How should I handle this?

[Animallover3541]

I agree with Malum Argenteum's post- this guy is jerking you around. With so many "excuses", that tells me he's likely to be a scammer. There are all kinds of contractors that promise to build homes, patios, pools, whatever- & sometimes they do, but other times (for reasons known only to them) they decide to keep the money & not do the work promised. It's a sad lesson to learn about people- that you can't trust everyone, & if some of them think they can get away with cheating you, they will. Not only that, but when you've taken off work to meet up as promised, it appears that you've lost income because of this jerk. In the future, I hope you'll think twice before paying in full for an unfinished & undelivered product.

I would almost NEVER pay in full for a product like this except for the fact that I'd heard such great things from local keepers about him and seen his enclosures in person. I ordered from Steve Doss who owns The Reptile Factory and apparently he also used to have another company called Snakefx or something like that. I reached out to Bob from Pro Products to see if it could use the RHP I ordered from him for some of the other enclosures I'm looking at.

I just feel like an idiot. Even if I had reason to trust him, I still shouldn't have been so naive. More than anything this is just embarrassing for me...