Originally posted on FaunaClassifieds.com
I got in contact with Melissa Chadwick of Repitat back in mid-March of this year. I was mentioning that we were looking for small enclosures that would fit our Spotted and Children's Pythons. Everything out there was too big and/or not what we were looking for. On March 30th I received an email from Melissa saying that they had worked on, and gotten made some small enclosures that I and a few other people were asking for. Good size, inexpensive (as compared to most others), and looking like we wanted. The enclosures would be $50, and the shipping would be $15.
I sent an email back and said "Where do we send a PayPal? We'd take one with the slide-out screen to see how things go over here, but it sounds ideal for what need."
On April 1 the PayPal was sent, and it was confirmed by email from Melissa:
"I got the PayPal and we're working on the acrylic vivarium. It shouldn't be too long. Why don't you send me your phone number so I can put it on the airbill (will probably use UPS), and so they can call you when it is at your local hub. I will also give you the tracking info when I have it ready, so you'll have an idea of when it should arrive."
As we live out in the boonies, I have to have everything sent "HOLD FOR CUSTOMER" that is fragile and/or live.
April 15th I sent an email to Melissa wondering how things were going with the enclosure as I've not seen her or heard from her. She wrote back the same day and said "No, I haven't been on much, my computer is giving me more hassles by the day, I think it's about to kick the bucket for good. Sorry we didn't get your vivarium out last week as I expected we would. We did a huge set display for Disney that turned out to be much more hassle than it was worth (well, not really, but it was a much more intense display than we anticipate). I'll make sure it goes out by the end of this week, but I will shoot for next day or 2."
I wrote back and said that I was more wondering where the enclosure was, and not to rush or anything. Little did I know that was the last email I would receive from her.
May 20th I emailed back and said "I've not heard back from you regarding my order of a small acrylic tank.
Please get back to me as soon as possible."
At that time I went to look on the Repitat website to look for their phone number and found the site was not up. I went in through PayPal and found their contact number, called it, and left a message. I called back a few days afterwards because I'd not gotten a call back. The phone number I called (772-673-4698) was going straight to voice mail.
I posted on the BOI on May28th to the thread Jonathan had started because I was still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and thought perhaps they were still having computer problems. I know that sort of thing happens.
At that point I called another number for them I looked around and found. Another voice mail or two was left in the next week, and a called was returned on June 6th. Unfortunately we were not home and the message we got was that she was going out for the weekend and would give us a call back on the following Monday (June 9th).
After reading Jonathan and Mike Ruesler's posts with the suspicious tracking/airbill numbers, I started to feel like this might not just be problems Melissa was having keeping stuff organized and/or it being due to crashed computers.
I called back on the alternate number on Tuesday, June 10th and left another message. I got a call back shortly after and was told that the order had gone out with about 20 other packages about 1 1/2 weeks ago, but somehow the orders had gotten lost by Federal Express. I was a little put off about a claim that Fed Ex has lost a full 20 packages.
She was going to leave it up to me whether I wanted to wait for the package to be found and sent here, have another sent around Thursday, or get a refund. I told Melissa that I would take the PayPal refund. That ended that conversation.
Thursday, June 12th, I sent the following email to Melissa:
Melissa-
I've still not gotten back the refund for our order via PayPal yet. I talked to you on Tuesday and asked for our refund then as opposed to having another enclosure sent to us today (Thursday) because of the lost order you'd sent through FedEx.
Please do so in a timely manner. Our PayPal account address is
*******
If the order with our enclosure ever does make it's way here, I'll go ahead and re-send the payment to you if, indeed, it shows the sent date as being more than 1 1/2 weeks ago which is when you informed me they all had been sent. Please email me the Federal Express tracking number that the enclosure was sent with.
I'd like to think I've been very patient so far. I've given Repitat the benefit of the doubt for quite some time. I know that circumstances sometimes lead to troubled orders, but there is really no excuse for the lack of response in fixing these problems.
Best regards,
*********
We've gotten no reply, no refund, no tracking number, no phone call.
There really is no excuse for the lack in customer service Repitat has shown for the past months to me as well as other customers.
This is the information I found looking for more contact information for Repitat. This is public record (via whitepages.com), and the phone number's voice mail does start off with Thank you for calling Repitat... or something to that effect.
Chadwick, Richard S
1614 SW Bascom Ave
Port Saint Lucie, FL 34953
(772) 871-1264
Now, a call restriction has been placed on that phone number. They are apparently screening their calls because calls that do not show a phone number are not accepted.
Since this original story, We've tried to get in contact with Melissa. When we finally got hold of her she said she would return the money via PayPal. We received an E-check which ended up bouncing after some time. So we've not received any refund or enclosure.
Steven
Cedar Creek, Missouri
U.S.A.