Austin S.

Received my order of Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens and Ceratogyrus darlingi.
All arrived well packed and in good condition.
Easy transaction, will deal again.

Austin posted pictures of some of his GBBs and mentioned that he had a breeding project ongoing with them. I jokingly asked if he wanted some more ladies for his harem, and, to my surprise, he said he did. I sent him two adult females because I had heard good things about him from other people whom I respect. That was a big risk on my part, but I couldn't have picked a better person to trust.

He kept me appraised of the whole breeding process through messages and pictures, and succeeded with this difficult species in under 3 months. That turnaround time is crazy fast! I received part of my share of the spiderlings today, and every one arrived packed with care and active. He found a buyer for the other slings, and negotiated on my (our) behalf, so I didn't have to go to the trouble of finding someone to buy 100 tiny tarantulas.

I can't say enough good things about Austin's integrity and skill. In addition to his conduct during our loan, he is also very helpful and generous and genuinely cares more about the hobby and success with breeding than anything else. He's truly an asset to us all. If you have the opportunity to do business with him, get on it! You won't regret it personally and odds are you will be benefiting the hobby as a whole in the process.

Thank you, Austin.

I purchased 10 M. balfouri slings from Austin. They were well-started and healthy. His packaging is extremely convoluted in the best way and the slings would have made the journey in great shape even if a nuke went off.

Austin is an asset to the tarantula community and I will be knocking on his door again. As a veterinarian, I am very critical when looking at the way animals are shipped and how they arrive, Austin has it down to a science.....great shipping, great beasties and a great experience. Looking forward to my next purchase.

I'm very pleased with this purchase, as it is my first, I have no means of comparison, however, I will definitely be looking forward to purchasing more tarantulas from Austin! He takes great care and puts a lot effort into ensuring each tarantula will be shipped with their safety in mind. The prices were fair and comparable to other sellers, or better! They arrived exactly on time and he was able to provide a tracking number immediately after turning the package over to FedEx.

Thank you, again!

Did a trade for an M. balfouri, and everything went well. He even included an extra A. purpurea.........

Completed my part of a trade with Austin without issue - as one would expected with an experienced veteran in this business. Austin went out of his way to make this transaction go smoothly, to include assisting my with the shipping. Good communication skills are the basis for any successful business, which made this transaction a breeze! I look forward to doing business with him in the future.

I bought an A. Moorae sling from 03Arachnids and also was given a 3” A. chalcodes female juvenile and a 1” M. balfouri as Freebies alongside the sling. He was extremely helpful as I wanted to use the freebies as gifts to friends as a first easy tarantula and he helped come up with a list of his stock that best fit that description. He was very quick with communication and I received all my spiders very much healthy and alive.

It seems like some people had bad experiences buying from Austin pre-import. From forum posts, it sounds like some issues were outside of his control, and that he had suffered his own bad luck as well, but I could be wrong. Since I wasn't buying pre-import (and it seems like he's no longer doing these due to the problems that occured), I was willing to try his shop out.

I bought some slings and an AF A. Chalcodes, which unfortunately died before shipping due to a stuck molt. I was quickly informed of this and the order was very generously upgraded. Communication was prompt and clear throughout the process, and the spiders arrived well-packed and healthy. Great experience, I'll be buying from him agian in the future.

On September 1st 2016 I received my end of a trade and purchase with Austin. I sent him a much needed mature male Avicularia metallica in return for ten spiderlings. Five GBB's and five Euathlus sp "Blue" as well as the extra 5 Euathlus sp "Blue' slings I paid for. All were packaged very well and arrived in perfect health. cant wait for the tiny slings to grow in my care.
I only regret not having more monies to purchase some of the other great species he is/has bred. I'm looking forward to seeing my MM's genes being passed on to further his species.
I can only wish Austin good luck in his breeding of all the wonderful tarantulas in his care.
Thanks much Austin!!
Steve

Everything went smooth as glass, no hold up or delays. I would definitely buy from Austin again. Don't hesitate about purchasing a T from Austin, you are in good hands an so is the tarantula.

Ordered a fairly expensive order from Austin last week and just arrived this morning. Packaging was flawless and you couldn't ask for better communication. Safety was clearly a concern, as consideration was taken on what day to ship to best beat the heat and a cooling pack was included in the package.

Most important thing for a dealer to have is communication, and Austin has it down.

This was my first time doing business with someone on the boards and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I'll definitely be looking to trade/buy from Austin again.

Austin is a great guy to work with. He maintains communication and ships quickly. His prices are reasonable, and I get healthy animals.

Very happy with this purchase. Austin's prices were good to start with, and he also gave me a deal because I was buying multiple spiders. I preferred to drive out rather than have them shipped because of the unpredictability of the weather in this area. He had the spiders ready for me at the agreed time (including a freebie!) I would definitely recommend doing business with Austin.

T arrived healthy no problems in shipping

On June 15, 2020 I purchased 5 Aphonopelma from 03arachnids. Among them was a confirmed female 1.5” Aphonopelma moderatum which was priced at $120. After ordering I did not see any confirmation email so I wrote to the seller to inquire. I later realized that the confirmation email had sent and was merely in my spam inbox but the seller did not respond to my email at all. When the Ts arrived, 4 out of the 5 were in stellar condition, but the Aphonopelma moderatum was missing three legs and had lost a pedipalp during shipping. The pedipalp was in the shipping container but the three legs were not, so I know they were gone before she was shipped. I contacted the seller to ask for, at the very least, some sort of explanation about the situation, but it’s been almost a week since my purchase and I’ve received *zero* direct communication from the seller. Furthermore, the packaging for the A. moderatum was loose at the top, which may have contributed to the loss of the pedipalp. I will not be purchasing from here again.

This missing spider was a gift for my daughter's birthday that was 8 days ago now. My last email received from Scott Spears at 03Arachnids was 9/28/19, where he promised to send a Hapalopus triseriatus ‘highland’ to replace the Columbia large, as the two he had died molting (per the email).

I gave him TWO WEEKS to communicate or send the replacement before making this review. In those two weeks, I've received advertisements from the website, but nothing in regards to my order our replacement.

I have also informed PayPal, although I doubt we will be getting our $25 back since I didn't use a credit card.

If we'd received even an email regarding the delay, the review would have been MUCH better. Spiders were healthy, plus freebies! But we received nothing from him since his promise on 9/28 to send the missing spider. I'd say 2 weeks is enough time to at least communicate. I work in specialty pharmacy where we ship sensitive packages by the hundreds daily, I know businesses get busy. 2 weeks is more than enough leeway to give him time to email or even send a package.

placed an order with Austin @ 03arachnids.com and got an order confirmation. Here we are 17 days later and about 10 emails and he will not respond. If you can't ship what was ordered then don't take peoples money, that is screwed up. So now I sit and wait for my refund. a lot of people taking up for him saying he is really busy, well stop selling spiders if you can't offer anything better than piss poor communication and customer service.

Unfortunately I have to fudge my purchase "Date" because it took almost 6 months to get my spiders, instead of getting my spiders I got an email telling me to more or less, well y'know, anyway.