New Member and Company!

[FloridaReptileRanch]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the forums and want to introduce myself. My name is Michael Freedman, and I am the owner of The Florida Reptile Ranch. We are a new company that is focusing on ball pythons for now and will get into many more species, including boas, other pythons, tortoises, monitor lizards, geckos, etc. when we move back home.

We are currently located in Scottsdale, Arizona but will be back in Tampa early 2015. My family and I moved out here so I can attend med school. I have other businesses but am especially excited about this one because I get to make something I have loved for decades a source of income. I have kept everything from rat snakes, amphibians, green tree, water, nile monitors, chameleons, boas, plus many more and have experience with most species around. In high school I worked at an exotic pet store called “The Snake Pit” in Tampa, if anyone is from around the Bay area and remembers that place.

I have bought ball pythons from Europe and from several breeders in the States (some pics can be seen on facebook). I want to thank Tracy Barker, Wes Harris, Ryan Young, Bob Clark, Brian Barczyk, Amir Soleymani and Stefan Broghammer for speaking with me and giving me some incredible snakes. A special thank you goes out to Stefan for answering 1 million e-mails, being a stand-up guy and for his excellent English(!), to Brian Barczyk for answering my texts any time of the day and for giving me good recommendations, to Wes Harris for his time and insight, and to Tracy Barker for being my supplier, guide, advisor and friend in my new venture. Most importantly, thank you to my wife for her unwavering support.

Now that you are tired of reading, I would like to get some feedback about your experiences with other breeders and recommendations for business practices. We want to be around for a long time and want everyone to have a great experience with us. So, what do you want to see in a breeder? For example, Brian, Stefan and Tracy all gave me an inordinate amount of their time. They answered every email, text and phone call and they benefitted by getting a lot of business from me. Some breeders didn’t return my calls and lost out on a ton of money. What things really make a breeder stand out to you? What aspects of the whole process from marketing to answering the phone to shipping do you want to see? Personal attention? YouTube videos?

Thanks to all and I look forward to meeting you! Stay tuned for pics of new stock!

Michael Freedman
The Florida Reptile Ranch
www.facebook.com/thefloridareptileranch(work in progress)
www.thefloridareptileranch.com -> coming soon!

[The Serpent Merchant]

Welcome to the site!

I grew up in the Tampa Bay area (Clearwater) but an now in Orlando for college.

One of the biggest things for me is transparency. I want a breeder to be open and honest about their animals and practices. I want a breeder to be available for questions as you pointed out, and most of all I want a breeder to be completely above the table when it comes to complying with local/state level/federal rules about owning/breeding/selling exotic animals (we have some interesting ones here in florida) I think that a good reptile breeder should be active in the reptile community, as well as in his/her local community showing people that reptiles aren't something to fear, and that the people who own/work with them aren't crazy lunatics, but passionate people who can see past the societal misconceptions about them.

[Neal]

To me it's about a person answering questions you have without blowing you off. I always look to deal with my local breeders first(Sean Bradley - Exotics By Nature, Time Bailey - Bailey & Bailey Reptiles). I also have another friend who's a member of the forums(Luke Martin - Bronze Serpent Reptiles). I personally prefer to do business with them because for the main reason I can actually place eyes on what I'm interested in and then all 3 of those guys I've named have helped me with countless questions and given me numerous amount of tips. I've known Sean for something around 7 years, and Tim for about 4-5?. On a side note, all of those guys have great business practices.

Then they have some people I wouldn't deal with or even take free snakes from(if you're curious feel free to PM me), but I don't want to disclose anything here to avoid having a thread closed that wasn't mine from the start. Another one of the companies workers post here and I don't mind that person so I don't want to start anything. Then again I have my reasons for avoiding them from personal experiences or people I know that have had issues with them as well as how they handle things that I've seen.

Anybody can have great customer service when everything is going good and they haven't had a problem to fix. It's when a problem arises that the true colors of some of these breeders show their true color. For instance Chris(C Serpents) is a great guy and to me has unparalleled customer service that I've had to deal with. I orderd a rack and because Chris was so busy at the time and I really needed a rack he pushed and got mine done, but there was a mix-up with the shipping and two labels got mixed up. So I was going to receive the wrong rack and so was the other person in Washington. Chris immediately notified me of this problem and dealt with the annoying fedex to resolve this. He kept me updated every step of the way and even refunded me my shipping costs of the rack(which I did not ask for). He basically took money out of his own wallet to satisfy me and I hadn't even asked for anything. That right there shows me that he values his customers and that proved to me that he has amazing customer service. I've even ordered another rack from as well and not only is his customer service great, but his products are great as well.

One thing I avoid is when I ask people questions and they rather blow me off. I've had the experience to talk to a few people I was interested in buying from but after I asked a few questions they blew me off as they didn't think I was going to do business with them. To me that's crappy customer service because whether or not you think I'm going to purchase from you, any person with good customer service would help me regardless. So that has put me off from a few breeders, as well as ones who I don't think take proper care of their animals.

So in all my rant my theory is simple, stay true to yourself, your customers and don't be rude. Even if it's just some stupid question, take time to answer it and don't blow that person off. That's how you build your name in the hobby and that's how you get customers and repeat customers. Also if a transaction goes wrong and they come to you, fix it without them having to post on the BOI or a negative feedback review on you. To most people, if we have to go that far then it's already too late to remedy any situation because we were disregarded the first time.

Good luck with everything and I hope all goes well.

EDIT:
Like Aaron said which is a given about being honest. Don't be sketchy or lie about genetics. If you don't know then be honest, don't try to label something based off what you think. If you're unsure then say so, say it may possibly be het for this or may possibly carry this gene but don't price it as so because that's just bad business to me. Stand by your word and your product and keep your animals healthy.

[zeion97]

I'm curious... If you're a new breeder, and I understand wanting to start strong.. But delving at LEAST $25,000 on a female snake? And mutliple others ones on top of that.. just eh.. I'm sorry, but to me this seems....fishy.

I knew I saw the female super bamboo from somewhere, I shared it a few weeks ago on Facebook, from BHB, you have it listed as initial breeding stock, but its still on BHB's site... So...confused..

[Neal]

I'm curious... If you're a new breeder, and I understand wanting to start strong.. But delving at LEAST $25,000 on a female snake? And mutliple others ones on top of that.. just eh.. I'm sorry, but to me this seems....fishy.

Just out of curiosity, how does that seem fishy?

[YoshiBP]

/I'm in Tampa now. Wish you were starting up sooner!!!

[FloridaReptileRanch]

Thank you Aaron, Neal and Yoshi. I will take that advice. I'm not new to the business world, so, to me atleast, most of that seems like common sense in any business.

Zeion, I am sorry that seems fishy to you. I have had a lot of success in the past and I like to swing for the fences. Feel free to contact anyone I mentioned for confirmation. Maybe I'll have them post here.

[zeion97]

Just out of curiosity, how does that seem fishy?

I added another to my quote, but this is also claimed to be the first stock. TO ME so far... This looks like the post from 2 years ago when a kid said he re-homed a big burm to Ben Siegal. Also, all the photos are ones the breeders have on there sites.. Now extra pictures of the animals are posted..

If I'm wrong ill apologize but it stills seems fishy to me..

[FloridaReptileRanch]

Hey Zeion,

I grabbed the photos from the breeder's sites but I also have new pics of what's been delivered so far, like the super bamboo, the super bongo, the soulsuckers, etc. that are on FB. I don't know why Brian still has that listed?? Like I said though, you can call him...

Just FYI, I have purchased/am in the process of purchasing a lot of balls. So, a 25K snake is just a drop in the bucket.

Edit: You can see on my Fb page/personal page that most of those people mentioned above are either friends or have like my page. I don't think they would do that if I was just stealing pics from them.

[zeion97]

Hey Zeion,

I grabbed the photos from the breeder's sites but I also have new pics of what's been delivered so far, like the super bamboo, the super bongo, the soulsuckers, etc. that are on FB. I don't know why Brian still has that listed?? Like I said though, you can call him...

Just FYI, I have purchased/am in the process of purchasing about 140 balls. So, a 25K snake is just a drop in the bucket.

I'm not that desperate, I nearly voiced my opinion and gave a few facts, I talk to Brian mostly about business, though I do have a few friends who talk with him regularly. My post was mearly to voice my concern that you could be a troll playing the reptile forums, it happens quite often on here and a lot of other forums. I don't seek to burn you down, nor do I see a point to bother Brian when I don't plan on purchasing another animal from him. I just mearly voiced my opinion. If you invested this much into the market, that's fine and dandy, if its all a rouse, oh well it happens. That's just how life works.