• 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.

    =====================
    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.

Possible bad Guy Alex L. Smith?

herpetological

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Sold Alex L. Smith a Surinam Redtail Boa February 6th or so of 2004. I broke my own rules and took a personal check. Seemed like a nice guy and I shipped before the check cleared. Check has come back twice NSF. Called several times with no answer or no e-mail response. Full name is: Alex L. Smith 4231 Lunar Lane Union City, Ca. 94587 510-534-5370. Anyone know of his where abouts or a contact number? Maybe something happened? Just need to know before I follow through on anything else.
 
Hi Ray,

I don't know if this helps, but I inquired about a snake that he had for sale recently and have received no reply. It seems odd that he would be out of town or having e-mail problems since February, especially since he is posting ads on KS.com every few days, but I thought I would toss it out there regardless.

Best of luck with your situation- I hope it works out okay!

Lauren Rost
 
Alex Smith.....

If you see any adds can you please foward a link or let me know THANKS!! Any particular area in KS?
 
Guys I have done business back and forth with Alex L. Smith of Ca and he has always been a good/honest/stand up guy about it - never a problem.
I'm sure there are many others that can confirm this.

My point being, just be a little patient - sorry if you already had been beyond what you think is reasonable, but we all know personal emergencies can arrise and take us out of the game for a few days or more.

I think Alex should get back to you shortly and straighten this all out - he has too much time and good reputation in this to just disappear over 1 or 2 boas... this is my honest opinion.

Thanks and take care - hopefully all should be resolved shortly.

Joe Rollo
 
no excuses please,

good guys will call the check holder if their is a problem. If that check came back NFS without the sender even being considerate enough to phone the receiver, then he is a loser, and I suggest to take whatever actions you can to get back your snake and or your money.
 
RE: ALEX L SMITH

HI EVERYONE, I WOULD NOT BE ALARMED BY THIS. I KNOW ALEX PRETTY WELL. HE LIVES RIGHT ACROSS THE BAY FROM ME AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GREAT GUY. I'M ABSOLUTELY SURE HE'S NOT TRYING TO BURN YOU. HE GETS REALLY BUSY WITH WORK AND HOME LIFE AND SOMETIMES IT GETS REAL HARD TO CATCH HIM EVEN FOR ME. I HAVE HIS WORK NUMBER AND WILL BE GIVING HIM A CALL TO MAKE HIM AWARE OF THIS ISSUE. LIKE I SAID HE IS A GREAT GUY WITH A HUGE HEART FOR THIS BUISNESS AND HIS ANIMALS. SO I WOULD'NT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS JUST YET. GIVE ME TODAY TO CALL HIM AND I'M SURE YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM HIM VERY SOON.

THANKS,RUBEN MICHEL
 
ALEX L SMITH

I SUGGEST YOU CHILL OUT BEFORE YOU START CALLING PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW LOSERS. I KNOW THERE IS ALOT OF BAD PEOPLE OUT THERE BUT ALEX IS NOT ONE OF THEM. JERRY, YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT A BETTER WAY TO OFFER YOUR OPINION INSTEAD OF NAME CALLING.

RUBEN MICHEL
 
RUBEN, Its comforting to know that

this person has a friend like you to stick up for him. But how do you explain that the funds were not their, that the check was deposited twice and returned twice, that no emails or phone calls were returned, and you are telling me that this person is not a loser. Your right I dont know him, nor would I want to.

That just leaves one question unanswered. Did he realize that he stole a snake without paying for it. Because that is the bottom line here..............I have a zero tolerance for this kind of nonesense. The shipper acted in good faith, so please dont tell me how good your friend is!
 
ALEX SMITH

HOW ABOUT WHEN YOU HAVE A JOINT ACCOUNT AND LETS SAY THE WIFE MADE A COUPLE PURCHESES THAT YOU WERE NOT AWARE OF AND THEN YOU BUY SOMETHING UNAWARE THAT YOU ARE OVERDRAWN. IS THAT NOT POSSIBLE? I'M NOT TRYING TO MAKE EXCUSES FOR ALEX. I JUST KNOW HE'S NOT LIKE WHAT YOU GUYS ARE MAKING HIM OUT TO BE. THERE ARE A LOT OF BIG NAMES OUT THERE IN THE SNAKE WORLD THAT HAVE DONE BUISNESS WITH HIM AND WOULD STICK UP FOR HIM IF THEY KNEW THIS WAS GOING ON.

RUBEN MICHEL
 
ether way, he (alex) need to be more responable and make sure he keeps a balanced checkbook. i meen come on he keeps and breeds large snakes. sell to big name dealers. but doesnt know how much money he has in his checking acount?
 
ALEX SMITH

VINCE AND JERRY, I DID NOT REPLY TO THIS THREAD TO GET IN A BATTLE WITH YOU GUYS ABOUT ALEX AND HOW HE HANDLES HIS BOOKS. I WANTED TO GIVE RAYMOND A LITTLE PIECE OF MIND FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ALEX ON A MORE PERSONAL LEVEL THATS ALL. RAYMOND SOUNDED REALLY CONCERNED AND I KNOW HOW IT FEELS NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO GO ON WHEN YOU THINK YOUR GETTING BURNED. AS FAR AS YOU GUYS GO YOUR INTITLED TO YOUR OPINION BUT I KNOW ALEX YOU DON'T AND IF THIS WAS YOUR FRIEND YOU WOULD BE DOING THE SAME I HOPE. SO NO HARD FEELINGS TOWARDS ANY OF YOU GUYS I'M JUST TRYING TO LOOK OUT FOR MY BUDDY.

THANKS.RUBEN MICHEL
 
you two are close friends right, so give him a call right now and tell him to call Raymond Goushaw and straighten everything out.
 
ALEX SMITH

I HAVE ALREADY LEFT A VOICEMAIL ON HIS DESK PHONE. RIGHT BEFORE WE GOT IN TO ALL THIS. MAKING HIM AWARE OF ALL THIS, THATS THE BEST I CAN DO RIGHT NOW. SO WHY DON'T WE GIVE HIM A CHANCE TO RESPOND AND LET RAYMOND POST LATER ON TO LET US KNOW WHATS GOING ON. SINCE THATS WHOS BUISNESS IT REALLY IS.

THANKS,RUBEN
 
its everyones bussiness, he did post in a public forum, i meen i can see how things can go wrong, but i would like to hear the reason why he couldnt even return an email. and im sure the bank let him know he bounced a check.
 
I certainly hope that this is not another case of good guy gone bad. I will also state that Alex has had an excellent reputation for several years now. This is the first time I have ever heard anything negative about him.

Hopefully, for all parties involved, there still is a reasonable explaintion.
 
VINCE

ALL I'M SAYING IS IT WAS THERE DEAL. RAYMOND ASKED FOR HELP SO THATS WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO. SO STOP BICKERING WITH ME AND LETS GIVE THEM THE REST OF THE DAY ATLEAST. TO FIGURE SOMETHING OUT. DON'T FORGET IT'S ONLY 10:00am HERE IN CALIFORNIA SO MOST PEOPLE BARELY GOT TO WORK AN HOUR AGO.

THANKS,RUBEN
 
Thanks for the info

Well I just got a call from Alex. He did seem concerned. He says that he has not gotten the redtail yet? I no longer have the specimen in our collection and as I recall it was shipped. However my records for UPS are not here at the moment(fowarded at end of month to accounts) so I cannot 100% confirm or deny it at the moment. He says he saw an add after he sent payment with a redtail that he assumed was the redtail he was buying. The ad said" back up for sale because funds did not arrive." Just to explain.... this is not the same animal. The specimen he ordered was a very orange red female. It is possible that the snake came up missing in another manner but, I do know it DEFINATELY was not shipped to anyone else. I'm not 100% perfect. At times there are large numbers of animals going out of here. However, i'm still confused as to why you would not contact me if you did not recieve it and why I wouldn't get a contact about the check not being good? From my conversation it appears he is saying that he hasn't gotten his snake so that's why the check bounced. I could understand if we missed his order somehow.(It does happen) However, if that had been the case with me I would have contacted the seller and told them that I wanted my snake, or money back or I'd put a stop on the check. That would make sense to me??? I'll know tomorrow for sure. I guess that if that is the case I will just drop it........ Still doesn't change the facts. I understand things happen but even if it comes out that the specimen wasn't shipped it was still ordered and paid for with a bad check. Next time make sure payment is good and that you keep in contact with the seller. Just a phone call and we both would have known what was going on. Still a little confused about this but, as I said Alex, I did not post out of maliciousness or to give you a bad name. You still seem like a decent guy ,maybe a little misoraganized..LOL's !!
 
RAYMOND, this is ridiculous, if you received a

check from me.............;it would be for something, and I would make it my business to get in touch with you if it were for nothing! The very least, if you received my monies by accident or because I changed my mind I would be contacting you immediately, or even stop payment on the check until the matter was resolved. But to allow the check to go through the bank twice, not even respond to the simplist of inquiries like a phone call or an email. Or better yet not even be concerned that the snake did not arrive, is star trek fantasy.
 
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