Ballbids.com

[joepythons]

Awwww did poor little Zacky's scam go boom .I am glad the word is out and they are done

[SlitherinSisters]

i can see these guys making alot of quick cash from people that arent as fortunate as us (here on BP.net) to see all this pan out.
i feel sorry for all the bidders.

Don't worry, if anyone is smart enough to google ballbids.com before they bid this thread is the 5th thing that pops up, and the first site that isn't ball bids

[SMSReptiles]

I also wouldn't be suprised if the winner was a bot. How would anybody know if that wasn't a winner. How much money he can pocket without selling anything.

Wow this turned out to be far more hilarious than I anticipated.

Here's what I feel like is really going on:

1. The site appears to have been thrown together by somebody with very little patience, let alone knowledge regarding marketing or website construction. The odds that the person behind the site will pay any attention to the health of the animals or the satisfaction of the customer are slim to none.

2. If the website creator really cared about anything other than making a quick buck, more attention would have been paid to details like how the timer would behave, whether the website would be able to handle the traffic, and whether the terms of service were written by Best Buy. Once the money is in his pocket, he's going to be gone.

3. The site is likely set up in such a way that the timer will repeatedly reset if a certain profit has not been attained. To bidders watching the auction, it would appear as though other users are bidding, causing the timer to reset. This process would continue until a certain amount of money has been accrued. I highly doubt that it's an accident, or the fault of the 'server'. It's probably intentional, and extremely sloppy programming.

So in conclusion, I am absolutely not going to give this person any of my money. The fact that one individual person might get away with a morph for pennies on the dollar does not justify the means that it took to make it happen. IF anybody gets the snake cheap, it means that hundreds of others spent heaps of money in exchange for NOTHING. Hundreds of people get ripped off while one person is pleased with themselves for being a jackass and lining the pockets of a scumbag. In the meantime we are COLLECTIVELY shat on. The whole community.

It DOES matter to me that his practices are impatient, sloppy, underhanded and dishonest. I do not want somebody like this to make any money at the expense of weak-willed people and innocent animals.

[lasweetswan]

*makes more popcorn*

[aviBallBids]

Hi everyone!
I'm sorry for taking so long to respond to your posts! I'm sure you can imagine how backed up we've been with today's fiasco!

Anyway, I read through all of your threads, and I'd like to go through a few major topics that I see being mentioned over and over again:

1) Quarantine: I confused the previous question about quarantine with general housing. For that, I apologize. The truth is that we don't have a proper quarantine set up, but it hasn't been an issue until this point because all of our snakes have been with us for about a month now, none of which are showing signs of health problems. However, we will have a proper quarantine set up in no time. As I mentioned earlier, we have the necessary supplies to build several more hatchling racks, which we will separate from our primary snake room and use as a quarantine.

2) Warranty, Live Delivery, Health, and Genetic guarantees: Our terms and conditions make several references to items that we "intend" to include in the future, such as tanks, heat pads, thermostats, etc., which is why you see items being referred to as "it". in general, the terms and conditions are only meant to provide us with legal protection, but I'm prepared to make necessary changes as you all see fit.

I'll begin by making necessary provisions that guarantee free return shipping and the exchange of live animals, in the case that you are unhappy with the snake you receive, live delivery, good health, and published genetics. Please, let me know if I missed anything.

3) Our backgrounds: It's true that I've only been involved, hands-on, with this trade for several weeks, but I'm primarily the tech/web guy, so, although it remains important, it's not AS important as it would be if I was a dedicated breeder. I depend on Zack's knowledge and experience, and although he may not be the most experienced breeder or snake handler around, he certainly knows enough to get us where we need to be and to keep our snakes in good health.

Also, we're both from South Florida, but we now live in Louisville, Kentucky. Zack's been up here for about 3 years, and I just recently moved up a little more than 2 weeks ago. And no, the website wasn't thrown together in 2 weeks time. It was built and modified multiple times over the last 6 months. It was only because of our impending launch date that I finally moved up to KY. Is there anything I'm leaving out?

4) Banner advertising: It's become very obvious that our banner ads need to be modified so that there is no confusion as to whether or not we have already auctioned off several snakes. As of now, all of our display ads on google have been paused, and I'll be crafting some new ones shortly, none of which will imply that any auctions have been "sold".

5) Multiple account registrations: This is actually my fault, as I told Zack to register a new account under the name zackBallBids, that way it was clear who and what he represented in his responses. I wasn't aware of his multiple account registrations, but that doesn't excuse him from the fact that he did what he did. The new account has been banned, which is a reasonable penalty. This will not happen again.

6) Constrictors Unlimited: Mike Wilbanks is not affiliated with us, and naming him as our "supplier" could have made him look bad, something I did not expect. Instead, I should have only mentioned that we purchased our snakes from him, and that's all. i apologize for creating any confusion, and I intend to post disclaimers on all of our live animal auctions from here on out.

7) Server crash: I've been doing a whole lot of advertising over the last two days, but I had no clue how far my efforts would reach. On day 1 we had about 2500 visitors. Today, on day 2, our dedicated server was completely overwhelmed, even after we made modifications. It became obvious that the server wouldn't survive the last few minutes of the auctions, so I tried to extend them by 1 hour to give us time to work things out. Being in such a chaotic atmosphere, I accidentally added an extra day to each auction, instead of an hour. Because of the server load time, it took me a while just to go back and modify the auction end time again so that it reflected the extra hour instead of the extra day. This is why you see users mentioning one or the other, or both.

I've been catching up with emails and live support requests since all of that happened, so I apologize again for taking so long to respond to this thread. And please, let me know if there is anything I left out.

-Avi =)

[snakesRkewl]

You guys are just not right, not in your ethics, not in your business model, not in your care of these awesome animals and certainly not in your lies and deceptions.

So many noobie mistakes it's pathetic, these are live animals and it's our hobby your toying with, yet you expect us to understand

Sorry, your barking up the wrong tree

[sho220]

You guys are just not right, not in your ethics, not in your business model, not in your care of these awesome animals and certainly not in your lies and deceptions.

So many noobie mistakes it's pathetic, these are live animals and it's our hobby your toying with, yet you expect us to understand

Sorry, your barking up the wrong tree

Couldn't agree with you more.

I knew this was shady from the start, but this just blew my mind...

6) Constrictors Unlimited: Mike Wilbanks is not affiliated with us, and naming him as our "supplier" could have made him look bad

Ya' think????

If I was Mike Wilbanks, I'd probably be knocking on your front door this morning...

[aviBallBids]

Hi guys!

Just a quick update: Our terms have been updated as I mentioned.

http://www.ballbids.com/page/terms-conditions

Please check them out and let me know if I left anything out.

Thanks! -Avi =)

[sho220]

Hi guys!

Just a quick update: Our terms have been updated as I mentioned.

http://www.ballbids.com/page/terms-conditions

Please check them out and let me know if I left anything out.

Thanks! -Avi =)

It's a shame you didn't focus your efforts on something a little more honorable or legit. You seem very determined to make a go of this. Unfortunately (for you) this won't end well...

[Shadera]

Out of curiosity, has anyone contacted the Internet fraud folks yet?