Yeah, you would think that of all people, I would know better......
Back in Spring of 2005, I came up with a plan to offer my customers the opportunity to get some custom genetic combination corn snakes by request. What I would do is to offer to produce a clutch of baby corn snakes for them with the genetic combination of their choice. The stipulation being that they buy the entire clutch, unsexed, and right out of the egg.
Luis Torres out of Murray, Utah took me up on this offer and as per his request I bred a Hypo Lavender Blood Red to a Butter Motley, producing 11 babies for him, which I sold for $100 each. He actually only requested the Lavender Blood Red, but I gave him the bonus Hypo gene additionally. At the time he placed his order, I told him I would let him know the clutch count so he would know what sort of expense he was looking at, which I did in fact do. I believe it was 14 eggs laid, of which only the 11 hatched out. I also gave him the approximate hatching date (68 days after being hatched). So he was well aware of this impending expense.
I sent a followup later in June just to make sure Luis was still interested in those animals.
To which I received the following reply:
When they hatched out in July, I sent Luis the following email:
Luis called me on the phone upon receipt of the above email to tell me he was short on money and could only pay $200 towards them. Well I have known Luis for a long time and we have always had a very cordial relationship, so I figured I wouldn't have any problems trusting him for the additional $960. Not an enormous sum of money, by any stretch, and he stated he would be sending the the balance "shortly" when he sold a few of his own animals.
The animals were shipped to Luis on 07/13/05 and he confirmed receipt with the following email:
Off and on over the next several months I would send reminders to Luis about this outstanding balance. He would respond to them occasionally.
By October, with little or no correspondence, I was beginning to get quite concerned. I sent reminders every now and again, as I still hoped my trust in Luis was warranted.
Finally, I felt I had to set a deadline as this was just dragging on far too long:
I finally did get a reply somewhat later, which was a followup to a phone call left on my answering machine earlier that day....
Not having any interest in those Hondurans, as I had stopped working with them years ago and do not broker animals for other people, I declined that offer.
On April 1, I received the following email from Luis:
I send a couple of followup emails since then.
All to no avail as I have heard no further word from Luis. The money has not been received, and my April 1 deadline came and went. I waited more then an extra month before finally figuring that it was time to accept the fact that I am not going to get paid for those animals I sent him.
I don't know the situation behind Luis's failure to pay me. I don't know if he ever intends to. I think I have been more then patient.
This has served as another harsh reminder of why I have my policies set about requiring payment in advance of ANY orders I ship out. I thought I could have trusted Luis, and apparently I was mistaken. The lesson learned here is that you cannot make exceptions for anyone. Friend or not, nor no matter how long you have known someone. It doesn't seem to make any difference to them in how they treat you, so I guess it shouldn't make any difference to me as well in the enforcement of my own policies.
Fact of the matter is that I only get burned by the people I trust. So the simple cure for this is to just not trust anyone. Make your policies and stick with them, no exceptions. If it offends someone, that's just the breaks. I work too hard at what I do to just GIVE people my animals.
FWIW........
Back in Spring of 2005, I came up with a plan to offer my customers the opportunity to get some custom genetic combination corn snakes by request. What I would do is to offer to produce a clutch of baby corn snakes for them with the genetic combination of their choice. The stipulation being that they buy the entire clutch, unsexed, and right out of the egg.
Luis Torres out of Murray, Utah took me up on this offer and as per his request I bred a Hypo Lavender Blood Red to a Butter Motley, producing 11 babies for him, which I sold for $100 each. He actually only requested the Lavender Blood Red, but I gave him the bonus Hypo gene additionally. At the time he placed his order, I told him I would let him know the clutch count so he would know what sort of expense he was looking at, which I did in fact do. I believe it was 14 eggs laid, of which only the 11 hatched out. I also gave him the approximate hatching date (68 days after being hatched). So he was well aware of this impending expense.
I sent a followup later in June just to make sure Luis was still interested in those animals.
To which I received the following reply:
When they hatched out in July, I sent Luis the following email:
Luis called me on the phone upon receipt of the above email to tell me he was short on money and could only pay $200 towards them. Well I have known Luis for a long time and we have always had a very cordial relationship, so I figured I wouldn't have any problems trusting him for the additional $960. Not an enormous sum of money, by any stretch, and he stated he would be sending the the balance "shortly" when he sold a few of his own animals.
The animals were shipped to Luis on 07/13/05 and he confirmed receipt with the following email:
Off and on over the next several months I would send reminders to Luis about this outstanding balance. He would respond to them occasionally.
By October, with little or no correspondence, I was beginning to get quite concerned. I sent reminders every now and again, as I still hoped my trust in Luis was warranted.
Finally, I felt I had to set a deadline as this was just dragging on far too long:
I finally did get a reply somewhat later, which was a followup to a phone call left on my answering machine earlier that day....
Not having any interest in those Hondurans, as I had stopped working with them years ago and do not broker animals for other people, I declined that offer.
On April 1, I received the following email from Luis:
I send a couple of followup emails since then.
All to no avail as I have heard no further word from Luis. The money has not been received, and my April 1 deadline came and went. I waited more then an extra month before finally figuring that it was time to accept the fact that I am not going to get paid for those animals I sent him.
I don't know the situation behind Luis's failure to pay me. I don't know if he ever intends to. I think I have been more then patient.
This has served as another harsh reminder of why I have my policies set about requiring payment in advance of ANY orders I ship out. I thought I could have trusted Luis, and apparently I was mistaken. The lesson learned here is that you cannot make exceptions for anyone. Friend or not, nor no matter how long you have known someone. It doesn't seem to make any difference to them in how they treat you, so I guess it shouldn't make any difference to me as well in the enforcement of my own policies.
Fact of the matter is that I only get burned by the people I trust. So the simple cure for this is to just not trust anyone. Make your policies and stick with them, no exceptions. If it offends someone, that's just the breaks. I work too hard at what I do to just GIVE people my animals.
FWIW........
