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Bad Guy Rhode Island Reptile Enclosures: Warning

Yup, and he keeps throwing the blame at Square, claiming they took his money out, which looks like a load of bull. If my payment processor took money from me for a refund and the customer didn't get it, I sure as hell wouldn't be sitting around, rolling me eyes and going "ugh."

Definitely go to the bank and take these screenshots to show them the seller has "claimed" to be sending a refund, but you never got it. They can see pending refunds just like any other transaction, so it should help your case when they see the seller himself agreeing to a refund and then not following through.

Also, maybe it might be a good idea to contact Square and let them know he might be using their service to commit fraud. If they cut him off, it'll reduce his ability to scam someone else and then just blame Square when it doesn't work out.
 
Snake-Queen said:
Have you spoken with your credit card company?
Click to expand...

I have, they're looking into the matter, and meanwhile I'm just twiddling my thumbs. I feel better with the confirmation I got from Square, but the fact that it took so long to even get that far was really disconcerting.

I'm curious though, has anyone ever actually gotten cages from him?
 
senusenu said:
Yup, and he keeps throwing the blame at Square, claiming they took his money out, which looks like a load of bull. If my payment processor took money from me for a refund and the customer didn't get it, I sure as hell wouldn't be sitting around, rolling me eyes and going "ugh."

Definitely go to the bank and take these screenshots to show them the seller has "claimed" to be sending a refund, but you never got it. They can see pending refunds just like any other transaction, so it should help your case when they see the seller himself agreeing to a refund and then not following through.

Also, maybe it might be a good idea to contact Square and let them know he might be using their service to commit fraud. If they cut him off, it'll reduce his ability to scam someone else and then just blame Square when it doesn't work out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I sent my bank the same stuff I posted up here, and they've been looking into it. As for square, it's incredibly difficult to contact them if you're a buyer.
 
Tkaupp said:
I have, they're looking into the matter, and meanwhile I'm just twiddling my thumbs. I feel better with the confirmation I got from Square, but the fact that it took so long to even get that far was really disconcerting.



I'm curious though, has anyone ever actually gotten cages from him?
Click to expand...



Thanks for sharing your experience with James. I've been following this thread for a while to see if I was the only one. About a year ago I ordered a cage from James and after 3 months of delays, excuses, and no-shows for delivery several times, I requested a refund. For weeks I got same the run-around that a refund had been issued, but I never saw anything on my end. Eventually I filed a dispute with PayPal and they processed my refund. So, you can add me to the list of disgruntled customers who never got their cage. I'm fairly certain it was never even built - I asked for pictures of the cage for proof that it was at least built and while James promised to send them half a dozen times I never actually got any.
 
Sounds like he has great system in place right for interest free loans!
I would never be doing business with him and hopefully this thread will alert others to not allow him to have a free loan of your hard earned money for months at a time!
 
Black Adder said:
Sounds like he has great system in place right for interest free loans!
I would never be doing business with him and hopefully this thread will alert others to not allow him to have a free loan of your hard earned money for months at a time!
Click to expand...
Agreed.

So far, we have several customers complain about delays, failed delivery and slow/non-existent refunds. Not one customer has actually commented on receiving a product and their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with it. Shady, IMO.
 
All the same excuses, nothing gets delivered, I don't think anything actually gets made. My credit card company has refunded me for the last 3 charges but not the first which is 1/2 or so of total, because James was able to jerk me around long enough that it's past the 90 day garentee. The bank is reviewing the first charge tho because there's some rule with banks or charging, I forget, that you aren't supposed to charge somebody until you send the product out. I copied every single communication I've ever had with James, texts, emails, screenshots of the excuses and screenshots of all the people complaining about the exact same thing on here. It was a damn novel. Seriously took an entire pack of paper to print out. Took it to the bank to be faxed into disputes and started another claim with the fraud dept. After leaving the bank went to the post office and sent the copies to the bank via express overnight.
Here's one thing I didn't find out or see until yesterday, the day after I made the final payment on the enclosure James saved / linked my credit card to his account with Square.
WTF?! That IS Straight up Fraud! Hence now also working with the Fraud department in addition to the disputes Dept.
We cancled my credit card and blocked all info having to do with it. It used to be linked to my bank accounts and that's linked to my mortgage.
I am furious !!! Saving / linking my credit card to his square accountAFTER he's been completely paid off for the enclosure that probably never existed. I can really start blowing up here but I will contain my anger.

All the time until he started playing games with the refund I thought he was such a nice guy, I'm 100% sucker, a mark and just another notch on belt for people he's scammed.
 
TO chime into this Thread once again. There are instances out of the many builds that we do in a year that are not completed, For any number of reasons, In the most recent case, I worked with the client for a weeks working on more and more changes that were requested, Furthering my own shipments and deadline, Even when against my better judgement I allowed considering She was expecting new reptiles into her collection...and did not have proper caging in place prior to receiving them.

To Address a prior comment, We specifically state that delivery location is limited to Obstructions, Hills, Inclines, Steps etc. The client had a steep incline driveway in a construction zone, regardless if a firetruck could fit or not, even a ladder truck is no comparison, because of that, it does not apply to this delivery in any regard, upon first attempt of delivery with a 53' trailer. for whatever reason the driver did not Deliver, I literally begged the company to send a driver all the way back out with a van to delivery the enclosure which never met its final destination. for that reason, and only that reason I issued the refund so she could order from someone else.

when there is a refund issued, I do not control the processor, The banks or the time frames. Screen shots and emails were sent showing when the refunds where processed, which all but one has been returned back to client.

Furthermore, Client paid over a period of time, in multiple transactions, I had nothing to do with the length of time it took from the first payment to the request for refund. I did request an exception from the processor to accommodate the refund. that is all I can do to move it along other than calling them on a daily basis. which I have also done.

When there is a Problem with Freight delivery which is not directly delivered by me personally, Which is a small percentage, IN EVERY SITUATION A FULL REFUND IS GIVEN AS QUICKLY AS I am able to do so, IF for any reason there is an issue, My phone is always available to any of my customers, I'm not here to prove anything other than Stating some of the missing facts that play a very important part in these situations. these Builds are generally very large, In this case almost 8 feet long, 7 feet high and in 3 separate pieces.. shipping from the east coast to the west coast.

I stand behind my product and services, I am by no means perfect,I clearly outline all of this information on my website under FAQ's. just to avoid situation like these. If there is something I can do better I'm open to opinions, If there is a better way to ship fully assembled freight that does not cost a fortune and is affordable to the average customer, PLEASE let me know.

FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, we will only offer local pickup and delivery until I can work out the kinks and exclude the third party entirely. I like everyone else cannot stand when something is delayed or Cancelled so anything I can do better I certainly well.
A notation will be made on my website as well.
 
TBadSeed said:
The bank is reviewing the first charge tho because there's some rule with banks or charging, I forget, that you aren't supposed to charge somebody until you send the product out.
Click to expand...
It's part of the contract that a merchant signs with Visa/MC/Disc/AmEx that a produced must be shipped/delivered within 30 days of the card being charged. Unfortunately this policy doesn't take into account the realities of selling herps, such as accepting payment plans for high-$ animals and products, or shipping delays due to dangerous weather.
 
there are so many variables in this industry that I think the rest of the country are going to struggle to catch up. Just getting approved for a merchant account for anything that we do took months of approval, the insurance alone is astronomical because of the construction side of things even though they are just cages and boxes. the other processors outside of authorized.net and merchantUSA are easier to use but cost more and the customer service with the exception of paypal are horrible.
I hope that it will catch up sooner rather than later.
 
Since when is 52" high 7' high. The measurements were 96" x 52" x 29". You put into the contract that a liftgate will be needed, stairs and the driveway were obstacles, it wasn't a surprise. Construction was always over at 4pm and everything out of the way by 5pm, all of the delievery appointments were from 4pm to 8pm = no construction and you even said your guy could have attempted delievefy but didn't and you don't k OE why. I have every single text and email, I'm fine posting them all, including the notice from Square that you saved my credit card / linked to your account AFTER you were paid off. I'll put it all up, it's a novel, this thread will go from 9 pages to well over 100. How also is my expecting a Tegu before the parents even came out of Brumation and ordering a big enclosure in March, updating it and it finally being sent out in June when my Tegu isn't expected until Sugust 15th being irrisponsible and getting a new reptile without having a place for it to go? There is absoultly no reason I should have expected this BS to happen.

Until I am paid back in full do you really expect me to be ok with not having my money? Remember every day the delivery was expected was a day I took off work, I lost over $1,000 in pay and the $455.00 you haven't refunded. Send it to me PayPal and this all comes to an end, I'll post that you made good on refunding me but every second that go's by and I haven't received my enclosure or my refund I will not be OK with it, I will be getting less and less patient, actually before anything was refunded I told you my patience have come to an end. This started in March !!! It is now the middle of August! How calm and patient am I expected to be? Anyone? Who else thinks that I should be cool with this? .... crickets
 
There is definitely a very consistent pattern here. Enclosures supposedly made and never received...then hassles with getting refunds. James, you say everyone has been refunded but I see recent posters saying they haven't...? The lack of documentation proving shipping is concerning. For me, that's what pushes an overwhelmed seller at the mercy of shipping freight into much sketchier territory, and starts to sound dishonest.

Regardless, it's probably a good decision to only sell for local pickup - whatever the reason, your distant customers are not getting their enclosures.
 
A person can order a cage in august, Have a 6 week delivery window, If after a few days the order is modified I have to work that into my production schedule, Than more changes a week after and again days after that, a 6 week timeframe turns into 12 weeks very quickly... How can anyone successfully plan a build with constant changes?

your first payment came in march and after it was declined, I issued the invoice again so you could it again, it finally went through march 20th, so 2-3 business days after that it would hit my account, which id didn't because your account was flagged due to too many attempts.. Either way, No big deal, The show much go on, your last payment didn't come in until Tuesday May 23rd...Scheduling freight is difficult, Scheduling Freight last minute is a nightmare and expensive!
I will not issue a second refund via paypal, that leaves me completely vulnerable to the refund that is already in progress. I also don't save Credit card information, That is a square thing and I will not ever have access to customer Credit card numbers, That is all third party. nor would I want to.
As I messaged you today, The last and final payment is in process so when it does finally hit your account we can put this behind us and move on, It's unfortunate that its been a pain to this point, If I had my way it would have been done the first time. it's 1am My time, I apologize but I have to log off. If you have any further concerns, My number is always available. Have a wonderful evening, Talk to you soon.
 
Rhode Island Reptiles said:
A person can order a cage in august, Have a 6 week delivery window, If after a few days the order is modified I have to work that into my production schedule, Than more changes a week after and again days after that, a 6 week timeframe turns into 12 weeks very quickly... How can anyone successfully plan a build with constant changes?

your first payment came in march and after it was declined, I issued the invoice again so you could it again, it finally went through march 20th, so 2-3 business days after that it would hit my account, which id didn't because your account was flagged due to too many attempts.. Either way, No big deal, The show much go on, your last payment didn't come in until Tuesday May 23rd...Scheduling freight is difficult, Scheduling Freight last minute is a nightmare and expensive!
I will not issue a second refund via paypal, that leaves me completely vulnerable to the refund that is already in progress. I also don't save Credit card information, That is a square thing and I will not ever have access to customer Credit card numbers, That is all third party. nor would I want to.
As I messaged you today, The last and final payment is in process so when it does finally hit your account we can put this behind us and move on, It's unfortunate that its been a pain to this point, If I had my way it would have been done the first time. it's 1am My time, I apologize but I have to log off. If you have any further concerns, My number is always available. Have a wonderful evening, Talk to you soon.
Click to expand...

Warning: You have been warned about correcting your profile name field. You will remain in a limbo state until you contact me via private message with your real FULL name so I can correct that rule violation.
 
Yea, a window of 6 weeks in attempted deliverys that never were attempted. Pretty much expect when a delivery appointment is made that it is kept. There is no excuse for making appointment after appointment for delivery and it's never attempted, doesn't even come to my neiborhood let alone my house. I was here for each one of them, I was the only one that was here , no delivery truck of any kind. Make this go away, only one way to do that, issue my refund.
 
Just so we are clear . I made 4 charges total, the bank has refunded me for 3 of these charges, James and Square have not given me a penny back. No electronic information has ever been sent from Square reg. a refund EVER. All these refunds issued that James is saying he made have NEVER shown up in my account. Again, the refunds I have received have been accepted and paid back to me by BofA not Square, not James. BofA will go after Square who will go after James. The first payment has not yet been accepted by my bank because it is outside the 90 day timeframe. The first so called "refund" James said he issued was July 7 and it has NEVER been received by my bank, Square hasn't sent it out. July 7, 2017 then alledgidly again August 7, 2017 and nothing it is now August 17, 2017.. so just how long am I supposed to be relaxed and patient about being ripped off?
So James, stop taking credit for returning my money, you haven't yet.... Yet.
No financial institution or legitimate payment/money processing center/business takes 41+ days to return the money that was really "refunded" none.
 
TBadSeed said:
No electronic information has ever been sent from Square reg. a refund EVER. All these refunds issued that James is saying he made have NEVER shown up in my account. Again, the refunds I have received have been accepted and paid back to me by BofA not Square, not James.
Click to expand...

If you haven't gotten anything from Square regarding the refunds, you're getting played by James. As you can see from my screen shots, I eventually managed to at least get some kind of notice from Square, that being said, I still haven't wrangled a refund either.
 
I'm happy to share the email exchanges I had back and forth with James regarding my refund. It's several pages long, so I've tried attaching as a PDF...let's see if it works. Full disclosure, this was back in early 2016, but this just adds to the evidence here that leads me to question whether James' business is even real. You can also see in these emails where I requested pictures of the cage from James - I was willing to potentially work with him if I had proof that the cage was built, but I couldn't even get a simple picture. After the last email to him on Mar 15 2016 I disputed the charges via PayPal.

I'd advise people to even steer clear of local delivery as a "solution." That's what James was supposed to do for me and it never happened. I have dozens of pages of emails going back and forth about delivery; supposedly the cage was ready for delivery on Dec 7th. After taking several days off of work to be home for deliveries that never happened, I finally gave up.
 

Attachments

  • Gmail - Refund Status2.pdf
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Shady shady. That's too bad he keeps reeling in innocent people. I wonder how many know nothing about Fauna so we don't know if they've had the same problems? I think there's more than enough evidence here to avoid him.
 
Most state consumer fraud divisions have online complaint forms available, and Rhode Island does.
If a business gets one or two complaints there may be a quick check. But when a number of consumers complain about a business, the division may do a far more in depth inspection.
A complaint does not guarantee your issue solved, but it is free and it is one more weapon in the arsenal against sellers who don't deliver what they promise.

Of course the best weapon is Fauna because then readers who are prospective purchasers have the option of never having to deal with this hassle and possible fraud in the first place, but if you have been waiting on a refund forever, please consider the complaint process:

http://www.riag.ri.gov/ConsumerProtection/About.php
 
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