Terri Sommella Fire and Ice Dragons -- Nightmare

[thecobrakid]

Fauna Penal Code

The Fauna Bench Warrant shall remain in affect until such time that the Defendant is arrested brought before the Court. LOL

*Contempt of Court
-Count 2 - Ignore Subpoena (10/20/04)

Carries a maximum penalty of 10 hours hard labor on a hog farm lol These are very serious allegations. Unless she has a good defense....she could be confined to a hog farm for a long time.

You guys have a Merry Christmas!

 

[Rockford]

Good God!!! A hog farm. That's pretty harsh punishment. LOL. I hope I am never on the other side of your bench! I know..... I just won't rip anyone off.

Happy Holidays!

Bthacker

 

[Lynn]

Lynn- I am sure you sell your holdbacks as holdbacks but I have encountered breeders and brokers selling holdbacks when they really aren't. They are just labeled as such. I didn't say every breeder just some. I have a post a couple of pages back regarding this topic.

I honestly believe that Terri labels her regualr stock as "holdbacks" to entice buyer's but that is just my opinion. I don't know her but judging from her business practices I am left with this conclusion.

Anyway, thanks for being a responsible breeder/seller.

Bthacker

Thank You and MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS..
I understand what you are saying.. My holdbacks are generally 4 to 8 months old..

 

[jnsreptiles]

I have to agree with Lynn. I live close to her and have seen all of her stock, including ALL of her breeders. I myself have several bearded dragons that my wife and I breed. We sell the highest quality animals as holdbacks, and the rest at market value. If Lynn says one of her animals is a holdback, and it is priced more, It is well worth it. Lynn has been around longer than most breeders out there, including myself, and like I said before, I am honored to have some of her dragons in our breeding collection. I do not understand the difference in "breeder quality and holdback quality". All my holdbacks are holdbacks for one reason or another. Whether it is because of size or color or pattern, there is reason for all holdbacks. "Breeder quality" animals is just another word for holdbacks that the original breeder can't keep for one reason or another. Maybe they have too many males, and now the males they have for sale are breeders??? Ok, I am going to go on a soap box now and hope I don't piss off too many people. If I do, oh well, you all have my email. Let me have it if I do. In the bearded dragon world, all the morph names are crap! They are all made up. Unlike the Ball python world, where you breed a pastel male to a normal female and receive both normals and pastels, the bearded dragon world is full of a bunch of made up names. I could breed my male red dragon I got from Kakadu to a Crawley female and call it a sunfirexspitfirexcrawleyxchrisallenxredflamexbloodxsandfirexsunburnedxetc.xetc.xetc. Or I could just call it a Smith's Red holdback, "breeder quality". Then next week, when it sell's for $500, wow, looky here, I got another "breeder quality" Smith's Red for $500 and so on and so on. The point I am trying to make is, all bearded dragons are worth something, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is a $500 dragon to you, may only be worth $50 to me, and vice versa. If you are looking for quality dragons, go to the reputable breeders. I back all my dragons with 100% satisfaction, and I will back all of Lynn's dragons too. Like I said, Lynn has some really nice dragons, some of the best on the market. Next time you are looking to spend $500 on animals, let either me or Lynn know. I guarantee you will receive atleast 2 or 3 dragons you can be proud of and boast to others about.

 

[jnsreptiles]

oops forgot the name tidbit. Sorry Rich.
Jason Smith

 

[Wuraka]

So, is there anymore information in regards to the original post? I have been following this post for quite sometime now, and would like to see if justice will prevail.



William Shuey

 

[jnewsome26]

We are still working with our CC company. I'll post whenever the matter is resolved.

Jonathan Newsome

 

[lawndart]

(Warning: Don't bash me you Biotchs for just stepp'n in! I was invited by the initiator's girl who found me in another forum. I have spent several hours reading every line of text in the past 20 some pages, so...)

Hello all,

I don't know what to think. I purchased from Terri two weeks before Christmas and paid $650 for one of her adult female leucitic dragons. After shipping I was out $700.00+. She (Beth) arrived, alive, but black; not the snow white of her picture as posted on Terri's web site. Exhibit A (for you legal types out there):

I can't say that I'm totally displeased but I have had issues with the dragon herself. She is not white now. She is tan at best. She did not eat on her own until yesterday. I have had to force feed her veggies which made her pissed and turn even darker.

Now, I know that dragons will stress out and not perform, color wise, after a big move (like flying 3000 miles in winter). I understand that if a dragon is stressed they will not eat, play or do the things we expect healthy, happy dragons to do! So, now that I have the heat to where she likes it and have implimented the steps suggested by Terri to help Beth acclimate, my initial fear for her "well being" has subsided.

I am concerned, however, for all of us old and new to Fire and Ice that such poor customer service was given to he who initiated this string. I'm even more concerned that Terri has not yet replied to this amassment of frustration with all the prompting. Is she not aware the court grows impatient? I assume she is too busy or maybe presents in life with a touch of untreated OCD or ADHD.

Please, Terri no offense. I'm not bashing you I just understand these people!

Terri has, however, replied to all but one or two of my emails I have sent and has tried to help me in every way possible to assure the health of my dragon.
My experience with her has been more positive than negative. Yet, I did not ask for a refund either.

I don't think it is fair for some of you to cut her off just because a few individuals have issues with the product or the service. (However, Terri the allegations are serious! Customer service and guarantees and # 1 in the consumer’s eyes and not to honor these will devastate your business... Can you see what people are saying?) Back to my point...

My concern is that I paid a huge amount of money for a dragon that has had a slow start, is not yet performing and may continue to be troublesome for some time. I feel ripped off. Yet, I can blame no one but myself and I even had pictures.

I feel that if I continue to get service from her and she makes good with me I will not create a ripple for her. This issue of customer service is another story. Business owners and operators need to be held accountable for their product, service and public policy regardless their personal or fiduciary situation and never should that be placed upon the consumer!

Overall I have had a good experience with Fire and Ice. In retrospect, I also feel ripped off. Terri needs to come forth and defend herself however difficult that may be. It will win my respect and prevent an inevitable tsunami which will flood the minds of all consumers who find this discussion.

 

[salito718]

sorry guy, but i have to...


700 dollars?

 

[cthulhu77]

700 dollars

She really should change the name of her business:
"Fire and Ice Cleaners"

Wow...what a rip off !

greg

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

an adult female leuc WILL cost that much. if it truely is a leuc (and not a snow).

 

[lawndart]

Got cleaned!

Hey,

How do you think I feel? I'm the one out the "cool 7"! Hell for that I could have picked up two high quality breeders from Dragons Den with lights & cages & decor & ...

Note to self:

And Blckkat,
How would one really tell the difference between the two? Hell, right now Beth isn't anywhere close to white, snow, leuc or het or anything. She is a light tan color at best and right now in 110 basking spot she looks like a light toned German to me. I'm not psyched but I'm not pissed either. Prices for Leucitics are amoung the highest I've seen. D. Den sells their sexable young'ns for $500. Check out their web site. They don't guarante color either. It's written right there! What does make me sick is looking at Dragons by Nature's going out of business sale. Now that hurts! My haste gets the better of my pocketbook again, Doh!

Hey,
My ignorance! I just hope she is what Terri says she is! I don't have any reason to doubt her. Like I said, she has been helpful to me in every way! Thank goodness to, for $700 I'd fly out there personally if I was getting the shaft like our man who started this thing for resolution.

Anyone know of really good greeders of collector quality dragons other than those mentioned here? If so, drop me a link.
Thanks

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

I'm not sure how to explain to you how to tell. That would depend on whom you speak with.

I had the same problem with another breeder (if you read what I had typed pages ago). I purchased a "snow" from Sunshine Dragons and received anything but what I expected. They had pictured on their site WHITE dragons as snows. Nova's isn't white...he's tan...Talk about big disappointment. Now I've purchased a Orange Snow from Dragons by Nature...and she IS an orange snow...Wonderful coloring, and she's half the size of Nova!

I wish you luck and hope you didn't throw away $700 for nothing. If you're really disappointed, request a refund and send her back. I didn't have the heart to do that with Nova, I love him dearly...but he didn't set me back $700 either...

 

[woodlyn]

Terri and Fire and Ice citrus

This response is rather late in coming considering the beginning date of this thread, but I had to get my two cent in because my experience was as bad as Jonathan's was with Terri. I dished out $450.00 for a "breeding quality citrus" , if they are drab olive-yellow, than I guess I got what I paid for--anything but a citrus. Only I paid $300 over what her now stated breeder quality cost.

This was my respose to Jonathan-

My brother gave me a copy of your original posting and I almost fainted.
Word for word -- this was the same experience I had with Terri also. Complete with the screaming and accusations over the phone.


I was even told this particular dragon was her personal favorite and that she sat on her shoulder while she went about her daily chores and if I EVER wanted to return her she would take her back rather than see her end up in a pet shop.


It took me over 2 months before I felt that Joy "was out of the woods and on her way to surviving" Oh, I did the strained baby food chicken and fruit, cover the cage with white paper to lessen her stress, adjusted the temperature up and down, increased and decreased length of day light.


What I had wanted to purchase was a "citrus" female supposing breeder quality-What a joke! For $450.00 I received a pet quality female.
She has never had a good appetite nor will she ever be a true citrus.
I tried to return her to Terri and as you never got a response. I said I would settle for a partial refund between a pet quality and breeder quality priced dragon--no response.
Joy has never reached 350 grams even though she is out of two dragons that are over 425 & 570 grams. She is now a year and a half old. Still a picky eater, hates to be held and is the most putrid shade of yellowish-olive green you will ever see.


If she (Terri)were the last person on earth that had bearded dragons, I would never buy nor recommend any one else buy from her.


Like you, I have learned the hard way. I have purchased other dragons since that fateful day, all of which are thriving, fat and healthy and exactly what they were advertised to be.


I wish you luck in your pursuit of a refund.


Lynn

 

[jnewsome26]

The end of the road

Well folks, here is the end of the road for us.

Just got off the phone with the CC company for the final time. They have told us that because we have not attempted to ship the animal back, and cannot prove that we expressed our desire to exercise the garauntee within the initial 30 days there is nothing to be done. Never mind that it's a live animal and no breeder in the world would ship one without the certain knowledge that there was someone on the other end waiting for it. Not to mention that Fire and Ice's garauntee is contingent upon the receipt of a healthy animal, and moreover we don't want the animal to die! Since Terri cut off contact with us, and used phone as the primary form of communication with us before that we have no documentary proof that we requested the refund within the alotted amount of time. Never mind that we notified the CC company of our desire early in our dispute, telling them the breeder had cut off contact with us, they seem to have no record of that, and our 2nd time talking to them that was STILL within 30 days of receipt, which they DO have a record of, apparently does not constitute proof of desire to return the animal.

We're out $560, 500 for the animal and the 60 she charged us for shipping. My girlfriend's so upset about this she even canceled her account with Discover. So yeah, it seems someone went down to the hardware store and bought a nice shiny screw just for us. Anyway, for those of you still doing business with Terri, she was really nice to us, up until we used that magic word "refund". Be warned, and use e-mail or signed snail mail to communicate anything important that way you can prove what you said to her. Otherwise you end up like us, she told us she preferred to communicate by phone since she gets hundreds of e-mails a day and we foolishly believed her, never realizing that if a dispute came up, all she would have to do is refuse to communicate with us and it would come down to our word against hers.

I know several of you are going to point out the obvious mistakes I made, like trusting her in the first place. I should have required photos, I should have saved every e-mail that ever went back and forth between us, I should have done a lot of things. All I can do is plead ignorance and admit to the fault of a trusting nature. It's gotten me in trouble before, but I just never learn, or maybe I just refuse to approach people from an immediately suspicious point of view. I don't know, I'm just burned by this whole thing, and now have to figure out what to do with an animal we bought as a pet that doesn't seem to like anyone. Hope this helps someone else,

Jonathan Newsome

 

[lawndart]

Yeh,
I notified Terri last night via email that if the dragon I got is not snow white within a couple of days I'm going to request a refund. I called my bank and they said that I will need to send the merchandise back before they will even start a dispute, if it goes that way and from the sounds of it here, it very likely will. Funny though, I have not heard back from her yet. It hasn't been long though. Sorry to hear about Discovery giving you the shaft. That sucks! We as consumers are really out on a limb in situations like this. I'm thankfull that most of my communication with Terri has been over the internet. I have all of the documentation. Does anyone know her address? I need to know before I ship the dragon. I don't think the P.O. Box is a good idea.

Any ideas folks?

 

[lawndart]

Hey, I see 8 other people viewing this thread. Waddaya think. waiting for your replies!!

 

[Rockford]

Well folks, here is the end of the road for us.

Jonathan-

Sorry to hear that. Thanks for posting. Hopefully people will catch on and use the BOI. At least by your posting-you will save a few individuals the time and money in dealing with a true "rip-off" artist. Looking at the recent postings she's pretty good at ripping folks off. It will catch up to her. Having good ethics in business is always the key to having a long lasting career, not matter what you sell or do. You never see really successful folks with shotty ethics....ever!!

Have a great New Year!

Bthacker

 

[Bringerofdoom]

im glad these people were exposed on the boi. i used to think their dragons were awesome and always wanted one of thiers. now i see how they are and they shurely will not see any of my money..

 

[mikey]

I saw Terri was advertising on Kingsnake, so I e-mailed her to see why she does not try to settle up the the many unhappy customers she has..This was her response...





From: "Terri Sommella" <[email protected]>
Date: Wed Jan 5, 2005 9:17:05 PM US/Central
To: <jhubert1
Subject: Re: Message about: FIRE AND ICE DRAGONS GORGEOUS REDFLAME X BLOOD SHOW QUALITY SUBADULT!

Dear Mr? Hubert,

I'm afraid that you have been misinformed if someone has told you we started
anything. If you are referring to the libelous slander a competitor is
behind, I'm afraid our silence will have to do. I'd rather clean cages and
continue our work with tracking bloodlines around the country than spend
time playing into a competitor's hands. Wouldn't you? After all, it is
rather easy for competitors to sign up with fake emails, and say anything
they want, don't you think? You know, George Washington had the same thing
done to him by General Gates. His integrity kept him quiet. As will mine. I
thank you.

----- Original Message -----
From: <jhubert1
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 6:37 PM
Subject: Message about: FIRE AND ICE DRAGONS GORGEOUS REDFLAME X BLOOD SHOW
QUALITY SUBADULT!


I can't believe you are on here selling when you have so much unfinished
business already. You need to visit Fauna and clear this up. You are
starting quite a thread over there and We sure all would like to hear your
side of it. Thank You