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Tuwachua Serpents? Has Anyone Dealt With Them Please

A

ALLTHINGSREPTIL

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I BOUGHT SOME THINGS FROM JOHN AT A SHOW RECENTLY AND THEY WERE MISSEXED AND NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. I PURCHASED THEM AT THE SHOW AND HE TOOK FOREVER TO SHIP THEM. HAS ANYONE ELSE DEALT WITH THEM AND IF SO CAN ANYONE GIVE ME SOME INFO ON HOW TO CONTACT THEM BECAUSE THEY AVOID MY CALLS AND THEY DONT RETURN ANY EMAILS. THANKS FOR ANY HELP
JOHN MCALISTER
ALL THINGS REPTILES
 
If you use the search function you will find several threads under "tuwachua". Most of them mention that though he has nice animals and is a nice guy, his communication skills leave a bit to be desired.
 
Two Thumbs Up!

I have known John for quite some time now and He is always 100% upfront and honest. If your not happy or if he did mis sex and animal e-mail him at [email protected]. He is going through alot of personal issues right now but I am sure he will get in touch with you as soon as he can. I will personally call him and let him know that you are a little discouraged tomorrow morning. I have not ever gotten anything from John that I have not been 100% satisfied with, and every het has always proved out! Also feel free to conatct me privately and maybe I can be a middle man. I do see him at least once a month and with all that is going on with him right now I am sure he could use the help. He is way into his animals and sometimes bites off way to much to chew so he cuts himself off from the outside world to take care of his herps! I hope this makes you feel al little more comfortable!
Exclusively Exotics
 
new disturbing info on tuwachua serpents

I posted a thread about a week or so ago and found some answers to my questions. I was checking around about the integrity of john at tuwachua serpents and dug up some info that all should here in the reptile world. First i found out that the animals he has been selling as hets are in fact nothing more than normals and has been doing this for awhile. Also i am not the only one that has been taken for a ride by him. There are quite a few people looking for him to settle up on deals gone south with him and he doesnt answer emails nor answers phone calls. Now i understand personal issues and all that but lets be honest in buisness, personal issues should not screw me out of animals or money owed to me. Also if one is having issues than dont you think the responsible thing to do is let people know so there is no problems. Now im not in the buisness of trashing peoples names but if there is someone out there screwing people than i think people should know about it. I attended the show in baltimore MD. today and lets just put it this way, i asked alot of vendors and collectors there about john and i did not hear 1 possitive thing about him there and that is basically his home town area so if people dont trust him there then that says alot for his credibility. And from what ive learned just today is simple if you have bought hets from him you better watch out what you plan on adding to your breeding programs for this year or future projects. thanks for looking and this is just for buyer beware protection only.

JOHN MCALISTER
ALL THINGS REPTILES
 
First off this should have been posted in a pre exhisting thread. Second if you have proof to your allegations you need to post them otherwise this thread will more than likely be deleted as what you have said so far is nothing more than hearsay. I would truly hope you have proof of this otherwise you might be subjecting yourself to many problems with talking bad of someone's business as you are.
 
WELL FIRST OFF YOU WANTED PROOF, WELL IF YOU READ MY FIRST THREAD YOU WOULD HAVE SEEN THE PROOF. I STILL HAVE NOT GOTTEN MY ANIMALS FROM HIM AND STILL NO REPLY BACK FROM HIS CONTACT NUMBERS. 2ND IM NOT TO WORRIED ABOUT ANY REPROCUTIONS OF MY ACCUSATIONS BECAUSE FROM WHAT IVE FOUND OUT I AM ONLY A SMALL PART OF THE PEOPLE HE OWES ANIMALS OR MONEY TOO SO I DONT KNOW WHAT OTHER PROOF YOU NEED. BUT I TELL YOU WHAT, JUST WATCH IN 04 FOR ALL THE BEAUTIFUL NORMAL ANIMALS PRODUCED BY JOHNS HETS AND THEN YOU CAN SEE FOR YOURSELF. LIKE I SAID BEFORE IM NOT OUT TO TRASH ANYONE UNLESS IT IS TOTALLY WARRANTED AND I BELIEVE IT IS SO TAKE IT HOW YOU WANT AND THIS IS JUST TO ALERT PEOPLE OS SOMEONE WHO IS SCREWING PEOPLE THATS ALL.

JOHN MCALISTER
 
John Donohue of Tuwachua Serpants/Captiol Rodents **STAY AWAY**

My partner, (David Bromberg) and I have dealt with John for about 2 years now and thought he was a pretty stand up guy. Well it took 2 years for the truth to come out. In August we loaned John some money in return he would breed his lemon pastel to one of our females splitting the clutch with us this season. The money was to be paid back the day he returned from Daytona, the loan was only for a week. We trusted John and figured we would have no problem getting our money back, boy were we wrong.

John said he would have cash on Wednesday following the Daytona Show and we could meet up. Wednesday came and we couldn't get in touch with John. Since I was within driving distance I took a trip down to Triangle, Virginia to get the money we were owed. When I arrived he told me he was having some personal problems and didn't have the cash. Instead he gave me a check and I could put it in the bank in the morning. The check was deposited and I thought all was good. 2 weeks later the check comes back as no good. We contacted John and he said his Ex cancelled the check, Understandable. We then get another check from John and what do you know same thing happens. This puts us to the end of Sept, a month and a half after we were supposed to get our money back. After the 2nd check bounced John was very hard to get in touch with. Never answered his phone and just for some reason couldn't be reached.

After discussing our options my partner decided he would make the 4 hour drive up to johns to get the money. Well as you can imagine when David showed up at John's house Thursday evening around 9 pm John was very surprised and came up with another story. This time we weren't taking any stories from him. John managed to contact someone to paypal us 500 of what he owed us and wrote another check promising us it would clear. That wasn't going to get us a 3rd time so we took 1.1 pastel ball pythons with us to hold. After the check cleared we agreed to return the animals and the deal would be over, however if the check doesn't clear we would keep the snakes and sell them to get our money back.

This time when we went to deposit the check we had the bank call his bank to see if the check would clear, instead of waiting to see if it was going to bounce or not. They said there wasn’t enough money in the account to clear the check. We tried one more time calling the bank 2 days later only to find the same thing. As far as we were concerned the deal was over we got the $500 and the 1.1 pastels. After feeding the snakes and re-sexing them we put them on kingsnake and sold the male pretty quickly. Last night John decides to call my partner and I wondering why we sold the snake and that he needs them because they were already sold.

Doesn't sound very smart to give someone some animals as collateral if you have already sold them. After telling John that the deal is over as agreed, check doesn't clear then the animals are ours to do what we wish. He said he wanted the female back, he really needs it and a whole bunch of other things to try to get us to budge again. We finally told John that we no longer wanted anything to do with him ever again. We purchased hets from him last year and now don't know if what we have is just a bunch of expensive normals or the real thing.

My recommendation for anyone dealing with John is to deal in cash only and NO HETS. I have done some research about John there have been quite a few problems people have had with hets from John. He has been given the benefit of the doubt for so long because he has been around for quite awhile and no one has held him accountable and just taken their losses. Well it is time for John to start paying up if he ever wants to clear his name.

Please email me if you are having trouble contacting John. I have plenty of numbers and his address if you need to find him. Just wanted to keep this from happening to anyone else. Thanks guys!!

Paul Farmer
 
I've known of John for about 2 years now, since we were both scammed on an $1,800.00 deal by the infamous Joshua Myers of Philladelphia Exotic Pets.

I haven't done business with him until this year.

I saw him at the Daytona Expo this year and spoke with him for a while. He had some nice animals available and I took interest in some baby Albino Colombian Boas he produced this year.

Now as far as i know, MOST people (unless you are a 'top dawg' or are quite well off) produce Albinos from Het to Het or Albino to Het breedings.
When this happens, you normally produce Hets, along with the Albinos.

Now I didn't see, nor have heard, of him having ANY normals.

When a breeder is breeding for Albinos, over the years he tends to produce quite a few hets and possible hets.

I don't know about you, but I have even confused babies from my Pink Pastel Litters with babies from my Orange Pastel Litters, so I think it would be pretty easy, even though perhaps a bit careless, to mixup a possible het (that proved to NOT be het) with a het.
That could be the explanation behind a supposed het that was normal.

Now if you claim that ALL hets he's sold, have PROVEN to be normals... THEN PROVIDE THE PROOF.

By the way, I chose to buy one of John's Albinos, as I could've used a young nice male.
John's picked me his nicest male and put it aside for me.

I paid John CASH IN FULL, meaning, if he wanted to 'run away with my money', I would've had NO proof and he would've been in the clear, so to speak.

When I arrived home in New York a week later, i called to arrange shipping.
It is sometimes hard to get a hold of John on the phone, this is already known and by no means can be used to judge a persons ethics or the way he cares for his animals.
After my third attempt, I got a hold of John, arranged shipping, and received my baby Albino the following day.

This is roughly 2 months ago and that baby male Albino has almost DOUBLED in size and is showing more and more red everyday!


Again, i don't know John too well, but what I do know is that I had a wonderfull experience with him, and if I have the chance, I plan to do so again.

Thanks, Joe Rollo
 
I initially contacted Tuwachua about some double het for snow ball they were advertising. I asked who produced them and what size they were. He gave me a name but couldn't or wouldn't provide a contact for this person. At $ 15,000 a pair I want contacts if you didn't produce them yourself.

A couple of weeks later they were listed again, so I figured I would try again. This time he gave me a different name, Rick Miller from Ohio, again no contact info just a name. I happen to know how to contact this person so I did. Guess what he doesn't work with axanthics, so how did he produce double het for snows? I figure it's time to stop wasting my time as $15,000 for a pair of normal balls is a bit steep for me.

As I came to find out he sold one of the males, that he was asking $ 7500, to a guy I know. Guess what now Tracy Barker produced him, who would question that she produced them, only she's never sold anything to Tuwachua or John Donohue.

I just found out he is selling all his reptiles, because "he has made some bad business decisions". And to quote him "I'll come back into the business in a couple of years as a no-body." This is from Chip Doss who runs the Northern VA Reptile Expo. I'd say selling normal animals as hets is a bad business decision as the game comes to an end in a couple of years very hard.

And someone here wants to vouch for him? Don't bet your reputation on it, you will probably get burned.

Rick Jameson
 
I have gotten hets from both John and Bob Ellis that were derived from Rick Miller. All seems well and I will let you know what happens this year when they produce. I have reciepts from John from Rick and I willl have the same from bob very shortly. All I know is when push comes to shove I bought 100% het snow Kenyans some of the first years snow kenyans were produced. I also purchased them from John. Low and behold, they are exactly what I was promised 100% Het snow Kenyans. Now they are small potatoes then they weren't and they were a pretty penny but they were worth eveyr red cent! Point is when John was contacted on this thread he did contact every one at least to my knowledge he sold hets to this season. He offered me a 100% full refund if I felt uncomfortable about the deals due to this thread, now if someone wanted to scam you do you think he would want the animals back? No maybe someone will say maybe his conciense got the best of him, no I would have to beg to differ. John has always been 100% HONEST WITH ME! The point is John Gave them a 1.1 Lemon Pastel Balls, how much were they out as far as the loan? What did they get for the balls? I am sure they are way up on what is owed to them. I am not taking sides but I must point out I am not the only one who has gotten plenty of good deals from John. Every one in the past has pointed out John has great animals but he is a pain in the A$$ to get a hold of. This may be bad buisness ethics but that does not put down any of his animals. I personally am not afraid of the hets I purchased this year, and I hope every one will will be happy when I produce some smashing albino balls this year. He has had a very hard year and yes he bites off more than he can chew sometimes but that does not make him a bad guy. Show me one person who has been ripped off by him I.E has not been compenstated for a het that had not proved out. Or did not get animals or money that was promised and was not compensated for it. Point is he has always made good on all of his transactions. If I get no albinos all well, I know that I will be compensated and it was not intentional. Now I know I am a personal friend of his now but I wasn't and I was sold the proper animals. Only through the great customer service and exceptional animals did I want to become a friend of his. This is just my 0.02 on the matter, think what you want everyone is allowed thier own views, that is what makes this country so great! I hope all gets straightened out and no one gets bashed any longer.
Thanks
Exclusively Exotics
 
I agree with you Vic.

I'm saddened by this greatly.
John went out of his way to find my animals for me and I'm more than happy. He provided concrete references and I've never had a reason to doubt his word.
Am I worried about my hets not proving out..... nope! I can trace them back to their original breeders with the information provided to me.

He was there for me when a deal went terribly bad for me with another dealer and when a tragic accident befell my gecko collection. I consider him a friend and would hate to see him out of the hobby.

So far a lot of this thread is hearesy, I haven't heard real proof about any normals being sold as hets. Where are all of these people? Where is the proof?

I do hope that should this all be misunderstandings, that those who besmudged his name clear it with the same gusto that they have tarnished it.

Regards,
Jen Prejean
"HerpCrazy Reptiles"
 
The 1.1 pastles are normal pastels, not lemons as John stated. And it turns out those animals he gave us to hold were already sold to Howard Leong. He just sent me an email and I asked him to please post his story on here, I will not go into details. But that he gave us snakes as lemons and they are normal pastels, big difference.

The person that Rick Jameson is speaking of who bought the Double Het Snow from John was me. We bought this snake last year for a fair price. The only thing John told us was that it was a VPI double het snow. After hearing the recent problems with John we got in touch with him and he told us the snake came from Rick Miller but that Rick Miller didn't produce this animal. Supposedly Rick Miller got this animal from someone who had passed away and purchased it to help the family out. This snake was not produced by VPI but was produced by the guy who had passed away. I emailed VPI and they said they just sold their first pair of het snows this year. I understand we all have hardships but without any kind of paper work it is hard to feel completley safe about purchasing a het.

I know we should have gotten paper work from him but we trusted him. Right now I cannot say if this snake is a normal or is indeed a het but I will be breeding him this year and work on proving him out. For this reason I am not saying that he has lied to me about hets, but that I am having doubts about this snake proving out or not.

I will say John was a nice guy and easy to get along with but you can never get intouch with him. And he has a hard time paying money back that he owes you. But I have no proof that he has sold normals as hets. We do, however, have quite a few hets we purchased from him and in the next few years we will be able to prove them out.

However, you can see that John is having troubles in his personal and business life. He doesn't like to stay in contact with his customers and that is a problem. A good breeder stays in full contact with their customers before and after a sale. So with all the breeders out there why take your chances with someone who has given people problems? This site is here for people to post their good and bad experiences with breeders. We all know that it takes years to gain a reputation and seconds to kill it, that sucks but it is the way things go. That is why we all must work so hard to keep our customers happy. If you don't like it get out of the business because there are plenty of us who will do whatever to keep a customer happy.

Paul
 
Well this is funny, obviously john has a few friends out there that are willing to put their necks on the chopping block for him to save what reputation he has. but lets see how do you explain telling someone that a person who doesnt even deal with axanthics has produced d.h. snows. also if he wasnt guilty of bad dealings than why would he be getting out of the buisness and why doesnt he post a reply on here explaining any misunderstandings? i know if someone was questioning my animals i would be the first to reply. also why wont he answer phone calls or emails? its just funny to me that if alot of people arfe saying the same things then there is either alot of liars out there or there is alot of truth behind it. now everyone knows this is buisness based on integrity and the way you deal with people and if you cant do either than what does that say for you? and as far as proof we have dug the proof out and by giving names just ties alot of people into this mess that really dont want their names involved. but it all goes back to word of mouth in this buisness. when a deal goes bad for whatever reason people find out and yes i know that things get stretched but it also means there is alot of truth behind it. i seriously doubt there is some big conspiricy going on out there and evryone is out to get him. what i do think is exactly what was quoted and that he has made bad buisness decisions and now he has to pay for it. if he cant provide proper verification on a 15k deal with hets then hmm lets see i would say rip off. and then give false info on where they came from. i dont buy it and i the majority of people reading these posts are going to buy into the truth not the desperate attemps by johns friends to bail him out by saying a few nice things about him.all im saying is this is a blind buisness when dealing with hets and it all goes back on ones word and if that word doesnt hold water than either does the animals. and also there was a reply to these threads that stated that john would make right on all his hets if there was question well my advise is to GET YOUR MONEY BACK if you have dealt with him. well in this situation time will tell on the het issue but i am very confident on what ive found that there will be alot more issues on this matter in the near future.

john mcalister
 
I wouldn't go as far as saying that I was putting my neck out for anyone. I simply stated my opinions and my experiences.

The more information provided, the better everyone can form opinions on the matter.:)

I do hope that this situation gets cleared up soon and everyone leaves satisfied. :)

Take care,
Jen Prejean
"HerpCrazy Reptiles"
 
Same here Jen - stating my own experiences and not trying to excuse nor justify any of his recent actions, which neither involve nor concern me.
Not his friend either. Seen him once, spoke with him 4 times.
Apparently someone is upset about random persons espressing random experiences... but then again, I thought that is what this site was for.. Thought for a second there maybe we had a new moderator or something... lol
 
let me point out the typo above before I get taken to the town square and stoned or something... 'espressing' should read 'expressing'

thanks
 
So now we're supposed to believe that animals are so rare, were produced by someone that is now dead? And no one else in this little community knows about this. We're very small and when someone dies someone knows this person. But not this person, and he was working with VPI axanthics and produced double het snows? Please does it get anymore convenient?

Rick
 
John Donohue is a con

Hello everyone,
There seems to be an issue with John Donohue and his credibility in the Reptile word. Some have had good deals some have had bad. Well to get to the point, John Donohue is a no good fraud that will go down if it is the last thing I do. I purchased four adult 100% het for albino retics(1.3),a pair of pastels, one white & orange phase albino retic, and a female snow boa from him last year in sept. To this day he has given me nothing but the run around. i was very patient about getting my animals when he was going through the death of his mother. I waited till feb of this year and still recieved nothing. Finally he did send me one male pastel and couple of low end animals he said he was giving me for being so patient. Thats nothing compared to the $15,800.00 dollars I sent him that was my kids college fund. i invested this money to boost some existing projects and now he has put me way behind. There is no way to make up for what he has put me behind in not counting the 100 or more long distant phone calls and my money which was supposed to boost my projects. He always had a different excuse every time I talked to him. It went from getting in a wreck bringing me my animals to getting stopped by the law and made to return home because of his license. He even went as far as telling me the animals he could ship got lost by fed ex for almost a week. So to all you guys who are standing behind John, you need to contact me. He is a low down dirty crook that like i said will go down if it takes every penny I have. I have all the proof to verify what I have said. This is just a portion of what he has put me through. do you know what it is like to lose almast $16,000.00 dollars. It eats at me every night. Something needs to be done about this guy. I know how buisness should be done. Ive been self employed for 9 years now with the pet industry. I own my own pet store. Ive been done wrong a number of times but never like this. John is totally wrong in what he is doing and whether he knows it or not with the amount of money that is involved its not just a civil matter. If anybody has any questions or information dealing with this or a bad deal yourself please feel free to contact me. John Donohue is going to pay!!!!!!!!!thanks for listening.
Keith Davis
Paradise Pets
Keith Davis Reptiles
1-910-738-4040 store 9:00-6:00M-S
Cell-910-734-4853

P.S. Vic Machese. Seeing how you know John so well ask him about me. You have all my contact info. Let me know what he has to say. call me collect if you like. Its been over a year and he want even return my calls. you cant say he is a good guy when he is doing people like this.
 
hey keith what cell number and home numbers do you have for john cause if you need another try 571-437-3637 or 703-221-8711 hope it helps


J.M
ALLTHINGS REPTILES
 
Keith thats kind sad that you havnt gotten a refund in a year? What have you been doing? I know that if I lost that much I'd be on his doorstep looking for it or contacting the police. Doesnt sound like hes all at fault. Post some more facts.

I purchased a female sorong gtp from him and its one of my favorite gtps. He was a great guy to deal with!


Tim Coplan
 
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