Hi there,
The identical thing happend to my last year. John Richards told me that he had one left and it wouldn't stay around much longer if I did not purchase it. So I did. Then I found the same turtle for 40.00.
I decide to talk with him about the price difference because he seemed to be friendly before he had made the sale. When I called him, he denied that another leucistic turtle could sell for $40.00, and badmouthed all the other sellers who had them for 40.00 or less, saying that they were no good crooks, etc., etc.
He told me then to return the leucistic turtle back to him because he had customers in Japan who wanted to pay even more for it. He told me he had done a favor by selling it to me as opposed to Japan.
I sent the turtle with delivery confirmation, and he received it. John Richards would not answer my e-mails or any unblocked calls with my area code. And when he answered the blocked ones, it was one excuse after another, "My credit card machine is down call me next week and I'll credit you," "I will send you a refund check Monday for the turtle," etc., etc.
He never refunded me. (He had no problem with immediately charging my card for the sale, though!)He kept my turtle and stole my 250.00 plus shipping both ways. I filed a complaint about him and his response was that the turtle had arrived dead. He then told me that he doesn't care if I tell my friends to be leary of him and about the way he lied to and stole from his customer.
Please, take my advise, and be leary when dealing with money or turtles with John Richards. This is the first time I am publicly saying this, I don't want anyone else to be cheated this way!
