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Info Reptster.com

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Julie Brown

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Hello,

I would like your input on Reptster.com. I am not here to get bashes on David. I want to know if you like the layout, the concept, and what it was suposed to be not what it ended up as. Please give me your input on what you want and need from the site. In my heart I feel the site could do much good for us in the herp world. I am looking to take over the site and David WILL HAVE NOTHING AND I MEAN NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. I need your input and your willingness to be honest with me to make it work the right way.

Thanks and God Bless!
Julie Brown
 
julie I believe Pro Exotics maybe doing something like this also. I heard about it a few days ago. Not 100%....

But if done right and upfront I believe it could work. Aslong as both sies know everything going on.

Iwould love to see a site that helped people ship animals within the companies policies.
 
Gary O said:
julie I believe Pro Exotics maybe doing something like this also. I heard about it a few days ago. Not 100%....

But if done right and upfront I believe it could work. Aslong as both sies know everything going on.
Icwould love to see a site that helped people ship animals within the companies policies.
Click to expand...


sides
 
Julie,
I don't think this is really a BOI issue...even though it doesn't necessarily fit squarely into most of the other forums. Reptster, regardless of what anybody thought of it, is not in operation. The BOI is for the exchange of info about people/businesses, not to brainstorm problems and solutions, wants and desires, with prospective new owners of a failed venture.
 
Now, when you refer to reptster.com, do you mean just the forum? Or the shipping as well?

Now, the convenient shipping through reptster was something good for the hobby. The problem is that there are so many issues associated with it at this point.

Did David really have an agreement with FedEx?
If he did, has David burned so many bridges that FedEx would still allow reptster to ship again?
Is David's reptster shipping idea even capable of producing a profit?
Did David really start negotiations with UPS about shipping through them, or was he just trying to steal Pro Exotics thunder?
There were a number of issues surrounding reptsters shipments in the past (double-billing, FedEx not accepting packages, David not returning phone calls), how will these be resolved in the future?

My suggestion, start over with a new name. Reptster has run itself straight into the ground, and anything associated with David is going to find it extremely difficult to receive any support. I know that I wouldn't attempt to ship through "reptster" unless they already had a long and positive track record with other hobbyists.

One last thing, did you purchase the reptster name from David?
 
Some of my thoughts

Since this post is still open I will give you some of my thoughts.

At this point in time I think Reptster is finished no matter who takes it over. I still run ads over there but I am one of the few. When it first came on the seen a lot of people were excited about it because it was new and different. Of course the Fedex shipping was the biggest draw by far. It has other features along the lines of Myspace, you can add pictures of whatever you like to your page for everyone to see. You can add music to your page, and a profile of yourself for others to see. Your friends can all be apart of your page as well through invitation. The site has classifieds, blogs, and forums, and alot of other things most other sites have. I liked it when it hit the seen. I spoke to David several times at different shows and he seemed like he was genuine. I don't know all of the behind the seens things that went on to cause him to do the things that he did, but a potentially awesome site has been for the most part flushed right down the toilet. If you are truely considering running a site similiar to Reptster then I would start a new one or if you did take over Reptster you might want to consider changing the name. If you left the name the way it is it might take more work to let the world know that it is under new ownership and management then it is worth. This board is one of the best assets the reptile community has. We have seen a lot of bad people and bad businesses on here that have helped a lot of people. In this case the name REPTSTER is more or less a name that people are now staying away from. Remember your name is who you are. When your name becomes one that no one wants to hear then you are for the most part an undesirable. Reptster has become an undesirable at this point. If you decide to take it over then I wish you luck and I hope you can bring it back to life.
My two cents.
Brian Dierking
 
IMHO... david ruined the name beyond any kind of salvage. You are better off starting with a clean slate and new name.
 
great input

The reptile community I believe needed( or needs) a reptster to come along . Lots of great new fresh thiking new ideas new ways of looking at issues and new ways of solving and dealing with them. Its refreshig to see competition and competition seems to make everyone step up just a litte more and keeps the americam spirit of competition alive.
I have to agree with everything you said Brian,
The name has been tarnished and perhaps fighting the name is not the battle you need when you are trying to get all the other battles associated with a start up business won.
Just my .02 cents...
 
Stay away from it is my opinion. I would never have anything to do with any company by that name after that debacle.... too much baggage attached....
 
A while back I considered approaching FedEx about the same offering that Reptster came up with concerning shipping. But fortunately I sat down and REALLY thought about what would be required to make that work. My conclusion is that it would have to be a full time job for at least two people. That would mean PAID full time people, and not volunteers. Dedicated free customer service phone service as well as internet support. Someone needs to be available to answer customer service calls nearly around the clock to handle nationwide service issues. So there you have immediate overhead that needs to be met. Which adds to the price you could offer for the shipping. Volume would have to be very high in order to make the modest profit worthwhile to you, which could very well mean that you would need to hire more people to handle that volume. Unless you are offering a substantial discount, most people will not consider it worthwhile, and simply go directly to FedEx. The inevitable problems with misplaced or damaged shipments and billing errors would also increase with the volume of shipments needed to be realized. You may be able to put the customer service burden directly on FedEx, but I'm not sure how receptive they would be to that plan.

You would likely need to operate at a dead loss for at least a year or two before advertising (which would also be an expense) could get you enough exposure to get the volume you need to start inching into the black. So you would need financial backing from somewhere to keep things afloat while you tried to pull everything together.

My feeling is that Reptster just underestimated the resources that would be needed to pull it off, and drowned in the attempt. Make sure you understand the depth of the water before jumping in.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't do it. I think the headaches would be immense and the profits small compared to the expenditure of funds and resources. It's just too easy for someone to set up their own FedEx account, which makes your biggest competitor, well..... FedEx. And they already have everything in place needed to do what you are trying to do.
 
Change the name and then go for it!

The free shipping boxes were cool and probably what caught my attention.
 
I don't know what happened in the past nor did I ever use Reptster. I signed up but the site did not work at that point. I thought the sign-up process was quirky, I had to sign-up for the site and then sign-up for the shipping.

One possible solution to the name is duplicate the site to a new name and branding and then point www.reptster.com to your new site. Eventually you will be able to drop the reptster name once people learn the new name.
 
Gary O said:
julie I believe Pro Exotics maybe doing something like this also. I heard about it a few days ago. Not 100%....

But if done right and upfront I believe it could work. Aslong as both sies know everything going on.

Iwould love to see a site that helped people ship animals within the companies policies.
Click to expand...
I heard the same exact thing gary I believe its slated to go online in March. I think they are shipping diffrent items and will include reptiles. I think it was ups they are using though.

In response to the original question. I would have never used reptster to ship for me. It was way too easy to get an account with Fedex. I never understood why somebody would pay a middle man. I think David Damaged the reptster beyond repair..
 
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