I decided to ask this on this particular board as I spend most of my time on this board. I may post on a couple of others to get a balanced opinion.
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I purchased a 10 lot of boas from Phong Ly a few months back. A few people here have babies from that litter either from me or from Phong himslef. I put them up for sale on KS and immediately a guy wanted to buy the best [in my opinion] pair of babies. He initially argued about price and I cut him a discount (as is typical) for getting two instead of just one baby.
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As soon as they got to him I got a call stating that the male was too small and that the picutures that I sent him was definately "photoshopped"....This is the baby....There is also coins in the pic to give a size reference.
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As can see (and as I told the buyer)...he was one of the smaller babies in the litter but his color and pattern was the best of the bunch as well. I also told him that I guarenteed live arrival. I hadn't quarentined the animals and I told him so. It was a purchase to move them for the breeder so that he didn't have to do the advertising and shipping for the animals individually. Anyone who has seen the babies in person from the Pandora litter knows that the color on these actually comes up better than what the pictures show.
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I was a cordial as I could be and said that maybe his computer monitor showed up differently than what the babies looked like and assured him that there was no manipulation of the photos other than to crop the image and fit it to the screen.
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He then insisted that the animals must be sick. The male being that small MUST not be eating. I called Phong back and was assured that they were all eating and that they had actually eaten just a few days before shipping out (allowing just enough digestion time to be safe in shipping). He then said "well what happenes if this thing dropps dead on me in the next few days". I told him that I would guarentee it will live for the next 30 days: if it didn't I would refund his money (minus the shipping costs). Just send a pic of the dead baby if it happens to go down that way.
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I didn't hear from him for a couple of months. Then I get a call, "I think this baby is sick" ... "I told you". He proceeded to tell me that it eats but won't gain weight. Said it didn't regurgitate. Claimed he went to get treatment for internal parasites at a vet just in case that is what was keeping it smaller. Complained about the bill. I told him to keep me posted and let me know what the progress was and we could maybe work something out depending on the result.
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I didn't hear from him for another couple of months. Then I get a call. He explained that the boa had died and that he wanted a full refund (bear in mind that this is more than 4 months after the intial sale). He did send a pic of the animal that seemed to be the baby I sold him and that did appear to be dead.
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My question to the sellers on this board and those who buy snakes, what is the protocall on this kind of a situation in this kind of time frame.
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any input would be appreciated.
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Thanks.
