Reptile & Amphibian Forums

there is a guy here in Quincy, IL that works in one of the local pet shops & he is lieing to his customers in order to make larger sales. I know, I know that sounds typical but, this is worse than you might think.

The guy is telling people that they need to buy and use UV light or the "SNAKES JAW WILL FALL OFF"!!!

This has been happening for a while & the manager in the store has blown off complaints and excused this persons actions by saying that everyone raises their snakes differently.

It's bad enough hearing about things like this through the grape vine but, now the guy has ripped off my 13 year old nephew!!!

I also caught the guy selling wild caught snakes in the pet shop a year or so ago. He tried to deny it, saying they were offspring of wild caughts but, I recognized them as snakes that had once belonged to me. You should've seen the look on his face when I told him "I caught them"!

Do you guys have any suggestions on how to handle this situation?

Thanks,

Eric

>>there is a guy here in Quincy, IL that works in one of the local pet shops & he is lieing to his customers in order to make larger sales. I know, I know that sounds typical but, this is worse than you might think.
>>
>>The guy is telling people that they need to buy and use UV light or the "SNAKES JAW WILL FALL OFF"!!!
>>
>>This has been happening for a while & the manager in the store has blown off complaints and excused this persons actions by saying that everyone raises their snakes differently.
>>
>>It's bad enough hearing about things like this through the grape vine but, now the guy has ripped off my 13 year old nephew!!!
>>
>>I also caught the guy selling wild caught snakes in the pet shop a year or so ago. He tried to deny it, saying they were offspring of wild caughts but, I recognized them as snakes that had once belonged to me. You should've seen the look on his face when I told him "I caught them"!
>>
>>Do you guys have any suggestions on how to handle this situation?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Eric

I'm not sure there's really a lot you can do about him misleading his customers. That will eventually catch up with him anyway, and he'll go out of business because nobody will buy from him any more. If you go around trying to warn people and he gets wind of it, you could potentially wind up in a lawsuit if you can't prove what you are saying. Do you think he's intentionally misleading people or does he really believe what he's saying is true? I've run into some pretty badly misinformed people working in pet stores. I stood next to a kid explaining to a potential customer that the Boa Constrictor he was looking at could "Get as big as 30 feet long if you keep it in a big enough cage, but if you keep it in a smaller cage it will only get to about 6 feet." I immediately recognized the futility in trying to fix that one, so I just shook my head in disbelief and walked away.

If it's illegal in Illinois to sell wild-caught snakes, then you might be able to do something about that. If he was just labeling wild caught as captive born and it's not illegal, then once again, you probably can't do much about it. You'd have to prove that he knew what he was saying wasn't true.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Actually, I was hoping he would catch wind of it.
As long as I don't use his name or the name of the pet store he works for, I don't believe there is anything that can be done to me.

Eric

>>Actually, I was hoping he would catch wind of it.
>>As long as I don't use his name or the name of the pet store he works for, I don't believe there is anything that can be done to me.
>>
>>Eric

That's probably true...but then how are people going to know which store you're talking about? I wonder if anyone actually believes that a snakes jaw will fall off? I'd hate to think anyone that dumb would be keeping snakes.....that's like believing that if you unscrew your belly button, your ass will fall off.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Believe me, the squeaky wheel ALWAYS gets the grease!!! If enough folks that are living nearby give this guy an earful - hopefully he'll get the picture and do the right thing. I will even send him an e-mail if you could provide it to me - or even his store's e-mail address. He probably won't like what I have to say, but at least I won't have to lie to him. . . .

"Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut than to remove all doubt"

Tired of being lied to myself,
Zee

Most cities have quite a few regulations for pet stores. They also have inspecters who would like to hear from you.