I am the seller in question here. Please allow me to respond to some of the discussion going on here.
On the morning of April 6, I posted 3 advertisements for geckos in the Kingsnake Leopard Geckos classifieds. The time from Kingsnake for the ad in question is 09:03:10.
My first contact with Ms. Rucker was in the following e-mail, sent through Kingsnake (only e-mail addresses and the IP log are changed):
To: (Karen A Toms)
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 10:29 AM
Subject: Message about: Albeys Hypo Carrot Tail
That's not the same animal unless for some reason she got MORE head spotting as she got older.
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This message was sent by an unregistered or non logged in user.
Sent 09:29 AM, Apr 06th, 2003 from I.P. Address **.***.***.**
This is the entire message – no inquiry posed about the animal, no interest in the animal advertised. It’s not even signed. Quite simply, the first contact I have ever had with this person was an anonymous accusation. While some people may have simply deleted this e-mail and given it no further thought, I replied to it with the following e-mail (again, only e-mail addresses changed):
To: (Christa Rucker)
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: Message about: Albeys Hypo Carrot Tail
She is the same animal - a year and a half older and picture
taken with a different camera and lighting. If you have doubts, and
an actual interest in the animal, contact Albey.
To which I received the following response:
To: "Karen A Toms"
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: Message about: Albeys Hypo Carrot Tail
I will eat my shoe, I have asked many people if infact that could get more
head spotting and darker over all.
Thank you for your response and sorry for my rudeness. I won't be so quick
to jump the gun again. You have some beautiful animals. Again I'm sorry for
jumping the gun and not checking before doing so.
Christa Rucker
After this, I believed any kind of altercation to be over. Information received, apparently. Then, as I go through the discussion here, I find that may not quite be the case just yet.
Let me first state categorically and unequivocally that the gecko in my picture is the one in Albey’s picture. They are the same animal. Different lighting, different background, different camera, over a year and a half time between the two pictures – all these can contribute to a potential misunderstanding. In fact, the only reason I included Albey’s picture in the first place was to demonstrate that it was indeed the same animal. While I believed that the information I included in the ad would clear any confusion (“Her Original picture from Albey’s Too Cool Reptiles and the male she has been paired with pictured above.”), apparently it unintentionally added to it. I have made this experience a learning opportunity in that I will probably not add the pictures from Albey or any other original breeder pictures again, dealing with potential questions personally or referring them to the original breeder.
However, there are some points I wish to make concerning the conversation here. Ms. Rucker’s first post was the essentially the same accusation that she e-mailed me personally. It was not until ms_terese posted that an actual question was posed. Ms. Rucker even goes so far as to accuse me in the subject line of the thread itself, an act that not only is violating the rules for posting here but also can do a lot of intentional damage to me. Think as a potential buyer – if you did a search on someone’s name and saw this subject heading, would YOU pay attention to the question mark at the end? I say “intentional” because it is only with the post concerning me that she goes outside Posting Guidelines concerning an inquiry, and while she seems to apologize about her wording “striking a nerve,” that helps me very little in regard to those who may check this board in the future and see a disproved accusation impersonating an inquiry in the subject line.
In regard to Ms. Rucker’s complaint about my response time, the original e-mails tell the story. The first e-mail I received was sent at 10:29 (thanks to Kingsnake’s feedback software), and my response was sent at 11:06, exactly 37 minutes later. 37 minutes does not equal 24 hours, no matter which side of the date line you’re on. And while I am doing Internet sales, unfortunately I cannot maintain constant contact with the computer. As stated by Celia Chen, I also attempt to answer every e-mail I receive in a timely manner.
Make no mistake, I’m not questioning the purpose of this board. I’m all for an inquiry into business practices and experiences (good and bad) with businesses. But when the title of a thread reads “Karen A Toms Misrepresented Animals?”, I personally find it completely libelous as well as a misuse of the board as to its original purpose. This is a place to gather knowledge and information about breeders and sellers, not to post groundless accusations. It is kind of an irony that an act of courtesy (in my opinion, her original e-mail did not dignify a response at all) has started a fairly damaging series of events.
Many thanks to those who posted positively to the question posed by ms_terese, and I appreciate all those who helped in settling the matter as quickly as possible.
Thanks!
Karen A Toms
