Where to start?
I had read the posts in the “Warning Ben Siegel” with the accusations made by “Sheilalovesanimals” Sheila Topp. I know, I know, after reading those no one in their right mind would deal with her. BUT, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. She had a Mali Uromastyx that had a health problem (a skin condition). I have a terrible soft spot for reptiles that are ill, especially uros, since I already have several of them and am getting into breeding. I did not want this one to breed, but wanted it simply to care for it and see if I could heal its condition. Also, I figured if this lady was half as “out there” as her posts seemed to imply, then the lizard would be a lot better off with me.
So, she had listed the Mali Uro on Reptibid. I did a Buy It Now on it for $20.00. I e-mailed her within 5 minutes of doing the buy it now. She e-mailed me back and told me that she would ship on Monday for Tuesday delivery with either FedEx or UPS (my choice) for $38 to $40. She then sent me a PayPal invoice for $58.00 ($20 for lizard, $38 for next day shipping). My computer crashed and I had to do a full system wipe-out and re-install Windows, which took me about 2 days. I did e-mail Sheila in the middle of this to let her know what was going on. I paid her the $58 in full via PayPal within 3 days of the end of the auction. Now mind you, within 24 hours of the end of the auction I had received 7 (SEVEN) e-mails from her and the last one said that she was going to leave me bad feedback if I didn’t pay (less than 24 hours after the auction ended!). I explained to her about my computer and the fact I was using a public computer at the library and did not feel comfortable accessing my PayPal account from a public computer. So it was 3 days after the auction when I paid her. She was fine with this. She e-mailed me and told me that she would ship the lizard out via FedEx on Monday, (January 3, 2005) and I would receive it on Tuesday (January 4, 2005) in the morning. I asked her to send me the tracking number as soon as she had it. Everything was ok up until this point.
Last night (Monday) I received an e-mail from Sheila that she had had a series of problems shipping the lizard. She was unable to use FedEx because she claimed that they wanted $71 to ship the package (the package weighs 2.70 pounds and is only traveling from FL to MS, about 250 miles). She said that FedEx and UPS had “gone way up on their rates” the previous day and that it was not her fault she couldn’t use FedEx, but that she had shipped it with UPS. Here is a direct quote from her e-mail:
“…i had to leave there and go down town to go a Ups we
have, so i walked in, ask if they did live shipping, and they said NO!
NO! NO!. Well, i just then decided to lie and tell them i was just
asking for a friend, and i proceeded to ship her out to you!!!! Man, i
hated i had to lie. What if something happens to her? Please let me
know when she gets there.I have $100 insurance on her. They think
she is Christmas Bulbs. Well anyway, since i missed there last pick up
ay 3:00 PM. I had to ship her to you before noon on Wednesday.”
I was a bit confused about the “noon on Wednesday” part since the package was supposed to arrive “next day”. She had provided me with a tracking number, so I went and checked it. Lo and behold, the lizard was shipped via UPS GROUND! I immediately got on the phone with UPS to double-check this. They said the package had been shipped via Ground and “should” be here on Wednesday, but there was no guarantee, it “may take up to 7 days to arrive” is what UPS told me. I was also informed that it only cost $8.47 to ship the package.
I immediately contacted Sheila with my concerns. I expressed to her that the lizard couldn’t live in transit like that for 7 days and suggested that she contact the store she dropped it off at and get the error corrected ASAP before the package got “into the system”. I also requested that the difference between the $38.00 that I paid her for NEXT DAY AIR shipping and the GROUND shipping (just over a $29.00 difference) be immediately refunded to me via PayPal (since PayPal is how I paid). To say the least, she adamently refused. I went ahead and filed a case with PayPal for the shipping overage charges. Sheila then sent me a “list of packaging supplies she had to buy” which included (directly quoted from her e-mail to me:
“Here is what you got for the $38.00 shipping: Plastic container $7.00,
Bubble wrap $4.00, 2 Heat packs $2.98, Shipping, $8.47”
Huh? I agreed to pay her $38.00 for next day air shipping and I get ground shipping and crazy prices for some things that weren’t even necessary to ship a lizard? Bubble wrap? I am wondering exactly what I am about to receive that is wrapped in bubble wrap? Surely she didn’t seal this lizard up in a plastic container and bubble wrap?
During all this I informed Sheila about the Lacey Act and tried to (as gently as possible) explain to her that shipping a live reptile without clearly marking the box was a violation of Federal law (so that she would think twice before doing this again). I was still trying to remain nice through this until she started sending me these absolutely (IMO) insane e-mails.
She also told me in an e-mail that she fed the lizard Sunday night, but then turned around and told me that she was in burmation and hadn’t eaten…? Here is what she had to say about that (also a direct quote):
“I told you i fed her last meal with me. I didn't say she ate it.”
Here are some direct quotes from her e-mails. I can do a screen shot of these if necessary (these are in order of oldest to newest and were ALL received between last night and this morning):
“I wish Bindy was not coming to your crazy a## home!
Just give her back to me. I don't want someone like you to have my
baby!!!!”
“You have me crying in tears!! She was my baby. Hard for me to get
rid of her. I thought i was doing a good thing, sending her to you. I
felt good in my heart about you, but Now i feel she is going to be
mistreated by you, just so you can prove a
point....I am so scared for her right now. Are you going to kill her
when you get her, just to say she died?
Please don't harm her. I will give you all your money back plus more, If
you just don't hurt her. You are really scarring me.
All i wanted was for her to be happy.”
I sent her a “cease and desist” to stop e-mailing me (she was filling up my e-mail box with strange, short e-mails). I asked her not to e-mail me again unless she was (1) going to pick up the package and not actually sending it to me and issuing me a full refund, or (2) she was sending a refund of $29.00 for the shipping overages. After I sent that, here is what I received:
(Entirety of an e-mail received this AM):
“you know what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F#$% off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (Edited for
obvious purposes)
“You broke the federal law by asking me to ship her to you, knowing
I couldn't do it. And you knew you had an account to do this, and i
had no clue of what to do to ship her. Your the one in your email that
told me, told me to ship her to you FED_X, So therefor, if anyone is
at fault here it's you B$TCH!” (Edited for obvious purposes)
“If you email me one more time you B$TCH, i am going to call the
authorities where you live, and have a police officer come to your
house for HARASSMENT>>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (Edited for obvious
reasons)
The only e-mails I have sent to her were regarding getting a refund for $29.00 or so that I was overcharged for shipping and to let her know that in the future, she should not ship reptiles unless she is legally allowed to do so (box clearly marked, etc.). I have never said one cross word to this person and I am receiving many, many e-mails with veiled threats and cursing and (IMO) general craziness. I have never, nor would I ever, harm any animal just to “prove a point”. This is something this person has made up in her head to try to justify the fact that she did something wrong. She *did* offer me a $15.55 refund, and I counter-offered and told her that I would split the difference with her and take a $20.00 refund. She said no, that she would refund $16.00, but that I had to cancel my PayPal dispute first. Needless to say, I declined. I agreed to cancel my dispute if she sent me back the $20.00, but that the dispute would not be canceled until after the funds were received (I did not receive a direct response to that, just more non-sensical e-mails).
At this point I am contemplating refusing the package and letting UPS return it to her. I don’t know yet. The worst thing about this is that I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor lizard that is in that box. I would hate to refuse it and send it back to her, since I know it would probably die in the process (if it isn’t dead by the time it reaches me in the first place). I’m not yet sure of what I am going to do.
All I asked for was a partial refund since I paid $38 for next day air shipping and received $8.47 worth of Ground shipping. I didn’t ask for the $20 back I paid for the lizard. I only asked for what was fair and tried to help out someone who I thought could use some advice about shipping reptiles. In response I receive over 20 e-mails like the ones above in about a 12 hour time frame.
I wanted to post my experience (thus far) with this person just so that others DON’T make the same mistake that I did! I tried to include every detail , as to not be accused of leaving out anything, as I know this person will obviously respond and I am already assuming she is going to respond here much in the same manner as she has on other posts and via e-mail.
I have done all I know to do at this point to resolve the situation amicably, but I don’t think that is going to happen at this point. I am not going to continue e-mailing her. There is simply no need, since with each e-mail, her responses get stranger and more full of profanity, etc. I am going to let PayPal deal with her on the shipping overage charges and stuff.
I just don’t want anyone else having to go though what I have already been through with this one. This doesn’t involve a big $$$ amount, the total of $58.00 is not a big deal to most people. But the way that the Seller (Sheila) has handled this situation should say a lot about her character and business practices for anyone who had been thinking of purchasing a reptile from her.
