How often does this happen..?

[Ryan Chin]

Hey everyone I am not huge on starting my own threads 'cause lord knows how bad I am at keeping up with them but this particular situation with a breeder I am talking to has piqued my curiosity. I am at the stage in my hobby where I am looking for a nice multi-gene male to put to my ladies in about 6 months. ( I am looking now to leave myself time to build the enclosure, pass up or wait for deals and quarantine time) I located a particular snake that caught my eye, from what I could tell is a relatively reputable breeder, has good BOI reviews and all. My experience with him thus far, is a little over a week of emailing back and forth. With the first few emails I asked him general questions about the snake...weight, pics, what the dame/sire were and where they came from if that was possible. After these particular questions I feel he has put me off by giving me answers like "I'll get back to you when I get home from fishing, I'll answer you in the morning, etc." my favorite one that really got me was, "things have come up I probably won't be able to help you out for a few weeks. Thanks". This was his last response after I emailed him letting him know that I felt like I was being put off and if there were any way I could make things easier on him with our transaction to just let me know.

I feel I have been very courteous allowing him 2 even 3 days in-between email responses with no answer until I shoot him another email, where he completely ignores everything I said or asked in the previous one. I apologized for being a nag with the emails and let him know that this is a significant purchase for me and that was the main reasons for asking questions. The whole conversation I felt like he wanted me to just buy it and if not stop emailing him, for some reason he felt the need to tell me he sells many snakes a week with returning customers...I mean that is great for him and all but....ok? Does he mean to say that since I am a new customer I don't get the customer service that they do?

I asked him if I should get back to him in a couple weeks if that would be better for him or if I should just start looking elsewhere cause to me it really seems like he just doesn't want to sell it to me.

I don't know, I am a little upset...I guess i just wanted to ask the community.

[4theSNAKElady]

Don't know how much the said snake is, but I would just forget him altogether and take your business somewhere else. Doesn't sound to me like he really wants to sell snakes! Could possibly be a scammer too... Unless its a stellar example of some rare quad or quint gene animal, id say there are more than plenty of other nice snakes out there to chose from. Just my .02.

[Wapadi]

I agree. Customer service is still VERY important even in our business!! I think people forget that sometimes. I would look to another breeder for your male. I bend over backwards for my buyers to the point my husband gets mad sometimes when they call at all hours of the night or morning! But I will send pictures and or video when requested and keep answering the same questions over and over....lol!!
That being said, life does sometimes get in the way...just an example....we are expecting our first child in a couple of weeks but knowing that I have not posted any animals for sale this season. I don't wanna piss people off!!!

Good Luck!

[Ryan Chin]

Update*
After I emailed him asking whether or not I should wait for him or start looking elsewhere as I was confused if he was saying I can't help you at all or wait a few weeks, he replied, long story short, family issues came up. (Previous to it either being to late, out fishing, not home.) Said I should start looking around and when his issues are resolved he would contact me. I wished him good luck with his issues, let him know I respect his work with ball pythons and maybe we could work something out in the future.

All in all I don't mind giving him the benefit of the doubt about the situation, and I would still really love to get the snake from him...it's damn beautiful. not a quad or quint snake because I'm not that ballin' yet
I am just still kind of shocked/pissed about how the whole interaction went down. I felt like he was trying to push the snake on me by sort of warning me they go fast because he sells lots per week to his return customers, I felt like I was bugging him when asking him questions that required him to get things he did not already have on hand such as more than just the one picture of the snake(belly shot/side shot etc), current weight, pictures or at least the pairing of the sirexdame, and at times I believe he just completely forgot he was interacting with me or maybe he tried to put me off and hoped I wouldn't email back. I'd have to say that was a pretty horrible customer service experience considering or even regardless of what may have been going on.

I agree with you guys on that I would be bending over backwards for my customers if I had any, and in a business sense in general...if someone is going to own and operate one I would expect them to treat their customers with integrity and respect at the very least.

Sorry I am done ranting guys. thank you for the responses, they are very much appreciated.

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On a brighter note I had my first 2 litters of rat pups ever!

[angllady2]

Yeah, if this guy acts like this before a sale, imagine how he'll be afterwards if a problem comes up?

There are far too many good breeders out there, big and small, who are willing to go the extra mile with you, so just brush the dirt off you from this guy, and find a real breeder to buy from. Lots of amazing snakes available out there, you'll find another stunner in no time.

Gale