My name is chris guida i worked for and was part owner of cmg reptiles. We were a breeder/ wholesaler of all reptiles. We did on average of 250 to 300 sales of live reptiles a month to individual customers as well as other vendors and pet stores. We bought from importers, captive breeders, and other wholesalers. We also did shows on the east coast. My #1 responsibillity within the company was online sales. In 2004 there was a series of events where we paid money out to a trusted local middle man on some animals and long story we got screwed. We didnt know this right away and we actually only have one confirmation that 1 single pair of hets didnt prove out. There were a couple other deals around that time that had issues. One was a deal where i sold a lady in connecticut a trio of grey banded kings. After recieving them she informed me one was dead or dying in the box during shipping. I asked her for pics of the dead snake. I didnt recieve any pics of that particular snake. I then offered her a replacement animal in good faith. She demanded a full refund. It went back and fourth and there was no way i was going to give a full refund when there was no proof to any of her claims. She decided to go on a rampage on fauna. Also there were a few people who mysteriouslly showed up posting comments about how we ripped them off. Come to find out they mysteriouslly dissapeared from fauna. The other deal was a deal between us and justin kobylka where we sent him a het pied male and a poss gravid het girl. Thisbwas a pair we bought from a local breeder that we trusted the genetics. We sent him a genetics gaurantee and even gauranteed a visual baby. I got burned on that. There was question about the authenticity of the pair after i got burned for a large sum of money on the buying of a collection. The cause of that mess was us dealing with 2 shady peoe that got us tied up in a few bad deals. The only deal that im aware of still open is the deal with justin. And that deal will get worked out. Now this started a big back and fourth between me and a scam artist named rob benisi. He sold some animals to someone else that we had sold to him and wanted us to gaurantee the genetics when he was known for ripping people off and there is plenty of feedback on him as well. The bottom line is obviouslly there was alot of poor buisness choices made by us in not protecting ourselves such as , we should have done photo identifying, shouldnt have bought so many animals at once . But at the end of the day we did 250 online transactions a month and we only had a few issues that werent issues of us trying to scam anyone. If we were then i wouldnt have gone back and fourth for months on fauna trying to defend cmg reptiles. Well the end of the story is my partner ended up cleanin me out of about 30k plus 15 racks and other supplies we had in storage for the buisness. He also ran off with a bunch of animals and made the local news when he got busted for animal neglect. But thats another story all together and one im not getting into. But yes i had a few bad deals but your never going to be perfect in buisness when you are running.through that kind of inventory. I have sent out emails to justin to get our deal taken care off. Now for those on the witch hunt run along and jump on fauna to try and poke holes in the situation or point fingers when you have no idea what went on. Oh yea that was 2005 havent had any deals go bad since. If i was trying to rip people off i wouldnt still be here and still having to defend myself.
