Yes Seamus I did write that about the snake, but not for the purpose you are using it for. It was for the purpose of Neil correcting a problem with a customer even after the time lapse on the guarentee. Please keep my words in context as I do for you.
I do not know if my case is an isolated incident and I can only speak for myself and what transpired.
I did not have to twist arms, I just let him know in a reasonable fashion and in private first and wham, he answered back in a reasonable fashion.
There was no need to post a complaint here.
The context is really irrelevant for the point I was making. You are one of seeming multitudes who had a problem with a transaction with Neil. His correcting it after the fact... or seeming to correct it, as it was my understanding that you have not actually GOTTEN any compensation, is a moot point... I respect a mistake or two handled well, I do not respect a mistake or two
a week, EVERY week many of which require cajoling and threats and days of petty mindless arguments with a blatant hypocrite about customer satisfaction issues.
Anyone besides me ever notice that women never seemed to have much of a problem getting a refund from Neil when he shipped something dead or dying soon after or misrepresented... but Men have to spend days on end watching the "I'll give you a refund, but now you hurt my feelings so I won't but maybe I'll give you a second chance, but oops, you offended me by posting about how I lied and screwed up so no refund for you, but some random third party has now convinced me to give you a refund but you better be kissing my ass for the next two weeks because I offered partial compensation for something that never should have been wrong to begin with" play out in front of them before they're even offered some kind of crummy halfway offer that doesn't really fix the situation?
Maybe way off but there seems to be a distinct difference with how problem transactions are handled based on the gender of the other party. Real classy way to do business.
Considering this issue a bit more, I'd like to retract an earlier statement I made where I said I didn't care too much one way or the other about Neil returning.
I'd like to stick my vote out there for a solid resounding "No."
Everything Neil touches bounces around like a yo-yo, he's got some sort of twisted Midas effect on everything around him... Business deals of all kinds, forum posts, advice that he gives but that doesn't seem to apply to him, his ability to post here or not, apologies he makes (seemingly always hollow, I can't remember offhand a single apology he's made for his actions that he actually continued to stand by)... The BOI gets complicated and heated enough without the king of Two-Faced weasals cropping up and throwing commas around while leaning on the caps lock key and thinking that he's this invincible manipulator of thoughts and emotions.
It (and he) wouldn't be nearly as intolerable if he wasn't convinced that he's P.T. Barnum reborn... and it wouldn't be nearly as intolerable if he wasn't occassionally able to get an otherwise reasonable human being to accept the pile of manure he presents as being the ice-cream he claims it is. I can understand Upstate supporting him, they share a lot of the same habits (selling misrepresented animals, bad customer service, repeated examples of lies) but when he manages to really fully snare someone who isn't bottom feeding scum... Well, it's almost painful to watch happen.
If you want to support him Rozann, that's your choice and your perrogative, I myself have supported him in situations in the past and to be honest, I think it makes me look like the idiot I was being at the time. Demanding that something was the case (Like Neil was a good guy) despite overwhelming evidence and proof to the contrary... you say you don't know about other transactions or if he made a habit of acting like this... If I were to compile a list of links, would you read through them all... there are quite a few incidents... and be open to revising your stance?
Being honest is not the same as being a jerk. Being honest is
certainly not the same as lying countless times in public and to customers. Being a jerk isn't unacceptable in and of itself if someone is willing to accept the consequences. Lying about being a jerk is pretty low. Lying about being a jerk while making attempts to manipulate people into thinking that there's some kind of moral right where there isn't is really low.
I've tried to remain somewhat nuetral up to a point on this issue, there were a number of incidences where I supported Neil because I agreed with things he said, mostly in the general business discussions or on threads where he was simply an uninvolved individual making some insiteful comments. There came a point though where I realized that somehow that good advice and high moral standard never seemed to apply to his own misdoings and that those who had been watching the act longer than I had understood what I did not. I stayed quiet mostly because there are a number of threads where comments were made by me that supported him and I didn't want to have to admit that I was wrong if someone went through and dug them up.
In the transaction between Neil and Davey, where Neil sold an animal that was a full foot smaller than advertised and was the wrong gender and then tried to claim that the animal was never sold as female despite having 0.1 in the ad because he was selling an orange boa that just happened to be female rather than a female orange boa (which is a poad of pure fertalizer, much like everything else Neil says), I reccomended Neil to Davey before the purchase. I risked a small part of my own credibility (such as it is) and advised Davey to go ahead with the purchase, Neil pretty much acted as Neil does and made me look like a moron for the reccomendation. Further, when I emailed Neil privately and explained that he was damaging my credibility with an individual I respected and asked for some kind of reasonable solution (Not "bend over and take it because I'm slightly involved" just "Compromise to make this right, Davey is not in the wrong here and you know it") there was a rejection of this, a sort of "tough noogies, that's what you get for telling someone I was reputable" which hasn't sat right since.
As one closing thought... it's also bothered me since it happened that I never got the "apology" letter that was sent to the list of people who he claimed he respected and were separate from the comments he made bashing forum users... In looking through the list he sent it to, I can understand why I wasn't included, it was only sent to people who were moderators of the website, had ongoing deals with him, were women (recurring theme, and NOT a positive one, do women think that this treatment arises out of respect for who they are? It doesn't) or were sufficient "names" in the industry to be risky to insult. I've never given him any money, am not a forum moderator, don't look good in a skirt and am nowhere near being a household name breeder, so I was left off his list, despite the support I had given him up till that point (misguided as I now know it to be) and despite an occassional friendly email back and forth. Maybe I'm just bitter about that to a certain degree... maybe it's just one more example of his self serving hypocrasy, the decision on that score is up to each individual.
