Bad Guy Repxotica Rare Reptiles

[iamjcal]

I recently had a very poor interaction with Repxotica Rare Reptiles. Over the summer I purchased a 1.1 pair of coxi for $400. I was very adamant about them making certain it was in fact 1.1, but regrettably did not probe them at arrival. This was obviously a mistake on my part. I probed them this week after they both appeared male visibly. As it turned out both probed 12 scales deep and are males.

I share a collection with my father and he had emailed the company and I had contacted them via Facebook. Despite being VERY responsive when making the purchase they were not nearly as responsive when called out on their error.

First problem with the response is seeing the message and ignoring. I don't buy the lack of data plan since they have to be on facebook to respond and my messages are typically immediately seen. The first idea for a fix was to find and sell me another female. If you cant sex them correctly the first time, why should I trust them now? I was giving them some time to discuss the plan when the owner e-mailed my father and gave the option of only refunding $100 dollars. Selling lone males is difficult and I don't believe that I can even break even on this sale with that.

They have not once denied the mistake, they just continually say that they can't refund or fix the problem. I am more than capable shipping reptiles and believe that a refund with shipped back larger and healthy animals is reasonable, or a yearling female in trade for one of the males.

Snakes get sexed wrong from time to time. It happens. Heck I've had it happen. I just had the good nature to fix and refund or replace the animal. These guys don't deserve your business if they are willing to be stubborn on a mistake that they don't deny for such a minimal dollar value.

Rest of pictures incoming.

 

[iamjcal]

part 2

 

[iamjcal]

part 3. sorry for the typos!

 

[BeauBoi]

Thank you for posting. I am sorry this happened to you. While we are all human and make mistakes, it is how we handle the mistakes that count. In this case, you are absolutely correct. They should exchange the male you purchased for a female of the same species and pay for shipping both animals.
It isn't alway obvious what should happen to rectify a mistake, but in this case I believe that it is.
If the company refuses to make you whole, then one can only wonder if they knew all along that they sent you 2.0 rather then the 1.1 you ordered.
~Beau

 

[tlmoon]

A couple of thoughts: 9 months is a long time to have the animals....I am NOT saying you are at fault, but look at it from a seller's point of view. How do they know you are telling the truth? Again, I'm NOT saying you aren't - but it's not unreasonable for a business to need to think about this a bit, to make sure they aren't getting scammed (buyers scam sellers too, after all - again, not saying you are, just speaking in general).

On your screenshots, is "Friday" (the one after the June 23rd date) this past Friday the 25th of March? Not everyone has data on their phone, so I don't think it's fair to accuse them of lying about that when they did respond to you within about 4 hours.

Honestly? I know you are upset, but this came out of the blue from their perspective and you were wanting an immediate answer and got angry when you didn't get what you wanted right away.

I'm not saying they are in the right, and they don't seem to be contesting they made an error. I do think there are some extenuating circumstances, in terms this not coming to light for 9 months.

 

[tlmoon]

Oops hit post before I was done: I meant Extenuating circumstances in terms of them taking a little while to decide what to do and get back to you.

If they sold you a pair, they should get you a female, or the equivalent amount of money. Did they say how they came to the $100 figure?

 

[Snake-Queen]

I have no knowledge of this species, what is the price difference between males and females?


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[iamjcal]

Males are worth much less and harder to sell alone as with many colubrids. As I said, I should have probed initially upon receiving them, but on their end I was guaranteed 1.1. I shouldn't HAVE the probe them.

 

[tlmoon]

No argument there, Justin. Do you know if they plan on responding to this thread? Sometimes people see the error of their ways when multiple people tell them they need to do better. If you can quantify what a female usually sells for, and how this is setting your breeding plans back, that might help bring about a better resolution (or at least, one would hope).

 

[Snake-Queen]

Males are worth much less and harder to sell alone as with many colubrids. As I said, I should have probed initially upon receiving them, but on their end I was guaranteed 1.1. I shouldn't HAVE the probe them.

That did not answer my question at all.

Are males worth $100 & females $300?

You paid $400.

I am trying to understand the price difference.


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[BeauBoi]

Actually, now that I look, coxi have actually gone down in price over the past year. 2015 coxi are now going for $200 each regardless of sex. HOWEVER, as females develope later than males, a 2015 isn't really want you need is it?

I stand by my statement that the company should seek to make you whole, but it may be in your best interest to allow them to try and contact the person who bought the other pair. If it was a simple mistake of sending you 2.0 the other person 0.2, the situation might be resolved amicably.

~Beau

 

[iamjcal]

I routinely see males for sale sub 125. They seem to be for sale for a long time. Females tend to be 275 to 350 unless they are very small then 200 ish

 

[iamjcal]

I'd be very okay with an exchange for a female. I was waiting until a response Friday when I got the email stating we could get 100 only, which we never did btw

 

[GradyJ]

A couple of thoughts: 9 months is a long time to have the animals....I am NOT saying you are at fault, but look at it from a seller's point of view. How do they know you are telling the truth? Again, I'm NOT saying you aren't - but it's not unreasonable for a business to need to think about this a bit, to make sure they aren't getting scammed (buyers scam sellers too, after all - again, not saying you are, just speaking in general).

On your screenshots, is "Friday" (the one after the June 23rd date) this past Friday the 25th of March? Not everyone has data on their phone, so I don't think it's fair to accuse them of lying about that when they did respond to you within about 4 hours.

Honestly? I know you are upset, but this came out of the blue from their perspective and you were wanting an immediate answer and got angry when you didn't get what you wanted right away.

I'm not saying they are in the right, and they don't seem to be contesting they made an error. I do think there are some extenuating circumstances, in terms this not coming to light for 9 months.

I (we) are sellers and did think of it exactly as a such. As Justin mentioned, we have done it and took care of it. I would 100% rather lose a couple hundred bucks than have someone think I screwed them. The seller should state that sex isn't guaranteed and see how sales would go. As far as the $100, I'm sure it was a token action. These animals are a little over 28" long now. A lone female that close to breeding would cost me a minimum of $300 shipped and probably wouldn't be available. I would probably accept a younger female in exchange for the male if they paid to ship both ways

 

[iamjcal]

They still haven't made good on the meager 100. Saw the messages didn't respond. Further signs that they don't intend to resolve their mistakes. I guess we will try to sell for what we paid but seems unlikely to get that. I'll update if they ever respond and periodically as they continue to ignore.

 

[REPXOTICA]

We are sorry for the late response to the BOI. This is the first time we have had an issue like this and there are many issues that we went over that caused us to end with the $100 offer. The main issue is that our guarantee does not extend up to 9 months (as most sellers would not). Furthermore, the only possible way that I have seen possible that we sold Mr. Calhoun a 2.0 is that we had 2 pairs in at that time and when we sold them, we mixed up the pairs and sold the other customer a 0.2. I know for a fact that we had 2.2 in store as I sexed them myself about 12 times along with a few other people also sexing them and confirming a 2.2 (which we originally purchased them as). We popped these snakes as there is no need to probe them being that if they're males, it's not hard to get their hemipenes out. I contacted the person who purchased the other pair and not only did theres lay eggs but they hatched beautiful baby coxis proving it's a pair. That being said, we have concluded from our records that Mr. Calhoun almost definitely received a pair from us and either missexed them (which most likely would harm the snake as that would mean he pushed the probe through the females wall by pushing too hard) or Mr. Calhoun no longer found need for our male out of our pair anymore and is attempting to either get a refund on it or get a free female through us.

With all this being said, we sold this pair to Mr. Calhoun for $400 SHIPPED which would mean that he got the pair for just over $350. We did the math as if he paid $150 for the male and $200 for the female. Even with our hesitation to make any offers do to the fact that we are almost positive this is a pair, we offered $100 for the male due to the length of time it took him to double check the sex and the fact that we still believe it was a male.

Mr. Calhoun is still making a fuss because we did not yet send him $100. No body has access to the PayPal account except for the owner who has not been in the offer since he sent out the email to Mr. Calhoun. We are more than willing to send the $100.

As we said, we have never had an issue like this before and don't plan to have this issue again. Below will be a picture that was sent to us, from our customer, of the offspring of the other pair that was sold at the same time. We know this is definitely the other pair that was in at the same time as his because we have only had a 2.2 of coxi babies in the store. We have had multiple old world rat snakes whether they're alone or they're pairs, but Mr. Calhouns pair and the other pair that was in at the same time were the only pairs of coxi babies ever in the store. I would send screenshots of the other customers chat confirming that he got the pair from us but I don't want to do this unless absolutely necessary as I don't want to involve people that don't need to be involved.

 

[GradyJ]

Ok. We were saying that you made an honest mistake and refused to correct it. You are saying we are intentionally being deceptive to gain money or an animal. I have been breeding reptiles for more than 30 years. My son is a veterinarian. We know how to sex snakes but admit that males can be called females because sometimes they don't pop or probe. I don't need the money. I do this for fun. This isn't fun. Calling me out as a liar is uncalled for and further hurts your reputation. Your logic of knowing what someone else has and not probing these because they didn't pop- therefore we must be lying is deeply flawed and a bit childish . I don't want your money or a replacement. I want people to know that you do not guarantee the sex of your animals and take no responsibility. You don't even acknowledge that you could have made a mistake. You had my email address and didn't ask for a PayPal account. I consider this closed.

 

[moghue]

First I don't usually put my 2 cents in but in this case I will. I would also be very hesitant on the sellers part as you waited 9 months to verify the sex of the animals. to me that was way to long on your part. Then it seems like you didn't have any patients for a solution. I don't blame the seller one bit for hesitating on this at all. Do you realize how many times buyers have scammed sellers. look at it from their point of view. here you have a person who for whatever reason didn't verify that they received a pair. the other thing I saw is that they were working on a solution and you got impatient because they didn't offer a solution right away. That's my 2 cents

 

[SPJ]

First I don't usually put my 2 cents in but in this case I will. I would also be very hesitant on the sellers part as you waited 9 months to verify the sex of the animals. to me that was way to long on your part.

Snakes don't change sexes no matter how long you have had them.
The seller sold a 1.1 pair
The buyer received a 2.0 pair.
Some buyers do not know how to sex animals and it could be dangerous to the animal if they try. If a seller is going to sell animals as sexed animals, they need to ensure they sexed them properly.

 

[iamjcal]

We are not here to throw mud. I am a veterinarian and a highly trained individual. Forcing a probe into a female would be both difficult and painful. I can certainly stand by my ability to probe. Rarely a male seems female, but it takes serious effort to make a female seem male. I assumed that this was a simple misunderstanding, but it is now clear that they would like to have you believe that we are either incompetent or con artists and I just find that offensive.

On the topic of sexing snakes, probing and popping are never 100% accurate for females. Sometimes males do not manually evert, sometimes they are tight and do no probe effectively. It is a small percentage but it is a very real situation. Denying that possibility is ridiculous, especially with popping. Coxi are fairly sexable simply on tail length and girth alone. We probed because it was so visually male that we probed to double check and in fact both probed easily as males. The unfortunate fact is, they must have purchased 3.1 and 2.2 prior to flipping them.

They may have you believe that after 9 months, we no longer need or want the male so we want a refund on it. In fact, we have two males which does us no good for breeding purposes as we have never once owner another coxi. I have pictures from before shipping and today of the heads to confirm identity for those of the company and community who still believe we are doing a con. These are also broadly striped black which is less popular and the visual appearance that I was going for. I suppose I can also provide full body shots if needed. If they would like We can provide probing video, vent shots, vent shots showing head to confirm identity etc.

If this were to be a con, I would have needed to find an exact visual clone for whichever one is female raise it up then try to pull a fast one. Not worth my time for a couple hundred bucks.

I will be providing before and after pictures in the coming posts to confirm identity of the snakes.

As to my impatience, that's on me somewhat but also on them. I feel like companies sweep problems under the rug and I was not about to let that happen with me. Initially they asked for 2 days to discuss. I messaged on day 3. My messages were seen for hours, not responded to so I messaged again. I was then told to wait until Friday, but got emailed shortly thereafter to say that I would only get $100. I am obviously going to respond to that, especially with a sub value offer that still doesn't fix my lack of female problem.

As I admitted earlier I should have checked sexed earlier, but I was confident when buying from a company with a good reputation that they would be sexed correctly or they would fix mistakes were any to arise. I was wrong on both accounts. Snakes do not change sexes. It was wrong the day I got them, and it will be wrong 10 years later. Also understand that their first solution was to sell me another snake. If they cannot sex it right the first time, why could they sex another? I'd be in the same situation.

As I see the situation one of three things will happen here:

1. Repxotica will continue to claim that we made this up, sexed incorrectly or have different animals and continue to do nothing. I have proof to the contrary. Picture evidence that I have the same animals and can provide accurate sexing.

2. Repxotica will claim that I took too long and may or may not give the pithy $100. That should be shown to the community that they will not stand by their product. Again sexes do not change.

3. Repxotica will show that they care about their reputation and either send me a shipping label to ship them back for a full refund or trade one out for a true female. Or potentially come up with a reasonable offer considering that not only have they messed up this transaction but they are trying to tarnish the reputation of positive members of the reptile community.

Pictures will be posted in further comments.