My bet would be that the "pied" turnd out to be a 'het pied' and the guy is too embarrassed to admit to you that it's not the snake he thought he was getting.

I would get him on the phone and ask him outright for a pic, or to go over right then to see it. If he can't produce pictoral proof that he has a pied female breeder in his possession, I would write it off as a failed deal.

No matter if the original guy was "getting out of breeding" or not, he could easily have gotten a LOT of money for the snake, so I don't see a chance of him saying $400 for a breeder pied BP. A het for pied... or a possible het for pied yes. A visual pied breeder? No way.

Sorry. But that's the way I would guess at it.