline.
To answer Jon's post, yes, the animal that it was replaced with was larger than the original. But Jon....the original snake would have been this size by now. So really all you did was replace the snake of a similar size that it would have been after all these months. Yes, you paid the shipping costs of the original and of the replacement. We paid for the original burm to be sent back. That's nothing special there.
Now, for the sake of accuracy, I'll break down the communications I've had with Jon in the past year. If anyone would like to see original emails please let me know and I'd be happy to go ahead and send them to you. Unfortunately just copy & paste of emails would result in a lot of RE:RE:RE: and would make this post 4 times as long as it already is.
JON
03.06.03 - "If you PayPal me tonight she is yours."
STEVEN
03.06.03 - "What is your PayPal account? [email protected] ?"
03.06.03 - "That's it"
03.07.03 - Sent an email telling Jon I'd sent a PayPal and that the following looked alright for shipping. I also explained about where we live and the fact that we have to have things shipped "hold for customer" as we pick up from the UPS Customer Center. Gave him our address to ship as well as a contact phone number.
03.10.03 - "Hadn't heard back from you today, just wondering if the female lab got out
ok and if you had the tracking #."
03.10.03 - "Sorry I got in too late too ship ,but she will go out tue 3-11-03 too
arrive by 1030 am on 3-12-03 if this is good with you ......"
03.10.03 - "ok"
03.11.03 - "Here is your ups tracking #1zf871w622########...."
03.12.03 - "Just wanted to let you know that the snake got here safe and sound."
03.15.03 - "She seems to be settling in, but has refused a f/t mouse. Can you tell me
what she was feeding on prior?"
03.17.03 - "I feed all our animals live or pre killed(mice)...."
03.25.03 - Explained that she still wasn't feeding and I'd like to send her back to see if he'd have better luck.
03.29.03 - "I will be in all week please call me too discuss details....."
A few message were left by Terese in the few days to follow
04.01.03 - "I'm a little under the weather. My wife has left a couple of messages for
you. Please let me know when would be the best time to call this week."
04.02.03 - "I hope you got my email reguarding someone will be here all week to
recieve animals ,anyway please call me anytime on my cell 949-***-****......"
We reached Jon on his cell and made plans to have her shipped back to, hopefully, have Jon get her feeding again. We were given the option of a refund at this time.
04.02.03 - "I dropped her at UPS about an hour ago. Tracking # is: M ABFBVQ *******
Delivery before 3:00 tomorrow."
04.03.03 - I noticed I'd sent the wrong number and sent him the correct one after midnight. Asked for him to let us know if there were any problems.
04.04.03 - "Really don't mean to be a nuisance, but wondering how the snake got there.
Should have been an easy trip - temps were warm enough."
04.04.03 - "She is just fine lets talk early next week ,have relatives in for the
weekend...."
04.09.03 - "Hope the visit with your relatives went well. Has the labby managed to take any meals yet? If not, I think we'd like to go
ahead and process a refund so that we can grab another '02 while there are still some available."
04.14.03 - "Thanks for the nice email,the lab has not feed yet not realy sure whats's
going on with her but for now I would like too send your money back.Sorry
for the inconvience.Please foward mailing address....."
04.14.03 - Our mailing address was sent to Jon.
04.21.03 - "I am not sure if you recieved my last email .The lab girl has eaten 5 fuzzy
mice and is going too get a full size mouse today.I will overnight you your
refung or get her good and fat and return her too you ."
04.21.03 - "Haven't seen any email since I'd sent you our mailing address. It would be
great if we could get her back. I'm glad she's back to eating. Thank you
very much for taking the time and energy to get her eating again. Just let
me know when you feel comfortable sending her back here."
05.02.03 - "Just thought you would like too know she is eating 2 fuzzy rats a week and
should be fat and happy in about 2 weeks ."
05.02.03 - "Not a problem at all. Don't know if you're charging for shipping on this
second round, but if not I'll at least flip for half the shipping costs. Thank you so much for getting her back to eating."
05.02.03 - "No chance of any additional charges ."
06.01.03 - "Just checking in to make sure she's doing alright and see if you know when
you'd like to ship her."
06.05.03 - "I will plan on shipping her next week if that is good for you.."
06.06.03 - "That would be great. I'll give you our address in case you don't have it
handy anymore." Gave our mailing address and again explained that it would have to be shipped "hold for customer"
06.27.03 - "I hope the weather cools off a bit before sending her ,please let me know
by email if you see a good window of nice weather too ship ........
thanks Jon ps sorry for the slow response we were out of town......"
07.01.03 - "I've been looking at the forcast, and it looks like we'll be getting good
nighttime lows in the 70's. As I pick up at the Customer Counter in the
early morning, shipping this week should be fine."
07.03.03 - "PLEASE ship her out next week. This just seems to be dragging on. Please
keep me informed of when you plan on shipping her."
07.09.03 - "I've not heard back from you since this email on the 27th. I know that we're
both anxious to get this transaction completed. If you can still ship this
week, please do so and let me know. If not then please ship next week.
Everything still looks good here. Just a reminder to ship with "Hold for
customer". Here is our address again:" Our address and contact phone number was given again, and a request to please let us know he received the email.
07.11.03 - "I Just want too be 100% sure of her health ,she went off food for a month
but has not stopped in a few weeks of pounding large mice .I will ship her
asap .' "
08.06.03 - "This was the last I heard from you. This was on July 11th Please ship the snake." I'd replied to the last email I'd gotten from him.
08.07.03 - "I am out of town your female lab is getting large and would like too ship her when I return next week."
08.17.03 - "The snake did not arrive this past week as I'd expected. Please send this
coming week."
08.21.03 - "Again, I haven't heard from you about the burm. This is week two I was
expecting something. Please get back to me soon."
The following week I took to phoning Jon and finally reached him after several attempts. I was told he had no boxes to ship and that he'd get back to me the following Monday or Tuesday and have her shipped them for Wednesday delivery as Monday was Labor Day. I waited Monday and I waited Tuesday. I called him and he told me he'd ship on Thursday for Friday delivery. He stated he'd call me on Thursday before 11am to give me the tracking number. 11am (his time..1pm here) came and went and nothing. I called him again and he assured me she was still being shipped out that day and he'd call me in the next hour because he was not at the office right now where he'd call me back and confirm the shipping address. I waited the hour. I waited two. Then three. I then began to call him again to see if she'd shipped out. At the end of the day I finally just left a message asking that he please get in touch with me to let me know if I was to expect her or not.
Jon did not call or email and first thing the next morning I drove to the UPS Center in case he actually did ship. We were now up to Friday, September 5th.
08.05.03 - "I am not sure what happened yesterday but will let you know as soon as I
get to facility....."
08.05.03 - I send Jon a very long email giving him an outline of our transaction so far, and explained to him that I was getting extremely frustrated at it all. I'd been kept on hold with promises that he'd send, that she'd been doing fine and he was wanting to ship, etc etc.
09.08.03 - "I am sorry for the multiple delays,I have been searching for a replacement
female lab any size too replace the one that just is not 110%.So at this
time I would like too give you a refund and still replace your female at NO
CHARGE.(Ps if you know were I can buy you a replacementI will right
away........"
09.09.03 - I told Jon I'd taken the day to look for a burm without much success. I told him I'd let him know if I found anything. I asked why the original burm was substandard. I gave him our PayPal address for the refund seeing as that's how we originally paid for her.
09.09.03 - I emailed Jon with a lead on a lab burm and gave him a contact phone number. Jon emailed back and said he'd call in the morning.
09.17.03 - "I've not heard back from you since you called last week and left the voice
mail saying you would send the PayPal refund this past weekend and then talk
to Amir on Monday about a replacement animal. Please let me know how things are working out."
09.21.03 - "I will call you with details this week ."
09.29.03 - "Just writing back to see where we were at seeing as I didn't receive any
call from you last week. Once again, I'd like to get things cleared up as soon as possible."
10.03.03 - Another long email was sent to Jon explaining that I'd waited long enough and patience had run out. I told him by Oct. 17th I'd consider the transaction done and it was up to him to have the last word on how the deal would end. He could either have it go well by sending the refund and a replacement or go bad by ignoring my communications and/or nor refunding and sending a replacement burm. I told him two weeks is plenty of time to send money via PayPal no matter what interface he uses and it is plenty of time to find and have shipped a replacement. After that I'd consider it a failed transaction and would take the appropriate course of action.
10.04.03 - "After reviewing the e-mail I sent you yesterday I feel I owe you an apology.
The message seemed to have sounded a hot harsher than what I'd meant it to.
I'm hoping it did not come across as threatening in any way as that was not
my intention. I am just looking for closure on all of this. After eight
months I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating it must be for me to sit and
wait to hear from you every week. I hope it was not taken negatively and if it was, again, I apologize."
10.06.03 - "I hope this will come as good news I have finaly located,paid and seen a
beautiful 6 foot plus lab burm female .Can I ship her this week ?
Thanks Jon ps I think you will be happy you waited...."
10.06.03 - "That's great news. Yes, you can ship her this week. Depending on where you
purchased, you can probably just have her sent directly here to save on two
shipping charges."
10.09.03 - "Again...have not heard from you all week. I'm not quite sure what you are expecting at this point....I'm unclear as to
why you ask if shipping is alright if shipping is not intended." I then asked to be put in touch with the shipper so I could make arragements with him directly. I was off to the Chicago show for the weekend but gave him alternate contact information.
10.13.03 - "You will recieve her this week 110%.......
Thanks Jon ps I will email you the ups awb the night before ."
I then waited for a tracking number and did not receive any. I believe it was the 24th when the snake showed up at my door. What I'd been stressing all along (hold for customer) was totally ignored and no tracking number had even been sent to me to alert me that the snake was in transit.
Jon called on the 6th of November and left a message to see if we'd received the snake.
11.06.03 - "Just got your message. Yes, we received the burm. S/he is doing fine. I have
not sexed him/her yet. Apart from not tongue flicking she appears in
reasonable health even though we were not notified in any way that we were
receiving her." I then gave him the PayPal information again and told him he could send certified funds to us instead if he'd prefer.
And that's it!
We did wait very long for anything to come of the transation. I think we showed a lot of patience with Jon and yet I am not willing to make a "Bad guy post" because I do not want to be associated with folks that have cyber-hissy fits for no reason. When I make a bad guy post, I want it to count.
I can say that I would not do any business with Jon in the future because of the lack of communication he's shown and the fact that he tried putting us off with promises of a shipped snake when in actuality he was looking for a replacement. I would have MUCH preferred a simple "she's not been eating so I'm looking for a replacement" as opposed to given excuses about boxes and weather and '"not at the facility".
But read over the emails and decide for yourself. To this date we've not received any refund.
