• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Top Shelf Exotics (Inquiry)

Credit card disputes

I once had to dispute a credit card charge. The credit card company immediately credited me the money, however, it was explained to me that they would do their investigation and if the charge turned out to be valid, or if I lost the dispute, they would put the charge back on there. It was also explained to me that if Discover couldn't re-coup their money from the merchant then the charge would be re-instated. Fortunately, in my situation, the merchant was a legitimate business and wanted to continue accepting discover so they were relatively quick to refund me the money. Hearing that a credit card instantly refunded the money is no surprise to me but it also wouldn't surprise me if they ended up putting the charge back on there. Hopefully this isn't the case and it will all work out for you. -Chris
 
TripleMoonsExotic said:
Is the individual who is accepting donations checking his Paypal account often? A member won the bid on the Cornsnakes I put up for auction and the payment has not yet been accepted by him. The email I have is [email protected] and I didn't feel like going back through 1,719 posts to verify. Thanks! :)
Click to expand...
Stephanie, you may want your winning bidder to verify they sent payment to the correct address. Acceptance for payment is not required unless the payee doesn't have a PayPal account. I checked the email addy against the one I paid, and it's correct, but your buyer may have goofed!
Hope this helps! :)
 
Has anyone else emailed Mr. Brown? I did so this morning to request the needed paperwork to fill out, and have yet to teceive an answer. Just wondering if anyone else has heard back from him yet?
 
Cat_72 said:
Has anyone else emailed Mr. Brown? I did so this morning to request the needed paperwork to fill out, and have yet to teceive an answer. Just wondering if anyone else has heard back from him yet?
Click to expand...

Cathy:

Although I didn't purchase anything from Chris, I have been in touch with Trooper Brown through his State Police email address and he indicated to me that he had quite a volume of complaintants.

I had contacted him to point him to other sites, as I know there are others outside of the Fauna community also affected.
 
Thanks, Scott.

I guess it's good news that a lot of people have contacted him to get this ball rolling, but it's still disheartening that so many people have been affected by this. I wonder if we'll ever get a true figure as to how many people were taken?
 
cahrens
I once had to dispute a credit card charge. The credit card company immediately credited me the money, however, it was explained to me that they would do their investigation and if the charge turned out to be valid, or if I lost the dispute, they would put the charge back on there. It was also explained to me that if Discover couldn't re-coup their money from the merchant then the charge would be re-instated.
Click to expand...


When a CC company gives a refund or charge back the seller, they do indeed conduct an "investigation" giving the seller an opportunity to present evidence that they shipped and the buyer received what they thought they were purchasing and not a misrepresented item. If the seller can prove this then the CC company will replace the charge against your account. But in the case with TSE/Chris/Pat/Glen can't prove anything, (IE. FedEx signature), since he didn't ship anything. The CC company charges the Chargeback initially against PayPal who most definitely does have money in their account and then its up to PayPal to recoup their money from the seller, this is why PayPal calls it the "Seller Protection Plan" because they will fight to keep their money.
If they was any way to 100% prove a Het is actually a Het or not, those who most likely receive a normal ball VS a Het would be eligible for a refund from the CC company for receiving a misrepresented item. (Wishful thinking)!
 
shep151 said:
Stephanie, you may want your winning bidder to verify they sent payment to the correct address. Acceptance for payment is not required unless the payee doesn't have a PayPal account. I checked the email addy against the one I paid, and it's correct, but your buyer may have goofed!
Hope this helps! :)
Click to expand...

Thank you! :)
 
Friends have been urging me to post, so here goes.

Chris/TSE owes me $1400 for a gecko I purchased from him on Nov 15, 2005 and have not received. Thru the winter we agreed it was to cold to ship. When it warmed up I started asking for my gecko, but got no response. After some increasingly angry emails and some unanswered phone calls I finally got a couple of vague email responses from Glenn (or "Glenn", yeah) but he ignored my requests to commit to a ship date. After the situation exploded here on the BOI, all communication from TSE ceased, even though I continued to email at least once a week. And, obviously, no gecko has arrived in the mail.

Well there is my story. Sounds familiar huh? I know its not breaking news or anything, but I guess it needed to be said. Thanks for listening.

Laura Power
 
leaftail said:
Friends have been urging me to post, so here goes.

Chris/TSE owes me $1400 for a gecko I purchased from him on Nov 15, 2005 and have not received. Thru the winter we agreed it was to cold to ship. When it warmed up I started asking for my gecko, but got no response. After some increasingly angry emails and some unanswered phone calls I finally got a couple of vague email responses from Glenn (or "Glenn", yeah) but he ignored my requests to commit to a ship date. After the situation exploded here on the BOI, all communication from TSE ceased, even though I continued to email at least once a week. And, obviously, no gecko has arrived in the mail.

Well there is my story. Sounds familiar huh? I know its not breaking news or anything, but I guess it needed to be said. Thanks for listening.

Laura Power
Click to expand...

No Laura, we are glad you stepped up, you are more that welcome to join the long list. Your story is just like all of the others, but needs to be known. I am sorry to hear you fell into Chris's trap. Feel free to contact Mr Brown, The more complaints he gets, the better for the case. :)

As for the CC refunds, stop me if I am wrong, but is it no true that if a CC company gives a refund it will go against your credit? I was told this one time. Maybe some of you can answer this.
 
Bobby

When the credit card company gives you a refund it doesn't affect your credit report. However, the account may be flagged as "balance in dispute" on your credit report. While the amount is being investigated, your available balance is reduced by the disputed amount. So if you had a $500 limit, and the disputed amount was $500, you wouldn't be able to use the card and the amount on the credit report would still be $500(with the flag) and the available balance on your statement would be zero. While the investigation is in progress there would be no monthly payments required and no interest accruing on the disputed balance. In fact all interest that accrued previously would be credited back. Always pay at least the minimum, or contact your card company, even if you don't think you owe anything.

Part of your score takes into account the amount of credit used against what is available, especially if you're near your maximum. You would not immediately get the benefit of having paid $500 toward your balances reflected in your scores.
 
leaftail said:
Friends have been urging me to post, so here goes.

Chris/TSE owes me $1400 for a gecko I purchased from him on Nov 15, 2005 and have not received. Thru the winter we agreed it was to cold to ship. When it warmed up I started asking for my gecko, but got no response. After some increasingly angry emails and some unanswered phone calls I finally got a couple of vague email responses from Glenn (or "Glenn", yeah) but he ignored my requests to commit to a ship date. After the situation exploded here on the BOI, all communication from TSE ceased, even though I continued to email at least once a week. And, obviously, no gecko has arrived in the mail.

Well there is my story. Sounds familiar huh? I know its not breaking news or anything, but I guess it needed to be said. Thanks for listening.

Laura Power
Click to expand...

Aw Laura, I'm sorry you got taken too....but I'm glad you spoke up. You've also helped to show that this has obviously gone beyond just Ball Pythons that he has taken money for and never shipped. Have you contacted Derek about getting on our "list" of those still awaiting our money? Or filed any complaints?
 
Jerry,
Like you, I don't know what kind of gecko costs that much, although its clear that Chris was selling the yet undescribed imaginary kind. One thing for sure, you and I are working with the wrong reptiles ! Laura, sorry to hear that Chris got your money too. I will continue to implore all with a claim to contact Officer Brown and Derek. The greater the total weight of claims against Chris, the more likely action will be pursued by the authorities. Its the same mantra over and over, but its true.
 
Thanks Kevin!

Thanks Kevin! I was wondering about that.
 
This is a reminder to everyone that this thread, nor the BOI in general, is NOT to be used for advertising products or animals of any kind for any reason. Any such future occurrences will be deleted and the poster will receive warning points for the violation.

Although the intent may be honorable, it is just not appropriate here.
 
Sorry Rich, feel free to delete the posts. I just wanted to let people in this thread know for the good of the fund.

My apologies.
 
Anyone notice that there are a few ads on KS today from "Chris's Reptiles" out of Buffalo NY??? I've never seen that name out of Buffalo on that site before.
 
Cat and Jim, yes I am on Derek's list and am talking to my CC company about a refund. Thats all I have done so far.

Jerry, it is/was a Mack Snow leopard gecko :) Why, you don't think a gecko is worth $1400? lol. It's ok. I see Mojave BPs for $30,000 and I think, what? it looks like a normal to me...
 
Chris's Reptiles Buffalo New York.

Lauren,

I saw the same thing and had the same thoughts. I noticed at least one of the ads said "must sell". Being no one can claim to of ever met Chris know where his "fake facility" is etc. I am not sure how we could figure out if he is out on the prowl again. We should all email KS and have them due a little due diligence with the person who took out the KS account.

Chris Rouille
 
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