chevyjam2001
New member
On October 27th I reached an agrement with Michael Franqui for $2000.00 shipped for his Jungle trio from this ad http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=282168&highlight=jungles . I was getting ready to leave for Illinois to go hunting for a week so we had agreed that I would send him $1000.00 for a deposit and that I would send the other half when I returned as was ready for shipping. That way it gave me time to locate a few cages and get them ready for my new arrivals. A cashiers check for $1000.00 was sent out on Friday 10/28.
On November 10th, the last day of my trip in Illinois I get a text from him wanting to know when I will be able to pay them off as he is worried about it getting to cold to ship. When I got home Friday 11/11 I checked the weather forcast and it was looking like Monday 11/14 was going to be the best possible day to ship with lows in the low 40's, after that the lows were supposed to be getting into the low to mid 30's. After reviewing my finances I called him early Saturday morning and told him I could send a $500 cashiers check and the other $500 as a personal check. I asked if he could hold off on cashing the personal check until Tuesday 11/15 so I could get to my credit union and get the money to cover it. We even discussed why I asked him to do this. I told him I keep my savings in a credit union account about 100 miles from my house to prevent impulse buying. I told him I could send the checks out that day (Saturday 11/12) overnight from a UPS store and he would have them on Monday morning. I asked him if he was ok with that and if he would ship on Monday for Tuesday delivery. I was going to be off work on Tuesday so it would work out perfectly. He agreed to everything so I sent the funds to him on 11/12.
On Monday 11/14 I sent him a text asking him if he received the payment. He responded saying he just got up and it was waiting for him on his door step. He tells me the babies will ship that day, that he has to stop and get some heat packs and he will send me a tracking number later that afternoon. The next text I get at 3:00 pm he tells me he is stuck at work and will have his cousin ship the snakes. At 5:38 I get a text with a pic of a tracking number on a shipping label. At 5:40 pm I get a pic of a door with their hour and its him saying his cousin missed shipping by 15 minutes and he will call me when he gets off work to find out the next available day. I responded immediately and told him that is not what I wanted to hear. The next text I get at 5:53 says "it made it he had to follow a ups driver to the hub" It was a Fedex shipping label and tracking number he sent me not UPS. So I keep checking the number and it never shows a pickup. I call him the following morning and ask him what was going on. He acts all surprised when I tell him the "package" was never picked up at his end. He tells me he never made it home from his girlfriends the previous night so he would call and try to find out what was happening at his end. I then went online to check my bank and sure enough the check he agreed to hold for me until Tuesday was immediatley cashed on Monday when it arrived. So I got hit with an NSF fee but they paid the check. I tried to call him back and he wouldn't answer so I sent a text and asked why he cashed the check. He said that was how he paid the shipping, I told him I'm pretty sure the $500 cashiers check would have covered the shipping. He tells me the snakes were forgotten behind the counter at the Fedex hub but they can still be sent out for Wednesday delivery. I asked him if he could at least pick them up and repackage them. I have never shipped snakes before but i was worried that 2 days in the box would be to long and that the heat pack would be used up by the time they arrived. He calls me back a few minutes later and said that he was to late and that they were put on a truck and on their way to me so there was nothing more he could do. So at this point I'm thinking fraud and I call his local police department to find out what I need to do. They tell me I have to file a report with my local police so I gather all of my documents and head to the sherrifs department. That night I get a call from him, he is mad at me for calling the cops (the deputy I spoke to called him) and says it was a mistake on Fedex's part and that the tracking info would update at 5:00. I told him that if I had jumped the gun I appologize but from my end things were starting to look very shady. So sure enough a little after 5:00 Fedex show a package pick up for that tracking number. I live out in the country a bit and I don't usually get my fedex shipments until late in the afternoon usually well after 3:00 pm. I called Fedex and ask if I could pick them up right at the airport hub where the plane lands. They tell me I could pick it up at the sorting facility where everything from the plane goes to be put on the trucks. He said that they can separate the package out and I could pick it up anytime after 9:00 am. Since I didn't want to take any more chances I agreed to pick them up. So I had to take another day off 11/16 to go pick them up. I got there about 8:45 and they already had the box waiting behind the counter. Am I glad I did, they were shipped out without any heat pack in the box at all and they were very, very cold. I live in Michigan and the low that night was in the 30's.
When I open the bag I see the sunglow and hypo but instead of the albino jungle I see a very dark almost black snake in the bag. This is the snake that was sent in place of the albino http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=282749 . I took several pics in the Fedex office but when I tried to text or call the number had been disconnected. As soon as I got home I called the sherrifs dept and told him what happened. Then since I didn't know what the snake in the bag was (I never checked his other ads) I put up pictures on another forum asking if anybody knew what the dark snake was and who produced it. She is rather unique so I figured somebody might recognize it. I also posted a pic of the missing albino jungle asking for information about her whereabouts. Within minutes, responses started coming in. I was directed to the ad for the Central American super stripe, so I knew what she was and who produced her. I then get a response from somebody about the missing albino jungle, he said that he has her in New York. He was kind enough to pm me his phone number and we had a lengthy conversation. He had the albino in his possesion for a week by this time which means that the albino was no longer in Mike's possesion when he contacted me on the 10th or when I sent my money on the 12th. I then called Davinci Boa, who produced the CA I received instead to at least confirm she was what was stated in the ad. I was told she is a possible het for T-pos not a 100% as the ad implies. I also had a very lengthy conversation with the owner and he was not to happy about about her being sold. She was the only female he produced this year and she was not supposed to be sold. He was also kind enough to give me some info on his and Mike Franqui's relationship. I know we are not supposed to have third party quotes so I won't go into detail, but I am only mentioning this because I feel my conversation with him Is why I received a call from Mr. Franqui that night. When Mike called me that night he tried to blame it on his cousin mixing them up. He told me he wasn't home at the time, that he had been at his girlfriends all weekend. (yet remeber he was there when the money arrived) I told him that it would be very difficult for him to make the deal good because I already knew he was no longer in possesion of the snake I wanted. At that time he offered to send me the $900 that was his individual asking price for her in his ad and I would send the Central American back to him. I told him that was acceptable and agreed to it. Later that night I get a voice mail telling me he will only send me $750 because $900 was how much she would have been if I had paid full price for all 3 but since he took $150 off for the package price he was going to take that off of how much he would send me. I texted him back saying that was unaaceptable, I was not going to take the hit for his failure to honor the deal. He told me I could take the $750 or he would send the full $2000 back and I could send all of them back. I told him I wasn't sending the Sunglow or the Hypo back, I just expected him to make good on the albino. After thinking it over for a few days and realizing it is probably getting to cold for a newbie such as myself to ship I offered him a third option of sending me $350 and I would keep the CA and try to sell her locally so I wouldn't have to worry about shipping. That was 3 days ago and still havent heard from him so I am under the impression he is no longer willing to attempt to come to an agreement. I had hoped I would never find myself having to post here but unfortunately I have no other choice but to try to warn others to keep it from happening to them.
On November 10th, the last day of my trip in Illinois I get a text from him wanting to know when I will be able to pay them off as he is worried about it getting to cold to ship. When I got home Friday 11/11 I checked the weather forcast and it was looking like Monday 11/14 was going to be the best possible day to ship with lows in the low 40's, after that the lows were supposed to be getting into the low to mid 30's. After reviewing my finances I called him early Saturday morning and told him I could send a $500 cashiers check and the other $500 as a personal check. I asked if he could hold off on cashing the personal check until Tuesday 11/15 so I could get to my credit union and get the money to cover it. We even discussed why I asked him to do this. I told him I keep my savings in a credit union account about 100 miles from my house to prevent impulse buying. I told him I could send the checks out that day (Saturday 11/12) overnight from a UPS store and he would have them on Monday morning. I asked him if he was ok with that and if he would ship on Monday for Tuesday delivery. I was going to be off work on Tuesday so it would work out perfectly. He agreed to everything so I sent the funds to him on 11/12.
On Monday 11/14 I sent him a text asking him if he received the payment. He responded saying he just got up and it was waiting for him on his door step. He tells me the babies will ship that day, that he has to stop and get some heat packs and he will send me a tracking number later that afternoon. The next text I get at 3:00 pm he tells me he is stuck at work and will have his cousin ship the snakes. At 5:38 I get a text with a pic of a tracking number on a shipping label. At 5:40 pm I get a pic of a door with their hour and its him saying his cousin missed shipping by 15 minutes and he will call me when he gets off work to find out the next available day. I responded immediately and told him that is not what I wanted to hear. The next text I get at 5:53 says "it made it he had to follow a ups driver to the hub" It was a Fedex shipping label and tracking number he sent me not UPS. So I keep checking the number and it never shows a pickup. I call him the following morning and ask him what was going on. He acts all surprised when I tell him the "package" was never picked up at his end. He tells me he never made it home from his girlfriends the previous night so he would call and try to find out what was happening at his end. I then went online to check my bank and sure enough the check he agreed to hold for me until Tuesday was immediatley cashed on Monday when it arrived. So I got hit with an NSF fee but they paid the check. I tried to call him back and he wouldn't answer so I sent a text and asked why he cashed the check. He said that was how he paid the shipping, I told him I'm pretty sure the $500 cashiers check would have covered the shipping. He tells me the snakes were forgotten behind the counter at the Fedex hub but they can still be sent out for Wednesday delivery. I asked him if he could at least pick them up and repackage them. I have never shipped snakes before but i was worried that 2 days in the box would be to long and that the heat pack would be used up by the time they arrived. He calls me back a few minutes later and said that he was to late and that they were put on a truck and on their way to me so there was nothing more he could do. So at this point I'm thinking fraud and I call his local police department to find out what I need to do. They tell me I have to file a report with my local police so I gather all of my documents and head to the sherrifs department. That night I get a call from him, he is mad at me for calling the cops (the deputy I spoke to called him) and says it was a mistake on Fedex's part and that the tracking info would update at 5:00. I told him that if I had jumped the gun I appologize but from my end things were starting to look very shady. So sure enough a little after 5:00 Fedex show a package pick up for that tracking number. I live out in the country a bit and I don't usually get my fedex shipments until late in the afternoon usually well after 3:00 pm. I called Fedex and ask if I could pick them up right at the airport hub where the plane lands. They tell me I could pick it up at the sorting facility where everything from the plane goes to be put on the trucks. He said that they can separate the package out and I could pick it up anytime after 9:00 am. Since I didn't want to take any more chances I agreed to pick them up. So I had to take another day off 11/16 to go pick them up. I got there about 8:45 and they already had the box waiting behind the counter. Am I glad I did, they were shipped out without any heat pack in the box at all and they were very, very cold. I live in Michigan and the low that night was in the 30's.
When I open the bag I see the sunglow and hypo but instead of the albino jungle I see a very dark almost black snake in the bag. This is the snake that was sent in place of the albino http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=282749 . I took several pics in the Fedex office but when I tried to text or call the number had been disconnected. As soon as I got home I called the sherrifs dept and told him what happened. Then since I didn't know what the snake in the bag was (I never checked his other ads) I put up pictures on another forum asking if anybody knew what the dark snake was and who produced it. She is rather unique so I figured somebody might recognize it. I also posted a pic of the missing albino jungle asking for information about her whereabouts. Within minutes, responses started coming in. I was directed to the ad for the Central American super stripe, so I knew what she was and who produced her. I then get a response from somebody about the missing albino jungle, he said that he has her in New York. He was kind enough to pm me his phone number and we had a lengthy conversation. He had the albino in his possesion for a week by this time which means that the albino was no longer in Mike's possesion when he contacted me on the 10th or when I sent my money on the 12th. I then called Davinci Boa, who produced the CA I received instead to at least confirm she was what was stated in the ad. I was told she is a possible het for T-pos not a 100% as the ad implies. I also had a very lengthy conversation with the owner and he was not to happy about about her being sold. She was the only female he produced this year and she was not supposed to be sold. He was also kind enough to give me some info on his and Mike Franqui's relationship. I know we are not supposed to have third party quotes so I won't go into detail, but I am only mentioning this because I feel my conversation with him Is why I received a call from Mr. Franqui that night. When Mike called me that night he tried to blame it on his cousin mixing them up. He told me he wasn't home at the time, that he had been at his girlfriends all weekend. (yet remeber he was there when the money arrived) I told him that it would be very difficult for him to make the deal good because I already knew he was no longer in possesion of the snake I wanted. At that time he offered to send me the $900 that was his individual asking price for her in his ad and I would send the Central American back to him. I told him that was acceptable and agreed to it. Later that night I get a voice mail telling me he will only send me $750 because $900 was how much she would have been if I had paid full price for all 3 but since he took $150 off for the package price he was going to take that off of how much he would send me. I texted him back saying that was unaaceptable, I was not going to take the hit for his failure to honor the deal. He told me I could take the $750 or he would send the full $2000 back and I could send all of them back. I told him I wasn't sending the Sunglow or the Hypo back, I just expected him to make good on the albino. After thinking it over for a few days and realizing it is probably getting to cold for a newbie such as myself to ship I offered him a third option of sending me $350 and I would keep the CA and try to sell her locally so I wouldn't have to worry about shipping. That was 3 days ago and still havent heard from him so I am under the impression he is no longer willing to attempt to come to an agreement. I had hoped I would never find myself having to post here but unfortunately I have no other choice but to try to warn others to keep it from happening to them.
