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Strictly Reptiles inc. (Inquiry)

C

CDAreptiles

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I am looking for a new supplier of wholesale animals for my business. I am considering purchasing from Strictly Reptiles inc. located in Florida. Are they a reliable source of high quality animals?

Any information iwill be extremely helpful and strongly appreciated. Suggestions about other reliable wholesale companies are also highly appreciated!

Thanks,
CDAreptiles
 
Strictly Reptile

I have dealt with strictlys for abotu 10 years, may be more, and they are one of the few wholesalers I trust anymore. You will probably find just as many people that dont like them, as the ones that do, Thats part of being a wholesaler, you cant make everybody happy all the time. I personally deal with jeanne, who has never steered me wrong. All the animals I recieve from them are top notch, and if something does not look good, she always calls and lets me now before shipping. I have spent lots of money with them over years and will continue to do so, I have never had any regrets dealing with thme. Just keep in mind one thing a lot of people forget, they are a wholesaler, not a breeder. Good luck
 
I'll preface this by saying I haven't dealt with them directly in about 10 years, but I've gotten great stuff from Strictly's...and I have gotten absolute crap (as well as a lot of stuff in between). We used them intermittently for the shop - not our main supplier, but if they had things we wanted for ourselves we usually did a shop order at the same time. Overall, the quality for petstore type animals was ok - as long as you realize that some things may require a bit of time/effort to get them sale-worthy. For personal animals, I have a friend in the business that hand picked what I wanted when he made his trip over (my satisfaction rate went WAAY up after that, lol).
I would say that if you are going to be a regular account, and deal consistently with the same person, you should do ok.
 
I am in the camp that does not appreciate Strictly Reptiles. I bought one snake; once (Uracoan Rattlesnake). The animal regurged every meal from day one. An expensive vet visit revealed nothing, and I cut my losses by not getting a necropsy, since my collection was not in danger. The problem was the response from Strictly. They basically just did not care and assumed I was at fault. Not even an offer of a future discount. Their loss as I have since spent thousands of dollars elsewhere. I have seen lots of species I would like on their list and they are an easy drive for me. Oh well.
 
Don't recall. This was about a year ago. I do remember this never came up as an issue. Rather they just insisted the sale was final, without disputing that they may have sold a sick animal. Like I said, just a bad vibe from them for the "little guy". They may very well treat others better. I will just continue with my personal statement of not using them. This is actually an inconvenience for me.
 
I have recently purchased from them. This was the first time in 4 years that I had tried them due to the poor quality of the animals I recieved the last time. I must say I was more than disapointed when I unpacked the animals to find missing animals babys when I payed for adults and some were just severly dehydrated. When I talked to Ray Jr. om the phone I explained to him the situation as to why I had stopped oredering from them. I also explained I was going to give them another try but needed quality animals as we are a reptile and amphibian specialty store we have to have the best quality possable. I was assured that I would get just that.
Well when the package came in I called them right away. I had ordered adult female kings for a customer. They charged me for adults and sent me babys. The problem was I did not need babys. My customer had ordered adults for breeding purposes. They did offer me a credit for the missing animals however. Doubt I will ever use it unless I can make the time to drive down as I don't trust them to send me the correct animals. I beleive if you have the time to go handpick go for it. If you have to get them shipped I would avoid them try somewhere else.
 
I have Dealt with them. And I will say the quality of the animals is not up there with some other Wholesalers.

Me personally I like Extreme Reptiles. They have never sent me a sick animal. If the animal was not good enough to sell they just did not ship it and did not charge me. Alfredo is the best IMO.

I still look at other wholesalers list though and may try others. But Strickly is one of the last on my list. Sorry to say.
 
I live close to their facility and i would get reptiles from them from time to time. I was never really impressed with anything. I do remember lots of dead and dying reptiles in garbage cans and on the cage floors. I also breed rodents and was extremely overloaded one time so i contacting all the local reptile stores and offered them very cheap prices just to get down to normal numbers.I got rid of all my surplus rodents in about a week and then Mike Norstrand contacted me.I let him know i had gotten rid of all the surplus and he started to send me threatening emails. Anyway he lost me as a customer because of his behavior and since then i have spent a bundle elsewhere-Mike is well known for acting like an idiot and screaming a lot.
 
Let me start by saying Ray Sr. is a good friend of mine.. I get only quality animals from him. But let me also say that I personally HAND PICK everything that I buy weekly.I spend allot of $$ in there weekly and have never been mistreated.. I do not get everything from him, I also use Glades Herp, Silver City, here in Florida. I also use a few guys out of Texas and California.
 
You should not have to spend a lot of money weekly in order to be treated like a human and receive a healthy product---What about the ton of people who can't get the HAND PICKS; do they deserve to get trash in a box-- Mike has lost more customers by his attitude than reptiles he has thrown in his dumpster--Brian
 
If you are looking for customer service, don't buy from Strictly. If you want cheap wholesaled animal's that may or may not be healthy, buy from Strictly.
 
when i used to order from them, i received about 80% garbage. calzoo (california zoological supply) is MUCH better. they are A LITTLE pricier, but the minimum order is less and the animals are of much better quality.
 
I'm an importer from Thailand and I've done business with Strictly for almost a year now. I import once a month. They do have good thing and not so good things, but overall I'm happy doing business with them. Here're their pros and cons from my experience.

Good thing
- their price is kinda good on many animals compare to some other importers
- variety of animals: Since I'm in Thailand, I must order as many as I can in one shipment. I can't order some here and some there. So their variety help me import many thing at once. So maybe this pro is for oversea importer only.
- Jeane(the only person I deal with since she's export manager) is honest about quality of animals. For example, sometimes when I order something she told me that they've sold most of them so what's left is not of the best quality. Then she told me when they expect a new shipment of that kind of animals, so I should try making an order that time. She's a very nice lady, she help me a great deal and I always appriciate this fact.
- They get CITES export permit very quick. This is a good thing for oversea importers.

Not so good thing
- Every shipment there's always missing "kind" of animal. I pay them 100% up front, and they send me invoice of everything I paid for one day prior of shipping, but when I open the box there's always some animals missing. I'm not talking about something like they send me 5 Blizzard corn when I paid for 6...I'm talking about I paid for 6 Blizzard corn and get not even one Blizzard corn(just an example.) Everyshipment there's always $200-$400 worth missing animals. I feel like some animals they don't have but keep looking for it until the last minute...if I'm lucky they find that animal and put in my box. I know I'm not their biggest customer but I never pay them less than $6,000 each time. However, if I point out right after I receive the shipment, they told me they will give me credit for the next shipment...but I always have to keep track and keep reminding them the next time they send me an invoice that they forgot to put my credit store in the invoice.lol I've this problem everytime, and it's getting tiresome. They're not dishonest people because if I tell them, they give me credit back. Think that if you all were me and every shipment you always hope that the missing animals is not the thing that you can make money the most, then something's not right. If you have this problem in the US then you always can have them ship. But for me every shipment's expenses always above $2,000 and have to wait around a week or two to get import permit, it's not good.
----
I'm not gonna talk about sick animals because I've had that problem only once with 6 Suriname Boa Constrictor, which all 6 of them died within one month after they get here. Thai mouse must be too spicy for them lol

So I say you all who have a chance to get there and hand pick the animal are very lucky guys. But if you're oversea importer...be prepare. I just got all 6 blazing blizzard with missing tail. And that's my last time dealing with them.

I just got a deal to supply reptiles to 5 zoos in Thailand and after two weeks of thinking, I'll look for a new supplier(s)

Bottomline is they're not that bad, there're good things and bad things. However, it's just that I've never tried any other exporter could be worse though lol

Hope this help
 
A few years Ago......

I ordered all the time from Strictly.....Now I go to Dallas(U.S.Global Exotics)to hand Pick my Critters........If you want Hand Picked Strictly, Order from Mark
Lucas......Now for the reasons I don't Order from them anymore........I still have a $125 credit.....But I won't use it because they send Dead Stuff just to
Keep you ordering......They figure as long as they Owe you, you'll never be broke..and you'll keep ordering to get your credit..... Anyway I purchased a $2000 order(Venomous and Non). I noticed that the Egyptian Cobra was supposed to be 6', but this one was in a deli cup..Didn't look like a Egyptian...I put it to the side and would identify it later.........1:00 AM, Early that morning I finally got everything put up and decided to ID the snake, I popped the top and stuck my face in close for a good view.....Splat....It was
a Blackneck Spitter..My first Spitter....and I just got an eye full. "Tommy" was the one who packed that order up......HaHa....After a 15min Shower
Blasting striaght into my eye, I determined that I got most of the vemon.
I still ended up with a sore eye for a few days. :dgrin:
 
Keith,

I've heard someone saying something similar to you. They're not talking about Strictly Reptiles, but my importers friends told me that many people export dead animals/missing animal so you'll have to keep ordering with them.

Now I'm paranoid! lol

About your situation, can you sue them or something? It's way serious I think.
 
I think getting half dead and dehydrated animals is a cost of doing business when you want to buy WC's. I've done business with just about every importing entity in this thread and you get the same stuff more or less from all of them from time to time - good, bad, half dead and dead. Kieth's spitting Cobra seems like a little bonus buy though, hahaha. Unless you can pick in person you'll always run a huge risk of getting something that isn't in the greatest of shape. But, the WC prices tend to be a fraction of CBB, so there is a trade off to the deal but there is always the gamble too. Is all this from a customer service standpoint cool? Eh, probably not, but it seems clear this is how the show has always been run and seems to continue to do the same. IMO, expect when you go into the deal that the animal will be rough, probably won't make it and when/if it does, you'll be pleasantly suprised.

-Matt Jillson
 
I have delt with Ray and lil Ray and Mike off and on for many years.
I usually hand pick what I want from the store and I allways am very happy with what I get.
Allways treated very well. One time about two years ago My son and I was there Ray senior walked up and said hello. He saw my son eyeing some collard lizards and then walked up and gave him one free of charge. I know that is a drop in the bucket but it is times like this that I can call them friends.
A teenage kid walked out of there smiling ear to ear.
 
I just want to thank everyone for responding to this post....... I read all responses and decided that the risk of ordering from strictly was simply too much therefore I decided to follow a friend's advice and purchased from Xtreme reptiles instead.

I am EXTREMELY satisfied with Xtreme reptiles. I recommend them to everyone!

Customer service is amazing as are their animals!!!!!!!
 
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