• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

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    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Inquiry BHB Reptiles

B

Bryan T

Guest
Ok I have been in the market for a Ivory female Ball Python for some time now. I was on BHB's site and seen that they have a female for sale for $1350.
I sent Lori and email and stated that I wish to purchase the female for an even $1,250 and asked for a picture.... days go by and I receive a reply back from her stating that's fine and she would get back to me ASAP. I then wait a few more days then try calling.... I called twice one day and once the second day.... no answer either days so I leave a voice message saying I was interested in the Ivory and to call me back or send me an email with that picture. So I wait a day or two longer and a email comes in from Lori saying she'll have the picture out to me ASAP. That was yesterday morning and now I am not interested in their animal any more and their customer service is lacking and they have no business tactics at all. Their emails and 1 sentence and brief, they take days to return emails and don't answer their phone or return messages that's left on their answering machine.

IMO if someone comes to you wanting to spend over $1000 on a ball python you should bust your a$$ to make them happy and feel like your business is wanted and appreciated.... I did not feel that at all dealing with them. I won't be doing business with BHB ever until they learn to treat potential customers right. They have time to make those stupid and retarded snake bytes videos but they don't have time to make a customer feel appreciated. :angry::NoNo:
 
Thats strange, I know they have very nice animals and not heard any negative things about them. Jim Elliott
 
BHB has been around for a very long time. That's no accident! I have talked to them several times and they have always been very courteous. I have bought from them and again been very satisfied in the animals and customer service. I'm sure this is just an unfortunate situation.
 
This happens a lot dealing with every big breeder. Brian and Lori handle all their sales by themselves. They don't rely on employees to do it for them like other big breeders. Having so many snakes to deal with especially this time of year with things laying eggs. Is quite a chore. I don't know how long exactly it is taking them to get back with you. But buy from them does take time every now and then. I am sure Brian and Lori are sorry about the delay. But you can't help it. Either take care of every phone call and email or take care of the animal it self.
 
When I purchased from them, Brian was always prompt with replies and pics. I can't imagine how busy they are right about now, so maybe the communication is suffering a little bit. I can only go off of my own experience with them and they were great to deal with.
 
Bryan T said:
Ok I have been in the market for a Ivory female Ball Python for some time now. I was on BHB's site and seen that they have a female for sale for $1350.
I sent Lori and email and stated that I wish to purchase the female for an even $1,250 and asked for a picture.... days go by and I receive a reply back from her stating that's fine and she would get back to me ASAP. I then wait a few more days then try calling.... I called twice one day and once the second day.... no answer either days so I leave a voice message saying I was interested in the Ivory and to call me back or send me an email with that picture. So I wait a day or two longer and a email comes in from Lori saying she'll have the picture out to me ASAP. That was yesterday morning and now I am not interested in their animal any more and their customer service is lacking and they have no business tactics at all. Their emails and 1 sentence and brief, they take days to return emails and don't answer their phone or return messages that's left on their answering machine.

IMO if someone comes to you wanting to spend over $1000 on a ball python you should bust your a$$ to make them happy and feel like your business is wanted and appreciated.... I did not feel that at all dealing with them. I won't be doing business with BHB ever until they learn to treat potential customers right. They have time to make those stupid and retarded snake bytes videos but they don't have time to make a customer feel appreciated. :angry::NoNo:
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Your talking about 1 of the biggest breeders in america , he is so tied up with breeding ,hatching , and shows, of corse his responses will be a bit slow , and sometimes short .
He is 1 of the best guys in the business and his animals are total top notch .
he makes more in 1 month than most make in a years time .
I'm sorry that u felt like your business wasnt important but sellers that big dont have the time to waste being at everyones beckon/call .. Brians a great guy to deal with but he treats it as a business .. so dont get Business and Personal mixed up ..i'm sure they didnt intend for you to feel that way if you delt with him but you have to see it from their point of veiw, and you have to remember employees arent the owners and their personalities differ ..just IMHO
 
I think he has a valid complaint. I too would be upset and shopping elsewhere. A big name is no excuse for poor customer service. If they need extra help during the breeding season to field customer service calls and emails, I'm sure their are students looking for summer jobs.
 
It doesn't take 5 minutes to snap a picture and take care of a customers needs.... I'm taking my business elsewhere. I don't like to beg a breeder to take my money, I'm not going to kiss their a$$ to sell me a snake.... either they want the money or they don't. I work hard for my money and I want whoever I buy from to appreciate the fact that.
 
Bryan T said:
It doesn't take 5 minutes to snap a picture and take care of a customers needs.... I'm taking my business elsewhere. I don't like to beg a breeder to take my money, I'm not going to kiss their a$$ to sell me a snake.... either they want the money or they don't. I work hard for my money and I want whoever I buy from to appreciate the fact that.
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Actually, yes it does. When someone has thousands of animals to take care of, it's a whole different ball of wax then someone who may have merely dozens. For instance, if someone asked me for a photo of a particular animal right now, first off, I have to find it. Grab my camera, search though where I think it may be, then quite likely clean the cage first or put the animal on a clean backdrop. Snap several pictures hoping that at least one is good enough to send to a prospective customer. Then run the camera over to the house and download the images onto the computer. View each one, find the best one, then resize the image so it is emailable. Or if none really look all that good, run over and take another few shots of it. Finally have a good photo and attach it to an email to be sent. From my own experience, I would have to allocate about an hour for that process, start to finish.

So how many requests like that do you think BHB may get every day? I'm certain they don't have any more than 24 hours in their days, just like everyone else has.

Everything takes time to do. At times of the year such as now when babies are quite likely hatching out all over the place, everything has to be prioritized, and everything you do probably means something else isn't going to get done that's lower on the priority list. I know no one likes to be down at the bottom of that priority list, but quite honestly, sometimes situations can come up that makes that so, whether they like it or not.
 
I'm a huge fan of Brian and Lori, and I would never hesitate to buy from them!
(In fact I have)

With that said, I understand where Bryan T is coming from.

If I contacted any breeder/dealer, and my inquiry was not answered in a timely fashion, I would shop elsewhere. Especially in today's market where almost every animal is readily available.

Regardless of how busy a business is, without customers, any business will eventually disappear. Besides, if one is truly that busy, then invest in someone to answer phones and take pictures. Spending money to make money is unfortunately the cost of doing business.

Lastly, my comments are not directed at BHB. They are directed at any business having a difficult time with responding to valuable customers.
As a business owner, (non-reptile) with 15 full time employees, every customer inquiry I receive remains my absolute top priority.

Sincerely,
Gary Schiavino
 
Lori contacted my partner today with pictures and her apology.... I forgive her as she seems to be a very nice but busy women... We are going to go ahead and buy the Ivory. I still think big breeders should hire someone to do their sells and picture requests, I understand Brian and Lori are very busy and I appreciate them getting back to my partner.
 
Bryan T said:
Lori contacted my partner today with pictures and her apology.... I forgive her as she seems to be a very nice but busy women... We are going to go ahead and buy the Ivory. I still think big breeders should hire someone to do their sells and picture requests, I understand Brian and Lori are very busy and I appreciate them getting back to my partner.
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Your partner? hmmm not to go off topic and if you feel it is mods please excuse me. Brian, do you intend to buy this one? you have been emailing people alot from several forms saying you're interested in an animal and to send you pics, yet you never buy them but post the peoples pics on other forums such as KRE stating you purchased the animal and using there pics but never in fact bought the animal. now to inquire on someone such as BHB and then say you felt they arent giving you the costumer service you think they should be since you're supposively dropping 1250.00 on a snake i am sure you really arent even going to buy. just as the other 8 or 9 you have posted on other forums about then got busted. do us all a favor and stand to your word for once instead of bs'ing people that are busy and dont really have time for kids games you play on forums.
 
There are several animals I have passed up because of no photo. Yes I know what the morph SHOULD look like, but as in all things. There are some that are better than others.

I can commend them for wanting to do all the sales and customer service themselves. Im the same way (although not near as big) however with their sales it wouldnt be difficult to find someone capable of snapping some photos.

Every animal I sell gets a photo... and its not done in JPG... its done in RAW format so I have to spend time processing the image. I however have the luxury on only producing around 100 babies right now.
 
I gave up trying to call BHB since no one ever answer my call. However, Brian reply to my email every time. I also gave up asking for pic unless it's really high end morph.

Nevertheless I've done business with BHB many times and I'm always happy with what I got from them. Couple advices I can give regarding doing business with BHB are be patience and please give them some times to provide you picture.

Maybe Brian should hire me to answer the phone for them if they don't mind the fact that I can't speak English lol

Thanapant Singhapant
 
I can understand that BHB is busy and everything is going nuts but there is no excuse whatsoever not to provide excellent customer service especially a $1,000+ paying customer. I ran into the same situation last week. I responded to an internet ad that was selling snow boa babies. I emailed and they responded the next day. I asked the usual questions and asked that I wanted a female and I wanted to see female pics. That was in the morning. At 9:00 pm that night they respond again apologizing because they were on a school trip with their kid and that they would send me the pics the next day. Late afternoon the following day I recieve the pics. I email them back with my name and telephone number telling them the one I had picked and that I was ready to make a purchase and to please call me. No response either by phone or email. By late after noon I was furious and I emailed them telling them that I was no longer interested in the animal. On top of it all I get a response from them telling me that they always responded by email and I guess they even tried calling me but I didn't answer my phone. The way I see it there's a bunch of litters/clutches out there and people are offering exceptional service. Im not kissing anybody's a$$.:bleep:
 
I think some of you have expectations that are just too high.

I work in customer service, and if a customer told me that I lost there business because I was a day late calling them back, I would probably be happy about the lose.

Have some patience people.
 
Bryan T said:
Xanax lay off the pills and get a life.
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Bryan, i am at work at the moment but soon as i get home i wil start a new thread on you with multiple thread links for everyone to see what type of so called buyer/person you are. to inquire on someone such as BHB and then try to say they're lacking and not up to par is kind of ironic comeing from someone such as yourself. i will end it here and no longer continue this in this thread since it appears on topic with you but kind of off topic of your post. but a new thread on you is to come.......
 
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