Bad Guy Katie Miner from Caldwell, Idaho

[rivendale_exotics]

As promised, here are some shots of the tanks with rat chewed plastic and silicone and one of the holes in the screen tops.

I see where people who think this did not warrant a bad guy thread are coming from. I do feel, however, that even if I had done something differently to avoid the situation, it still has no bearing on the character of the person who tried to make a bad trade and then was irresponsible and lied/was deceitful, not just about the condition of the stuff, but about her involvement in the deal and the location of the animal.

If other people have these sorts of dealings with local buyers/traders and back out of the deal before it is too late, I would still like to hear about it, especially if the person trying to trade items in a deceitful manner acts standoffish, rude or irresponsible when told the deal is not going through. Maybe that person has tried similar bad trades and they are just fishing for the right person to pull off their bad deal on. Just because someone else avoided the deal, does not mean that another will not be hurt by it. It is no different than phone or email scams. Those of us who recognize them for what they are report them and try to get the word out before someone else gets scammed.

 

[bmr1052]

You are correct people should know about the situation, more so about her conduct after you expressed you displeasure with the situation. It's not really a scam though. Not to beat a dead horse but you could have just said no. It sucks that she is giving you the run around about who has the gecko, and I hold this situation gets resolved for you one way or another.

 

[rivendale_exotics]

I was not saying this was a scam, but behavior that comes from a similar type of mentality and willingness to take advantage of the trust of others. And I was trying to say that we should warn each other of such acts, just like we warn each other of scams. Warning others and learning my lesson never to trust people even after having worked with them many times before will have to be my closure as both Katie and Josh appear to have no intentions of answering my questions.

 

[ReptileJay]

I just completed a transaction with Katie, and everything went perfectly smoothly... This scares me a TINY bit, as the animals I purchased from her were Hets...

She did however send along the receipt from the breeder that she initially obtained them from, I have just not had a chance to contact them for verification... But, based on the overall health of the snakes (at least from initial inspection and about a week of observation) they seem perfectly fine...

As of right now I am very happy with the deal... I'm just hoping that this apparent dishonesty is an isolated incident...

 

[LauraB]

And who was the breeder Katie initiallly obtained the hets from? Jessica also did not thoroughly check out the trade items before the transaction was made and was subsequently burned.
Might have been a good idea for you to check it out with the breeder before you bought the "hets".

Jessica (unfortunately) certainly learned a valuable lesson and has provided photographic proof that those tanks are total crap after being told they were in perfect condition. It's pretty obvious that Josh just turned the trade & dialogue over to Katie after Jessica told him via email she wasn't really interested in the tanks and he would need to provide some cash to compensate for the value of the gecko.

While you want to send kudos to Katie for the purchase of healthy snakes, it's fairly obvious that Josh Savel and Katie Miner are not above misrepresenting the crap they have to trade ... which basically equates to out-N-out lying. Good luck with those hets.

 

[rivendale_exotics]

Jason, I had many transactions with Katie that went without issue. This is why I trusted her on this last trade. Would it happen to be het albinos that you purchased from Katie? I know she purchased a group of het albinos from a local seller and was unhappy with them, telling me that the seller had misrepresented their sex. They were adult snakes and Katie was using the popping method to check sex, which I told her was an unreliable method of sexing adults. Even very experienced breeders can make mistakes on sex so I recommended that she contact the seller about the issue. There has also been a local breeder selling what he claims are het pieds very cheap and I know Josh purchased one of those. Katie has purchased only normals and dominant gene morphs from me.