One of the "Hall of Shamers" speaks out
well, as stated in the title, i am one of ray's famous "hall of shame" award recipients. I have read through this entire post, and have a few things to say, which I KNOW Ray will probably read, and can't WAIT to hear his reply.
Back at the end of march, i ordered a red-footed tortoise from ray for a discounted price since i joined his happy little forum. i posted a few things, noticed his little cliques, but said why not. i ordered on and paid on march 19th (i have the email with the paypal receipt), but because of colder weather conditions, the turtle was not shipped to me until march 27th. i was a little upset, mainly because we were hoping to have the tortoise as it was a birthday present. so, after several emails back and forth with joy responding (she was very nice, so was i), i got a tracking number, but no clue who it was through until i checked every major carrier. sure enough, it was the post office, but at least it was an overnight shipment. so my fiance took a day off of work, called the post office, asked them to hold the shipment so he could pick it up. they called around 11am that day, and he rushed over. sure enough, he was handed a plain brown box with NO markings (not fragile or live animal) from ray's reptilia. the postmaster there also owns several turtles/tortoises and reptiles, so asked him to open the box to see the new baby. ok, sure, he was in a bag with a heat pack, ill give that much. but the styrofoam lining was so thin, and there was nothing to stop anything from bumping him around a lot.
so my fiance rushed here to my work to show me his new little one, and i examined him rather carefully. i noticed 2 rather large chips in the shell that concerned me, and that his back end was starting to pyramid. so, i emailed ray, and very professionally informed him of the issues, and asked politely what we could do to resolve the issue. by this time, i was also informed that it is illegal to ship turtles or snakes through the usps (i can pull up that site, or even a screen shot from BEFORE i purchased my tortoise where ray posts them himself with an admission of knowing it is illegal on his own forum). so i was greatly concerned. as i said, the box was not even marked fragile, and even the postmaster was very upset. she told me i should complain to the postmaster investigators, and i said no, i will just talk to ray. so, after several emails asking ray what we would do (all within a few hours) because i knew i was going to have to take the tortoise to the vet (an extra charge because of his damages), ray responded with the same type of threatening and childish emails as were already posted here. ray told me i could receive a refund if i shipped the tortoise back to him. now, how was i to do that knowing the usps says it is illegal, and as a PRIVATE person, none of the major carriers were to do this. he did not even offer to pay the vet bill i was about to incur. when i told him i would not risk a legality over this issue, he basically told me to screw off, and it was my problem now, but lets say im putting it nicely.
during this whole process, i remained professional, never once cussed at him, and in my last email to him, i even said i was upset that our transaction did not end in a happy one, and i wished him luck in his further business ventures. because of his attitude and complete unprofessionalism, i decided to try a reversal on my paypal payment, which was denied because they do not concern themselves with unsatisfactory product outside of ebay transactions. then i got the news from a friend on the other forum i post on - i was now posted with my name as a theif (unsuccessful of course) on ray's "hall of shame" page, with my full name and address. so, i emailed ray and told him he would need to take it down or i would take further action. he didnt take it down, so i took further action. (ray i really hope you are reading this so you KNOW who did what they did).
the first phone call i made was to the usps postal investigation services as suggested by my postmaster, provided them with all information, and they started an investigation. my next call was to the south florida spca, and the next to the florida gaming commission, not to mention the florida department of agriculture, and the better business bureau. then i emailed kingsnake, told them the story, and they said in order to conduct an investigation, i had to file a complaint with the internet crimes bureau and forward the response email to them, so i did. the next day, all of ray's ads were taken from kingsnake, and it was not voluntarily. still, my name remained on his hall of shame, address and all.
then a few days later, i get an email from paypal about april 10th, saying THEY are chosing to reopen the case, and gave ray until april 22nd to do 1 of 2 things - give me a refund, or prove he had already given me one. they re-opened it because of "special circumstances," so i assume it was because they were contacted. on april 12th, i received a full refund, with a lovely note from ray at the bottom calling me several names and saying "i never want to do business with someone like you again." well, all i could think was "like you have to worry about that."
of course, as soon as i requested my money back from ray, i was banned from his forum, and could only view posts. and oh, did i get to see some funny stuff. took screen shots too. basically he said that although he did over $18,000 in sales in the month of march alone, this lady who complained about her tortoise made him realize that the internet was a petty place to do business, he would no longer be posting on fauna or kingsnake any longer, and would be shutting down his forum. now, how is it that one crazy lady who made a complaint about a "bad" tortoise and received a refund for $116.50 make him VOLUNTARILY decide to shut down his major sources of advertisement, and call the internet a petty place to do business? as a professional who does business online myself, i find that to be rather interesting. he also said that this person went around everywhere possible on the internet and posted him as a crook and a theif, when all i had done was post up the story of what happened on ONE forum, but word got around from there because it is a fairly popular forum. but yet he BLATANTLY called me a theif on his website, even used the words, and he is in the right. not only that, but he changed his original "the theif tried to steal $116.50 but was stopped, thanks paypal" before my refund to going back, making my name and address larger and in bold, and it now says "theif stole $116.50". my lawyer finds this case of defamation of character to be rather interesting, so ray, if you are reading this, i would HIGHLY suggest you take it down before i take THAT action too.
i was told by the webmaster of the other forum i post on that indeed snakedepot.com is ray's new site, as he emailed using the "contact us" form, and got back an email asking him to call the phone number that ray so freely posts on the internet anywhere he can. when he called back, he got an answering machine that said "thanks for calling ray's reptilia..." and he hung up. as far as the other site, the simple fact that the whois information on the domain names are both protected via yahoo (where he does his webhosting), both opened nearly at the same time, "fixed" photos, the sudden appearance of joy on kingsnake, and a few other things, i have no doubt that ray is trying to bring himself back to life on this petty thing called the internet. how do i know these things? i am a professional web developer with a few tools up my sleeve too, and have ways of finding things out. and no, none of them are illegal, just maybe not...ethical to most people. so maybe i sunk to his level a bit, but i deserved to find out what was going on so that i could call the same places i called before to report him as re-opening under different business names, right?
luckily, his reputation proceeds him because of forums like this (and others).
now, i have ALL emails to back up everything i say, tracking numbers, and even the postmaster at my local post office to back me up, as well as the actual box and all that came in it when the tortoise was shipped. i also have some very lovely (and quite amusing) screen shots at home that i will gladly post up about "why" ray decided to shut down his internet business and his forum. as soon as i get home, i will put them up if you would like (anyone, not just ray). as far as checking his hall of shame, he may change this before anyone else notices, but i have a screen shot of that too. im last on the list (or at least i am at the time of this posting).
as far as his hall of shame goes, i think its very interesting that he doesn't post the other side of the story, but why should he, WE screwed HIM, right?
on a good note, after some treatment with a very good vet (and a lot of vet bills), little sparky the red-foot is doing well, enjoying HER life with a correct diet (unlike what she was receiving), supplements, and space. so hopefully after a few more vet visits, she will be a long-time member of our family for sure.
thanks all for reading the long post, but ray, you said you wanted proof. youll have full proof in a few hours, but at least you have the story. and i hope you enjoy knowing who made all the phone calls/emails to help your business venture be so profitable.
kelly
If it is a Sambava, it is being presented as an Ambilobe on the Ray's Reptilia website. 
