Bad Guy Wendy Childs, Reptile Addictions

[cm_reptiles]

but if ou want the best selection of reptiles i have to admit reptile addictions is the best

 

[Magic Merlin]

She put your house up for rent? I don't care who you are, that's pretty funny.

 

[shelliebear]

Omg--Wendy, did you put his house up for sale on Craigslist??
XD XD XD
That is so bad ass. I wish I had the guts. XD
rofl

 

[SERPENTS DEN]

You know, honestly, I don't have an issue with this at all. I wonder how many people who run retail shops and/or private breeder facilities has thought the same thing. Heck, I had to close my facility to visits simply because a lot of people treated it like a free zoo. Didn't mind wasting my time for hours on end and want me to pull out nearly every animal I had just so they could look at them. Many had no intention of buying, although a few might make a small token purchase (asking ,what is the cheapest corn snake you have here?).

So what are the choices when you are in a predicament like this?

1. Continue along that route losing valuable time during every visit.
2. Stop visits altogether.
3. Allow only visits from people guaranteeing to buy a certain value of animals.
4. Charge some sort of nominal but deductible admission charge.

No matter which choice you make (except for continuing to allow your time to be mostly wasted), SOMEONE was going to get pissed at you because of it. All I can say, is more power to you if your choice works for you. I think most people in the same position understand, and many probably secretly agree with you. I took the route of disallowing visits and of course, people got pissed at that as well.

Heck, this sort of business plan works for show promoters, doesn't it? All they are basically doing is the same thing using vendors and their animals to get people to pay an admission fee to come and see them. They are simply providing the PLACE for that to take place.

Good points Rich!!

Wendy for what it's worth think about partitioning your reptiles away from the lookers. You can increase your customer base by becoming a full line pet store with some basic reptiles. Drop the admission and you'll get to know who is genuinely into reptiles and decide if you want to take them into the reptile area.

Good luck!

 

[ReptileAddictions]

First of all I have been in the Army since 2001 and I am very proud of my service. My service is not an excuse for anything. I never had a store. My website launched in 2007 with a warehouse at 9608 E Montgomery Ave in the Spokane Valley. I kept it open to the public but it was a warehouse, not a retail space. It had a 100 square feet office and a 1100 square feet warehouse that I did let customers come in and browse, preferrably with an appointment. Yes Wendy's mother did come in and make several purchases and was a good customer. Wendy never came in as she was still away in 2007 as most of us on here know. In early 2008 I received word that I would be leaving in support of OEF and I started transitioning my product fills to outsourced warehouses in Torrance, CA and Naperville, IL with a company called Shipwire. When I returned to Spokane in late 08' I continued to use Shipwire and kept a small warehouse here in Spokane. I never went back to keeping public hours and I'm not the only online retailer to do so.

As far as shows go I'm fairly certain I am welcome as I just vended at the Seattle Reptile Expo and only missed the PDX because I was with the Army Reserves on a four day drill. Wendy wouldn't know if I was there or not because she wasn't there and she wouldn't even show up just to attend because she owes way too much money to people who are vending there.

I'm sure she will respond to this with some more rambling that holds no truth. The reason I look down my nose at you is because you are convicted felon who is still scamming people. People who I now I have the displeasure of saying I told you so. Just a few days ago your store had a going out of business banner on it and now you are on here saying you are not going out of business. I personally think we are going to see a repeat of you going away like you did back in 2006, and with a big smile on my face with great pleasure I will say I told you so.

JHB- I would like you to post PROOF I posted anything about you on craiglist. You are not telling the truth. You have no such proof.

AGAIN here making your usual false allegations, your entire post is littered with hear say and 3 part quotes................

Please prove anything you just said......................are you getting infractions for any of this? Why are you the only person in this thread who cant follow the rules over and over. Your honorable?

Another statistic for you. 1 in 3 people in Spokane County are convicted Felons. You look down your nose at 1/3 of your peers? No wonder you wife is leaving you.

 

[JHB1982]

JHB- I would like you to post PROOF I posted anything about you on craiglist. You are not telling the truth. You have no such proof.

AGAIN here making your usual false allegations, your entire post is littered with hear say and 3 part quotes................

Please prove anything you just said......................are you getting infractions for any of this? Why are you the only person in this thread who cant follow the rules over and over. Your honorable?

Another statistic for you. 1 in 3 people in Spokane County are convicted Felons. You look down your nose at 1/3 of your peers? No wonder you wife is leaving you.

Could you post any proof about me stalking you on Craigslist?

You are kind of loosely interpreting the rules on here for your own needs so I'm just following your suit. Of course if you could follow rules you wouldn't be a felon now would you, which of course I am not. No infractions, but you could give me some more bad Karma though, lol.

I don't know if I buy that 1 out of 3 people in Spokane are felons. It's not that hard to keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble. I know the local Spokies aren't the cleanest cut bunch around but I doubt your statistic.

We're also having a pot luck on Friday with some other local herp keepers. Let me know if you care to carpool

 

[Dennis Hultman]

JHB- I would like you to post PROOF I posted anything about you on craiglist. You are not telling the truth. You have no such proof.

AGAIN here making your usual false allegations, your entire post is littered with hear say and 3 part quotes................

Please prove anything you just said......................are you getting infractions for any of this? Why are you the only person in this thread who cant follow the rules over and over. Your honorable?

Another statistic for you. 1 in 3 people in Spokane County are convicted Felons. You look down your nose at 1/3 of your peers? No wonder you wife is leaving you.

A failed to see any anonymous third party statements in the post you quoted.

Originally Posted by JHB1982 View Post
First of all I have been in the Army since 2001 and I am very proud of my service. My service is not an excuse for anything. I never had a store. My website launched in 2007 with a warehouse at 9608 E Montgomery Ave in the Spokane Valley. I kept it open to the public but it was a warehouse, not a retail space. It had a 100 square feet office and a 1100 square feet warehouse that I did let customers come in and browse, preferrably with an appointment. Yes Wendy's mother did come in and make several purchases and was a good customer. Wendy never came in as she was still away in 2007 as most of us on here know. In early 2008 I received word that I would be leaving in support of OEF and I started transitioning my product fills to outsourced warehouses in Torrance, CA and Naperville, IL with a company called Shipwire. When I returned to Spokane in late 08' I continued to use Shipwire and kept a small warehouse here in Spokane. I never went back to keeping public hours and I'm not the only online retailer to do so.

As far as shows go I'm fairly certain I am welcome as I just vended at the Seattle Reptile Expo and only missed the PDX because I was with the Army Reserves on a four day drill. Wendy wouldn't know if I was there or not because she wasn't there and she wouldn't even show up just to attend because she owes way too much money to people who are vending there.

I'm sure she will respond to this with some more rambling that holds no truth. The reason I look down my nose at you is because you are convicted felon who is still scamming people. People who I now I have the displeasure of saying I told you so. Just a few days ago your store had a going out of business banner on it and now you are on here saying you are not going out of business. I personally think we are going to see a repeat of you going away like you did back in 2006, and with a big smile on my face with great pleasure I will say I told you so.

Care to point them out to me?

 

[ReptileAddictions]

Wendy wouldn't know if I was there or not because she wasn't there and she wouldn't even show up just to attend because she owes way too much money to people who are vending there.

That is the second time in this thread he has made such accusations

 

[ReptileAddictions]

Heres another

Wendy come on.....do you work at the CPA firm that does my accounting? You know have no idea how I run my business let alone how I manage my supply chain. You also have no idea how anyone else runs their business either. That would be like me saying something off the wall like you are going out business because you order everything COD and write a cold check and now you have finally run out of suckers. Of course you and I both know the latter to be a little bit true with your one disgruntled former vendor who sent out an e-mail to quite a few of us containing your e-mail correspondence about how they could not get payment from you since you were filing bankruptcy. The list goes on and on, but one only has to search your name on here and take a day off to read up on you on Fauna dating back to 2006 before your stay in the "Handcuff Hotel."

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/spokane-valley-wa/TFJTORQO6RC3P3OCA

Let me know if you need translations in the feedback left in other languages. Can't really dispute EBAY feedback can you?

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...userid=reptilesolutions99206&ftab=AllFeedback

 

[ReptileAddictions]

hhmoores take on it the first time

James,
That's an awful lot of anonymous third party quoting you just posted...posting links to other sites with claims against a subject is not allowed (see the stuck thread toward the top of this forum for Rich's statement on the matter).

Also, the other stores have been recently mentioned in this thread - continuing to recommend them, and posting their prices, could easily be deemed as advertising

 

[ReptileAddictions]

And, I consider this an abusive post.

Wendy,

Again I never had a store in Spokane. I was an online dealer always and kept hours for local traffic that did not want to buy online. I did move to a new location after I got back from being sent away on this little thing called OEF. I know service to you typically means behind bars or picking up trash in jump suit along side the road but some of us do have a higher calling than that I'm positive someone like yourself will never know the priviledge or honor of that. That's all I have to say about that Wendy Childs............Out

 

[Dennis Hultman]

Wendy wouldn't know if I was there or not because she wasn't there and she wouldn't even show up just to attend because she owes way too much money to people who are vending there.

That is the second time in this thread he has made such accusations

If he stated, Somebody told me she owes way too much money to people

That would be an anonymous third party quote and against the rules.

Instead, he stated that you do. He took ownership of the words which means you can fully hold him accountable for his statement. It's not against the rules.

He hasn't supplied any proof and didn't state who you owe so the readers will give it whatever weight that they believe it deserves.

 

[ReptileAddictions]

That would be like me saying something off the wall like you are going out business because you order everything COD and write a cold check and now you have finally run out of suckers. Of course you and I both know the latter to be a little bit true with your one disgruntled former vendor who sent out an e-mail to quite a few of us containing your e-mail correspondence about how they could not get payment from you since you were filing bankruptcy.

he is specifically taking about someone and some emails other than himself.

 

[Dennis Hultman]

That would be like me saying something off the wall like you are going out business because you order everything COD and write a cold check and now you have finally run out of suckers. Of course you and I both know the latter to be a little bit true with your one disgruntled former vendor who sent out an e-mail to quite a few of us containing your e-mail correspondence about how they could not get payment from you since you were filing bankruptcy.

he is specifically taking about someone and some emails other than himself.

A different Moderator has already addressed that post.

 

[timebider]

I've been thoroughly enjoying this thread because of the truly creative solutions posted here for addressing common problems of pet store ownership. As a former feeder buyer (before I started breeding my own), I have two perspectives: the first is, the idea of a drive-through is genius and I would definitely go for that as a customer. However, as Ken noted, I have made my fair share of "impulse" reptile buys just because I had to walk past something that caught my eye on the way to the feeder section. That could be a bad thing, from someone who isn't a reptile person or is unfamiliar with the species they're about to buy, but it should be easy to weed those folks out and place a paid hold on the animal while they do research and get a proper set up (oh, and selling custom set-ups with the animals is genius, too). I wish I could see the store in person!

 

[WebSlave]

Wendy, I have a suggestion to you. Please stop trying to tell us how to do our jobs to interpret my rules. I suggest that you simply stay on topic here discussing your own affairs and not those of this site and staff.

I believe that it is completely transparent to most that you are simply trying to USE the rules and staff here to try to smite an antagonist in this thread with YOUR interpretation of the rules. It is not the purpose of the function to report posts to be used by one party as a weapon against another, which in this case is obviously taking place.

 

[ReptileAddictions]

That was the only factor I struggled with. Myself and my employees where running back and forth all day long bagging feeders. It is a 7000 sq ft store. Feeders are /were at the back and register at the very front. I am witness to the mileage. I have lost 35 pounds in 4 months we have been there.

I have had 3-5 people on shift and still can not accommodate people fast enough. People get mad because they have been waiting 10 min "just to get a dozen crickets".

All for 0 profit. And for almost 10K a month in wages to employees

You will say why are they way in the back of the store? Two reasons. People steal. People steal alot. I wont even put the number out there because it will make the "crew" smile. The feeders are of my last theft concern, and when designing the store I thought the exact same thing, they will have to walk by everything else first to get to them.

People interested in feeders make a V line straight down that one row and out they go. Few wander. They are on a mission. Just like the rest of us with a hustle bustle day. I KNOW that people appreciate the cheap feeders. We are 1/3 the cost of even the cheapest guy in town. When they are ready to buy an animal they will and do come to me first.

My decision did several things. It cut my employee wages in half. It saved me many of arguments with employees and customers. A few customers have got mad. Even belligerent. But when I explain that the store is closed and we are only doing feeders am and pm that they have our undivided attention, dont even have to get out of your car. Then they are happy Lastly, it has made my life 210 % easier.

2 weekends ago I was ready to throw in the towel. I posted signs saying that if the business couldnt pay for itself this month (slow months these last 2 as usual) that I would close the doors. The community was up in arms. People bought whatever they could. Made donations. One of the Iguana rescues previous owners donated $1500. AND,The animals needed to be cared for in a more efficent timely manner. Working 16 hours a day and paying 3 people to work 8 is too much financially for the store to endure.AND, the loads of bookwork the other store was causing me needed to stop. Detaiils I wont go into here because I can not ultimately prove the nasty disgusting underhanded things they have been doing.

Ultimately it came down to me. I am one of the lucky few who gets to do something I love every day. But this store had become a burden. Mentally. I had to make some drastic changes for me. I tried to make changes that were of benefit to me and the community.

I will never be able to please everyone. I have just done my best to please most and keep my sanity in tact while doing so. I made feeders easier for me and most customers, I made the showroom completely feed cleaned and watered in the 2 hours only the feeders are open, and I hired a bookkeeper to handle the drama.

Today I woke up and I am not tired, grumpy, I dont feel like a semi ran me over. I can do my job and do it with a smile. I have brought this community something they have never had before. Clean,well cared for, health animals. Animals displayed beautiful that they can see could be ascetically pleasing in their home. Children have been educated, even if they only learn that geckos feet really arnt "sticky". At the end of this I know I will never get to go to Tahiti on vacation. I myself have still not taken a paycheck. But, I have taken an initial 10K and turned it into 500K. One day when I want to retire I have something to pass on to someone that will let me feed myself and pay someone to wipe my butt.

 

[ReptileAddictions]

My apologies Webslave. I only posted those things because Dennis asked me a question in the thread, I replied in the thread. I wont do it again.

 

[JHB1982]

Wendy this is my last post on here. I'm too busy play anymore on here with you. I've posted on here an invite to you to come have a potluck with all of the other local herp keepers. You say you have done so much for this community so I've extended an invite to you to come hang out with the who's who of the Inland Northwest herp keepers. I bet there are even some names that will be there that people on here will readily recognize. I'm not sure if that is the "crew" that you are speaking about?

You also mentioned employees a few times in your previous post. It would be interesting if some of your previous employees would come on here and post why they no longer work for you. You have gone through so many in two years, surely there are some that would be willing to post there experience on here. I bet they would open up a whole other can of worms on this thread.

Anyhow this is my last post on here. Have a good one Wendy. I'll leave you to carry on victimizing yourself as usual.

Sua Sponte

 

[kmurphy]

You know I really don't have a problem with Wendy but there's not a snow balls chance in Death Valley that I'd purchase anything from JHB1982.