Seller Beware- Peter Chin

HermanniChris

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10 Year Member!
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Sep 7, 2007
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2,126
In nearly 30 years of doing this, this is the very first time I’ve had to write something of this nature.

I’ll keep it as brief as possible.

Peter Chin contacted me to pair up his Hermann’s tortoise which was clearly a female based on the images he sent me. He wanted to breed her one day so I offered him a temp sexed male with of course the statement that sex is never guaranteed. If you keep tortoises with an intention of breeding them, you of course know this going into the acquisition of any neonate specimen.

Peter confirmed that he received the animal and was over the moon about it.

Months later he contacted me showing me photos of his original tortoise “flashing” which of course can still mean that it is female. Females have “parts” as well and can flash them too.

Peter was frantic and began contacting several others, some of which came to me for an opinion.

During this entire time, Peter never once announced how he rushed the growth of his first tortoise making it achieve near adult size in little time.

Peter became annoyed with me as I said there was nothing I could do to help this situation especially considering the fact that we do not know what in the world his original tortoise will turn out to be at this point. Nor can we be 100% sure of the temp sexed individual I sold him. It had also been months since the purchase.

Without even notifying me first, he filed “item not as described” through PayPal as if we are dealing with some kind of shelved product here. I immediately escalated it to a claim through PayPal.

I agreed to refund Peter in full so long as he sends the animal back. I handled this all through PayPal because Peter began allowing his emotions to take over and was impossible to get through to when it came to offering him sound advice on tortoises and their gender determination.

The very next day, Peter provided a fake tracking number and fake shipping company. I called my PayPal rep and she immediately closed the case in my favor.

Things were quiet for about a month until
Peter’s financial institution attempted to reopen things and get his money back through PayPal. I again promptly provided PayPal with everything they needed to make a clear judgement and once again, they closed the case in my favor.

It’s VERY rare for PayPal or a financial institution to side with the seller as most of you know. Basically, you really have to screw up as the buyer in order to have it close out NOT in your favor.

So, I rest my case. I didn’t want to do this but Peter continues to make attempts at muddying my name over this. I’ve worked VERY hard at providing this very forum with as much information, photos, videos and diagrams that I possibly can so that every one of you has a shot at being successful with your animals.

Anyone on here who is familiar with me and my work with Hermann’s tortoises knows what I’m all about.

I truly apologize for bringing any drama to this forum by writing this but I feel it’s important for the community to know about an individual such as this.

I highly recommend NOT doing business with Peter Chin or at least putting some major disclosures in place before you do so.

All Peter had to do was keep calm, be respectful, send the animal back as per PayPal’s terms and he would have gotten a full refund.

The craziest part of this whole thing? We’re talking about him being upset about his original tortoise that didn’t even come from me because he claims I purposely misidentified it and was deceitful in sending him a temp sexed male to eventually pair it with.

Thought I’d seen it all folks.

Sincerely,

Chris Leone
 

bonsai tortoise

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2014
Messages
74
Location (City and/or State)
NJ
This is sad. In 2013 I purchased two Ibera Greeks from you when you were still doing shows. One did amazing (and still is amazing) and the other not so much. I communicated with you on my issues with the second one and came to the determination it was no ones fault. Regardless, you were prompt in your replies, open about issues that occur, and full of understanding and knowledge. Even though I’ve only made one purchase through you, you were clearly the most helpful and informative of all breeders I’ve dealt with. I’m thankful for that. Unfortunately since I’m in Jersey, buying from you is no bueno. Otherwise, my current groups would be full of members from Garden State Tortoise. You’re the real deal and I appreciate my personal interactions with you and what you’ve done over the years for all tortoises and turtle keepers. Keep up the great work and, ummm, feel free to start doing shows again! Lol!
 
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