| Author | Subject: scott gelsomino "small world exotics" |
| steve | Posted At 16:53:44 05/30/2001
good or bad? thanks |
| ben siegel |
Re: scott gelsomino
3929.html Posted At 00:07:05 05/31/2001 i purchased some bearded dragons from scott--after receiving them in terrible condition, i then cam to find out that he was brokering them from a third party, and that he had never actually seen them. They were sickly, skinny and in terrible shape-we lost most of them(almost $1000 worth), and after repeated attempts to get into contact with him, and him saying that he would make right whatever happened--he never got back in touch with me, and i have never heard from him since--i did not know that he was small world exotics--i appreciat that info-Ben Siegel |
| Dan Ferrena/New York Reptilia, Inc. |
Re: scott gelsomino
3971.html Posted At 19:07:16 05/31/2001 I purchased a "BLUE" Green Tree Python from Scott Gelsomino of Small World Exotics. He had posted it on the Kingsnake Python Classifieds for $1000. He TOTALLY misrepresented the animal by saying it was a "garbage can" of a feeder and a FLAWLESS animal.He told me all the "GOOD" things about it personally, on the phone. He said that the response to his post was so overwhelming that if I wanted it I should send him the cash quickly! He insisted that I send him Postal Money orders by overnite mail for $1075 including shipping via Delta Dash. I didn't hear from him for a couple of days after he got the money and he then shipped the animal without notifying me. This was in the dead of winter 2000/2001! I got a call from Delta Airlines one freezing morning notifying me that there was a package waiting for me at the airport. I had to drive 100 miles round trip to go and pickup the animal! When I opened the box, the heat pack was loose, sitting right on top of the snake bag and the snake was ICE COLD! It was emaciated and in shed. Upon closer examination, we discovered that it had a massive infection in it's left eye. I called Scott and left a message for him to call me. He did not respond. I emailed him with the same result. The animal shed and to our dismay, we found that it was completely blind in it's left eye! A semi-dry, pus-plug came out of his left eye along with the shedded skin. In addition, we discovered that the animal had a respiratory infection as well as necrotic stomatis(mouth rot.)It obviously refused to feed! Needless to say, the animal was a mess and a TOTAL piece of garbage!!! The only reason Scott responded to me was when I emailed him to put him on notice that I had notifyied the Postal Authorities that he had perpetrated mail fraud. I included all the information posted here in my email to him. Instead of apologizing and offering to take the animal back for a refund, he wrote back a very nasty and confrontational email stating that he was ready for a war and that he needed to see a vets report of all the animals ailments but that would be pointless because I would probably pay off a vet to write a negative report anyway! His email went on to say that all the communication he got from me was a voice message and an email, both asking him to contact me. WELL, PEOPLE, HOW MANY TIMES DOES A PERSON HAVE TO COMMUNICATE WITH SOMEONE IN ORDER TO GET A RESPONSE??? It was very clear, from ALL of the events that transpired during this transaction, from Scott's insistence that I overnite him Postal Money Orders, disappearing for several days after that, sending the animal without notifying us of the airbill number or ETA and the not responding to our phone message or email after we got the animal, that Scott Gelsomino fully intended to rip us off!!! We have been in business longer than almost anyone in this industry and all of our suppliers send us animals OPEN ACCOUNT. I should have known better than to get taken by this piece of crap. He continues to post animals up for sale on the net. My advice is to exercise extreme caution before sending him any money in advance because chances are very good that anyone who does that is going to get RIPPED OFF! If he could do it to experienced dealers such as myself and Ben Siegel, he is capable of doing it to anyone! New York Reptilia, Inc. |
| steve |
thanks guys
3984.html Posted At 01:16:16 06/01/2001 i've heard of both of you and i've personally done business with you ben a couple times(which i can say were great experiences with great prices). i will take your advice and steer clear. thanks so much for your time, i'm gonna stick to reputable people. matter of fact i think ben has a pair of biak chondros i'm gonna have to drive over and take a look at. looks like you saved me from a heart ache. thanks again, steve |
| Garrick DeMeyer |
Re: scott gelsomino
4062.html Posted At 21:21:22 06/03/2001 I too was taken by Scott Gelsomino. A couple of years ago, I ordered a group of juvenile jungle carpet pythons from him. I originally orderd 5 of them. About 3 weeks later, I received a box with two of them. One of them was emaciated and had puncture wounds on its side. Also, those were the ugliest jungle carpets I'd ever seen. I have a lot of experience with carpet pythons and can safely say they were Queenslands, not Jungles. Both of the snakes died within 2 weeks. Scott ignored emails from me for several weeks before finally returning my email. He threatened that he talked to his lawyer and would take me to court if I told anyone anything negative about him. He told me to send him the bodies and he would have his vet look at them and if it was my poor husbandry that killed them, I would get nothing. I asked him to send me his address so I could ship him the snakes and I never heard from him again- until last summer. He emailed me wanting to buy several albino boa constrictors I produced. I told him no way and reminded him of his prior actions and he told me he did didn't know what I was talking about. My advice is to stay away from dealing with this guy. |
| Scott |
Re: scott gelsomino
4085.html Posted At 18:28:04 06/04/2001 It's just amazing to me how the stories that get posted are always ten times worse than they realy were when the transaction had taken place. And there are always two sides two every storie. I could take the time to dig through old e-mails and shed alot of light on these post as to the actuall truths of what happened, but I don't see alot of point in it. I have alot of good reffrences from people who have nothing but good to say about me and the animals I have sent them. There is always going to be one or two bad transactions when you do as much buisness as I do on the internet. For what ever reason they are. You can tell a person till your blue in the face about the size of an animal or the color and theres always going to be that one person that dosn't think it's the color it was suppost to be or the size or what ever and then try to say you screwed them by creating some elaborate storie about how you took them to the cleaners etc. What ever..It's simple, if you want to do buisness with someone ask for reffrences.....I have plenty |
| ben siegel |
Re: scott gelsomino
4105.html Posted At 09:39:27 06/05/2001 what are the two sides to our story scott-- you said yu would makegood on our deal, i e-mailed and called at east 10 times, including one time 4 or 5 days ago, and you never return my e-mail--you admitted complete blame in our transaction , and never made good on it--what is the two sides there??--i paye you up front--you delayd shipping fo almost 10 days--when i received the dragon they were tiny babies, not 5-6 inches like you stated, and te moron who packed them used electrical tape to hold down the paper towels in the shipping cups--there were dragons that almost twisted there arms off because alot of them were stuck to the electrical tape!!!--i contacted you and you said you were sorry and that you never actually saw the dragons-yu had someone else drop ship them--you said you would make good on it, and after repeatd phone calls--your wife answering and saying you were not there, and that you would get back to me--never did---WHERE IS THE OTHER SIDE TO THIS STORY-i still have an airborne receipt sending you the money, funny how you have time to post a reply here, but not to send me an e-mail-Ben |
| Dan Ferrena/ New York Reptilia |
Re: scott gelsomino
4115.html Posted At 16:51:39 06/05/2001 Hey Scott, One or Two bad transactions? You've ripped off some of the biggest names in the business in Ben Siegel and myself! Not to mention people like Garrick DeMeyer, who I don't know personally, but have seen around Kingsnake.com for quite some time. My problem with the animal I purchased from you had nothing to do with the color of the animal. It had to do with the animals health! There is NO WAY that that animals eye could have gone unnoticed. Which leads me to believe that you INTENTIONALLY ripped me off. And Scott, I too can dig up e-mails of our transaction for the animal and after sale communications. Infact, I think I will attach a few. ` The first is an e-mail I sent you after I called and left a message and e-mailed you asking you to call me with no response to either. Hey Scott Gelsomino, We just want to let you know that you are not going to get away with ripping us off by sending us that piece of garbage Blue Green Tree python that you advertised on Kingsnake for $1000 plus Delta Dash shipping. You assured us that the animal was feeding like a garbage disposal & was flawless. You lied because the animal has never fed for us & has inflamed/infected eyes. According to our vet, the animal is blind. There is no way you didn't know that this animal had severe problems before you shipped it! We tried to contact you via phone & email to resolve this problem amicably but since you didn't response we had to take all the appropriate steps to make sure your unscrupulous business practices are exposed for the whole world to see. We have filed a formal complaint against you & Small World Exotics with Jeff Barringer at Kingsnake.com which will soon be deleting your Classified Account in order to prevent you from ripping of other unsuspecting people. We have also notified everyone in the reptile industry about your fraudulent ways. You see, we have been in the business for 20 years, so we know just about everyone. This should affect your business a great deal by alerting people to your unethical business practices. We have also filed formal charges of Mail Fraud, which Is a FEDERAL OFFENSE, against you & Small World Exotics. You see, we sent you Postal Money Orders as payment for the animal, which you knowingly misrepresented. You see, Scott Gelsomino, you should have never shipped us this animal but you did anyway, & then by not responding to our phone message & email you proved your guilt. Be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. You are not dealing with some naive, unsuspecting novice & this time you have bitten off more than you can chew. Have a "nice" day! New York Reptilia, Inc THE NEXT WAS YOUR RESPONSE TO THAT. You are a liar! You have never tried to contact me regarding any problems with the green tree python! I got one phone call from you two weeks after I sold it to you say " Hey scott, it's Dan at new york reptilia. Call me when you get a chance". You never indicated in that phone call that anyhting was wrong. Below is the ONLY e-mail I recieved from you after you purchased him. And it was 2 1/2 weeks after. There was nothing wrong with that animal when it left here. I don't know what youve done to it since it has ben there, but you won't get away with telling lies! Don't threaten me! If there was any problem with that snake , you should have contacted me. Where's a copy of the vet statement? What I see is some one who bought a snake, and it wasn't what they hoped so he figures he congured up some story! There was nothing wrong witht that animal when it left here. You want a fight, Your gonna get one! below is the picture I posted in the ad for the green tree. It clearly shows there is nothing wrong with his eyes.Like I said you want a war? you'll get one. And as far as mail fraud, What a joke.Grow up! You sent the money, I sent the animal. There was no fraud. Just because your not happy with him dosn't make it fraud. But thats o.k.. The more you lie to people the sooner it will catch up with you! I have a fax. Fax me a copy of the vets report! fax number is 541-928-7189....we'll see. but then again, your probably paying you vet to file a false report......I said it before and I will say it again " THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT SNAKE WHEN HE LEFT HERE!" THIS 3RD ONE WAS MY RESPONSE TO THAT: Didn't take you long to respond to that email, did it Scott? I wonder why my phone call or previous email were ignored? How many times do you have to be contacted before you finally respond? It seems to me that you were never going to respond to my phone call or previous email asking you very politely to contact me at your earliest convenience. Would you have preferred a expletive-laced message on your phone machine or a similar email, in order for you to respond? I thought that we could discuss the problem with the snake when you called back, which you NEVER did! Put yourself in my place, what would you think if someone you had purchased something from COMPLETELY IGNORED your requests to contact you? Let me refresh your memory regarding the entire sequence of events that transpired with regards to this entire transaction: You advertised the animal in question on Kingsnake on December 22, 2000 for $1000 plus shipping. I emailed you regarding the animal & Melody Ritter called me to discuss it. The next day, December 28, I emailed you and asked for a detailed, written statement regarding the animal. You called back shortly thereafter & told me that you were a reputable dealer, in business for 12 years & assured me that the animal was flawless & called it a garbage disposal. You said that since the response to your ad., had been overwhelming, if I wanted the animal, I should overnite you the money in the form of postal money orders & email you the tracking number because it was the holiday season & you didn't want the money to get delayed. You promised to email me as soon as you received the money & we discussed the logistics of shipping. I am attaching below, a transcript of the my 2 emails regarding sending you the money & your need to notify me when you got it as well as specific instructions about shipping the animal with a PAID invoice enclosed & your need to notify me so I could track the shipment. ( ALL OF THESE PROMISES WERE BROKEN & INSTRUCTIONS IGNORED, ADDING TO OUR FRUSTRATION & SUSPICION) I want to thank everybody who took the time to read this. But I felt it was my duty to let possible consumers of SMALL WORLD EXOTICS see what they would be getting into if they did business with them. |
| stephen barringer |
Re: scott gelsomino
4244.html Posted At 16:47:49 06/07/2001 sorry webmaster, stephen barringer |
| Jeff Miller |
Re: scott gelsomino
4344.html Posted At 05:35:46 06/10/2001 Why Bob, that was uncalled for. That comment didn't even fit into the thread. Actually, it sounds like something Scot Gelsomino would say. I have no business experience with Scott, but I know enough about him on a personal level to say that I wouldn't trust him with a slice of cheese-- the cheese might hurt him. Sure, there are good deals and bad deals. But if there's a pattern of bad deals, it means you may be a business man that needs to find another source of income. It also means you're a sucky business man. If you screw big names in the business, it means you're a stupid business man. Adn if you collect wild animals to sell illegally in the herp tradem it means you don't make enough money as an honest business man. Scott, get a job. Abandon the dream. Or, just screw it and sell weed. It fits you better. When are you going to e-mail me? Jeff |
| Mark Schmidtke |
Re: scott gelsomino
4693.html Posted At 02:04:12 06/20/2001 This may be a little late in posting, I don't keep up on this site as often as I used to, but. I purchased a couple of Sonoran gopher snakes from Scott last year and they were (and still are) very nice animals, they were honestly represented and exactly what I ordered. He was very prompt in responding to all of my E-mails and sent pictures of the snakes that I was buying so I knew what I was getting before I even sent him any money. I was very satisfied with my dealings with him and wouldn't hesitate to buy from him again. Mark Schmidtke |
| Krista Wamhoff |
Re: scott gelsomino
4875.html Posted At 13:36:00 06/26/2001 I bought a snake at a show in February of 2001 now the show area was cold and one-step above outside. SHOW CONDITIONS NOT SCOTT'S FAULT!!! A guy walked up to him with 3 jungle carpets and wanted to sell them to Scott. He said ok and paid the guy cash. Later the next day I bought one of those Jungle carpets. It did get a sick But at whose fault. The previous owner, Scott mine. After several mopnths of holding a grudge against Scott I met him again at his home. He and partner are the nicest people and their room where the snakes are kept is tremendous. I saw how these animals are kept at his residence and what their conditions are. I have nothing bad to say about this guy and must thank him for being kind enough to loan me an incubator when I needed one now. (rec'd a snake who was gravid and no one knew not even Scott). Scott your ability to handle all of those animals at once is a great responsibility and I appreciate that you are doing a good job. For all you other negative posts you may want to check your internet connections to verify your emails are sending. He sent me 3 and I only rec'd 1. He seems more hones that some other individuals I have met in my adventures. |
| Ben |
Re: scott gelsomino
6297.html Posted At 18:04:21 07/25/2001 test |
| Sean Palmer |
Re: scott gelsomino
6583.html Posted At 13:23:59 07/31/2001 As this may a little late I would like to share my story regarding my interraction w/ Scott & Small World Exotics. About 6 months ago I arranged a trade w/ Scott and one of his friends for a trio (1.2) of Taipans. 0.1 came from a friend of his, while the pair 1.1 came from Scott. I did not pay for these animals w/ cash, but we negotiated an agreeable trade. So when shipping day came.....all 3 parties shipped there animals out. The animals I sent Scott were in great condition....his friend (whose privacy I will respect) commented that all my animals looked good and healthy. In fact, Scott commented that the animals I sent him looked good. Heck, I KNEW MY ANIMALS WERE in great condition....OTHERWISE I WOULDN'T HAVE SENT THEM OUT!!!!!! My end of the deal was not so good. At the airport I opened my crate to inspect the animals to make sure all the bags are moving....just checking to make sure everyone is still alive, etc. etc (as I always do-so I can have witnesses, and file any claims that need to be made). I lifted up one of the bags to the light, so that I could see the snake. The silhouette of the snake wasn't reallly moving. Concerned I put the snake away, and headed home. I opened this bag first and I could see the female Taipan was garbage. She seemed to have some neurological problem or something. It was obvious....this snake was "toast" and was not going to make it. She didn't survive the night. For the record, the other two Taipans were fine. I contacted Scott regarding the matter, and he was very nice and said he noticed that it was acting funny like that when he shipped it. MY question......why send it then? If it is obviously unhealthy....be up front about it. He informed me that he had access to another one and would get it to me. As this was what I wanted to hear I was happy. Scott said and I quote, "No, don't worry about it....It (the replacement Taipan) didn't cost me A THING"!!!! So a day or two passes and a new female Taipan arrives. Upon opening the box I discovered that this second one is WORSE THAN THE FIRST!!!! It died 2 hours later!!!! Again I contacted Scott regarding my grievances. I have always known Scott was a hot head (hearing from others) so I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere being rude to him regarding my complaint. He said, "I'll make it up to you." and that he would get me next time. Well when next time came.....I saw that he DEVENOMIZED one of the cobras I sent him in our previous deal. Heartbroken that he subjected this specimen to this, I contacted him to get the snake back...I was willing to send him some $ too. I just wanted the animal back. I felt awful and partially responsible about what had happened to it. I called and his girlfriend/wife picked up the phone (actually its hard to distinguish between the two....because Scott has a "GIRLY" voice). I made mention that Scott was going to make it up to me and to have him please call me regarding the snake. His girlfriend said that Scott stated, "we are not in a position to negotiate on this animal". Since I didn't hear it directly from Scott I asked for him to call me. No call from Scott. I called again...no phone calls were returned. It then became painfully obvious that I am just another innocent bystander that Scott has bent over and screwed! Mr. Gelsomino I SENT YOU CHOICE animals, that I spent a great deal of money on. I also spent countless hours making them great! YOU OWE ME!!! I will happily withdraw my statement if: A. You furnish me w/ 1 Taipan and an apology, OR B. You reimburse me the value of 1 Taipan (est. retail $425) and give me an apology! There is what is RIGHT....and there is what is WRONG! YOU SIR, ARE WRONG! I have waited a long time for my moment w/ you..and we (meaning YOU and I) still are NOT done! I will ride you till the ends of time buddy! I am not into breaking balls, but now you made your bed....now you gotta lay in it. I am the wrong guy. This is WHAT YOU GET! Sean P. |