Brian Aschenbach-(US)

[GreenOasis]

Yesterday, I received my much-awaited package of 90-cent Popas from Brian! Gave me a bit of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day.

Thanks Brian! I will likely order from you again very soon!

 

[animalexplorer]

Received 6 healty L3 gongylus gongylodes from Brian today. Nice pack job, and prompt delivery. Thanks!

 

[guapoalto049]

Got a great looking adult male ghost from Brian. Came with a heat pack, insulation, and some food in there with him. Great experience, I highly recommend him!

 

[Termite48]

I received my recently ordered four oothecae from Brian A. They were well packed. There was even a little heat still emanating from the heat pack. That I can assure you is not an issue once it is in this state nowadays. The BB pupae were well packaged and I am a happy camper as I knew I would be, dealing with the young man with the interesting dba, Fat Belly Bugs. Thanks to Brian for making my oothecae shopping a success.

 

[alicenwnderlnd]

Got my sub- adult violins beautifully packed and in great health, and wow are these guys BIG! a little shocking after working with small mantis.

 

[Termite48]

I received two pairs of adult Violins and some ff cultures from Brian in NJ. They were well packed as required with Gongy's, meaning little room to be thrown by the totally caring USPS people. It took about a day in route and they are now hanging out in my new 23" x 23" x 36" Net cage from Livemonarch.com and they are just staring at the available BBs..Thanks Brian for a good job.

 

[jetsky82]

I ordered feeders from Brian Aschenbach ([email protected]) on June 6th. I paid for an order that he did not ship.

He said he would ship them on June 8th. He did not.

He said he would ship them on June 10th. He did not.

He apologized and said he would ship them on June 15th. He did not.

He apologized again and said he would ship them on June 20th. He did not.

He said he would ship on June 22nd, and yet again he did not.

At this point I have not received any reply from him in a week. He has not shipped my order, he has not returned my money, and he has not given me an explanation as to why he is not taking any action.

My only conclusion is that he has taken my $46.05 for this order.

Brian Aschenbach led me to believed I was going to receive my fruit flies ASAP. During this prolonged exchange, I had 21 nymphs die from starvation.

EDIT (july 5th, 2011): Brian shipped my order on June 30th. They were well packaged and all arrived alive. Unfortunately, I had to place the exact same order with another supplier after 2 weeks of not getting these feeders, so I am out 50 dollars, not to mention the nymphs that died. I would like to add a warning:

This seller asks you to "gift him" the money via paypal. Do not do this, as it limits the disputes that you can open through paypal for an order that was never shipped.

 

[bobericc]

^glad I'm not the only one.

I've had a simple order dragged on with Brian from march as well

very unsatisfied, Brian also knows that i expressed my frustration with him.

not a dependable person at all, poor business ethic

 

[Emile.Wilson]

I have paid brian 45$ and he has yet to reply to my emails or confirm shipment. I have made a dispute on paypal as this is ridiculous. Very bad experience so far.

 

[mrtsnakes]

I will NEVER deal with Brian again, :angry:

I found him to be a liar and untrustworthy, he is very good at sweet talking you and making you believe how wonderful he is with mantids!!

We made a deal to trade a few oothica and I sent mine to him first on the 05 April 2011 and he did receive my parcel!

It’s now been 92 days and I still have not got my side of the deal, he comes up with all sorts of excuses like its to hot, or the ooths are about to hatch ect, he now says he sent the parcel and I have still not got it!

I’m sorry but people like Brian kill the hobby for me, and I do not recommend any of you doing deals with him as he might just scam you as well!!

 

[d17oug18]

I am also part of the horror stories going on around here, made a deal with him about 2 dozen times, and now hes completely stop replying to my messages. Paypal was sent around middle of march and still got nothing for what i paid for... Thought he was a good dude, and did my part to work with him and got me no where... Not happy at all, Ive been scammed for hundreds already... What happened to all the honest breeders on this site?

 

[Celeste]

7/19/2011

I contacted Brian about his (L1) Idolomantis diabolica nymphs on 6/13.

It took me more than two weeks (until 6/29) to get a response from

him with a total cost and an address where I could mail the agreed-upon

postal money order payment (after several e-mail inquiries and several

suggestions that he could just pick up the phone and call me to work out

a deal.) He agreed to sell me 15 nymphs (which by that time were L2) for

$15 each, for a total of $225 plus $29 for USPS overnight express shipping.

I sent him the postal money order on 7/1 (as promised), and he received

it on 7/5 (as promised), per USPS delivery confirmation.

He said on 7/6 that he couldn't ship them because it was too hot.

I checked the weather reports for NJ and for where I am in CA, and

suggested that last Thursday, 7/14 (or Friday, 7/15) would be good

days to ship. Thursday came and went and he said he was unable to

ship on Thursday because of "personal matters". (So why couldn't

he ship Friday?) He then promised to ship yesterday, 7/18. I asked

him to send me the tracking number so I could make sure I was here

when they arrived. No tracking number was sent. I tried e-mailing

him today (while sitting around the house waiting for the non-existent

package to arrive), and finally had to have a friend send him a text

message to find out what was going on (I don't carry a cell phone).

Brian then sent me a lengthy e-mail explaining that the mantises are

now L3 and so he wants to only send me 9 instead of the originally

agreed-upon 15 because he has better offers on them now that they are

larger and he can sex them.

He is not answering my phone calls or responding to my e-mails.

So basically, here it is TWO WEEKS after he received my payment of

$254 (and more than a month since I originally e-mailed him), and

he has just now informed me he is NOT going to send me the

15 mantis nymphs he agreed to send me and that I paid him for.

Yeah... I'm mad as heck. He has strung me along for more than a

month and accepted my payment, and NOW wants to unilaterally change

our agreement so he can make more money selling them to two of his

“good friends”.

I'm waiting for him to man-up and do the right thing, but ducking

phone calls is not it. *IF* he makes right on this, I will either

delete this post or post a follow-up.

BEWARE!!!

UPDATE 7/20/2011:

Now his story is that he doesn't have 15 left to sell because several of them

"mis-molted"... (yeah, right...)

Hey, folks

Brian "unilaterally" informed me last Wednesday, 7/20, that he was

sending my money back because he didn't want to deal with me.

I told him that was fine as I no longer trusted him to send live,

healthy animals anymore anyway.

Needless to say, I have not received the money back yet. And now

he appears to be trying to sell me younger nymphs from some import

he has coming in instead of sending back my money like he said he

was going to.

I plan on filing a police fraud claim against him on Wednesday (7/27)

if I have not received a full refund from him by end-of-day Tuesday.

If anyone else wants to be added to the police fraud claim, let me

know and we can coordinate.

-- Celeste

Update 8/26/2011: never received promised refund from Aschenbach --

still out $254 and still pursuing legal actions through the internet

fraud center.

 

[Colorcham427]

For those who I owe, excluding Celeste and Emile and MrTsnake, please email me.

Celeste, I explained the situation. I could have lied to you and have said that "sorry all your idolos died so i need to refund your money" but no, I was honest. My good friends are paying me what they are WORTH which means I can help my mother out with our bills. We are literally on the verge of moving out on the street!

Not only that, but now my good friend's son was beaten so badly he fell into a coma for 9 days.

Here is the link:http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index.ssf/2011/07/bayonne_in_coma_after_beating.html

Excuses, excuses, excuses, I am like a drug addict on this forum by taking money and giving you all excuses. I am so dang sorry it is killing me.

Doug, I messaged you, I would love to clear this up.

Emile - your maggots will be out to you next Wed. I am sending maggots not pupae of course as we agreed.

MrTsnake, the ooths will be leaving the nest tomorrow!

Celeste, the way you behaved, and the way you said it is illegal to do what I am doing is ridiculous. Why don't you tell the forum the alternatives I offered you?

I will refund your money NOW.

I will send you 10 L3 nymphs instead of 15 L2 nymphs.

I will send you 24 L1 nymphs once my shipment comes in.

Instead you threatened to call the cops which makes no sense since I can do WHATEVER I want. I do not need an excuse to refund you. I have a good one, and this is benefiting my mother, who is more important to any one to me in this world. I offered you 24 L1s!!!

MrTsnake will be receiving extra violin ooths

Emile will be getting extra maggots

Who else do I owe?

Posted 25 July 11:58 PM:

Yeah.. ahh.. I am sending you your money, I just happened to be nice and offer you more stuff. The amount of effort I have put towards making you more than happy is ridiculous. This is NOT a business for me, and I am not a company so filing a report on some dealer you met online won't do you much good. However, I am a good person, and I am sending you your money.

I am sending your money when I have it ON HAND. I do have your money, just not able to cash and send it until it clears, unless you want a check and wait a few days to cash it??? Please continue talking on this thread instead of emailing me so you can show some civility, because I do not appreciate being called names.

 

[Termite48]

I just today concluded a deal with Brian. The end result is that I received all that I was hoping for. He resolved any issues that arose from various obstacles having presented themselves. If you want to make a good deal and have the time to wait for the weather conditions and perhaps some other unforeseen issues you can be assured that Brian will try to hold up his end of the deal. His packing is very good, and he really cares for the insects.

 

[Peter Clausen]

I deleted your last post, Brian. Make your continued apologies and excuses to multiple members privately via PM, please. They have the option of blocking your PM's. In my experience, apologies and excuses don't amount to reconciliation. Good business and equitable resolutions do. The breeder feedback forums are mainly for customers to provide their factual accounts of single transactions with you. If you want to right your wrongs and salvage your reputation make your recent customers happy and ask them to post their experiences in your feedback thread (as Rich S just did). Your dealings are reflecting badly on our forum and I'm not in a position to cut you any more slack.

Edit: I suspect this probably answers the PM you just sent me while I was typing this, as well!

 

[guapoalto049]

I sent money June 6 for fruit fly cultures, still have not gotten a refund or any cultures. I've tried to work with him, but every week is another excuse. I've been patient for two months, but alas things did not iron out.

 

[giesle]

Received a nice Deadleaf yesterday, from Brian. It was packed well, good price, and shipped the next business day.

 

[Orin]

I bought some silkworms from Brian. They came in good shape and I was very pleased with them.

 

[guapoalto049]

I was told I'd receive violin mantids to make up for previous deals that were never upheld on his part.

I was told last weekend that they would leave on Monday for Wednesday delivery. It is currently Sunday...no package.

As I said before I am not very bitter about what happened, but this is another instance where I was promised something that never made it.

 

[Psychobunny]

Just got 4 nice violin nymphs from Brian and he is a super nice guy.

He had a personal bad time of it for a while (hence the drop in his ratings), but it's over now,

and I trust him 100%