Truth about Andrew Gilpin -Bad Guy

[Toto]

I found out from a friend of mine who works at Petco that a gecko I purchased from him was bought from the store. He charged me at a ridiculous price of $250. It was a juvenile and claimed that it was a female. He said that he can sex them at about 3 months, but two months later turned out to be a male. I can't believe that anyone can do this to someone. Why would he lie about his geckos? Do alot of breeders do this sort of thing? They select what looks nice at pet stores, then retail it for more? I hope this never happens to no one else.

 

[Jim O]

Josh,

Anonymous third party quotation such as the one above are specificallly not allowed on the BOI. Please read the rules at http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8880.

After you name your source, please also be so kind as to inform Andrew of this thread so that he can defend himself.

 

[liquidleaf]

What proof do you have from your friend that Andrew did this? "Heard from a friend" isn't really proof enough for a "bad guy" post here.

Did Andrew guarantee that the gecko was sexed correctly that young? That is a very valid complaint if he did say that the gecko was certainly a female.

And no, it isn't (so far as I know) and shouldn't be the practice of a "breeder" to obtain animals for sale directly from a pet store and then claim that they produced the animal. Breeders obtain breeding stock from a variety of places (shows, trades, even petstores), but being untruthful about the origins of an animal is NOT acceptable.

Please post more information about what proof you have that the gecko came from Petco. Once you discovered that the gecko is a male, have you since contacted the seller to complain?

 

[Miss Tuniwha]

The friend of yours at pet co should have the sheet he would have to fill out to purchase the gecko. Should be easy to get a copy of that.

 

[liquidleaf]

Well, one could say that unless that paperwork states the age of the gecko and a photo, still not easy to prove, unfortunately. Though it would look awfully suspicious to see proof with the 'breeder's' name on it connected with purchasing a juvenile gecko right before selling one.

Plus, if the friend no longer has access to this paperwork from several months ago, it's a moot point, unfortunately, unless the Petco employee is willing to come here and state that they remember the person who came in to buy the gecko and what his name was (from a credit card transaction etc). If they were to say "your gecko looks a lot like the one that got sold from Petco, betcha he got it from there" and that alone, that's not worth much.

 

[Miss Tuniwha]

good point.

 

[flamedcrestie]

Every single animal sold by me was either produced by myself, or Allen Repashy ( who guess what, ironically also supplies over half of the petcos in the country with crested geckos!), unless otherwise explained to the buyer before the purchase. Why would I go and purchase a gecko from a petco, if I currently have a direct link to their main supplier of geckos?
I'm very honest with my customers on where the gecko originated if it was not produced by myself. When a gecko has been sold that was produced here, it is always sold with specific notation saying which animals it came from, and photos of the actual parents of the gecko.

I'm very interested to know which petco this gecko was supposedly purchased from, and when the gecko was purchased from me. Please send or post a photo of the gecko in question as well.

I'm more than willing to work with any of my customers in anyway that I may have made any mistakes with. I've made mistakes before, and I'm more than willing to admit it when I do. Any proof that the gecko was purchased from me, and I'd be more than happy to make things right.

A gecko is only worth what someone is willing to purchase it for. I've purchased several geckos from people that I know for a fact were marked up 3-4X their original price of purchase. I think the only thing here that should be even remotely debatable is whether the gecko was sold as a female, and if it is or is not a female.

My policy on sexing crested geckos is this:
At 6-7 grams I can USUALLY see pores on males ( usually 5-6 months of age or older with my feeding schedule and diet). If this is the case, they are sold as males.... If I see pores before this, they are sold as probable males.
If a gecko is not showing pores at this size, it is sold as a POSSIBLE female, and not sold as even a PROBABLE female until it is at least 10 grams.
The only time I GUARANTEE an animal as being a female is if it's over 15 grams.
Anything sold as a definite female will be guaranteed as such, and anything sold as a definite male will also be guaranteed as such.

Without any proof, this is quite obvious to me that this is just slander...... I request an IP check from the mods to compare with other users of this site please.

Andrew Gilpin

 

[Sweeney's Serpents]

Josh,

After reading about your claim about being ripped off I thought maybe you were a kid that was taken for a ride but it turns out you are 29.

If that Gecko was a 2 headed, purple spotted finger eating gecko from the jungles of Peru I would have payed $250..... but you did not mention the species of gecko so who knows..............

Nancy Reagan said it best "Just say NO"......you payed the "ridiculous price of $250".
Was it the only gecko in Kansas? Was he holding a gun to your head? If you had checked this site or Kingsnake you would have found the market value of the animal you purchased.

"Breeders" don't go the petco to buy over priced animals in the hope to find an uniformed individual to sell it too at an even higher price. Breeders breed animal and sell the offspring. So I would say all breeder do NOT do this sort of thing.

It sounds like you did little research but I would suggest you start to keep that High End Gecko alive.

Best of Luck
Scott Sweeney
Sweeney's Serpents
(A Breeder)

 

[beccari]

This is very interesting.... Fauna thread‎
From: andrew gilpin ([email protected])
Sent: Thu 7/12/07 11:22 AM
To: Jason Perillo ([email protected])

Look at what I stumbled across this morning....
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101456&page=1&pp=5
I've never done business with this person, and have no idea who it even is!
Andrew

 

[lzrdldy530]

Josh's claim is bunk. I've known Andrew for years and he produces so many excellent youngsters himself that he wouldn't market a store-bought one as his own. Besides, he DOES have an open pipeline to Allen Repashy and his wonderful animals. I have at least 2 of Andrew's youngsters right now and have MET their parents!

 

[GDReptile]

Info

Josh,
You need to post proof of the deal. Any proof of correspondence ect. If you really did purchase the animal from Andrew, prove it, and like he siad he will remedy the situation. I have a strange feeling we are not getting the whole story, or maybe there was no story to begin with.

 

[cizin]

I can vouch for what andrew is saying here. Allen and Andrew are good friends, and Andrew is the only person I know of that sells Allen's animals for him at shows. I regularly have andrew sex my animals at shows, and he is almost always correct (about 95%). Allen does sell to almost all petcos. If anyone would like to verify andrews or my claims, a quick google search will show that I do buisness with Allen, that Andrew sells his animals, and that Andrew was just at Allen's house photographing animals. I've done buisness with andrew on his own animals, as well as Allen's, and have always been 100% satisfied. This reads to me like someone had buyers remorse, found out he could have bought an animal at petco that was also technically from Allen, and lashed out. Not that I consider petco animals Allen animals, but whatever. I've paid too much for animals and been mad at myself as well, but I don't blame others, and I certainly don't go on the BOI with hearsay AT BEST to back me up.

Nick Esposito
www.dreamtimereptiles.net

 

[droogievesch]

I will vouch for Andrew's character as well. I have met him before at a local show and have drooled over his animals. With the animals he produces and the time and energy he puts into them, I cannot fathom him passing off a petstore crested gecko as his own. He has helped me numerous times with questions I had about husbandry, diet, and breeding. Him and his wife both help Allen Repashy with his animals and projects, and I would not hesitate to buy an animal from them (actually, one of my goals IS to purchase an animal from him).

I also noticed you were from Kansas, I believe Andrew is from Iowa, so are you implying that Andrew went to a petco in Kansas to buy an animal to resell? How can your friend be positive that Andrew did in fact buy the same exact animal? It seems fishy since you live in two different states.

If you are upset about the animal you recieved I think you should have contacted Andrew first, and if he refused to help you or rectify any problems that arised and THEN posted on the BOI. If there is nothing that can be done now, you can always try reselling it yourself.

 

[Eryn]

In the last year, I have ordered three lots of geckos from Andrew Gilpin and from these experience, I find these accusations ridiculous.

1-As a mod pointed out this is hear say. No name/details sounds highly suspicious...

2-As pointed out, there would be no profit in such resale, especially with access to their supplier... And if Andrew supplied himself in petshops how could provide multiple animals/clutches from the same pairing like he does (I can easily tell they are from the same parents) or send me pictures over time, allowing me to follow the progress of some juvies from egg to X age?

3-If you were unhappy/suspicious about a) price b) sex c) origin of said gecko... why wait all this time to post on the BOI... why not post or even contact Andrew upon the first *offence*? You knew the price from the get go... why did you even buy it? Then, when it turned male or when you learned of the *origin* (which ever came first) why not complain then? why wait till "third strike" to post?

4-Besides Andrew is pretty easy going and tries to make his customers happy. *IF* this is true you should have just contacted him and I'm sure he would have done his best to find a way to settle this. Your failure to even first make an attempt at private resolution shows bad faith.

5-Sexing: As someone who bought at least two dozen juvies of various ages from Andrew, I can clearly see you are making this up:
a) I don't see how you would believe that his geckos are sexable at 3 months old considering how small they are then...
b) None of my "unsexed" or "possible/probable" showed any bulge as early as 5 months
c) Upon first contact with Andrew, I made it clear to him that i had never even owned a reptile and yet he did nothing of what you accuse him off even tho I would have been the perfect target. So far, every single one of the "possible" males/females i bought from him turned out to be the exact sex he predicted. Any gecko he wasn't absolutely sure about were sold as *unsexed* even some very borderline ones other people might have sold for more as females... Some he could have easily pretended he didn't know the sex and yet he specified they were males instead of giving me false hope they were females.

6-You're in KANSAS, Andrew is in IOWA and somehow you know someone from a Petco Andrew goes to?

 

[Seamus Haley]

What is it with brand new registrations and fake names this week?

Josh Hartnett is the name of an actor. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001326/

While it's possible that this guy happens to have the same name and apparantly the same birth year, it seems a bit unlikely. Not impossible, just unlikely. Since the supposed dealer has said they never knowingly made a sale to a person by that name, it becomes less likely that it's legitimate. Obviously not as overt as some of the people using famous fictional characters... but questionable. Very questionable.

 

[Eryn]

A few things I forgot...

I respectfully suggest to the mods verify the IP of "toto" as I can think of at least one obvious person that would like to discredit Andrew out of vengeance for something that happened on this very board. That person proved they were shady and capable of lying so this would sound like him. Just my two cents.

Josh Harnett? Isn't that an actor? I'm French Canadian so I can't be sure but how common is such a name in English/USA?

And yes I registered just to post on this thread. These accusation were so preposterous I wanted to set the record straight.

 

[Hawkeyeherps]

I've known Andrew Gilpin since I got him his first bearded dragon when he was about 12 or 13 years old. Andrew is a very well respected, stand up guy. Who in their right mind would believe a guy who is personal friends by Alan Repashy, one of the top Rhacodactylus people in the world, would ever have to buy a gecko from Petco? I've seen Andrew's collection and it is definitely one to drool over! If Andrew says this is a bunch of bunk then it's a bunch of bunk.

 

[Jim O]

The IP of the OP is 72.255.23.247 which localizes to Chicago. The ISP is Ibahn which is mostly a hotel and corporate provider.

Now I wonder ... who works in or around Chicago?

 

[Wolfy-hound]

Saying an animal was overpriced after buying it is ridiculous.
If you were happy with the price when buying, and the animal hasn't changed, then there sohould be no complaint later on, EVEN IF you find the same animal cheaper elsewhere. You were happy to pay that then, so you can't retroactively go back and change it.
Theresa Baker

 

[Jim O]

Saying an animal was overpriced after buying it is ridiculous.
If you were happy with the price when buying, and the animal hasn't changed, then there sohould be no complaint later on, EVEN IF you find the same animal cheaper elsewhere. You were happy to pay that then, so you can't retroactively go back and change it.
Theresa Baker

Theresa,

I don't believe that an actual transaction ever took place.

I have my suspicions as to who started this thread but without proof I won't say.