Anthonys Tropical Fish
Hi everyone:
The following is a very long, yet detailed, description of a series of events that happened with Anthony Robles from Anthonys tropical Fish. He is not a good seller or a person to trust no matter how nice he appears to be at first or during small transactions. If you have followed previous postings you can see how he got praises from me but read this whole post and you will see how small deals might go through but big deals do not.
On November of 2004 I approached Anthony with the possibility of getting me some big New Guinea datnoids (Datnioides campbelli). He said he could get me two 17 inch specimens from his cousin in the Philllipines. I asked him how much each and he couldnt tell me. He then asked me how much I had paid for my 14 inch NGT that I got from Singapore. I told him I had paid $350 for the fish without the import fees and he said he would sell me the two 17 inchers for $375 each plus import fees. I sent him a Money Order for $750 to pay for the fishes and get them shipped ASAP.
In the meantime I continued to buy fishes from Anthony since he was getting me some nice oddballs from all parts of the world. I spent around $6,000 in less than 2 months with him buying anything odd he could bring in. One of the orders included two 12 inch Clown Loaches ($150 each) and two freshwater Nigerian snappers ($75 each), or what he called Marine Lates. Another such order included several fishes from Peru one of them was supposed to be a fish called a Pekin Knife (Compassaria sp.) that cost me $180.
Well, the clown loaches never arrived and only 1 snapper arrived. The excuse was that the loaches were in no condition to be shipped and that one of the Lates died because of a power outage. Anthony also told me that the male Pekin Knife had died and that he only had a female that looked identical to the male but with a slightly rounder nose.
He offered me the female Pekin Knife and a replacement on the Clown Loaches and Snapper that he was supposed to be getting in a few more weeks. The Pekin Knife arrived and it was a fish nothing even close to a true Pekin Knife but more closely related to a brown ghost or even a duck knife; no snout, brown in color and downright ugly. I told Anthony immediately of this and he said I could keep the fish because he was going to replace it with a real Pekin Knife or a 12 inch Ageneiosus catfish. Time went by and I never heard of my clown loaches, snapper or knife/catfish. Neither have I heard to this point about the 2 NGTs I paid for a long while back.
I kept in touch with Anthony and kept buying more fishes like Aussie lungs and other Datnoids. I even paid for half of the Aussie lungfish we raffled here on AP and made sure he got very good exposure for allowing us to do this monster sized raffle for August 2005. Still, no news on any of the fishes that I was owed that now mounted the total to $1305.00 ($300 for the 2 clown loaches, $180 for the Pekin knife and $750 for 2 NGT's). There were always excuses after excuses but I stood by him because I had a feeling he would come through.
After much wait, I finally write Anthony and tell him I wanted to get the NGTs and I also wanted to trade the value of my clown loaches and snapper towards a 12-13 inch Wide Bar datnoid he had for sale. He was selling the fish for $450 and I was owed $375 for the 2 clown loaches and the snapper. I offered to pay the difference of $75 to cover the cost of the datnoid and shipping charges of course. Anthony declined saying he preferred to ship me the fishes. But at this point it has been many months and no fishes had shown up. I also offered to trade my $180 value for the pekin knife that never arrived for 2 good Thin Bar dats (value of $70 at the most), he also declined this as he never even acknowledged that trade. So I emailed him and told him I wanted my money back because this was going nowhere. He told me he would reimburse me as soon as he got back from LA. Well, days came and went and no reimbursement. I had told him I wanted a Money Order on the mail but then changed my tune to having him paypal me even if I had to pay for the fees. He replied by saying that he had my NGTs coming soon on the 25th of January.
I waited for a notice and none came. So I emailed him again on 1/28/06 and asked him about the fishes. His reply was that he got them in but they were bruised up and were not in condition to take pictures of. He also told me that their price was $900 each. Now this really pissed me off because that was not the deal or the arrangement and there is no way in HELL he could have spent $525 on import fees for each fish.
This is the calling card of a con man who doesnt like to pay and wants to do thing the way he feels like.
I had been waiting for 14 months for fishes that didnt come in, and now that they finally arrive, he decides to jack up the price so that I cant afford them. I am certain he already has them sold to someone else on his neck of the woods and is trying to make the most money off them by screwing me out of them. This is not ethical, this is not good business practice and this is downright scum on Anthonys part.
I had heard many bad things about Anthony and never once took a stance against him. I always thought he was going to do good by me and that he would come through. Now I see he is nothing more than a scam artist that will promise anything to get your money and then get more money from someone else at your expense.
Do this hobby a favor and do not spend a cent with Anthony. Do not buy his fishes, do not contact him and do not refer him to anyone. Make him learn the hard way that honest, hard working customers need to be respected and not just scammed out of their money and their dreams for that matter.
The ONLY way I would accept an apology or retract my statement is if Anthony himself send me my fishes the way we agreed on the initial deal. I am even willing to use my whole $1305.00 towards the 2 NGTs which means I would be paying him $652.50 for each fish and that more than covers shipping, import and his profit. The fishes would need to be guaranteed live arrival as well because I do not want them arriving dead on purpose due to retaliation on his part. If he refuses to do this, I will leave this posted here and will make sure to refresh it every week so that it stays on top and everyone can read it. Never support a scammer like Anthony.
As of now, before posting this, Anthony said he will be sending me a check via UPS today. I told him I do not want a check but a MO or cashier's check so that I am sure the funds are there. This means he is not giving me the fishes of course, he is selling them to whoever offered him more money and he kept my money for over a year. No bank would have loaned him $750 for 14 months without interest, yet here I am screwed out of fishes and money.
Like I said, THINK about this whole scenario and THINK about the amount of money I have dropped with Anthony for the last 2 years. Now THINK again why would anyone do this kind of stuff to a customer like me that didn't even question anything from him until now.
If this happened to me, I am sure it has happened or is happening to others. Do not let yourself be the next victim.
Ivan
Hi everyone:
The following is a very long, yet detailed, description of a series of events that happened with Anthony Robles from Anthonys tropical Fish. He is not a good seller or a person to trust no matter how nice he appears to be at first or during small transactions. If you have followed previous postings you can see how he got praises from me but read this whole post and you will see how small deals might go through but big deals do not.
On November of 2004 I approached Anthony with the possibility of getting me some big New Guinea datnoids (Datnioides campbelli). He said he could get me two 17 inch specimens from his cousin in the Philllipines. I asked him how much each and he couldnt tell me. He then asked me how much I had paid for my 14 inch NGT that I got from Singapore. I told him I had paid $350 for the fish without the import fees and he said he would sell me the two 17 inchers for $375 each plus import fees. I sent him a Money Order for $750 to pay for the fishes and get them shipped ASAP.
In the meantime I continued to buy fishes from Anthony since he was getting me some nice oddballs from all parts of the world. I spent around $6,000 in less than 2 months with him buying anything odd he could bring in. One of the orders included two 12 inch Clown Loaches ($150 each) and two freshwater Nigerian snappers ($75 each), or what he called Marine Lates. Another such order included several fishes from Peru one of them was supposed to be a fish called a Pekin Knife (Compassaria sp.) that cost me $180.
Well, the clown loaches never arrived and only 1 snapper arrived. The excuse was that the loaches were in no condition to be shipped and that one of the Lates died because of a power outage. Anthony also told me that the male Pekin Knife had died and that he only had a female that looked identical to the male but with a slightly rounder nose.
He offered me the female Pekin Knife and a replacement on the Clown Loaches and Snapper that he was supposed to be getting in a few more weeks. The Pekin Knife arrived and it was a fish nothing even close to a true Pekin Knife but more closely related to a brown ghost or even a duck knife; no snout, brown in color and downright ugly. I told Anthony immediately of this and he said I could keep the fish because he was going to replace it with a real Pekin Knife or a 12 inch Ageneiosus catfish. Time went by and I never heard of my clown loaches, snapper or knife/catfish. Neither have I heard to this point about the 2 NGTs I paid for a long while back.
I kept in touch with Anthony and kept buying more fishes like Aussie lungs and other Datnoids. I even paid for half of the Aussie lungfish we raffled here on AP and made sure he got very good exposure for allowing us to do this monster sized raffle for August 2005. Still, no news on any of the fishes that I was owed that now mounted the total to $1305.00 ($300 for the 2 clown loaches, $180 for the Pekin knife and $750 for 2 NGT's). There were always excuses after excuses but I stood by him because I had a feeling he would come through.
After much wait, I finally write Anthony and tell him I wanted to get the NGTs and I also wanted to trade the value of my clown loaches and snapper towards a 12-13 inch Wide Bar datnoid he had for sale. He was selling the fish for $450 and I was owed $375 for the 2 clown loaches and the snapper. I offered to pay the difference of $75 to cover the cost of the datnoid and shipping charges of course. Anthony declined saying he preferred to ship me the fishes. But at this point it has been many months and no fishes had shown up. I also offered to trade my $180 value for the pekin knife that never arrived for 2 good Thin Bar dats (value of $70 at the most), he also declined this as he never even acknowledged that trade. So I emailed him and told him I wanted my money back because this was going nowhere. He told me he would reimburse me as soon as he got back from LA. Well, days came and went and no reimbursement. I had told him I wanted a Money Order on the mail but then changed my tune to having him paypal me even if I had to pay for the fees. He replied by saying that he had my NGTs coming soon on the 25th of January.
I waited for a notice and none came. So I emailed him again on 1/28/06 and asked him about the fishes. His reply was that he got them in but they were bruised up and were not in condition to take pictures of. He also told me that their price was $900 each. Now this really pissed me off because that was not the deal or the arrangement and there is no way in HELL he could have spent $525 on import fees for each fish.
This is the calling card of a con man who doesnt like to pay and wants to do thing the way he feels like.
I had been waiting for 14 months for fishes that didnt come in, and now that they finally arrive, he decides to jack up the price so that I cant afford them. I am certain he already has them sold to someone else on his neck of the woods and is trying to make the most money off them by screwing me out of them. This is not ethical, this is not good business practice and this is downright scum on Anthonys part.
I had heard many bad things about Anthony and never once took a stance against him. I always thought he was going to do good by me and that he would come through. Now I see he is nothing more than a scam artist that will promise anything to get your money and then get more money from someone else at your expense.
Do this hobby a favor and do not spend a cent with Anthony. Do not buy his fishes, do not contact him and do not refer him to anyone. Make him learn the hard way that honest, hard working customers need to be respected and not just scammed out of their money and their dreams for that matter.
The ONLY way I would accept an apology or retract my statement is if Anthony himself send me my fishes the way we agreed on the initial deal. I am even willing to use my whole $1305.00 towards the 2 NGTs which means I would be paying him $652.50 for each fish and that more than covers shipping, import and his profit. The fishes would need to be guaranteed live arrival as well because I do not want them arriving dead on purpose due to retaliation on his part. If he refuses to do this, I will leave this posted here and will make sure to refresh it every week so that it stays on top and everyone can read it. Never support a scammer like Anthony.
As of now, before posting this, Anthony said he will be sending me a check via UPS today. I told him I do not want a check but a MO or cashier's check so that I am sure the funds are there. This means he is not giving me the fishes of course, he is selling them to whoever offered him more money and he kept my money for over a year. No bank would have loaned him $750 for 14 months without interest, yet here I am screwed out of fishes and money.
Like I said, THINK about this whole scenario and THINK about the amount of money I have dropped with Anthony for the last 2 years. Now THINK again why would anyone do this kind of stuff to a customer like me that didn't even question anything from him until now.
If this happened to me, I am sure it has happened or is happening to others. Do not let yourself be the next victim.
Ivan
