• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Info Mike @ Outback Reptiles

Also, I did tell you how you could make it right:

Find a comparable snake (female Amel corn snake w/ absent patterning) and sell it to me for the price I paid for the first one, and ship it to me at actual shipping cost (rather than $55 standard).

~Beau
 
Take another look at the screen shot from my phone that I posted. I DID call your cell phone (at 10:07 am), it is listed right under where I called the office.
~Beau

Yes, and like I told you I was driving in between facilities all morning.

I almost always answer my cell unless I am driving.
 
I was at a show all weekend, which is why I did not know the animal was sold until afterwards. I did not "get her money anyway" I refunded it to her.

Actually, I didn't say "her" money, I said "the" money. I.e. that you got paid for an animal anyway, so why do you care that one person got misled/disappointed/lost wages waiting for a box and a snake that never arrived. What's it to you that she lost out, you still got paid.

You are not understanding the point here.

Are you, singly, the ONLY person in your entire business who can take an animal off the site if it is sold? If an animal is sold in the shop, why can NO ONE ELSE mark it sold on the website? If an animal is sold on the website, why can NO ONE ELSE mark it sold in store?

I don't care if you are at a show. SOMEONE needs to take care of the shop and the sales, SOMEONE needs to mark inventory sold or remove it from the website. If you're at a show and are, obviously, incapable of doing these things, then you need to employ someone who can.

This is basic inventory upkeep. It isn't difficult. When Eyvonne called you and asked about the snake, did you take 5 minutes to call your shop and verify it hadn't be sold? If not, then WHY not? Once she paid for the animal, did you call the store and tell whoever was there "hey, I just sold #amelcornsnake003, you need to mark it out of inventory"? If not, then why not?

If you are oh so busy at a show that you can't do these things, then why do you not have an employee who can?

And this...

I even offered to buy you a pizza after you told me you weren't going to order from me ever again, so I really had no motivator to do that besides me trying to be helpful... But you're right, I guess some people are never happy.

This could have been yours but instead i'm eating it while replying to BOI threads. /shrug

...comes across as very immature and almost mocking of her discontent with the situation.
 
Also, I did tell you how you could make it right:

Find a comparable snake (female Amel corn snake w/ absent patterning) and sell it to me for the price I paid for the first one, and ship it to me at actual shipping cost (rather than $55 standard).

~Beau

Shipping cost through the most popular reptile shipping service: $54

Cost of a 12x9x6" shipping box: $4.50

Cost of a fedex scheduled pickup: $4 per box

Cost of standard snake bag: $0.70

Seems like I gave you a pretty good deal on shipping, honestly.
 

Attachments

  • shipping.jpg
    shipping.jpg
    236.5 KB · Views: 423
On Jul 26, 2016, at 11:48 AM, Mike Schultz <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi, apologies for the poor communication; I've been back and forth between our different facilities all morning. Unfortunately I was mistaken about having the amel- I got back to the shop from our shows yesterday and realized that while the bin was in its spot, it had been sold previously by a different employee and they did not break down the bin. And it totally slipped my mind about shipping yesterday. I understand this is kind of a pain for you as you were expecting me to contact you about it and I did not. I'll have your refund processed ASAP for the animal and as a token of good will / apologies for the inconvenience, I'd be happy to discount 10% from any future purchase for you.

Thanks,
Mike

Outback Reptiles
[email protected]
Office: 703-365-2262
Cell: 703-895-0043

Two questions -

1. Mike, when you noticed on MONDAY the snake was sold, why did you not immediately email/call the the customer to let them know of the error? It would have taken 5 minutes.

The email/call would have saved the customer from waiting on Tuesday for an animal that was never going to arrive.

2. Why did the employee not remove the animal from website, remove its listing in inventory or "break down" then bin as you put it?





Had I knowm the animal was sold, I would have removed it from inventory. How is that a "BIG question"?

How many times do I need to explain to you that I made a mistake in thinking we still had it?

Do you understand why I am frustrated that I have to keep explaining over and over again the simple concept that "I was wrong about something" ?


You have not explained why the miscommunication happened in the first place.

When an animal is purchased, I remove it from inventory. If i did not realize an animal was previously sold, it would still be in inventory.

I do not understand what is so complicated about this.


Why were you not informed by that employee that the snake was sold?

It appears you have a very slack employee.

----
I see both ends of this, after a show you are tired and not thinking straight; as a customer, waiting around for an animal is frustrating, especially when the seller won't answer the phone.

Why was there not an employee to answer the phone at the store?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I told you what you could do to make it up to me, if that is what you really want.

I have said to you in private, and here publicly, that I accepted your apology.

I have also said that privately and publicly, that I hope you will change your system so that employees check the system before they sell something and adjust the system as soon as the DO sell something.

Finally, I have expressed from the beginning that an offer of 10% off or a pizza in no way makes up for me taking off work for a day (to wit-- I cannot discuss this further until after work).

~Beau
 
From my perspective, this looks like it may be a situation where a "perfect storm" of ball-droppings allowed a customer to slip through the cracks. In the age of smartphones, there's really no excuse to not maintain contact, especially when multiple modes were attempted. That's probably the only real strike against you that I see out of this.

If the OP actually did lose a day of work over this situation, a 10% discount or a pizza just doesn't seem like righteous compensation for losses that were incurred due to your (Outback's) negligence. Maybe something a bit more substantial would demonstrate how sincerely you regret the situation. Maybe a free snake of comparable value, with the OP only paying actual shipping costs, would be a more meaningful gesture? While it does appear to me that you did clearly show contrition and took immediate steps to make it right, I don't like the idea that your compensation doesn't come close to making up for a day of lost wages.

I am not interested in making up for lost wages. I did not tell her to take a day off work. Who is to say she isn't a CEO making $25,000 per day? Or who is to say she works online reptile sales based on commission and made $0 that day like I did?
 
Two questions -

1. Mike, when you noticed on MONDAY the snake was sold, why did you not immediately email/call the the customer to let them know of the error? It would have taken 5 minutes.

Because I forgot, that's what I told her in the first email. I made a mistake, apologized several times and offered several options to make up for it. This is why I am getting frustrated- how many times do we need to determine that "Oops, I messed up?"

2. Why did the employee not remove the animal from website, remove its listing in inventory or "break down" then bin as you put it?

We keep, manage and sell thousands of animals. I would say we have a pretty good track record as this situation rarely, rarely happens. And when it does, I fix it immediately like I did here.

I am really not sure what the purpose of this constant back and forth is. We can continue to reinvent the wheel here figuring out how "Mike made a mistake on one of the 29 orders he took last week" or we can move on with our lives as the problem was rectified before this thread even existed.
 
Yes you apologized and refunded, that is really all you can do.

I would however look into hiring someone to help with the website to make sure this error doesn't happen again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mike, it's not the mistake. It's the refusal to take a hard look at the system that allowed the mistake to happen and the lack of communication.

As to Evyonne taking the day off, if you are told a snake is arriving on a particular day, you HAVE to be there for it. This is a live animal. She tried to reach you more than once and in light of no information there was no other responsible choice for her to make. By not communicating in a timely manner it went from an unfortunate inventory mistake to something a bit more serious.

Again, I don't think you are a bad guy. I understand humans aren't perfect.

I do believe some introspection into your inventory system and communication procedures is in order. You could have saved her wait for a snake that never came by answering her inquiries in a timely manner. That's more than just a mistake.
 
You're right, if I hadn't made a mistake then this issue wouldn't have happened. I'm glad we came to the same conclusion again, let's move on...
 
I'm just wondering what the heck this has to do with Lucille? Mike, you can send me a free pizza.

Only that Lucille and I are friends, and I asked her thoughts on the matter. Which is why I included her response to my questions in the emails, both to Mike and to the post here. Simply for sake of transparency.
~Beau
 
I appreciate the OP posting this, because as we often say here, it's what people do when things don't go right that is crucial. Mike, I think you made an honest mistake, you refunded the money and did what you could to fix it. That part is good.

HOWEVER, you are coming across (to me anyway) as being a jerk about it now. Your attitude is flippant and the "I'm eating the pizza" pic is obnoxious. Your attitude is does seem rather "aw shucks, well too bad" and you don't seem to really care that much. I wonder if you purchased something, had your money accepted by the seller, had a shipping date, took a day off work, waited around all day fruitlessly, and the seller's attitude was "oops", would you be so casual about it? Yes, I can see that you did what you could to fix it and you're frustrated that your customer is still upset. But you are the one who screwed it up so maybe a little more compassion would be in order.

I don't think you're a "bad guy" but based on how you're acting now, I wouldn't order from you.
 
I think you guys went too hard on Mike. He made a simple mistake, forgot, and he apologized, and tried to make it right. This rhetoric about CORRECTING this system so it DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN is asinine, and unrealistic. It reeks of 'I can't believe this happened and it should have never happened and I can't believe it happened to begin with' attitude.

Take this simple advice OP: don't order from someone BEFORE they do a show and expect shipping the Monday AFTER. Shows are exhausting, and good business, and most vendors are highly motivated to sell AT the respective shows, in-person. Whatever's left is what you get. Priority is on the show.
 
Take this simple advice OP: don't order from someone BEFORE they do a show and expect shipping the Monday AFTER. Shows are exhausting, and good business, and most vendors are highly motivated to sell AT the respective shows, in-person. Whatever's left is what you get. Priority is on the show.
Apparently, the OP didn't dictate when shipping would take place. He was given a date, and eagerly awaited the arrival. With that in mind, it's asinine to say that someone shouldn't expect a seller to live up to the terms that they set. Outback's employees had all of that Monday to notice that the snake had been double-sold and notify someone that their animal wouldn't be coming, yet the situation just "slipped" Mike's mind. All of the shortcomings are on the seller's side of the fence; there's literally no way to turn this one around on the OP.
 
This rhetoric about CORRECTING this system so it DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN is asinine, and unrealistic. It reeks of 'I can't believe this happened and it should have never happened and I can't believe it happened to begin with' attitude.
That, I believe, would be Lucille's influence.
 
My 2 cents. I'll start by saying that I am biased: I've completed many transactions with Mike flawlessly, and I'm thrilled with the snakes I got from him.

That being said: I absolutely never take a day off work if I don't have a tracking number in hand, and I have NEVER gotten a tracking number "the day of arrival." I've always gotten mine the day they were shipped, so if it was past noon and I hadn't heard back, I would have asked for the animal to not be shipped until further contact and went to work as normal. Just how I would handle things, because I've always had sellers confirm with me (multiple times) the ship time/date, including them initiating the contact the day of shipping to confirm that it's still a good day to ship to me. Maybe I'm just lucky? (FYI, Mike has always done this with me as well.)

If you have to take time off work to receive animals to your house, maybe shipping to the local hub would be a good solution to prevent this problem in the future?

I think asking Mike to find you a similar animal from another seller is probably a little bit of a tall order. I don't know about you, but while I like and respect Mike, I would never expect or want him to try and find me a snake based on loose specifications of what I'm looking for as I am 100% sure he would not be able to find the exact one I wanted. Only I can determine that.

He refunded and admitted he made a mistake. He went on to offer a discount to you if you wanted something else. That, to me, is indicative of trying to make it right. Your time doesn't have a dollar amount, and I am sorry that it was wasted.
 
Back
Top