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Inquiry underground reptiles

J

jordanabbott

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not trying to put them down. i ordered two 6 inch mata matas from them and received two dead 8 inch mata matas. they were very nice and professional over the phone and said they would make it right. said they were having a hard time locating 2 more to send me so i told them to just send me that amount of moneys worth of several other species. i received a 2 year old "hatchling" common snapper missing more than half his tail. a red belly cooter that died a few days later, a perfect yellow belly slider, a penninsula cooter with extra scutes, a beautiful 4 inch pink belly side neck im proud to show people, a perfect western painted, a southern painted with deformed scutes, and a hatchling snack neck that died a few days later. i emailed them when they arrived, before any of them died, and told them "overall im happy other than the missing tail and deformed shells" but i didnt get any emails back. they were just trying to get me out of the way and sent me B grade turtles. so they were great in sending me turtles quickly, and working with me, but the few deformed/sick turtles they sent me was kind of sorry. i didnt even call back to try to replace the bad turtles because i just dont feel like going through the mess of receiving more sick turtles. sorry, im not going to take any pictures of the few that are messed up, and the dead ones were disposed of. im not bashing them, just sharing my experience.
 
You should have contacted them as soon as you recieved those turtles. Sending sick and deformed animals out is a big no no. You should have retured them for a full refund. They have just made my "do not buy from" list.
 
i did contact them as soon as i received the turtles, before any of them had died. they didnt email or call back to discuss this. so i just gave up on them altogether because i am lazy. lost a ton of money but i didnt want this thing to drag on. oh and if anyone is wondering, ive had turtles for years, i keep my setup by the books and pay close attention to details. theres a difference in having an unhealthy environment and being sent turtles that came from an unhealthy environment.
 
i also need to add it wasnt quite their fault for the dead arrival of the mata matas. they sent them through fed ex. i asked them not to because we have a lot of problems with fed ex around here, especially me living out in the county. they said they had to send fed ex because ups no longer ships live snakes, i havent confirmed this but i beleive them, being in the reptile industry. so instead of the next day shipment coming in first thing in the morning the fed ex guy drops it off at 4 in the afternoon. it was in the 90s that day and the turtles fried in the back of the truck all day. i contacted them that night after i got home from work at 8 oclock. my girlfriend was at my house and got the package when i tcame in and told me they were dead. i waited till i got home to be sure they were infact dead.

so it is fed exs fault for the dead turtles, underground said they were doing some investigation. so i guess they didnt have to do anything for me at all. they could have just told me to deal with fed ex.

so they impressed me there. my only complaint is i was sent sick and deformed turtles and after the deal was done they didnt care anything about me or the fact i was sent such B grade animals.

to me this is like buying a car from a dealer. you get the car home and the motor blows up. the dealer is quick to replace the motor no questions asked. and they are super nice about it. then they cant get that model motor for whatever reason and agree to put in a different motor of equal performance. then they put in a peice of crap motor and send the car to your house and forget all about you.
 
I wasn't really going to post anything because I don't expect them to do anything for me but I just received a sick water monitor from them about a week ago. They shipped via Fedex and due to temps they called me the day before to let me know it was going to be held at the local store for pick-up. Well 7am rolls around and I call Fedex, nothing yet they said the truck would be there around 8am. 8am, they received their stuff but nothing for me. I called their 800 number and they were able to track my package down. Underground apparently did not put the hold on correctly so it was on the truck. I spent the next hour going back and forth trying to intercept the truck driver until finally they just sent him back to the store. Finally got the package, rushed home, and immediately noticed she was very very thin and had a wet nose. I have never had a reptile shipped to me before but a pillow sack and news paper in a cardboard box seems a bit skimpy, no insulation or padding. I already had her home set-up (40g reptile cage, mercury vapor heat/uvb, swimming pool, hides, and 2 levels of basking with temps of 120 on top 100 on bottom) so it was by the book and has been successful for all my other monitors including my other water monitor. Her nose was constantly wet, bubbling, she was very lethargic, and her stools were pure liquid. From everything I have read these are signs of parasites and or a respiratory infection. A few days went by and she was refusing all the food I offered (crickets, fish, ground turkey, worms, mice), no matter what she wouldn't touch it. I sent an e-mail to underground expressing my concern about her not eating and what else I could try and received a pretty generic e-mail stating that she was eating crickets, worms, and other foods prior to them shipping. Yesterday I found her dead sitting right next to a full dish of turkey.

Point of all this is that I found this very questionable what condition she was in prior to shipping because she was showing signs of respiratory infection as soon as I opened the box and you could see her bones and lots of loose skin meaning she probably hadn't eaten in a while. I don't expect anything as their terms say I only have a short window to do anything, however I don't really see this as anything other than a death sentence for the animal if I send it back when it is already sick and I am in this hobby for the animals, not the money, so I tried my best to rehabilitate her. This will be my last purchase from them and definitely makes me leery of buying any reptiles sight unseen anymore. As you can see from the ad, they definitely don't look skin and bones.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178134
 
yea theres no question their animals are unhealthy. the mata matas could have been sick before they were even shipped out but they would have died from the heat in the fed ex truck anyway. and judy i asked the same thing, they told me since they mostly deal with snakes they just closed their account with ups and do everything through fed ex. i used to do shipping and receiving for an electric motor company and i can tell you from experience fed ex is not as reliable as ups. especially since ups is much larger, they have more trucks out, fed ex gets to you when they can.
 
I am so sorry to hear about everyones experiences :( I have never dealt with them, other than at shows, but I dont think I have every bought anything other than a t-shirt...now I dont think I ever want to.
 
I would first like to take a moment to address Jordan's concern. Jordan I'm not sure why your bringing up this issue over a month after we sent you your animals. You had expressed to me on the phone that you were happy with the animals you received except the baby turtle with extra scoots which you had expressed on the phone was no big deal and you were going to keep him. Never once was I called or emailed about any turtles dying, I al swas not sent pictures f any unhealthy or dead turtles. I am not questioning your setups but I assure and anyone who has come to our store would agree, that we keep our turtles in very nice setups open to be seen by the public. All the baby turtles we purchase from one of the best breeders of baby turtles on the market. This not to say that sometimes animals don't die. Unfortunately they still can especially as babies. If you would have simply contacted me I would have been happy to work with you. You could have pictured the dead animals, and or sick ones, as well as your setups and this matter would have been resolved, but instead you waited over a month after the purchase of the animals to complain. As far as your UPS question, we stopped shipping with them and closed our account because they won't ship snakes, therefore in order to ship an overnight package would cost to much for us.
To address John's issues go. Again I apologize, but I was only notified of the animal dying this morning and our store open at 12 p.m. This being said when you first contacted me, several days ago, we had suggested you making some changes to your tank and setup. I assure you when the animal left it appeared in good condition, but since you called I extended your warranty. I was going to email you that I just need some pictures of the deceased animals so I can send you a new one on Monday. Again keep in mind these are baby farm bred water monitors and as such occasionally have problems. We do our best to make sure all animals are feeding and are healthy before they leave the facility if there is a problem, we fix it. In the future just email me and if I don't get back to you right away give us a call and ask for Ryan Borkan. You will come to realize I am easy to work with and strive to make our customers very happy. Here is our phone number (954)428-8005.
 
I just received a call from Underground Reptiles and he has resolved this for me by offering me either a replacement or a store credit which is very very good customer service in my book when I didn't even ask for anything. I will definitely be making a good guy thread after that and I apologize for making that post before giving them a chance to contact me.
 
Screw my response before... This guys seems very resonable and I think that if things had been done properly, he would have made them right. Sorry for the people who lost animals, but Ryan you seem to be a really good dude :)
 
i expressed that they were easy to work with, i never talked to anyone on the phone about the deformed shells. i sent an email about the tail missing on the 2 year old snapper which was supposed to be a hatchling and the deformed shells and never got any reply back. after the other turtles died i just gave up on underground reptiles. i didnt feel like going through the ordeal of ordering more and receiving more sick turtles. like i said the only thing negative in dealing with underground reptiles was the bad turtles and then not emailing me back when i told them about it. and in that email i expressed that "overall i am happy with everything except the missing tail and the deformities" which was before any of the turtles died. the point of this thread is to let people know the good and bad about companies and thats just what i did. had i been emailed back with an apology for the turtles i would have continued to work with them. i wasnt even going to post this but it was bothering me last night

the turtles that didnt die and didnt have deformities are absolutly gorgeous. none of the deformed ones died.
 
just realized the pink belly sideneck they sent me has an extra scute. i never noticed it before. so out of 10 turtles they sent me only 2 ( southern painted and yellow belly) survived and had no deformities. 4 seemingly normal ones died and 4 were deformed and survived. is it a coincidence i was shipped 8 bad turtles? i could maybe understand 1 but not that many. and other things like a 3 inch long snapper advertised as a hatchling with half a tail missing. the more i think about it the more it bugs me. i may take pictures if i can figure out how to put them up
 
Here is a copy of the last email you sent me Jordan.


ryan b., all the turtles came in alive and active. other than the penn. cooter having split/extra scutes and the snapping turtle having a chewed up tail they look great and im happy with them. thanks for doing this for me and please keep me posted if you receive more mata matas and any other strange and unusual species.


Jordan I am really confused why you are doing this all of a sudden, especially if as you say, the customre service is so great. The reality is you should have called me and taken pictures as soon as there was a problem with the animals. Instead you wait over a month to say anything at all, and you don't even contact me, you just post a BOI. At this point I would not even be able to confirm if the animals were the same ones I sold you. Also if you know turtle as well as you say you do, why does it take you over a month to notice "deformities". We stand behind our animals and always look to help our customers, but you are not being reasonable. If you are going to take pictures might I also suggest you take pictures of your setups since so many of the turtles you got from us died. I find this really strange, although not unbelieveable since we are dealing with baby turtles, that so many died, especially since I have a sibling of the snake neck turtle which is still thriving well as a personal pet. Not to mention the person we buy all of our turtles from is one of the largest and most well known turtle breeders in the U.S. I'm not trying to discredit what you are saying but just trying to understand why you are doing this over a month later, with no pictures, no calls or forewarning, and especially since it would seem from your own email that you were fine with the animals you received. Again I'm not an unreasonable man and you are more than welcome to call or email me to discuss the matter further.
 
the penn. cooter was the most deformed. his shell will never look normal. the other split and extra scutes dont look nearly as bad. i was happy before they started dying. i was so happy with the great service you provided me that i just overlooked the other small deformities. i was just going to "let it slide". even after you never emailed me back after i told you i was unhappy with 2 of the turtles you sent me i was just going to leave it alone and silently not buy from you again. but after the other turtles died a few days later everything kind of upset me all at once. i felt betrayed. just sharing my experience with other people before they decide to buy from you. you have more good feedback than bad. but the animals i was sent was just uncalled for. i spent 400 dollars and got sick and deformed animals.

ill break down everything wrong with the turtles i got

the sick:

the snake neck looked great but died a few days later
red belly cooter looked fine but died a few days later
miss. map looked fine but died a week later
a smooth softshell that looked fine but died a few days later

the ugly:

pink belly sideneck with an extra scute but otherwise is beautiful
penn. cooter with an extra scute that kind of buldges up in the middle of his carapace
a southern painted with an offset scute that mikes the stripe down his back zig zag
bigger than advertised snapper with a stump tail

the alive and not deformed:

yellow belly slider
western painted
 
my set up is a 210 gallon tank, magnum 350, rena filstar xp, and a topfin 60 filtration, i keep my water at 82 degrees, uva, uvb, and heat bulb over the basking platform, 2 18 inch airstones along with the filters keeps my water moving around.

all my turtles are pretty small and around the same size. other than whats left of the ones i got from under ground i have:

florida softshell
chinese golden thread
a hatchling pinkbelly sideneck
hatchling new guinea sideneck
false map

in a seperate setup, 600 gallon tank i built i have 3 northern DBTs about 4 to 5 inchs and 2 5 inch RES

in a seperate tank i have a 5 inch mata mata

i keep a close watch on my water temperatures and parameters.
 
Lol. You can't just TALK about you set up and how wonderful it is.I'm not trying to be mean, honestly. I'm just saying the past three posts haven't been very persuasive. Again...I'm not trying to be mean but i have trouble beleiving that Rian would sell you sick turtles
 
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