Mike and Erica @ MotherGecko
New member
I am writing this out of regret but feel as if my hand had been forced. I have had an ongoing transaction with Mike Fortier of Sand & Sun Reptiles for a little over 2 months now. Why I regret writing this is I considered and still consider Mike to be a friend whom I have had contact with for a number of years in a Reptile Chat room I frequent. As many of you have seen, and some of you have purchased some of the gorgeous corn snakes I have been selling on Fauna here in the classifieds. Well about two months ago Mike had contacted me through a friend saying he was looking for some corns. After about 2 weeks of sending him hatch dates, feeding records, shed dates, and literally dozens of pictures for him to decide what he wanted, he chose a total of 9 snakes of various morphs of which I gave him a very considerable discount. He said he would send a money order for the full amount at a giving day. Time passed and I contacted him to make sure it was sent and all was well as I know how the PO can have problems, and he would send it out in the next couple of days. He had told me on one occasion that the money order was sent, and when it didn’t arrive again I asked him and he said that he may have not sent it by accident. It was no accident, I will post a link to the corn snake photo gallery where he states he sent it around Thanksgiving when truly it was never sent to verify it. That will also give you a time frame for which I had held them for him being he recieved them a week ago. Even with all that which I never threw in his facee, I blew the whole thing off and said no problem just send the funds now and all will be fine, and your snakes will continue to be held for what was 4-5 weeks now. Two days later he writes me and says he is having financial problems and can’t afford them and says he feels awful about it and offers to send $40 for the time they were held and for feeding them as well as them not being able to be sold to anyone else. I have no emails saved to this account as I considered him a friend, but it can all be verified by a third party if necessary. My response to him was that I won’t expect it but if you feel it’s the right thing to do feel free, nevertheless no funds came. A few days go by and Mike contacts me apologetic about it and says he would like to purchase 3 of the original 9 that I had held for him close to a month. Once again I agreed and even still gave him a little discount. The money did show up soon after and we arranged a day for shipping. All three snakes were feeding excellent and looked awesome. I packed them in an insulated box with a 40 hour heat pack and sent next day air; the snakes were in transit for less than 18 hours. When they arrived Mike sent me an email 4 hours later telling me they looked incredible and were more beautiful than he expected. He also informed me that he fed them all one f/t pink only 3 hours out of the box and all ate flawlessly. Not a practice I would do personally as I believe they need a minimum of a couple days to acclimate and get over shipping stress. This can all be verified on the BOI as Mike posted a thread stating everything I just wrote about their arrival, appearance and feeding of which I will post the link. Now is where trouble comes into what is a normally a paradise for me.
Two days later Mike contacts me saying that one of the females had died and he had no clue why. I of course felt horrible about it and was curious as to why. After we went over some of his husbandry I came to the conclusion that Mike was owed some sort of refund. I offered either his money back or credit issued with my company. Mike decided to take the credit but I told him that he could redeem for a refund at anytime if he chose, I sent him a dated email stating that for his records. A week later he emails me again to say that another died and he believes it maybe due to parasites. I wrote back saying that I didn’t believe it could be parasites whatsoever. The reasons I stated that as 2 snakes with a sufficient parasite load to kill them probably wouldn’t have made it through shipping and definitely not ate 3 hours out of the box with the stress of shipping, and he said himself they looked incredible in the BOI thread. I also said I couldn’t believe it was parasites as I still have siblings here doing awesome, and I have sold some and all the owners have nothing but praise. If you look at the same BOI thread I am mentioning about Mike praising me and the snakes you’ll notice a thread by Wes Pollack stating the snakes he was sent from the same batch are doing great and he is very pleased. Now tonight I get an email from Mike saying the third and final snake is about two days from dying and he is sure it’s due to parasites, saying I may have had prior knowledge and threatened to take it here, so here it is. This truly offended me as I have never done a shady deal in my life and those who know me can attest to this, if you don’t know me do a search under Mike and Erica @ MotherGecko and there are a few dozen references of my business practices and my personal charatar. I will email a link to Mike of this thread as soon as it is posted so he is fully aware of it. I offered for a friend in his local area, whom was kind enough to offer his services to me to collect the dead snakes to get a necropsy, Mike had said it was an option he didn’t want to pursue. I have been extremely polite, professional, and more than courteous through this entire deal with Mike, even in the beginning with the payment problems and time consumed. So I bring this here for the Boards opinion on the situation. Your input is appreciated.
Thank you,
Michael Beberman
Mother Gecko Reptiles
Two days later Mike contacts me saying that one of the females had died and he had no clue why. I of course felt horrible about it and was curious as to why. After we went over some of his husbandry I came to the conclusion that Mike was owed some sort of refund. I offered either his money back or credit issued with my company. Mike decided to take the credit but I told him that he could redeem for a refund at anytime if he chose, I sent him a dated email stating that for his records. A week later he emails me again to say that another died and he believes it maybe due to parasites. I wrote back saying that I didn’t believe it could be parasites whatsoever. The reasons I stated that as 2 snakes with a sufficient parasite load to kill them probably wouldn’t have made it through shipping and definitely not ate 3 hours out of the box with the stress of shipping, and he said himself they looked incredible in the BOI thread. I also said I couldn’t believe it was parasites as I still have siblings here doing awesome, and I have sold some and all the owners have nothing but praise. If you look at the same BOI thread I am mentioning about Mike praising me and the snakes you’ll notice a thread by Wes Pollack stating the snakes he was sent from the same batch are doing great and he is very pleased. Now tonight I get an email from Mike saying the third and final snake is about two days from dying and he is sure it’s due to parasites, saying I may have had prior knowledge and threatened to take it here, so here it is. This truly offended me as I have never done a shady deal in my life and those who know me can attest to this, if you don’t know me do a search under Mike and Erica @ MotherGecko and there are a few dozen references of my business practices and my personal charatar. I will email a link to Mike of this thread as soon as it is posted so he is fully aware of it. I offered for a friend in his local area, whom was kind enough to offer his services to me to collect the dead snakes to get a necropsy, Mike had said it was an option he didn’t want to pursue. I have been extremely polite, professional, and more than courteous through this entire deal with Mike, even in the beginning with the payment problems and time consumed. So I bring this here for the Boards opinion on the situation. Your input is appreciated.
Thank you,
Michael Beberman
Mother Gecko Reptiles
