• Responding to email notices you receive.
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    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

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    Posted 08/15/2025
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    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.....

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    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....

Mike's Reptile Bin, AKA Michael Borriello - BAD

C

catsandrats

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This guy is a fraud. He advertised on kingsnake.com : Smoking Hot Pastel Redtail Boa 100% Het for albino male with paperwork. Ready to Breed. This poor snake is sick, he is about 4 feet and under a pound. He is not a pastel and I did not get any paperwork. It is the most pitiful looking snake I have every seen. I paid this guy $350 to get a healthy adult pastel male that is 100% het for albino, and got a sick snake that is not even worth $5.00. The way he was shipped was horrible to. The box was in bad shape, the styrofoam was in pieces and there was no padding in there to protect him. This is a nightmare. I would send a pic of the poor snake but it is too large. If I can figure out how to resize the pic I will post it here.

Avoid anything to do with this guy: Michael Borriello Mike's Reptile Bin Florida
[email protected]. Telephone # is: 727-420-0980
 
Have you contacted the seller to point these things out? If so, did he respond? In what way does the boa seem sick, RI, dehydrated, emaciated, mites? You should also let him know that you have posted here, sometimes it will get a seller to repair the situation a little faster.
 
He's ignoring all attempts of contact. The snake is emancipated. He is an adult red tail and weighs under a pound. I will to adjust the photos today and send a pic.
 
sicksnake3.jpg


Figured I'd repost the image for you so people don't have to follow a link.

It's a bit hard to tell from that photo, though the snake does look like its spine is protruding. How old is the snake supposed to be? How long is it? It's hard to tell without a point of reference in the photo. From the shape of the snake's body, it almost looks limp like a very very young snake, though I'm sure that's not the case.

Is it moving around much at all? Has it fed yet?

I also emailed the seller to notify them of this thread's existance, since they might be ignoring your email address. Hopefully they will come here and answer.
 
Thanks for the help. I not very good at this computer stuff. I am still trying to figure out how to post photos for my ads on kingsnake.com. It may take me a while, lol. He is quite active. He is about 4 feet long. It was sold to me as an adult but I am not sure on the age. I try to get better pics today of him. He is a very friendly snake and I feel really bad for him. I offered him live mice and rats and he ignores them. I want to work with this snake and try to get him healthy. It's the fact that I paid $350 for something that was not as described in the ad. The ad is expired but I made a copy of it. It is definetly not the snake in the picture and nothing of what he was described as.
 
Absolutely, I'd be upset if I paid for an animal and it was not as described when it arrived.

Also - if you grab the IMG tag (with square brackets) for your image on PhotoBucket (listed as a link for forums and bulletin boards, on the photo display page, to the right), you should be able to use links like that for KS as well.
 
Gecko_Den said:
It sucks that he is sick; but at least he is free.
:rofl:
Click to expand...

I noticed that too. Then again I have all my animals emancipated when they arrive so that I'm not responsible for feeding them LOL

catsandrats: I think you just got your words mixes up there, I think you were looking for emaciated.......
 
Well Stacey, this guy is not a very reputable person. Keep that snake away from all of your other animals. It probably has IBD or some other deadly disease. Mike has sold alot of sick animals in the Pasco County area and surrounding areas. He also has had several die on him. He lives right off of Massachusetts Avenue in New Port Richey. The snake is probably not het for anything either. He was doing that with burms also, saying they were hets and they really weren't. He sold a big monator lizard a while back that was very mean and to get pictures he put it in the freezer until it was so cold it could hardly move. Then he took pictures of himself kissing the monator and posted the pics in his ad saying look how tame it is. The local pet shops in the area don't have anything nice to say about him either. Even the flea market pet shops at the U S A Flea Market on s.r. 52 and u.s.19 talk bad about him. People like him give this hobby a black eye. I am sure he will be back again but next time he will use another name. I wish you luck with the snake, but I urge you to keep it away from all of your other animals. You mentioned trying to feed it. If it doesn't eat its food then throw it away. Do not offer that food to another animal. I would be very surprised if he gave you your money back or even returned your call. I know what I am talking about. A local guy recently bought a snake from Mike. The snake died shortly after and now over half of his colection is dead. I am sorry for what you are going through and I hope that in some way something good can come out of it. Take care.
John Moore
 
Any suggestions?

I wish people who had bad experiences with people would do something to warn other people. I looked for references but couldn't find anything. I am one of these people who like to give the person the benefit of the doubt when they are new at selling. I have gotten many very nice animals from new people. I won't do it again though.

I am going to the district attorney hopefully today and see what can be done. He can ignore all my contacts all he wants. He's not going to get away with this. I will do what ever it takes to take him down. If there is anyone who has been screwed over by him before that wants to help out that would be greatly appreciated. If this snake kills any of my other snakes (I have about 60 snakes, and a lot of money invested in them) then he will be sorry he ever sold a sick snake.

I have the snake shut in the bathroom right now. He was in the same room as others but at a distance. I did feed the mice I tried feeding him to my other snakes. I hope that wasn't a mistake, but they were live and did not know what to do with them. The couple times I did hold him, I washed my hands really well.

I am having him vet checked tomorrow and should get a pruchase of animal that is unfit form.

Is there anything else I should do. SHould I have him euthanized? I hate to do it if I don't have to. I would like to save the poor guy, but I don't want to risk my other snakes. Just a few months ago I rescued an adult female ball python that was extremely thin and unhealthy looking. I have gotten her to gain almost double her weight when I got her. SHe is looking good and it makes me want to do the same for this guy. Any suggestions?
 
catsandrats said:
I wish people who had bad experiences with people would do something to warn other people. I looked for references but couldn't find anything. I am one of these people who like to give the person the benefit of the doubt when they are new at selling. I have gotten many very nice animals from new people. I won't do it again though.

I am going to the district attorney hopefully today and see what can be done. He can ignore all my contacts all he wants. He's not going to get away with this. I will do what ever it takes to take him down. If there is anyone who has been screwed over by him before that wants to help out that would be greatly appreciated. If this snake kills any of my other snakes (I have about 60 snakes, and a lot of money invested in them) then he will be sorry he ever sold a sick snake.

I have the snake shut in the bathroom right now. He was in the same room as others but at a distance. I did feed the mice I tried feeding him to my other snakes. I hope that wasn't a mistake, but they were live and did not know what to do with them. The couple times I did hold him, I washed my hands really well.

I am having him vet checked tomorrow and should get a pruchase of animal that is unfit form.

Is there anything else I should do. SHould I have him euthanized? I hate to do it if I don't have to. I would like to save the poor guy, but I don't want to risk my other snakes. Just a few months ago I rescued an adult female ball python that was extremely thin and unhealthy looking. I have gotten her to gain almost double her weight when I got her. SHe is looking good and it makes me want to do the same for this guy. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...


I'm sorry for all of the trouble this is causing you. I would reccomend that next time if you search on here for someone and you don't see a thread, start one yourself. Use the person's real name, location and business name if they have one. I would also mention what you are considering purchasing and possibly a link to the ad where you saw the animal.

I do wish you luck with the DA's office but it's going to be very difficult to get anything done there, especially since he did send you a snake (even though it's sick and in bad shape) I hope I'm wrong. The Better Business Bureau in his area may be a good place to file a complaint and if you get something from the vet confirming the snakes poor health then you may want to consider filing a complaint with the IC3 www.ic3.gov
Best of luck to you, hopefully everything works out in the end and at the least you don't suffer any losses in your collection.
Keep posting any updates you have on this thread.
 
First thing's first - since the ad was placed on Kingsnake, file a complaint to Kingsnake.

Sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't. At the very least, he'll have a strike against him there. At best, they'll pull all his ads, and that will get his attention.
 
Also, make sure you at least attempt to call, if you haven't already. Some sellers will claim "oh, they never called, so I didn't know there was a problem, my email was down".
 
catsandrats said:
I wish people who had bad experiences with people would do something to warn other people. I looked for references but couldn't find anything.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry you got a bum deal, but honestly the onus is on you to decide whether or not you send someone your money. Did you think to ask him for references prior to purchasing; and then contact the references to ask their experience with the seller? You have been a member here since 2005 and have actively participated in BOI threads during that time; as was already mentioned you could have started a thread asking for input on the guy prior to sending any money. I'm not looking to brow beat you and it does suck that you are going through this with your snake. However, when I see you start a post with the above statement I can't help but think that you should have done some due diligence, it is after all your responsibility to check out the person you send your money.
 
I got some numbers for references from him but I feel like references given to you by the person himself does no good. They will give you numbers to personal friends who will lie to you, or people who was honest with but not people who he screwed over. I did find one thread on him, that said the purchase was ok with him and the person that gave the comment I have dealt with and trust. I have also had very good luck with some people who did not have references. The snakes I got from them were the best of all. I am going to take the time this week to post good things about each one of them that I have dealt with and give them good feedback. I feel like people who are starting out need to get a start from somewhere, to build their reputation. I am building up my collection and hope to go into my own business breeding and selling reptiles. I am a very honest person and hope that people will give me a chance to build on my reputation.

The only way to get rid of the scammers is by making it public that people who may buy from them. If people who do get screwed by a person would make sure they made other people aware of the problems then it will prevent them from doing this to other potential buyers.

There have been quite a few reptiles I have seen that I was interested in and then read the bad reviews. That kept me from buying from them. But why are these people that have several complaints still able to post up ads?
 
catsandrats said:
There have been quite a few reptiles I have seen that I was interested in and then read the bad reviews. That kept me from buying from them. But why are these people that have several complaints still able to post up ads?
Click to expand...

That would be a question for the owners/admins on the websites on which they advertise. Most likely it is a liability issue.
 
By the way, if you want to look up information that was found on this guy, look up keyword Mike Borriello. There is the post by varnyard I was telling you about and another who was doing an inquiry with no results.
 
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