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Need opinions on a bad deal with Tim Bowles of Arboreals of the Rainforest!!!

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Hey Dennis,

I will have to pay my own court costs and I can't get them back from Tim at all. He knows this because he went through it when he found out someone else was going to sue him but that was going to be in small claims court. I have contacted Tim several times and he obviously has caller ID and he won't return any calls or e-mails....probably the smart thing to do I guess.

Even though Tim took advantage of me I sincerely hope the rest of his collection is NOT infected with Paramixo and this female was the only case.
 
Has anybody who bought animals from Tim Bowles of Arboreals of the Rainforest had their animals tested for Paramixo yet?

I keep thinking of this deadly virus ripping through collections as we speak! I still can't get in touch with Tim or his wife to see if they have changed their minds about giving me a full refund. Unless they are on vacation again I think they may be avoiding my calls and e-mails. Has anybody heard from Tim or has he decided to pull a few fast ones and then pull out of the business?
 
Matt, Ralph has sent out a sample for a test. I am going to see what his comes back as. If it is positive then I am just going to send my animal back to Tim. If it comes back clean then I am going to send a sample out for test on mine. I will let you know when I here anything.
 
Jim,

I mean no disrespect........, but with everything that has gone on in this thread and with Matt......If his animal comes back positive, what makes you think that, one, do you think that you will be able to even get a hold of Tim? And two, do you honestly think Tim is going to let you send that animal back and refund your money?
 
Hey Dennis, I have not paid for the animal yet. And Tim just e-mailed me.

As for anyone else Interested .
To remark back on the e-mails Tim posted about our deal.
He claims I never asked for a female to breed this year but if you look back at his posts on the e-mails it tells how he was telling me about me breeding her this year but I do not think it has the e-mail me asking him about it, So why would he post that remark to me if I was not looking for a breedable female.
The e-mails were started from corralus (PM) but for some reason unknown by me all my e-mails are gone from there they have to be deleted and I never deleted them I do have this one from when we e-mailed each other direct.
----- Original Message -----
From: coolcritters
To: BasinsRus
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 6:50 AM
Subject: Re: Eyespot female


Hey Tim, Just checking again on the eye spot female.
I am getting her from you with the intentions of breeder her this winter.
And I want to make sure that she is eating bi- weekly for you and has not ever regurged and that she is in perfect condition. And how does she feed ? and what size meal ? Are you feeding live/thawed/ heated/ fresh kill/ anything and everything will help.
Thank you,
Jim Scharphorn
www.coolcrittersbylj.com


But Tim is good at what he does. I am sure he will be able to come up with me as a lier. That e-mail I posted above was after the e-mails that he posted. but before I got the snake.

I Got this animal from Tim Because I wanted a female that I could breed and one that I did not have to worry about it being sick. I trusted Tim at the time. He also claims that I seen the animal in question and that I even held it. I never touched any of his animals and I was more intereted in the basins because I never seen one in real life before so I did not remember witch animal was witch except for the one basin that I liked and the big female that ended up with the respitory that Matt sent back.
 
Hey Jim,

I feel if Ralphs comes back positive he will not tell a sole and in my opinion since he is a good friend of Tims he will do his best to make me look bad no matter what. Your e-mail seems pretty cut and dried to me and I think you got shafted....but that is just my opinion and everyone elses may differ. And Jim I think everyone can see that you are telling the truth so don't give it a second thought! I thought he was telling the truth too and look what happened to me.

Hey Dennis,

Jim hasn't paid for the animal at all. Pretty strange that I was the only guy that had to pay $2,500.00 up front for an animal don't you think? I wonder why that was? Maybe because Tim needed to make sure he was paid in full before I got a look at this:
Head_shot_001.jpg


I would actually take back a male 'Basin' that Tim never finished paying for but I am too scared with the Paramixo that came out of his collection. I still hope that the animal Tim sold me is the only one infected but I would still be nervous that they could all be time bombs:(
 
Guess who is the main topic of conversation at the Daytona show? Its funny that this has gone beyond the arboreal circle and others are coming to me expressing their frustration that someone can actually do a deal like that! More after the show!

Thanks for the support!
 
I got a call today from bobby pruet, and I was in Indiana, My daughter called me and said bobby left a message saying that he was coming to get Tims snake that I have and then said for me to cooperate or he would bring the sherriff with him if he had to.( Bobbies message was sivel ) I called bobby on his cell and told him I was out of state and would be home in 4 hours and he said that I did not need to be there and I told him that he was not going to my house and getting it because I would not be there and I told him to call the cops if that is what he needed to do and he said that the cops would just walk in and get it and I laughed at him and said that the cops could not just walk in and take it and he said o yes they can so I told him to do what he needed to do.

Tim e-mailed Bobby and told Bobby to go get the snake .

The last e-mail I sent Tim was kind of rude and I flat out told Tim he would not get a dime till I got the snake checked out for the virus. I should just give Tim the snake back but I am liking it that he is being ate up inside after what he has done. I will not pay for shipping charges if the snake does go back to Tim. because I did not get what I expected.

What do you guys think I should do ?
 
Remind Bobby of the 4th Ammendment to the US Constitution. The police can not just walk in your house and take property, and they will not. There are exigent circumstances when the police can enter your home without a warrant but it does not apply to just siezing property.

I highly doubt the local police or sheriff's department will get involved in this. I know my department would not. So, if Bobby show's up at your home, politely ask him to leave. If he does not, do not get into a yelling match with him, there by disturbing the peace of your neighborhood. Call the police because he is trespassing and they will handle it from there.
 
Hey Jim,

Since Tim never had a good word to say about you.....at least to me....maybe he wasn't being nice about sending the animal afterall and is a bit nervous about having her checked for Paramixo. It seems he didn't like me and look what I got....an animal that could have destroyed my entire collection, now if he really doesn't like you I question the validity and reasoning of your whole deal. Maybe thats why he is sending someone to collect her so quickly. If he gave you plenty of time to pay....why is he panicing when you say you want her tested for Paramixo before you pay for her? RED FLAGS ALL OVER THAT ONE! Now hopefully she doesn't have it like mine did but Tim seems obviously nervous about it.
 
Tim just sent me a e-mail saying I have 1 week to pay for it or turn it over to Bobby pruett or he is going to file charges of theft.

I am just going to give it back to Tim

Not that I am worried about charges being filed I just would be better off not having a possible deadly snake in my collection.
so Tim come and get it if you want it. do not send anyone else you will probably say I never turned it over to bobby, I do not trust you anymore, you are washed up.

What about the cage it is in ? is this cage cleanable so that I can use it for a diffrent animal ? If not I want $250 bucks for the cage it is in because the cage is contaminated as well. The cage is expanded pvc with a pro-products heat panel
 
Jim...

I personally would tell Tim that if he wants the snake back, then he needs to pay shipping. If he doesn't want to give you the time to have the snake checked for paraximo, then something must be up.

If you DO let Bobby come and pick up the snake, then be sure to get a HAND WRITTEN receipt from Bobby. Make Bobby includes ALL pertinent information on the Receipt. Be sure you sign it as well. That way, if Tim tries to say you didn't give the snake back, then you have some proof. If Bobby tries to say he didn't write the receipt, then it can be proven that he did. You could also have some witnesses there.

As for the slander...it's hard to prove. Tim would probably say that your "witnesses" aren't impartial or something. You can sue him for it, but you may end up out more money.
 
Hey Jim,

Sorry you are one of the guys who have had a hard time with Tim lately! What a riot him filing charges against you for theft! LOL! He gave you the snake with all the time in the world to pay! I guess I should start filing with my local police department and FBI for what he did to me. Never thought of that one, hmmmmm. His own e-mails say that there is no rush to pay so nothing would happen if he tried to press charges anyway. He shipped it to you, he gave you all the time you need......you did not steal it. In my opinion maybe this is a way to get her back before you find out there is something wrong with her. He probably has her sold to some poor guy who doesn't read the BOI LOL! Heck I would keep her and pay her off over time after you have her checked for Paramixo.

Why the strongarming tactics all of the sudden Tim???
 
It's interesting that Tim can pull this total disgusting
ripoff on Matt, and when Matt
tries to get justice and his money back,Tim runs to a lawyer
and dares him to try to do something about it.Then Tim
sends out a snake that has been
in the same area as the paramyxo
infection,turns into a tough guy
and threatens to get the law involved if he doesn't get his money or the snake back immediatly.If I were you Jim,I would get that snake tested for
paramyxo virus Monday morning, just for my own peace of mind.
You are right to be concerned about anything that snake has touched including the cage, and the room that the cage was in.I hope the snake tests clean, but
wouldn't you like to know one way or another.Tim wants to send his collection man,Bobby, to come in your house while your
not there and repo the snake. What a pathetic joke!You have
every right to find out if you've been exposed, and I would
tell Tim to stick it until you
do.Tim totally deserves a taste of his own medicine.Why does he
want the snake back so bad?
Obviously not to sell because,
anybody that deals with Tim Boyles right now is taking a big
risk.I wouldn't buy a worm
snake from the man!He has ruined
his reputation in the reptile
business and everyone knows it.
Do yourself and everyone else a favor Jim and get the snake
tested first thing next week.I don't know how much it costs, but it would be worth the peace
of mind to me.Tim can wait in limbo just like he's done to Matt.And Tim, you have reached
the pinnacle of BAD GUYS.Are you happy now?You may think you're
slick,but everybody knows what
you really are!
 
Jim, How much does it cost and what does the vet NEED to test for Paramixo (sp)? If I wasn't a poor school teacher I would send you the money for the test. Heck, a dog bites a child, the government needs no excuse to quarantine the animal to test for rabies. Someone sends you an animal that might have an extremely infectious disease, you have the right to have it tested. If it has the disease the other person might not have the right to have it returned... and you would have the right to have every single animal in your collectin tested to make sure none of them have this disease... charge the cost of getting the tests done to Tim and pray to whatever you hold dear that your other animals are clean.

Tim wants the world to believe Matt is the badguy. He even wants to say that the snake got the Paramixo at Matt's place. If your snake shows up positive for the virus, that destroys his arguments that Matt is the bad guy and puts the ball directly in his court.

Jim, I know this is a difficult time, but I think that you would be doing Matt, and the entire reptile community an invaluable service by having the animal tested before relinquishing it. With my example of the dog with rabies, the government needs little or no permission to put the animal down if it has the fatal and communicable disease. Same goes for your snake. If it has this disease I would say that given Tim's track record I couldn't return it to him except in a freezer bag shipped with dry ice.
 
Why the hell is Bobby Pruett willing to be involved and act as Tim Bowles pick up guy?
It's obvious Tim sent an extremely sick snake out to Matt and Bobby should steer clear of the entire situation.
Doesn't he realize that his actions with Tim could negatively affect his reputation and business (if it hasn't already)?

This whole things looks to me like Tim knew his collection was infected with something (he may not have known what it was) and started liquidating it. That seems to me like the underlying reason why he said he was getting out of the business. Unfortunately he put other peoples collections at risk by shipping animals without letting the buyer know there might have been a problem with them.

I could never do this to someone. I'm too honest about my animals at times and probably drive people nuts with emails while they are being shipped and after they arrive (just ask Mark Berger, I recently shipped him an animal and probably drove him nuts).

Word travels fast. If you screw someone over, you will never be able to recover from that.

I wish you guys all the luck in resolving this but it looks to me like Tim has no intentions of making this right or telling anyone what he knows (or may not know) about the health of the animals he has shipped out.
 
I just found out that Ralph of the dark grove is relaying messages of e-mail to Tim between me and ralph.. ralph was nice enough to send me the link on the doctor to get the info. My Vet was not able to contact the doctor because they had a old e-mail. My Vet is the Vet that takes care of our zoo ( John ball park zoo) And Tim must be relaying this message to Bobby Pruett because here is a e-mail I just got from Bobby. and only Ralph would know anything about this.

Here is the e-mail I received from bobby

Nowhere in your emails does it state that the animal will be vet checked before payment until Matt Lerer started posting lies, and seeing how your vets do not know how to care for exotics since they didnt even know how to test or where to send it proves they dont know what they are doing. Taking blood from the heart of a living animal is VERY risking and will VOID any and all terms of sales alone. I am doing this to help both you and Tim out and I dont like the way you are letting people slam my name on Fauna.

Bobby Pruett


My Vet needed to know what type of vile to put the blood infor transport, but know one would know that because I never told Ralph and that they had a old e-mail of the doc.

Tim also e-mailed me and told me I have 6 days left to turn it over. I told him to come and get it and if it is still here after that time I will consider it abandon.
So I guess we will never know if Ralphs test will come back positive or not beasue it seems he is in with the ring ( Tim , Bobby, Ralph )
 
OK...just to clear one little point up...

Just because a vet doesn't know which blood collection tube to put the sample in for a certain test, doesn't mean the vet doesn't know what he is doing. If the vet is facing an illness that he hasn't actually diagnosed or treated before, it is VERY common to have to look it up. Personally, I think a vet who knows how to research things they don't know is much better than a vet who "thinks" he knows it all.

I have worked for a vet for several years. The vet I work at does see exotics. I do not think we have EVER diagnosed a case of paraximo, however. We would probably have to look up that info as well. That doesn't mean we don't know what we are doing, though.

And one more thing...heart sticks are done periodically in critically ill patients who have a very low blood pressure. It is not done as a routine thing, but sometimes is necessary. If a patient is critically ill, then sticking the heart is better than not getting a sample at all. Most often in reptiles, blood is taken from a tail vein, though.
 
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