What ticks you off?

[Sparky]

I'm using the internet at Starbucks and I'm sitting next to two guys studying for some kind of vocab test. They are totally making fun of people who have large vocabularies because they don't want to have to learn all these words with like, more than two syllables or are spelled oddly. They've been mocking the word "kvetch" for the past fifteen minutes, saying only professors or super-smart geniuses would use a word like that.

Or like, Jewish people. You know. -_-

[One Radical Dude]

I really wish I didn't come home. Ever since I came back, my brothers were bothering me about me trying to press Rid to ship the camcorder quickly (why I don't have it can be found here). The reason they needed it was to be ready to do a 48-hr. film festival this weekend. First of all, I'm not going to press him to ship it faster (as in 2-day or 1-day). He did enough for me as it is, and to press him to ship it faster, I was not comfortable with doing that. Second, my older bro had a HD camcorder. Whatever happened to that? Finally, if it's not here by the beginning of the weekend, well, either they're going to have to use whatever is available, buy one themselves, or just forget about it!! I'm not responsible for their entry in the festival.

[Lynnie]

It's your camera, you bought it, and you were kind enough to let them borrow it for the festival, they have no right to be so upset at you (or Rid)! They should get their own if they're so worried about it.

And this is a given, but my month long vacation is over now. I'm due back at work at 8am sharp tomorrow morning. And I don't have my coffee maker. Hopefully I'll be able to leave early enough to stop by Starbucks and pick something up so I'm not a zombie all day.

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Sparky

I'm using the internet at Starbucks and I'm sitting next to two guys studying for some kind of vocab test. They are totally making fun of people who have large vocabularies because they don't want to have to learn all these words with like, more than two syllables or are spelled oddly. They've been mocking the word "kvetch" for the past fifteen minutes, saying only professors or super-smart geniuses would use a word like that.

Or like, Jewish people. You know. -_-

Sounds like our "friend" the "Box Lady" from the Bogg's Board-that was what originally set HER off-other users, myself especially, using words that were too big for her to comprehend or actually posting complete sentences, then ignoring her when she posted in texting or emoticons only. She said that people who used complete sentences and "big words" were "arrogant".

But I think I got everyone beat on the "what ticks you off" subject. I will warn you, though, if you have a weak stomach and you're eating, you might not want to read this, and I'm NOT being facetious, either.

Last week, I sent a money order to a guy in the Midwest who had an ad on Kingsnake.com, for a large female Florida Green Water Snake. I sent payment to cover the snake and the cost of overnight shipping. The day after I sent the money order, I by pure chance met up with the guy that HE had bought the snake from, while in Charleston to purchase a mated pair of Red-Bellied Water Snakes and a young female Red-Belly x Banded Water Snake hybrid, and he had me really stoked about what an impressive, gentle snake this was. Oddly though, the snake's current owner never returned my inquiry as to whether he'd gotten the money order, which is something I always do when someone purchases an animal from me. I had to use the overnight tracking number to find out that he had indeed received it. I emailed him over and over to find out when he would be sending the snake, and he eventually emailed me with a short, curt, "it will go out monday. OK?" So, I assumed that it would arrive on Tuesday, since people always ship live animals Overnight, especially in summer. Tuesday, and no snake. This morning, no snake. NO tracking number via email, either. Around 6 this evening I finally tracked down his number through the phone company, and called him, and got the tracking number. He'd sent the snake on a two-day delivery, not overnight. Anyway, the box arrived around 7 pm. I was expecting a large box, as this was a five-foot-long snake, very heavily built. The box that arrived was 12 x 12 inches, and it stank. Really, really bad. I got into it as quickly as possible, hoping that the stink was either from the snake having puked up a recent meal, or having given birth(she was pregnant)while in transit.

It's hard to describe the horror inside that box, honestly. There was no padding of any kind, just a cloth pillow case with the snake inside. The cloth was soaked in blood and dark fluid. Again, I was praying that this was birth fluids, but that unmistakable smell of decomposing flesh left no doubt as to what I'd find, but even still it was worst. This animal had been dead for a long, long time. Long enough that she'd already bloated and burst and was literally falling apart inside that bag. I had to take this whole mess outside, far from the house, to empty it out of the bag so I could take pictures as proof. This was a snake the size of a really, really large Ball Python or an average adult Blood Python, crammed into a box that was no larger than a shoe box, with no protective padding at all, not that it would have mattered. There is no way that animal was alive on Monday, when it was shipped. The skin was sloughing off of it, and its eyes were already gone. It takes a long time for such a large animal to get in that state of decay. The guy insisted it was alive when he put it in the box, but the question is, how long had it been in that box? He either knowingly shipped me a rotting carcass, or he had put the poor animal in that tiny little box two weeks ago, when I first contacted him and told him I was getting the snake, and just left her in there, waiting for my money to arrive. After I finished taking pictures of the dead snake for evidence, I tried to move her body by picking her up by the tail, and the tail just came off in my hand. I had to scoop her up with a large shovel to carry back to the field as far from the house as I could. I'm not a weak-stomached person; I've stopped and picked up road-kill to feed my wolves and big cats when I was still keeping those animals, and I've dressed my own deer and wild pigs. I will still stop and pick up a skull from a dead animal because I think skulls are neat. I've worked with police investigators at crime scenes to draw and create mock-ups of the scene for trials in the pre-computer art days, but this made me lose my supper. This was as bad as I've ever experienced. I would almost wish that this guy had sent me a dead, already-rotting snake, for whatever his motive might have been, than to think of that poor animal inside that tiny little box for who knows how long, suffering and dying, maybe sitting in the back seat of this guy's car so he wouldn't have to make a special trip to the shipping office. Something struck me as odd from the start; anyone I've done business with over the internet has always let me know when they receive me payment, and when they shipped, and what the tracking number is, and always wanted to know when I received the package, but this guy was silent on the whole thing except when I kept insisting.
I'm extremely ticked off, to say the least. When I called him and told him the snake was dead, he was like, "Oh, I'll just get you a new one", but I was adamant that I didn't WANT a new one, not from HIM, not seeing how this one was shipped. I'm demanding my money back. I sent him the pictures of the dead snake and the inside of the box. I'm giving him until tomorrow to verify that he's mailed me my refund, and then I'm going public with his name.

pitbulllady

[Nathander]

Mysterious calls in the middle of the night. At first it was a girl saying something garbled that I couldn't understand except for asking who I was. When I told her I wasn't who she said I was, she clearly said "Are you sure?" and then a sinister male voice immediately said "I'm watching you."

I'm terrified due to it being one AM and have no idea what to do.

[Imaginary Light]

Oh my gosh, pitbulllady, that's horrible! Someone who is going to treat a living creature like that doesn't even deserve to have one, and it's disgusting to think that there are people like that, who just don't care, actually owning snakes.

[Natty]

@ Nathander: If such a call ever happens again, get a piece of tin foil and make it crackle at the horn while saying "I can't hear you properly? What's tha-- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!". Then go silent for half a minute or so, and then make the Grudge-sound and hang up (if they haven't done that themselves, yet) after another half a minute. Then watch cartoons or a comedy for a while and go to sleep happily.

[Sparky]

(lol Natty)

Make sure I get his name too pbl so I can spread it around on the few herp/invert sites I'm on (like the Bay Area one).

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Sparky

(lol Natty)

Make sure I get his name too pbl so I can spread it around on the few herp/invert sites I'm on (like the Bay Area one).

Yes, because I did just hear from a guy in the Bay Area who just sent this guy a money order for some snakes. I don't know if you know of the "Board of Inquiry" on Faunaclassifieds.com, but that is a place where people can inquire about sellers/dealers they don't know, or post experiences with people who buy/sell/trade reptiles. I have a post on there detailing my experiences, and I included pictures, though I will warn you, they are EXTREMELY GRAPHIC. I actually measured the box that this snake was shipped in today, and I'd greatly overestimated its size. The top only measured 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches across, and the box was only 5 inches deep. Just imagine a snake the size of the biggest, thickest Ball Python you've ever seen, crammed into that. That link to the BOI thread is here: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=141253 and again, I will warn anyone who wishes to see this and find out the guy's name, that it is GRAPHIC and will shock most people, no matter what you have experienced.

pitbulllady

[Mew]

I didn't look at the photos, but that honestly sounds awful, pbl D: That poor snake - some people just don't seem to think at times. Hope you get your refund :/.