Bad Guy Tommy Munoz

[pneuke]

Recently, in January, I purchased what was supposed to be four female ornate curly tail lizards from Tommy Munoz at Rockabirdie reptiles. When they arrived, I saw that I in fact had two males and two females, all young, thin, dehydrated and a couple had lost or regenerating tails. not a huge deal, but I paid almost twice market value for them,($175 shipping inc) expecting to get exactly what I asked for. When I contacted him about it, he wasn't sure about his mistake, and said to give them a couple weeks, in order for them to mature a bit and to know for certain, which I said sure, thinking he would make it right. after a couple weeks, I contacted him, and told him I would like to purchase a male usambara three horned chameleon and another curlytail, to try to balance the group out, he took my money, ($230-150 for cham, 30 for curly tail which should have been free, 50 for shipping) a couple days later I also sent a payment of $150 for the female chameleon, so I would have a breeding pair. he at first used the weather as an excuse not to ship, but he lives in southern California, and I live in Arizona, so it wasn't intolerable, I simply took him at his word and thought he knew best when to ship. after three weeks of asking about shipping, and getting excuses, then being virtually ignored on the last week, I asked for a refund. That is when it all went bad. He offered to ship the very same day I asked for the refund, and said he would include some extra curly tail females, but by this point, my trust was gone, and I simply wanted to be done with the failed transaction. He told me he didn't have the funds in his account to give me a refund, but that he should have it by the end of this past weekend( which would have been Sunday, Feb. 21st, 2016. Instead, he posted more ads in order to try to sell the very chameleons he hasn't shipped, in order to get the funds to pay me! I felt this was very insulting. I had no other choice but to file a claim with paypal, which he said he would refund by yesterday, but once again has failed to do so. I believe he is going to take as long as he wants to reimburse my money, and I would warn others to be cautious when dealing with him. everything was fine as long as I accepted his excuses and didn't question, but as soon as I gave up and asked for a refund, he didn't care or respond well. I will update as things progress. I have all of our communications, as does he, and they will verify everything I have said.

 

[Lucille]

Mike
Do not close your claim with Paypal until you have cash in hand.

I'm sorry this happened. Please include the emails.
Although this does not in any way excuse a bad transaction, next time an order received is not what you ordered, I suggest resolve that issue first prior to sending more money.

 

[JButera]

Thomas Munoz has some mixed reviews here, go with Lucille's advice. I'm surprised this happen tbh, he seems like a decent seller and a reasonable man. Anyway don't sweat it too much, from what I've read he does try to make things right for his customers. I doubt you'll get burned further.

 

[Rockabirdie]

Mike purchased some LTC schneibersii from me. 4 females. They were all in great condition, except for minor stubs, and regrow, which is common for imports. Females are also much harder to come by than males. Mike received them, and said I had sent him one female, and the rest males. I told him, I'm pretty sure he is mistaken. It's pretty hard to mix the two up. He sent me pics, and I sent him pics of what males should look like. He agreed I may be right. I asked him to hold onto them, and in a few weeks after watching behavior, if he still thought they were males, I would send him more no problem. He agreed.

Mike, also inquired about a male Deremensis chameleon I had. He decided to purchase. 4-5 days later, he purchased the female. Yes, I'm in California, and he is in Arizona. Anyone in this area knows we have had crazy cold, and crazy hot weather back to back. I was in communication the whole time, except for ONE day, which I was sick. Although agreeing that weather was an issue this whole time, Mike all the sudden felt he was being ripped off. He demanded, a refund. I informed Mike that I did not have the funds in PayPal, I had transferred them to my bank which takes 3-5 business days. I told him it would be by the end of the weekend. I have not had the funds in PayPal as of yet. Which is totally my fault on that part. I have no intention on ripping anyone off.

 

[Rockabirdie]

[/QUOTE]

 

[JButera]

Mike- Any chance of getting some current pics of those ornates? If they're long term captives they'll be sexual mature by now and that species's sexually dimorphic.

 

[Rockabirdie]

Screenshots

screenshots

 

[Rockabirdie]

screenshots

screenshots

 

[Rockabirdie]

Screenshots

screenshots

 

[nickolasanastasiou]

Cropping the screenshots might help make them legible.

 

[pneuke]

I agreed to wait a couple weeks only to see if he would make it right, it was obvious to me he had sent two females and 2 males, but figured i'd give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't know how to post pics here, or it would be obvious that the females have brown dots on their shoulders, while males have more color and sexing is fairly easy. in the above pics, you can see my male, the larger one, a smaller male he sent with a stub tail, a small male with partially regrown tail, and two females. I ordered additional from him in order to balance the sexes. While weather may have been a slight issue, these are montane chams which aren't as affected by cooler temps, and shipping would have been fine IMO. he wanted to use heat pads, to which I said no thanks. now that it is too hot to ship them, I only wanted a refund, which he has stalled at every turn. If I had simply been refunded my money, I would not have felt the need to post this, or to warn others. The fact I ordered again, after not receiving what I originally wanted should show that I had faith he would make things right, but up until this point, he has failed to do so. I hope he simply refunds my money, as any other professional person would do, but all I have gotten are excuses. overnight shipping from California to Arizona with a morning delivery would not have been a huge issue with cooler temps, as he has done in the past. he says he has to wait for baking delays, 3-5 days, while true, he can add funds to his account to pay my refund by using a debit or credit card and it would be processed immediately.

 

[Lucille]

I don't know how to post pics here

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304671

 

[Kristi23]

I agreed to wait a couple weeks only to see if he would make it right, it was obvious to me he had sent two females and 2 males, but figured i'd give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't know how to post pics here, or it would be obvious that the females have brown dots on their shoulders, while males have more color and sexing is fairly easy. in the above pics, you can see my male, the larger one, a smaller male he sent with a stub tail, a small male with partially regrown tail, and two females. I ordered additional from him in order to balance the sexes. While weather may have been a slight issue, these are montane chams which aren't as affected by cooler temps, and shipping would have been fine IMO. he wanted to use heat pads, to which I said no thanks. now that it is too hot to ship them, I only wanted a refund, which he has stalled at every turn. If I had simply been refunded my money, I would not have felt the need to post this, or to warn others. The fact I ordered again, after not receiving what I originally wanted should show that I had faith he would make things right, but up until this point, he has failed to do so. I hope he simply refunds my money, as any other professional person would do, but all I have gotten are excuses. overnight shipping from California to Arizona with a morning delivery would not have been a huge issue with cooler temps, as he has done in the past. he says he has to wait for baking delays, 3-5 days, while true, he can add funds to his account to pay my refund by using a debit or credit card and it would be processed immediately.

Just because the weather was ok in your opinion doesn't mean the seller felt that it was. I always let customers know that it is up to me to ship when I feel the weather is safe. If they can't agree to that, then they can go somewhere else. The animal's safety should always come first. Breeders and sellers generally know what they feel confident shipping in.

 

[JButera]

Hopefully those screenshots will be made more readable. I don't blame you for being a bit po'd, most people would. However it sounds like you and Thomas are both rational people, I'll stick my neck and say with certainty he'll make things right for you. Thomas doesn't come off as a TOS nazi, which imo is an indication of a trustworthy seller.

 

[pneuke]

here are shots of the curly tails when they arrived. He also tried to tell me my male was a female. my male is the larger one in the photos, the others were what he sent. all looked dehydrated and emaciated pretty much. he could've resolved this easily, but instead spent my money, came up with excuses, they were only going from So. California to Arizona overnight. Either way, I ended up having to purchase another to balance out the sexes, and rather than pay for shipping again for one female currlytail, I also decided to buy the chams. All I want now is a refund, which he said he would do by this weekend, but it is now Tuesday of the following week, and I had to file a claim yesterday with paypal, to which he still has not replied. He says he moved his funds to his bank and it will take 3-5 business days, however, he can easily add funds to reimburse me by using a debit or credit card, even if those funds are in limbo. If the photos don't show up, i'll try again, new at this...

 

[pneuke]

This is why I waited a month before asking for a refund. they were to be shipped overnight from southern California to Arizona, with morning delivery. I have given him the benefit of the doubt at every turn, until he posted the chams I had ordered back up for sale, in order to repay me. I would much rather have made a "good guy"" post about how awesome the animals were, and how happy I was, believe me.

 

[bcr229]

Just because the weather was ok in your opinion doesn't mean the seller felt that it was. I always let customers know that it is up to me to ship when I feel the weather is safe. If they can't agree to that, then they can go somewhere else. The animal's safety should always come first. Breeders and sellers generally know what they feel confident shipping in.

Good point, I've waited five months (paid in November, shipped the following April) due to inclement weather issues on both ends and mid-country, because it was a coast-to-coast shipment. It's a risk you take buying animals during the winter.

 

[Kristi23]

Good point, I've waited five months (paid in November, shipped the following April) due to inclement weather issues on both ends and mid-country, because it was a coast-to-coast shipment. It's a risk you take buying animals during the winter.

Exactly. I've been waiting months to both ship and receive geckos right now. I lose sales in the winter and even in the summer, but I'm ok with it. The animals should always come first.

 

[pneuke]

Here is a better pic of my male, which he tried to tell me was actually a female. Unretouched, from phone.

 

[JButera]

I'd say you got 4 females and 1 male. Outside of those ratty tails they don't seem to be in that bad of condition. B-grade animals imo.