Kristina's experience
I had not planned on taking this public, but after receiving several emails from hobbyists wanting to know my story after both Josh and Nick's public announcements referring to me, I am here to report my case. Please note that my issue has been resolved by Nick over the span of three weeks, not months or years. I have maintained a friendly contact and not resorted to threats or bullying.
My experience with Nick Mole/First Choice Reptiles centers on melleri. If you have visited The Melleri Discovery web site, you may already know me or have emailed with me. I'm Kristina Francis, a student of melleri and a vocal hobbyist. My purpose for purchasing melleri is to acquire unrelated mates for my established captive bred colony.
I have had a previous transaction with Nick, for a juvenile 7-8" Wild Caught melleri, back in 9/05. It arrived weighing 14 grams and with open wounds on the rostrum and chin, which in my opinion, isn't "in excellent shape". His ad of 9/5/05 priced this juvenile at a premium of $100 (the adult melleri in that group were priced $85-95 each, depending on quantity purchased). I did complain, and Nick said that "nearly all of the [melleri] imports that come in unfortunately have imperfect rostrums". I managed to get the juvenile acclimated and still have him today.
Since that WC lived, I didn't bother to report to the BOI. I assumed WC dealer standards are just like that for the melleri species, in this industry. I would like to see the "accepted" standard improve. I asked Nick back in December 05, if more juvies were coming soon. He wrote me 12/29/05:
Also, we are working on a shipment with joe berraducci of MBT in tanzania who captive breeds melleri(aswell as a ton of other species) with F1 documents. I have 4 of those guys coming in on the 9th from our First ever all Farm bred tanzania shipment. I will work with you and the group and will offer the Melleri group a discounted rate for the animals coming in.
1/16/06 he posted an ad "ITS FINALLY HERE! F1 chameleons from Joe B in Tanzania!" to Kingsnake classifieds which stated, among many other things:
C.melleri: montane locale, can take cooler temperatures, c.b subadults/adults $200ea
Note the premium price asked for "c.b". That is what I charged last year for my own domestic (USA, in my kitchen!) genuine Captive Bred and hand-raised melleri, a rather rare commodity.
I emailed Nick and confirmed that he still had a subadult F1 FR "c.b" subadult melleri for me. He graciously offered mellerichams Yahoo group members a 10% discount, so my order was $180 plus $37.10 shipping. I PayPalled the total the same night (1/16). He said he would try to sex a female subadult CB melleri, but for most people this can be tricky.
No contact from him until he replied to my inquiry on 1/18, asking when to expect my shipment. He had told my friend that I should expect my melleri 1/18, so I emailed to confirm.
1/18/06 Nick:
I was planning on doing So but we did not get to do any shipping today. How does Thursday for Friday sound?
On 1/19 Nick:
I had to run out of town today and could not get any boxes out. It would be best to wait until monday for shipping I need to get another feed into the animals anyhow.
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I was OK with that, I mean, who would deny chams their food? Plus, I know that regular carrier services do not ship animals over weekends.
Again, no word over the weekend, so on Monday 1/23 I emailed to find out if he shipped, since I had plans the next day that I needed to cancel, if I knew my melleri was due.
No reply until the next day, 1/24, as I was heading out the door, about 2 hours before the box arrived:
well I shipped the melleri out, but I did have one problem. The melleri that I had held aside for you escaped from its cage on sunday. I had a smaller animal held aside for you and a larger female held aside for andrew and the Smaller one got out as I forgot to relatch the bottom of the cage after feeding on sunday. anyhow, since you were the first to order I shipped you out the larger animal, and I will have to settle with andrew. I do have one melleri left But I am almost sure it is a male. I did Spotlight that night after it got out and did not find it, but I did find a realy nice female quadricornis that I didnt even know escaped. Anyhow, if the female is too large for what you are looking for maybe you and andrew can work that out and I can send you a refund. I am going out again tonight to spotlight and see if I cant find the little girl hanging out in the trees. the cham should be there Soon via Fedex.
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The "Andrew" referred to is a friend who also keeps melleri, whom I had recommended Nick to, but I will leave it to Andrew to report his own story. One hobbyist told me that I am not the only person Nick owed a cham that he said had escaped. It struck me as odd that a professional dealer/importer keeps his cages in such condition that multiple animals can escape so easily. He must be losing a bit of money if that is true.
Roughly two hours later, I receive and open the box from Nick. Inside, on top, is a hand-written invoice stating:
0.1 melleri (Farm Raised) 180
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As an experienced melleri keeper, I have learned to expect a degree of inaccuracy with dealers sexing this species. It happens. What is puzzling is that Nick sent an aged GIANT adult melleri that was clearly a damaged WC specimen. I measured its skull- larger in all dimensions than my former male stud's, aging this animal at least 5-6 years old and well out of subadult reckoning. This 22" WC had ulcerative pododermatitis, scrapes aplenty, and deep wounds to the rostrum and chin that happen in sharp cages, not in a soft shipping bag. It weighed 281 grams on arrival; in my melleri experience, a 22" male should be somewhere between 400-500 grams. It was dehydrated and undernourished. It has an old, brown shed layer stuck on it. The only resemblance it bore to what I had ordered was the species identity. It was a melleri, but all similarity ended there. It has hemipenal bulges, too, definitely not an "0.1".
I was astonished... my husband was utterly furious. I called Josh Mease, who shared this shipment with Nick, to get to the bottom of it. I was prepared to chew him out. Josh confirmed up front that my melleri was WC, before I could even describe how I identified it. He said that he (Josh) had been trying to get Nick to correct his ads. Josh said he would send my refund, if Nick failed to refund.
Meanwhile, I retained friendly email contact with Nick. I politely accepted his offer of a refund (as above) because of its size, and told him that I identified it as WC, described the condition, that maybe he should contact his source about it, and get his money back for the premium CB wholesale price he paid.
Me 1/24:
I will accept your offer of a refund. Please tell me how to return this melleri to you. It is definitely too large. Melleri of these dimensions/age typically do not adjust well to captivity; in my opinion, it has a poor survival chance in the long term. I have taken steps to ease it while it is in my care: I have tepid showered it for hours, soaked its wounds in Nolvasan solution (my former vet taught me this treatment), and topically treated its wounds. It refuses to drink even in the shower, which is pretty poor for this species, but it seemed to like the moisture. I have it in a free range, so it can't make its wounds any worse in the interim.
Also, I have more bad news, please don't shoot the messenger:
This animal is not the Farm Raised "cb" quality you advertised. It is a Wild Caught laundered as FR. It is a very aged adult (based on skull dimensions, well over 6 years old, not to mention body condition is that of an elderly chameleon), it has pronounced ulcerative pododermatitis on its feet, and it has deep rostrum wounds. CBs just don't get those, and if they do in shipping, it's a mild abrasion that doesn't break the skin- I expect FR to be about the same as CB. I do not plan to go public about this transaction, because you may have been misled by your own source. Two guys approached me last year with "CB melleri" that were in fact WC, they even admitted later that they had lied. It happens all the time, which sucks. I hope you can get your money back!
I would not dare forward this melleri to Andrew as it is, since he, too, was paying for FR quality, and he is very picky about his animals.
My Paypal for refund: XXXX@XXXXXXX
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1/24 Nick wrote back:
I thought similar things. I am going to call the supplier tonight and see if I cant find out any more specifics. We were supposed to get 4 c.b subadult/adults. They did go through hell in the initial shipping and they were packed and repacked a few times prior to shipping out of arusha so there was a little dehydration to begin with. I also did notice some nose rub and a few light abrasions on the back prior to shipping, but nothing that appeared that it would not go away in the next shed. I think the best way to settle this is for you to take that animal at no charge and I will refund you minus the shipping charges. If you think that is fair, let me know. The one that had gotten out was a much smaller and nicer animal. In the next shipment we are supposed to be getting small c.bs(2-3 month olds) hopefully they will do better. Let me know what you think.
About 4 hours later, he wrote:
I just got an email from josh. apparently we did not recieve F1 melleri(nor the deremensis) I was skeptical aswell but just assumed they were old breeders. Anyhow It looks like there is a big Communications error on this shipment and I appologize for any inconvenience. We have not been in good contact with Joe and some of the animals sent were indeed wild collected. If you want to take the refund that is fine, or I can send you two nice small w.c animals. I am getting a w.c tanzania shipment in next week and am getting 23 melleri in, I will give you two of the pick of the batch if you want to wait. Let me know what you would like to do.
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So, now I have a sick, older Giant melleri... which experienced melleri keepers know as a "lost cause". I had heard from others who had dealt with Nick about how he would offer replacement stock instead of refund, then take ages to deliver that. Some people mention it in this very thread. I did not want any further WCs, a refund would be fine. I had read his Terms and understood that he would not refund my shipping money, even though he used my money to ship me something that didn't fill my order. Nick then said:
1/25
I am going to transfer funds into paypal to just send you the refund, I am leaving tommorow night and will be back next friday. If I can access the internet from the road i will send the refund over then, otherwise It will be done as soon as I get back. I hope tihs is fine for you. Once again, I am sorry for the misunderstanding, and hopefully next shipment we will get some Nice young farm raised animals in. Also hopefully Josh and I can come to an agreement which allows me more contact with the supplier, therefore I can get more information on the animals that we are selling.
I replied 1/25:
Please make every effort to send my refund before you leave. My hubby is not patient, has taken a dim view, and it's his PayPal account. He wants it done tonight. If it was mine, it would be another thing.
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Nick said 1/25:
I will see what I can do, usually I would just pay you with paypal with the debit card on the account but we switched banks so I have not yet added the new bank card. I have a sale for i believe $110 coming tonight, I will just forward whatever i have available tonight before I leave. I appreciate the understanding and yes Hopefully we can get some FR melleri in here soon. Anyhow, let me see what I can do, If I cannot send anything I will make sure to send over the payment as soon as it clears from the bank(probably monday-tuesday). I should have internet access from the road, so that should not be a problem. Also, it is Gravid female season for melleri starting now, so I should be getting some eggs from the Imported girls. I am crossing my fingers that I get some babies, I did not end up getting any last year, but the year before that I got quite a few. We are working on getting the kinks worked out for the next shipment but we will definately be getting some FR f1s on that shipment.
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On 1/26, he wrote and said the payment didn't come in, so he couldn't refund, but a few hours later something must have come in, because he PayPalled my husband's account $100 of the $180 expected. No refund remainder came either Monday or Tuesday.
I have saved and printed all emails (most are shortened here for focus), have a shipping document from the carrier, and the invoice from Nick. I also have the letter my vet wrote after examining this melleri, giving his professional opinion of his condition, delineating these claims. I do not "play vet", this isn't just my layman's opinion of its health. I take my animals to vets, and I tell other people, who write me with their animal issues, to do the same. Interested parties are welcome to scans of the documents relating to this melleri. With rehydration therapy, the melleri gained 41 grams in less than a week with me, but for the first couple weeks he was still very weak and later crashed. On Friday 2/10, he started to perk up and by Sunday 2/12, he was much improved. He gets daily medication for his wounds. Since he is too large to safely join my subadults after quarantine, he will be given to a keeper who has a maiden adult female mate. Given, not sold.
Nick refunded the remaining $80 he owed me on 2/7/06. Nick knows who I am, has linked to my site from his previous ads, and I had told him (before I received the WC) that I planned to promote his "F1s" to the mellerichams group and the MD. It is not as if he mistook me for a rank novice who wouldn't know better, he even states in this thread that he knew it would be in good hands. If he did have some misgiving when he boxed it, maybe next time he will listen to that doubt and call his source first. I think Nick will learn from this whole misadventure. A "communications error" on this scale is a career-killer. I don't think Nick wants to lose his business, and the fact that he is still emailing me updates, days after he sent the remainder refund, may indicate that he wants to improve his track record.
Nick and Josh still have the power to make something positive out of a string of bad choices. If Nick appreciates the value of his relationship with MBT, Josh Mease, and hobbyists like us- his best word-of-mouth advertising- I believe he will do the right thing and repair all the damages, past and present. I hope that all parties can restore their working relationships and bring genuine F1s into the USA.
Bottomline: with some patience and polite email and phone contact, both of the gentlemen who represented that shipment in the USA were cooperative and willing to refund me. Nobody shut me out or told me to "like it or lump it", they both voiced concern over the mix-up and wanted to make good. What is between Josh, Nick, and Joe is THEIR business, and it's up to THEM to do their own public damage control.
This post is only my small part of the story, told plain and with documents to back it up.
Kristina Francis
hope that things resolve as best as can be hoped for. This under-study sure hopes so !
