Suggestions on how to handle this

I would say give them nothing. I am almost positive that there is no way any legal action could be taken by the seller here (the buyer ....that may be another story all together). If not for the seller saying you had to send more money, MAYBE if i knew the person to some extent and thought they were a really good person and it was an honest mistake (not a goof ball screw up like sexing by tail length) i would consider giving them a little bit just because it would show alot of class and as was said earlier, to not burn any bridges. However, since the person tried to make you pay them for their mistake and was apparently very rude about the whole situation, i would say give them nothing, and i wouldnt be to worried about burning bridges in this case, because after this mess i wouldnt want to deal with the person again anyway. I also agree that this person's name should be made public so the rest of us know to stay away.

EDIT: I dont mean to sound as though i think anyone who messes up should be bashed. If someone makes an honest mistake, and does their best to make things right, then I dont see a problem, but in this case the person clearly isnt trying to do whats right.

I just realized I had a kind of similar situation a while back...

A couple of years ago I sold a boa on Reptile Auctions. I was told that it was a female, and that's what I advertised it as. When it got to the buyer, it probed as a male. The way we handled the situation was as follows... He relisted the snake on a no reserve auction, and I ended up giving him the difference from what he paid and what he sold it for. I think it ended up being under $10.00. Worked out great for both of us, and 3 people ended up happy in the end.

Yeah. I wouldn't send a single red cent. Tell him he's gonna have to take you to court. If you wouldn't have even said anything, he never would have known in the first place!!!!!!! ...pssshhht...sexing BPs by tail length......what an IDIOT!!!!

I have to agree with everyone (more or less) else on this, you don't owe him anything. And tbh if the same thing happened to me i wouldn't offer the guy a penny.

What he's doing is bad business practise, he's basically saying you should pay for his mistake?!?! Absurd!

I'd keep the female. She is bigger than when you first got her, and well I for oen sya... arent pastel female worth more and well.. I'd keep her :).. :D

Considering the fact that apparently this snake was sexed by tail length which is openly acknowledged as completely unreliable, then sold to you as a guaranteed male when it could not of course be guaranteed anything.....personally I feel you don't owe this person a dime. If a person calls themselves a breeder they should act in a professional manner and not expect a buyer to financially compensate them for not bothering to sex properly.

Since you thought that was a male you would have expected it to be of breeding age much sooner than this female will now be able to breed and to breed to multiple females for you. Seems to me you are taking a bath on your breeding schedule and the loss of income from potential sales from the offspring of the pastel male which is more than what the female is worth. Had you not resexed this snake you could have wasted an entire breeding cycle putting a female in with your females and wondering why no locks occured! The breeder messed up your plans for that male, so taking the loss on the female is something I think he/she should just deal with (and maybe learn something basic like how to probe/pop!)

Heck send this breeder a link to this thread. :)

P.S. My apologies to real breeders everywhere for using that word to refer to a person who does business this way.

WOW ... Says a lot about what "could" go wrong and how it "might" be handled buying from an "nknown" Stick with the "pros" ... RDR, NERD, VPI, PRK, etc. .... they know how to do it right! :sweeet:

:carrot:

-adam

this may have already been posted but oh well. stop talking to this breeder, make sure you can guarentee its a female, post it on kingsnake.com for about 600-900$ depending on quality and then use the money to but a male + you have just made yourself a few hundred dollars. there is no way in h*ll that i would take an 07 male when if you wanted to you could spend a good 700$ on an 04 adult with the money you could make by selling the female
:)

edit: also what adam said either buy unsexed or buy reputible that knows how to sex. i have a male graziani pastel that i got from greg graziani. i would never sex him as i know greg would never make a mistake like that. the same applies to adam and all other large time breeders

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

WOW ... Says a lot about what "could" go wrong and how it "might" be handled buying from an "nknown" Stick with the "pros" ... RDR, NERD, VPI, PRK, etc. .... they know how to do it right! :sweeet:

:carrot:

-adam

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Or make sure you at least know who you are buying from. There are a lot of small breeders out there that know how to do it right :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

WOW ... Says a lot about what "could" go wrong and how it "might" be handled buying from an "nknown" Stick with the "pros" ... RDR, NERD, VPI, PRK, etc. .... they know how to do it right! :sweeet:

:carrot:

-adam

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Adam,wouldn't this be favoring the "pros" over the average breeders? Majority of the people know just looking at the tails is NOT a correct way of sexing a snake.Maybe looking under the tail of certain animals might determine the sex IE rabbit,mouse and etc.If someone is to lazy to learn how to PROPERLY check the sex on snakes then maybe he/she should look up Dr. Dolittle and learn how to talk to them lol:8: .Then he/she could just ask the reptile its sex:rolleyes: :rofl: :rofl: