[Warning] 03arachnids - Austin S, Austin Spears, Scott Spears

Ztesch

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 20, 2017
Messages
196
Did any of you guys recieve your orders yet? I went in on a order with someone regarding the pre import list in june and never received anything. I guess he wants us to wait until spring for his next import.
 

neobuddah

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 24, 2020
Messages
3
Did any of you guys recieve your orders yet? I went in on a order with someone regarding the pre import list in june and never received anything. I guess he wants us to wait until spring for his next import.
My claim through PayPal went through. My suggestion to you is to talk to your bank or credit card company to get a refund. 03arachnids always seems to have bad luck with imports or something happens that half his animals die. 🙄 He has to be the most unlucky breeder/dealer in the states. Website says his orders are caught up if you believe that.
 

Outpost31Survivor

Arachnoprince
Active Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,577
Paid for scorpions on last year's 2019-2020 import. Seen only 1 scorpion so far. I was denied a claim by PayPal because 180 days expired. I have only seen about $90 of a total of $400 worth spent in scorpions plus $55 dollars shipping. I have requested a refund from Austin so far no response back. It is all Austin now. But if there is no response from him indefinitely I will be reporting back to the thread.
 

ConstantSorrow

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
129
Paid for scorpions on last year's 2019-2020 import. Seen only 1 scorpion so far. I was denied a claim by PayPal because 180 days expired. I have only seen about $90 of a total of $400 worth spent in scorpions plus $55 dollars shipping. I have requested a refund from Austin so far no response back. It is all Austin now. But if there is no response from him indefinitely I will be reporting back to the thread.
What payment method did Paypal take from? If it's a credit card, you can go to the card company and if it was a direct pull from your bank account you can file a claim with the bank.
 

Outpost31Survivor

Arachnoprince
Active Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,577
What payment method did Paypal take from? If it's a credit card, you can go to the card company and if it was a direct pull from your bank account you can file a claim with the bank.
It was from a bank with a debit card. Yes I am going to look into filing a claim through the bank. Thanks! 😉
 

ZiLlaRock

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 20, 2019
Messages
1
I'm down more than $3,000 worth from last year's (2020) import and other breeding pairs with males that supposedly died in molts right before shipment.

4 orders from him, all with issues or unfulfilled.

History:
Sling died a day after arrival
3" F A. braushauseni turned out to be a male
L. striatus pair, male "died" before shipment
L. polycuspulatus pair, male "died" before shipment
Zero items received from import (paid ~$2,000)

Initially communication was back and forth by email for the goods. Now complete silence. I've heard others (known breeders) got some of their Ts. Paypal will not refund the purchase since 03 has you send with "Friends & Family" and the purchase is over 180 days. Well-orchestrated work to keep customers at arm's length. Will be reporting to my credit card company using all the customer reports I can find as fodder.
 
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Cycle of Chaos

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 27, 2017
Messages
6
It seems like he just has bad luck....like really bad luck. Ive had dealings and he has been in good contact with me, I saw his website from a youtuber and was blown away from the stock. He had some very rare OW, which is what I needed. I, like many others, had several imports preordered and get delayed. He has been in good communication with me and I completely understand all the issues he's had. I asked tho if I could just have a replacement spider that was in stock. He said that was fine, and had no issues working with me. We agreed on a date, he sent me a tracking no, but it was never picked up. I asked and he said Fed Ex never picked up the boxes. He has a Fed ex pick up box in his store, which is kinda neat. It has now been multiple attempts and Fed Ex has yet to pick up the packages. My concern is that Ive always just went to a Fed Ex store to ship. That way I know they are scanned and at least in transit. When I do call for a pick-up, they are here like clockwork, and i live out in the country. I'm not blaming him, as he had uploaded videos to us all effected with proof, but this is odd for Fed EX. i'm not sure if he's called, but if my local pick-up driver skipped me multiple days Id be filing a claim. Has anyone had this issue before? It just seems odd.....Plus it's winter here and the temps are all over, so re-scheduling a day is tricky for both of us.

As for other orders in the past, I did have one come DOA, but he fixed that no issue and all of my other purchases came well and are doing great to this day.
 
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ReleaseTheQuacken

Arachnoknight
Joined
May 9, 2017
Messages
239
So this guy I found online 03arachnids I have had a lengthy discussion with. I am interested in purchasing a young female anax from him. I know there's a bit of beef with him(forgot if I saw it on another forum or if it was a facebook group) about him owing a bunch of people stuff from some preorder and I was thinking of potentially giving him a chance as he said he's been refunding people since last year. He explained his side of the story, but I don't care about the details other than the facts. Did anyone here who may have dealt with him get their refunds as he stated?

I got his name somewhere as Scott Spears, then someone asked me if he's related to Austin and found out he is.

I had him post photos of several of his stock, only one of them looked a tad underfed but there was one that looked nice. So trying to make an informed decission.

Here is what I provide.

I was going to pick number "3".

He claims they're all captive bred. Screenshot_20220308-233840_Gmail.jpg 1646763471905_image0.jpeg 1646675930158_image0.jpeg 1646675930162_image1.jpeg image3.jpeg

Thank you. Please just leave it to facts.
 

Sarkhan42

Arachnoangel
Joined
Dec 29, 2015
Messages
901
Stay far far away. Myself and others were promised refunds and then ghosted. I haven't gotten a reply since about November, and he's owed me since about 2 years ago and keeps dodging me, and making and breaking promises about replacement imports. I've also gotten DOAs from him in two different packages.

You can check his recent reviews here under I believe Austin S. and on his business facebook page 03Arachnids, and see this story corroborated dozens of times. Even just searching his name or his business name on facebook should bring up plenty of posts about bad experiences.
 

BoyFromLA

Spoon feeder
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Oct 26, 2017
Messages
2,488
I can’t say for others, but I got my two Homoeomma chilense from Austin Spears back then.
 

Marlana

Arachnoknight
Joined
Mar 27, 2020
Messages
211
Well I was ghosted by him. I was dumb and let the PayPal window close because everyone said he’d definitely deliver. That he was a good guy and just had bad luck. Well it’s been 2 years now. And I’ve even reached out recently to see if I can get basically anything from his list to make up for it…ignored. I spent over 300$ in 2020 and haven’t seen anything for it.

It’s great if he’s actually making good on orders now but he needs to respond to the people he STILL OWES HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS TO.
 

Arachnopets

Arachnoboards Team
Staff member
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
628
Please keep any experiences generic. Any details belong in a review of a completed transaction.

In case anyone missed my first Admin Note. I'll post it again.


ADMIN NOTE:

Thank you to all that have shared their first hand experience thus far. It would be very helpful to other potential customers if everyone who has had (what they consider) a recently completed transaction to please post a review in his review thread.

It can be found here: https://arachnoboards.com/reviews-reports/austin-s.38/

Please note that anything that resembles a review in this thread will be deleted. I would hate for valuable information to get removed or lost.

Thanks,

Debby
 

Richard McJimsey

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 12, 2007
Messages
1,728
He's actively posting mass collected Aphonopelma species in obscure facebook groups and other forums, so he's definitely still around trying to peddle his wares. Too much debt to the Europeans, gotta switch to poached animals.
 

Sarkhan42

Arachnoangel
Joined
Dec 29, 2015
Messages
901
He's actively posting mass collected Aphonopelma species in obscure facebook groups and other forums, so he's definitely still around trying to peddle his wares. Too much debt to the Europeans, gotta switch to poached animals.

From what I’ve come to understand, he’s using these collected animals to trade for the stock he supposedly reserved with our money, and like you said dig himself out of a hole he’s dug.

Who knows what he did with the money we supposedly paid to reserve things.
 
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