Bad Guy Shelby Mershon

[rjarosek]

if the temps were below freezing and the snake had a smell upon arrival, then it had to be cooked and cooked for some time. Decomp doesn't start quickly in cold temps and is stopped in freezing temps.

Good point!

 

[garweft]

i got another email from Shelby this morning.

I would just like to remind everyone of this email, the response to my DOA claim: On Jan 19, 2011, at 12:48 PM, shelby mershon <[email protected]> wrote:


Hi Morgan,
I am sorry for what happened.When i packed the animal he had 3 heat packs and i was kinda of scraed of it being to mutch heat.A heat pack was taped to each end of the box and asmall heat pack was taped to the lid.Before i shipped him out i even shot the box with a heat gun on the out side of the box and the temps wereinthe mid eighty's on the box.I felt very comfortable shipping him the way i packed him.I have recieved many of animals in the mail, and i duplicated the way people have shipped to me and i have never had any probs.I will be out of town for the next 2 wks.I do feel bad for what happened this is the first time i have had something go wrong shipping an animal.

Thanks shelby

Now the new email:
On Feb 28, 2011, at 9:51 AM, Shelby Mershon <[email protected]> wrote:


Hi morgan,
I am a very busy man and am always on the road traveling.so your first mistake was to not give me the time to get back in town and to take care of the situation and post what you did about being out of town and etc.I am sorry but there is nothin I can do for you.I said I didn't feel comfortable shipping the conditions we had at the time and you still wanted to take delivery of the animal.
Thanks Shelby


Yes i did say ID be comfortable with him shipped out if he had been given extra protective measures. None were not even basic ones. I doubt Shelby will come on here to post although i think we could potentially come to an agreement. But it looks like because I waited a month for him to get back to me with NO response, we wont reach any understanding. Im totally ok with that to. I tried more than once to come to an agreement privately before bringing this out. More than twice. sorry but over a month with no contact is a little rediculous.

The temps on the OUTSIDE of an insulated box were in the MID 80'S!?!?!

That snake was probably dead before he left his house to ship it out.

 

[Homegrown Scales]

I had asked numerous times about heat packs boxing everything. But in the end I said any doubts whatso ever I do NOT mind holding him. I had waited
Over a month and had zero complaints. The snake was not frozen. He was limp, dead and smelly. That was a Very very sad day for me here. This was my first doa I've ever had to deal with, I cried just about the whole day. I feel I was lied to and I then really could not make an informed decision. Even if temps were perfect the snake would have died the way he was shipped out. He over heated to death, packaging and packing supplies is the seller 100% responsibility. If I had been told that the heatpacks were handwarmers. I would have held him with shelby until summer time. I feel that the handwarmers were a way to save $ and IMO not the thing you scimp on. Nothing in packaging should be scimped on, IMO it just shows the opinion of your animals.
Morgan Weiss

 

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Hand warmers get entirely too hot for any animal. They should never be used under any circumstances. Period. His replies make me mad. I can not believe he has the audacity to say there is nothing he can do. He blatantly packed that poor snake wrong!

This seller uses materials that are not approved for animals nor safe in any way. He IS responsible. I hope this tarnishes his so called great rep indefinitely because if he chooses to ignore his own mistake, he deserves it.

 

[bullies&balls]

The temps on the OUTSIDE of an insulated box were in the MID 80'S!?!?!

That snake was probably dead before he left his house to ship it out.

Right !!! He says he shot the temp and showed temps in mid 80's OUTSIDE. that snake was cooked before it ever left the garage...

Man up Shelby !!!! stuff like this follows you around. Hate to see you set up and a local show and have to YELL from across the way, when you have customers at your table and ask, have you sent the guy a replacement for the snake you cooked trying to ship ???

I don't know any bigarsed rednecks that would do that

 

[Homegrown Scales]

This will eventually catch up to him. He still continues to ignore my latest response to his last email. I find the whole situation pretty sad. I find it totally pathetic that he chooses to ignore a mistake he made. I have also noticed that even though I notified him of this thread he hasn't made any attempt to come on here and explain anything, nor even attempt to situate things with me. At this point I will never ever do business with him, suggest him to anyone, or even consider him a good person! Why would you cut your nose off despite you face for a mistake of your own doing. Really really dumb.

 

[densnake1]

Big arsed FUGLY redneck!!!! You'll have to show me this Shelby guy at the next show. Doesn't make sense not to make this right. Oh well, it will probably cost him allot more than $350 in lost sales, in the long run.
Dennis

 

[bullies&balls]

LOL I didn't say FUGLY !!! he was set up in your normal spot last show. Hmmmmmmm LOL

 

[SirenSanJose]

The temps on the OUTSIDE of an insulated box were in the MID 80'S!?!?!

That snake was probably dead before he left his house to ship it out.

Holy... I missed that the first time.

80's.

on.

the.

OUTSIDE?

NO wonder the poor thing died. It had to be SO much hotter inside for that much heat to penetrate the styro. There's often a 15 or 20 degree difference, or even more, between the outside and inside temps on a styro. Poor snake!

 

[Sushi Dragons]

Poor snake never had a chance!

The fault is completely with the seller on this one. Trying to take the cheap way out with hand warmers instead of heat packs is just sad. It saves, what, two dollars? Three?
Not only that, but it is the seller's call on when to ship. Even if the buyer agrees to take chances shipping in bad weather, a responsible seller would refuse to risk the animal's well being.

Also, shipping via UPS despite their restrictions on snakes isn't doing the industry any favors.

 

[Keith N]

I recently purchased 2 CB Tokays from Morgan. Shipment was held due to temps and animal well being. I think it was 2 months before we received them so I am confident she wouldn't just rush to get something delivered in unfavorable temps. It sounds like shipper miss packaging to me.

 

[Focal]

In regards to the heat gun and the 80 degree temps on the outside of the box, I use heat guns on cars all the time and the surface temp is always the hottest point. If he hit the box with a heat gun for less than a minute, the outside of the box could hit 80 and the inside would be signifigantly less. If he sat there and hit it for an hour, the temps on the inside could have climbed high enough to kill the snake but honestly, I think the box would have reflected the damage if it was heated to the point to kill a snake. Remember, the box is insulated and he is heating from the outside in.

Either way, hitting a box with a heat gun is a moot point. The temps would have reached room temp again in a matter of minutes and IMO, would have just caused more stress on the snake from temperature fluctuations.

 

[Focal]

OP, were the heat packs taped to the roof of the styrofoam enclosure? If they were, I doubt the heat packs are to blame. Heat rises and a make shift styrofoam box would have trouble keep high temps IMO. The snake is also relatively small compared to the box so I don't think it was burned and may have had room to avoid the direct heat from the packs .

These are just my little CSI spin on things and may be wrong. I think the heat packs either extinguished way before delivery or the snake was dead from the get go. As someone pointed out, the temps would have kept this snake from decomposing so quickly to where it would smell. Any animal flesh that has died, been frozen, and then dethawed will decomse quicker than a live snake being shipped in cold temps and dying. I think there may be more than what meets the eye here but that's just my opinion.

 

[Focal]

Any animal flesh that has died, been frozen, and then dethawed will decomse quicker than a live snake being shipped in cold temps and dying. I think there may be more than what meets the eye here but that's just my opinion.

Sorry, I left a sentence out. I was infering the snake could have died, been frozen by seller, thawed out and shipped in a hot box, heat packs expired, got near freezing again, and then then thawed upon delivery. If this was the senario, it would explain the smell.

 

[Steveboos]

Sounds like a little research and patience on the seller's behalf could have saved the Pinstripes life. I hate hearing stories like this and want to hear the seller make it right, even though he did pretty much intentionally kill the poor snake.

 

[Homegrown Scales]

I beleive the heat gun Shelby was referring to is an infared temp gun. They take temps and not heat. I do not think the hand warmers Get hot enough to damage syro or a box. But I know they get hot enough to kill. I'm sure a snake could Perish at what? 120-130.f? That's not hot enough to damage the box, or foam. I do understand what you are saying Focalx at this point we really dont know. I mean what he was shipped in definately could have killed him if he was alive going into the box. I assume he was, but hey ya never know. I've seen animals the were dead frozen and thawed and he seemed recently deceased. Further more there was No bloat, but a smell, and his eyes apart from being sunken from death were also wrinkled. I'm thinking he passed from an over heat. I think I'd be just way tooo disgusted to think a seller would knowingly sell someone a dead snake. That's just way too beyond my comprehension at this point.
Morgan Weiss

 

[chamgirl99471]

I would NEVER ship an animal in those temps and am constantly checking the temps here and whereever the animal is going to avoid situations like this. I will even check on the day that I am shipping due to fluctuations that can occur within hours of the last check! I had a Gecko I sold but held onto for almost 2 weeks due to the weather and the customer was fine with that and I am currently holding onto a Ball Python that I will not ship till the weather in the area she is going to reaches a temp that I am comfortable shipping in and the customer is also fine with this arrangement!

I would have to say this DOA falls completely on the seller and the money needs to be refunded immediately! I feel for that poor snake.. there is no telling exactly what that animal had gone through before perishing One seller that has made my list of who not to do business with. It's not the good transactions that people have that determine if I will ever purchase from them.. It's the way they handle a problem that makes that decision for me and so far this is NOT the way to handle this situation.

 

[AbsoluteApril]

OP, were the heat packs taped to the roof of the styrofoam enclosure? If they were, I doubt the heat packs are to blame. .

In the first post on this thread, in one of the emails the seller states "A heat pack was taped to each end of the box and asmall heat pack was taped to the lid."


Morgan, I hope he sees the error of this and makes it right for you.

 

[Homegrown Scales]

What I find very interesting is there is a good guy post about Shelby. (found in the similar threads at the bottom of the page) where on feb 17th another customer of his received a DOA and he replaced it immediately. This was 9 days before I posted this where for the whole time up until he the 27 th when I posted this he was "out
Of town". Up until then I hadn't had any replies from email or by phone. I don't understand why he's choosing to do this. I brought it here because I felt like I had a justified claim but wanted to subject it to my peers to just frankly be sure. I feel like it's a really crappy thing to do to someone and if he doesn't make it right it shows the type of seller he is, and it especially shows how he ships his animals. So by far people be warned. If he does make it right, and I personally pick this to be an option. But it will hopefully be a lesson learned to not ship herps with hand warmers. If he does I will most definately post that he has fulfilled his responsibility and the seller/shipper of
The animal. And them at least people can know that he made good on his mistake.

 

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

The temperature outside the box at the time of shipping means nothing in this case. The hand warmers are what the problem is. They get too hot right away and then cool down quickly. They cook animals and then if the snake does not die from the intense heat, it will freeze to death when the heat stops working halfway through shipping. They are not suitable for shipping any animal, any time of the year.

There should be no discussion on this. The wrong heat packs were used. This is why the snake died. It doesn't matter where they were in the box. There is no way to justify the DOA in any way other than shipper neglect.