TOM CRUTCHFIELD is a thief!
There’s a man, his name is Tom Crutchfield. Great herpetologist! Which is true because he’s achieved a lot. At present he keeps trading snakes, although he can’t work with them himself. He’s just unable to make it much further than his computer because of his health, so his partner Patty does all the paperwork. In December 2012 I ordered reptiles from USA to Russia, the order consisted mostly of very usual stuff and lots of epicrates. After lengthy negotiations I came to Florida myself to give him upfront money, 3000$ to be precise, and explain him all the bureaucratic demands of importing snakes to Russia. It went well, I had no reason to disbelieve him. I gave him a contract where the part of the total amount of money, 3240$, was stipulated, so in compliance with this contract he must send me the reptiles in the course of month after I paid him. I needed the contract to get a permission to import those snakes to my country. There was a list of reptiles: c.chrysogaster, c.fordi, trachemys albino, ball pythons and others, every reptile costed about 30$. We didn’t put real prices on the list because if there was some sort of unplanned delay Tom would have to pay a big fine, so I just didn’t want to bother my supplier. But the contract was important for the customs and I needed it. We arranged that he’d send me all before summer comes. Tom said he’d do everything without trouble and he’d be able to deliver me more reptiles later this year. Then I transferred him all the money according to the contract and made several remittances more, 13000$ altogether for the animals and 1000$ for the frights. All spring I was reminding him of myself, I was asking him to keep me informed but he always forgot to answer. All his replies to my long e-mails were short and he kept saying that he had put all my reptiles together and was dealing with paperwork. In summer – yes, in summer! – I asked him about what was taking so long with my order and his answer was very simple – he didn’t make the order and didn’t have all the snakes! What a discrepancy with what he said before, hah! Then our conflict started and I tried to explain him that his lies were really bad thing. In every e-mail I was asking the following: When will I get my snakes? When will you start dealing with the paperwork? Now his answers were long and romantic, Tom told me about his great experience and about himself, being all this big and omnipotent, about how many orders he’d sent successfully… I asked Tom to call Bob Clark, I’ve been working with Bob for several years from now and he’s very experienced in sending snakes to Russia, he even came to see me here personally and knows everything. But Tom said me that he couldn’t speak with Bob on the phone! He couldn’t get through for several days! I asked Bob to check his phone for missed calls but there weren’t any!
Then Tom felt offended because of two silly questions of mine (about the date of the snakes delivery and completion of the paperwork) and told that I didn’t appreciate all his creative writing and banned me. He took my money and banned me! He took the money and just disappeared – what would you call it? It’s a stealing! It’s funny actually. I couldn’t believe my eyes and I tried to resolve the conflict without Tom. I didn’t want scandals. I wrote Patty, his partner. It was September 2013. She’s way wiser than him so she finally gave papers for CITES and the work began. At the turn of the month everything was still in process. In November I asked my money back, I lost my clients and it didn’t make any sense to proceed it. Tom is not professional, he was very childish about complying with the contract and I was surprised. Patty agreed to give me my money back and asked for the bill. When she got it she realized the amount of money and… changed her mind! She said she’d keep doing the paperwork but it wasn’t that simple! Here comes the most important information. «You ordered way too specific species to export! And now you’re asking for impossible!» - Perfect! When they took the order it wasn’t impossible at all. Weird. Patty got offended too, she wrote me again about Tom being very pissed at me and asked not to bother them. It was late November, New Year’s coming, Patty stopped answering. I don’t have the money. I don’t have reptiles. Tom disappeared. I had no idea that I shouldn’t have made prepayment, it was my mistake, I had been warned about his criminal past and about him bancoing other people. I should have listened to them all. You can’t trust people like him, he sees the money – 14000$ and he steals it. I never thought that it was such a big sum of money for an American. But it’s big for me. I borrowed part of the money from my mom, the other part from my job and that smartass just took it. Be careful, don’t trust anybody! I liked USA though, I was there again not so long ago, but this time I was visiting Tom’s friend who I had met in Florida. He was speechless about all this mess and he tried to make Tom become more sensible but Tom said him the same. I beg you to post this message in your page because it’s very important for people to know the truth! He’s a very popular herpetologist and many people trust him. He uses their trust against them. In the USA he delivers reptiles without any troubles. I understand that people don’t care about the name. The just want to get reptiles and to get them cheaper and closer. But I hope you’ll support me. Professional reptile keepers are afraid of disrupting a relation with him but you can express your sympathy sending me messages. Those who live way too far from America he cons and there’s nothing we can do about it. He’s a very bad example of American herpetologist and I’m very surprised. Before only African exporters were that knavish. There is only one word Tom and his friends can use, high education! They always use "asshole", very professional. I would never know this part of his personality, if Tom had no problems with papers, i would get animals and was one of you, who was happy in buisness with Tom, most successful transactions taking place in the U.S., and it is clear there are fewer problems.. But now i know, if he make mistake (document problems, animals die) he always start to be agressive and disappears. Its not good way of buisness. For example, i work much with Bob Clark, if something happen- he refund the money, i can believe him and trust! Be careful here with Tom, your transaction will be successfully only if all goes smoothly it in any unusual situations you get a sea of mud and obscene words in your direction, do not return the money, too. permission for the import of animals in Russia was over, I can not get the animals lost customers. I understand, it happens sometimes made long documents, but not so long as it is now. Yes and terms were agreed, Tom knew them, Tom knew what types will be dealt with. I paid him for the result, it is not, there are some words about the difficulty, I asked him to return the money, but he also does not wish to send his friends say that he continues to make the documents and I still have to wait a month or a year! but it was late, very late, so things are not done. I have all the evidence, I am ready to answer any additional questions, there are pictures of correspondences with him, there are plenty of witnesses! anything, all you desire. Thank you for reading!
