Kexotix
New member
BUYER BEWARE - John Schwarz aka John RadicalRhacs aka Cheyenne Bates aka Thejollygreengiant
I purchased a female gargoyle from him and initially contacted him thru Fauna before switching to FB messenger. I later messaged about other available juvies gargoyle geckos in early January of this year. He sent me pics of a few that he had available at the time and I selected two, a super stripe and a higher end red stripe from him, one at $450 and the other at $400. I asked about a payment plan which he agreed to, where I paid half as a deposit the following day (1/11) on my pay day and then the $200+ on my two next pay days, two weeks apart. On 1/22 he contacted me saying he had a local buyer that was interested in the nicer of the two I had put the deposit on and was willing to pay $650 for that gecko. I stated that I had already placed a deposit that covered both geckos and would not pay more than the agreed upon amount. He said he needed funds so I agreed to pay the rest of what I owed that day instead of waiting to my next pay day.
On 3/11 I inquired about possible shipping date as I had not heard anything from him and I had appropriate weather on my end. We agreed on shipping the following week. I checked in 3/18 again about shipping and was pushed into the following week. At that time he asked for shipping payment thru venmo or zelle as he had had issues previously with PayPal. I agreed as I had done business with him before with no issues. I paid for shipping for the adult female and two baby gargs and received them 3/28. I notified him of their arrival. When taking a second look at them and comparing the pictures, I realized that these were not the same geckos I had purchased and immediately notified him. I asked a few other breeders to verify that they are indeed not the same geckos. He immediately agreed to a refund on the animals and asked for them shipped back, he would pay for a label, and then I would receive payment for them in two installments. I did not want to send them back with a promise of a future refund. I agreed to a refund and ship the two babies back the same day I received the refund. He then said I was the only person who had an issue of the 30 geckos he sent out that same day and that he would need 30 days to make a refund. I told him I expected refund in the same amount of time he gave me when he changed the terms of our agreement and tried to sell a gecko out from under our agreed terms (12 days). He insists he still has the money and will simply refund me at his leisure and when the weather is appropriate. And then assured me that geckos develop more as they age (I would assume this would mean they would be even nicer than when I had purchased them, not of lower quality) and that I had inconvenienced him by making him hold on to these geckos for 3 months until he had appropriate weather. The smaller of the babies I received was only 3.13 grams upon arrival, just barely over recommend shipping weight. I checked his weather and he has had shipping weather all of last week and thru Tuesday of this week. He did not read or responded to my messages since the day the geckos had arrived until I filed a paypal claim today (4/10). I will attached pictures of the conversation as well as pictures of the geckos I purchased and received.
I will let you make your own assumptions, but I believe he sold the geckos I paid for to someone else and then sent me other geckos instead thinking that I wouldn't notice. Please use caution when purchasing from him in the future.
His Facebook name is RadicalRhacs John, the PayPal account is under the name Cheyenne Bates and the Venmo account is John Schawrz. He is on fauna under the name Thejollygreengiant.
I purchased a female gargoyle from him and initially contacted him thru Fauna before switching to FB messenger. I later messaged about other available juvies gargoyle geckos in early January of this year. He sent me pics of a few that he had available at the time and I selected two, a super stripe and a higher end red stripe from him, one at $450 and the other at $400. I asked about a payment plan which he agreed to, where I paid half as a deposit the following day (1/11) on my pay day and then the $200+ on my two next pay days, two weeks apart. On 1/22 he contacted me saying he had a local buyer that was interested in the nicer of the two I had put the deposit on and was willing to pay $650 for that gecko. I stated that I had already placed a deposit that covered both geckos and would not pay more than the agreed upon amount. He said he needed funds so I agreed to pay the rest of what I owed that day instead of waiting to my next pay day.
On 3/11 I inquired about possible shipping date as I had not heard anything from him and I had appropriate weather on my end. We agreed on shipping the following week. I checked in 3/18 again about shipping and was pushed into the following week. At that time he asked for shipping payment thru venmo or zelle as he had had issues previously with PayPal. I agreed as I had done business with him before with no issues. I paid for shipping for the adult female and two baby gargs and received them 3/28. I notified him of their arrival. When taking a second look at them and comparing the pictures, I realized that these were not the same geckos I had purchased and immediately notified him. I asked a few other breeders to verify that they are indeed not the same geckos. He immediately agreed to a refund on the animals and asked for them shipped back, he would pay for a label, and then I would receive payment for them in two installments. I did not want to send them back with a promise of a future refund. I agreed to a refund and ship the two babies back the same day I received the refund. He then said I was the only person who had an issue of the 30 geckos he sent out that same day and that he would need 30 days to make a refund. I told him I expected refund in the same amount of time he gave me when he changed the terms of our agreement and tried to sell a gecko out from under our agreed terms (12 days). He insists he still has the money and will simply refund me at his leisure and when the weather is appropriate. And then assured me that geckos develop more as they age (I would assume this would mean they would be even nicer than when I had purchased them, not of lower quality) and that I had inconvenienced him by making him hold on to these geckos for 3 months until he had appropriate weather. The smaller of the babies I received was only 3.13 grams upon arrival, just barely over recommend shipping weight. I checked his weather and he has had shipping weather all of last week and thru Tuesday of this week. He did not read or responded to my messages since the day the geckos had arrived until I filed a paypal claim today (4/10). I will attached pictures of the conversation as well as pictures of the geckos I purchased and received.
I will let you make your own assumptions, but I believe he sold the geckos I paid for to someone else and then sent me other geckos instead thinking that I wouldn't notice. Please use caution when purchasing from him in the future.
His Facebook name is RadicalRhacs John, the PayPal account is under the name Cheyenne Bates and the Venmo account is John Schawrz. He is on fauna under the name Thejollygreengiant.
