Buyers beware!

[broadude]

Wow....I'm guessing it's been ssoooo long since we've had any serious drama here that folks just can't help themselves but to jump into something at the first opportunity. So many instant assumptions on all sides....so many ready (anxiously eager, even) to assign blame immediately based on nothing more than those same assumptions.

Personally, I'd like to see everyone take a step back and a deep, cleansing breath and calm down. But I know y'all will do what you want, regardless of my wishes.

WHY did the snake die? NO ONE knows. If the snake looked as healthy and lively as the OP described when it was purchased, brought home and first put into its holding tank...then why on earth should the seller have "known" he was selling a sick snake? From what we've been given to go by, the seller could not have known the animal was in danger of imminent death any more than the buyer could. So, the seller (so far as we can tell from the meager facts given) should not be held responsible for the untimely and mysterious death of the snake. He has not "scammed" anyone, and we don't have a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise.....according to the OP's own words.

How the seller chooses to handle the matter after being made aware of the snake's immediate death is another matter entirely. Anyone with an ounce of decent business sense would want to make things right with their brand-new customer.....and, again based strictly on the OP's own words....it sounded to me like he did just that. Granted, it wasn't an immediate fix....and I can understand the frustration in being forced to wait for something the OP obviously had been working hard toward for a long time already.....but I don't see anything wrong with the offer that was made to help make things right again.

I'm frustrated with some members who seem anxious to jump on the blame bandwagon. Picking apart the OP and grilling him on ridiculous issues of semantics like "quarantine" or his reasons for using a separate holding tank initially. Personally, I thought it was a smart move, and I had done the exact same thing with my very first snake purchase so many years ago. IF the snake had mites, I didn't want them getting established in the complicated set-up....so he went into a much simpler set-up until I was confident he was fine and mite-free. Why should such a move earn him darts thrown at him?

People also need to be more patient when asking their questions and realize that not everyone is on here all hours of the day or refreshing the pages every few minutes. If an "inquiry" thread gets busy and 30 people are suddenly flinging questions left and right, is the OP suddenly a bad guy because he's not logged in to see all that activity being thrown his way??? A lot of questions and thread activity does NOT equal a reasonable amount of time passing for a response.

This post seems to have caused a lot of consternation:


I'm going to go out on a very long, shaky limb here and see if I can get into broadude's head and guess what she meant. I believe she that because so many were so intent on throwing out reasons why the snake must have died and why it was automatically the boy's fault. "Y'all told him why the animal died and what he did wrong...so what else is there for him to say??? He has a new snake now and is happy and doesn't need the bother of these unreasonable accusations" <---- My interpretation of her words in that post.

All in all.....it's possible that the OP did something that caused the snake's death. Nothing wrong with wanting to get to the bottom of it by asking specific questions about heating methods in the 10g tank. But such questions don't need to be accusatory in nature. That doesn't help anyone learn anything.

It's also entirely probable that the snake died for reasons beyond any human control....either the seller's or the buyer's. So why all the heated finger-pointing??

To the OP......I'm sorry your snake died. I know that had to be very tough to experience. I hope you're willing to learn a little bit about communication on the 'Net and how to avoid getting involved in this sort of mud-fight in the future......and I deeply hope you're willing to closely examine your own actions and be willing to learn from them if you did make an error along the way. And I sincerely hope you'll stay around as a part of the community here to learn more and to make friends along the way. (Seems like you've already made a good one. )

You have a pretty good bead on me. Thanks

I have learned a long time ago..that no matter how many times I edit, change, repost, rearrange the words..there will always be SOME that misunderstand the intent behind the words. It's usually the more discerning that have read my posts for a long time and have noticed that I don't usually intentionally try to antagonize anyone...but there will always be those few that look/misunderstand/want to be antagonized.

When the OP contacted me to buy a snake, his snake had already been dead for a while and he wasn't sure if it was dead or hibernating (I assume he had never experienced a dead snake before).

Just going over the highpoints..nothing he said convinced me that he had done anything that hurt the snake so I encouraged him to post his EXPERIENCE. He posted a "Bad Guy" post. I over looked it because it was his FIRST time and I was hoping that people would see it for what it was...a novice's attempt to warn someone else. If he had proven to be wrong (I did tell him that I wanted him to post also because those with more experience than I could see the pics and judge for themselves). However, the thread did not go the way that I was hoping it would (the truth of the matter is that I SENT HIM TO FAUNA..where the older people are that might recognize what may be wrong...but he couldn't post, something about being unable to register.

So, I told him to post his experience here. I didn't have time to go in depth with all the things that might have gone wrong, and I was also hoping that people would ask the questions that I may have forgotten and try and help him pinpoint anything in his environment..I also saw pics of that and for a beginner it was realllly nice.

I met the young man, he showed me his identification..he has a job, he can afford to take care of the snake, however, the snake had been dead for quite a while and I believe that a necroposy would have been inconclusive at that point (so I didn't suggest one, I could have, probably should have, because I know that...everyone doesn't know about necropsy, scammers, etc.

I do hope he comes back too, he was very well-spoken, seemed very well rounded and nice. He wasn't angry about the snake..just very very sad and not understanding how it died. I did not get the impression that he was lying at any time and if he had dropped something on the snake or had it too hot, I am sure he would have admitted it. He wasn't trying to get a free snake, he was going to pay for it.

Wil: I am going to say this once, because you seem to be quite unobservant. I was hoping that you would figure it out sooner or later..but this is twice that you have mentioned my name in a negative way. FYI: It is a combination of my last name and first two intitals. I work for the Federal goverment, and that's the way the goverment usually condenses employees' names..it seemed the easy way to remember my user name at the time that I created my profile. There is no intent to mislead as my profile clearly indicates I am a woman. You also need to change your modus operani (sp), as you seem to have a habit of accusing people of seeking attention..when you are the one trying hardest to stir the pot.