Mounting an attack against a dishonest vendor

[Olimpia]

So, a few people know that I've been in this epic battle against ****for refusing to refund me my money for a sick animal that died the day I bought it.

I have called them, and emailed them time and time again and they insist on ignoring me. The first few days they were very nice and agreed to refund me everything, but then they stopped answering my calls and my emails. And it's obvious that a responsible person would have refunded my money immediately, so these people are just liars. If they didn't live in the most horrible part of Miami I would have gone there myself to straighten it out in person a long time ago. But I'm going to Tampa this weekend to deal with them in person, and to threaten them with a lawyer. It's not even so much about the money at this point as it is about us not letting them get away with it.

I'm just ranting at this point haha.
Has anyone else gone through something like this?

 

[juiceredrum]

hey hun howz it going what actually happen did they not send the animal or was it dead when it came to you ? what was the name of the breeder that is the most horrible thing i live in tampa and its hard to find good breeders and when u sit and wait its like christmas when they get here and not to get your animal or have it be dead would extremely piss me off

 

[Olimpia]

Well, I was at a reptile show looking for either a gecko or a chameleon. And these people had both (I can't say their name on here), and they talked me into a gecko species that I didn't have. They swore to me that it was as easy to take care of as a crested gecko, and much easier than a chameleon. So I took it home, and that night it died. I did everything I knew how to do and everything my vet recommended but nothing worked. The next day my local reptile guy told me that this gecko species is basically always imported and by the time they get here from Madagascar they are already half dead.

I've dealt with several breeders already and they are all super nice and very professional, this was just really bad luck.

 

[leonewbie]

Olimpia, sorry to hear about your loss, that really sucks....did you get it at the one in Orlando? If so, i think i know who you are talking about. By the way, i'll be at the show this weekend too!!

 

[leoman777]

thats horible... what kind of gecko was it?

 

[Olimpia]

Olimpia, sorry to hear about your loss, that really sucks....did you get it at the one in Orlando? If so, i think i know who you are talking about. By the way, i'll be at the show this weekend too!!

Yea, at the repticon in Orlando. Awesome! I'll be going on Saturday, so if you're there I'll be the person angrily yelling at one of the vendors in Spanish haha.

 

[Olimpia]

thats horible... what kind of gecko was it?

It was a Giant leaf tail gecko... which I still think are incredibly bad-arse. I'm not going to lie, I probably should have researched the species before buying it. But still, I was ready to buy a chameleon from them, and I know a lot about keeping chameleons, so I don't know why they would lie to me to get me to buy the gecko instead. Probably because they were all half dead and they wanted to get rid of them haha.

 

[Mel&Keith]

If they don't agree to refund your money you might consider putting a thread about them on Fauna's BOI.

 

[whkrazyk]

sry to hear that olimpia, some people dont care about what they do to the reptile community as a whole, they just want to make their money right then and their. I will be at the show this weekend too, sat. to be specific, prolly all day lol.

 

[acpart]

I had an experience where I bought a gold dust day gecko from someone and he never shipped it. First it was that Fedex hadnt come to pick up, then there was some other problem and then he stopped communicating with me.

I took him to small claims court.

If you want to do that, go on-line and find the rules for what you have to do. In my case I sued him for the cost of the gecko + shipping+ the cost of a plane ticket and car rental since I am in Boston and he's in Deleware (this is not anyone on the forum or anyone who is involved with reptiles in a major way). At the trial he claimed that his computer had been broken and he hadn't gotten any of my messages.

I won the case but of course getting him to pay was another matter. Eventually I got him to pay about half of it. I could have filled out a form that would have had his employer garnish his wages but I kind of ran out of steam.

You could always send a registered letter about your plans and give them a date by which they have to satisfy you or else you'll go the small claims court route.

Aliza

 

[whkrazyk]

You could always send a registered letter about your plans and give them a date by which they have to satisfy you or else you'll go the small claims court route.

Aliza

+1

 

[Olimpia]

I had an experience where I bought a gold dust day gecko from someone and he never shipped it. First it was that Fedex hadnt come to pick up, then there was some other problem and then he stopped communicating with me.

I took him to small claims court.

If you want to do that, go on-line and find the rules for what you have to do. In my case I sued him for the cost of the gecko + shipping+ the cost of a plane ticket and car rental since I am in Boston and he's in Deleware (this is not anyone on the forum or anyone who is involved with reptiles in a major way). At the trial he claimed that his computer had been broken and he hadn't gotten any of my messages.

I won the case but of course getting him to pay was another matter. Eventually I got him to pay about half of it. I could have filled out a form that would have had his employer garnish his wages but I kind of ran out of steam.

You could always send a registered letter about your plans and give them a date by which they have to satisfy you or else you'll go the small claims court route.

Aliza

On top of everything they wanted me to ship them back the gecko to proove it was dead. They didn't seem to be willing to communicate until I did so, so I just sent it in a zip lock bag and let them deal with it. But with the gecko I enclosed a very stern letter that said they had to refund me the money now. And since there's been no answer, I'm going to talk to them in Tampa this weekend and threaten them face-to-face with legal action. Hopefully that scares them enough to give me back the money, but we'll see.

 

[whkrazyk]

what time will you be there?

 

[justindh1]

what I would do when i go up there is wait til the booth or where ever they are is busy with people and then bring up the fact about what happened to you. Don't keep it low but let all of the people hear ya talk about the problems you have had. This will probably make them want to shut you up and pay you so they don't get a bad reputationwith the people thats there looking. Shut up as in not talking about this with their potential customers around. Make them pay your money back and give you a animal for free or keep making some noise so their customers hear.

 

[leoman777]

what I would do when i go up there is wait til the booth or where ever they are is busy with people and then bring up the fact about what happened to you. Don't keep it low but let all of the people hear ya talk about the problems you have had. This will probably make them want to shut you up and pay you so they don't get a bad reputationwith the people thats there looking. Shut up as in not talking about this with their potential customers around. Make them pay your money back and give you a animal for free or keep making some noise so their customers hear.

:main_yes: and then if thye dont do anything then threaten them with the legal action.

 

[Krow]

what I would do when i go up there is wait til the booth or where ever they are is busy with people and then bring up the fact about what happened to you. Don't keep it low but let all of the people hear ya talk about the problems you have had. This will probably make them want to shut you up and pay you so they don't get a bad reputationwith the people thats there looking. Shut up as in not talking about this with their potential customers around. Make them pay your money back and give you a animal for free or keep making some noise so their customers hear.

+1 & +3 for legal pursuit, stupid people:main_angry:

Haha, if you still had the gecko you could bring it to their booth while they are busy & just flop it on the table & start some crazed rant on how horrible they are & that this DEAD rep you bought from THEM, & just scream that you haven't gotten your money back yet & you want it NOW!! Haha, woo that would really tic them off, haha...:main_yes:

 

[paulnj]

Before everyone jumps to conclusions.. how did you transport it home and how did you set it up. HEAT KILLS them.

 

[Olimpia]

Before everyone jumps to conclusions.. how did you transport it home and how did you set it up. HEAT KILLS them.

I took it home in one of those large, round plastic things they usually hand these animals in with some wet paper on the bottom. It was horrendously hot out so I tried to keep it kind of hidden and in shade (in the car with the AC keeping the heat at bay) at the ride home, but it was still stressing. And when I got home and took it out to put it in it's enclosure it was already near dead. It was too far gone, even my reptile vet told us that from our description there was probably nothing we could do to save it.

I'm not saying that it wasn't the heat and the long ride home that killed it, but my problem was that they told me this was a hardy species (which it isn't) and that they agreed to refund me the money and then they stopped all conversation.

 

[Olimpia]

I talked to them at the show today and we worked everything out. There apparently was some sort of miscommunication between the secretary answering the emails and the owner, so he understood that all conversation happened a week after the purchase, when in fact it started the night of the show. But problem solved

 

[whkrazyk]

awsome did you get your money back, or did he give you a trade in?