[Warning] Tarantulas Bristol (UK)

[Grenn]

Ordered a juvenile B. smithi from them in Dec. I emailed beforehand to ask about any cold weather issues and they advised me to add a heat pack to my order, which I did.

Order arrived with the heatpack enclosed but unactivated(!) and still inside the packet. Packaging was reasonable but the box was very cold and T barely moving. I feared the worst but transferred to new enclosure to warm up & settle.

I assumed it was simply a mistake on the part of seller, so contacted them to let them know the box was sent cold, T was unresponsive, and I was very concerned.

This was the (strange) response:

" Good to know that everything is ok. Next time PLEASE LET ME KNOW (comment section) about activ. heat pack. spiders happy and healthy? "

Not at all the sort of response I was expecting! I think any good seller should have been mortified to hear they'd shipped a T in Dec without a heatpack, and profusely apologetic.

I responded to say I was baffled by their response and not at all happy, but received no further reply from them.

On doing further research I have noted that while there are indeed plenty of positive reviews on their site, they removed the option to leave user reviews from their Facebook page and remove any negative comments.

Their FB page shows examples of them not really answering people's questions clearly. A prevalence of competitions and freebies and pushing very hard for sales, with seemingly no regard for how animals should be cared for nor in checking whether the buyers are experienced in providing that care.

I feel bad for having supported this business. Their attitude and customer service are poor, and I believe it's far better to support other individuals/sites which have more care invested in their customers and the wider hobby.

 

[KezyGLA]

You are not the first one that this has happened to on here. If you use the search function you will see that someone was sent a sealed heatpack with their order recently and they told them they had to state wether or not to activate it. I mean honestly, that is neglect and abuse of livestock in my opinion and there is absolutely no excuse.

I constantly urge anyone that uses these forums to avoid them. They are con artist, liars and dont care for their livestock or customers.

They have removed their reviews page from Facebook page after so many bad reviews.

I have ordered from them on two occasions before on which they messed up entirely and then blamed me.

After the second order I decided to voice my opinion and leave a negative review. In turn I was then threatened by email to change my review, stating that it was unfair.

They can not run a shop or look after animals. They are just in it for the money and couldnt care less about the customer or spiders.

Pathetic sellers, a disgrace to the hobby.

 

[Grenn]

You are not the first one that this has happened to on here. If you use the search function you will see that someone was sent a sealed heatpack with their order recently and they told them they had to state wether or not to activate it.

Yes, that was me - I just wanted to summerise my experience on this forum as a more formal 'review' just in case people search there rather than the thread I was chatting in.

 

[KezyGLA]

There are more than just yourself my friend. But I am sure have seen a post from you before. Either way I am sorry you dealt with these folks

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Uhm, a classic Brit of once (mostly smoking class tobacco blend in a pipe near the fireplace) in front of this:

- "Good to know that everything is ok. Next time PLEASE LET ME KNOW (comment section) about activ. heat pack. spiders happy and healthy? "

would had jumped out saying something like: "By jove, are you sure you are a citizen of our King George Empire?"

:-s

 

[KezyGLA]

Uhm, a classic Brit of once (mostly smoking class tobacco blend in a pipe near the fireplace) in front of this:

- "Good to know that everything is ok. Next time PLEASE LET ME KNOW (comment section) about activ. heat pack. spiders happy and healthy? "

would had jumped out saying something like: "By jove, are you sure you are a citizen of our King George Empire?"

:-s

Thats exactly why I smell Polish I highly doubt it its a Brit

 

[Grenn]

There is something really off about their communication, and some of it seems like stock, copy/pasted responses, so it makes sense English may not be their native language.

But it doesn't bother me at all where they're from; I think the key issue is they are completely dismissive of customer concerns. And that should act as a huge alarm bell right there for anyone inexperienced and looking to purchase their first T, or even expand a collection.

On the flipside, the experience and communication I've since had with other highly reputable sellers has been so refreshingly positive and reassuring. Once you've seen how proper sellers communicate and behave, it should be clear which businesses are worth supporting.

 

[Jakob Lindgren]

I ordered a female lasiodora parahybana from them a while back. They told me that the female was 8.5 inches in size, When I received the T it was 6.5 inches. And they blamed everything on me for no reason even tho I had proof of them telling me that it was 8.5 inches. Havent ordered from them since then, terrible communication!!

 

[RTTB]

Sending a tarantula without an activated heat packs is just plain retarded. Wow. Did your tarantula survive ok?

 

[Grenn]

Did your tarantula survive ok?

Thanks for asking. T was very sluggish on being transferred to new enclosure and spent a couple of days stressed/warming back up but is now fine.

 

[dopamine]

What's also weird is that if you try looking for bad reviews on YouTube, there are zero, with all "reviews" having been posted from themselves. Not sure if they're flagging the hell out of negative reviewer's videos or what's going on there. Seems odd.

 

[KezyGLA]

What's also weird is that if you try looking for bad reviews on YouTube, there are zero, with all "reviews" having been posted from themselves. Not sure if they're flagging the hell out of negative reviewer's videos or what's going on there. Seems odd.

They have removed all possible reviews from Fb and most likely reported YT videos as damaging/harrasment.

 

[dopamine]

They have removed all possible reviews from Fb and most likely reported YT videos as damaging/harrasment.

Tactics like that make my blood boil. I can't believe they get away with that crap.

 

[KezyGLA]

Tactics like that make my blood boil. I can't believe they get away with that crap.

They're rep is still taking the well deserved collapse. It is just going at a slower rate, due to those tactics.

 

[Eli824]

I think there are a few things that might make someone a bad seller and some might be unintentional for example last year I bought a tarantula fell in love with it and became hooked turned out that it opened the door for me to many new species that I wanted and had to collect. This lead me to having a huge amount of tarantulas and that's when I realized these guy grew too large for me to store them all ( 1st thing inventory and storage ) see I developed an inventory because I was a consumer looking to enjoy Tarantulas when you have companies that look to just make a quick buck the care takes a back seat once I sold my first few Tarantulas I did the unthinkable I called the IRS ( mind you I never let them know it was live tarantulas I simply asked if I sold items online would I be subjected to punitive damages if I forget to pay taxes on income and how could I set it up so that all legal concerns are met ? They were pleasant and guided me through the process ( problem 2 ) I was told that I had to make a site upgrade to PayPal business and do certain things to legitimize selling online but this introduced new problems for me because now I have to upkeep the site and pay all these fees I'm not worried about it but I can see those who are only in it for the money trying to raise their margins regardless of the impact it has on the animals the final problem is that communication ( even if it's there ) becomes more logistic instead of passionate just as stated anyone who cares for these amazing animals would show concern but to not express concern means that the poor animal is simply a transaction when you have people who you can tell love these animals they can tell you every detail and to use logistics just doesn't work in my opinion it should be about what the consumer wants and what can be provided but maintain the respect for the product because in this case the product is a living animal I hardly ever ask people to order from my site I spend hours a day repeating myself to various people via text or email or arachnoboards but to me every conversation is one I enjoy because I'm talking about tarantulas it's like a gearhead talking about cars same concept long story short avoid places that are directly setup to put out as many sales as possible with the least amount invested and the biggest returns for said investments for one last mental note imagine a tarantula just molted anyone who really loved Tarantulas might not want t to disturb that freshly molted T but a company like this would transfer that delicate T in a manner so rough and aggressive it might have died in just the packaging location

 

[Vorax29]

I also personaly had a bad experience with Tarantulas Bristol :

I've ordered a "certified female" young G. pulchra.
As I am not in the UK (but not far from this island ) I asked some special as I ALWAYS do with english sellers, and everytime, this is succes! But this time not...
What I'm asking is simple : send the tarantula on monday, with a tracking number. Then I always receive the tarantula 4 days later, on friday. And I can track the package day by day.
It was the deal.
The friday : nothing!
The saturday : nothing!
Sunday : post closed...
Next week : nothing!

After 1 email each day, I absolutely did NOT have an answer.
I asked for the traking number, but nothing... Maybe the seller was dead?

My patience after 2 weeks stopped! I was absolutely terrified to think there's a little G. pulchra dying in a package somewhere.
I asked a refund through paypal.
And the magic happed!
I had an answer, something like : "I was at the hospital, please close our paypal dipute, I've sent the spider here is the tracking number."

So the spider was sent on thursday, with a sunday (post closed) and 1 public holiday (post closed too!).
The G. pulchra finally arrived "safe & sound"...
But for me, Tarantulas Bristol has NO consideration for the spiders and for the customers!
I really REALLY hope he never sent me the first order, or it means the poor pulchra died lost in a package.

Of course, I've read all the bad reviews AFTER my order on their facebook page. (as far as I've seen, they don't delete the bad reviews).

Never again!

 

[Bearded Brian]

I too have had a problem with T Bristol, ordered a Giant White Knee and an enclosure to house it. Took what felt like a lifetime to arrive and when it finally did show, just the T arrived and no enclosure. Had to take a PayPal dispute to get refunded, even that was a drawn out PITA, stay well clear is all I can say.

 

[KezyGLA]

I too have had a problem with T Bristol, ordered a Giant White Knee and an enclosure to house it. Took what felt like a lifetime to arrive and when it finally did show, just the T arrived and no enclosure. Had to take a PayPal dispute to get refunded, even that was a drawn out PITA, stay well clear is all I can say.

You are one of many in Scotland to be done by them. There are plenty better places to buy from. It sucks how much TB are getting away with lately.

 

[Tanner Dzula]

You are one of many in Scotland to be done by them. There are plenty better places to buy from. It sucks how much TB are getting away with lately.

this is so true! I have a friend who recently moved to Northern UK(somewhere between durham and Alnwick) last year for his company, and has to sell of his collection before he left. when he got comfortable with his living situation there, he decided to Start collecting again(as he got a confirmation that eh would be there for atlas the next 10 years as long as the company didn't go bankrupt before then) he had messaged me asking about Tarantulas Bristol and if they are any good from my knowledge (we have both been US residents our whole lives and have not really looked into breeders/sellers from other countries, cause you know, imports and stuff, no interest to ever brown bag either)
i honestly didn't know, so i looked em up quickly and sent the links for their Facebook page and scrennshotted some good reviews from here. he ended up placing an order for a good number of T's ( two G. Pulcra's, an A. Geniculata, and a B. Albopilosum and a few others)
now keep in mind this was in the middle of January when he placed his order, and being used to winter orders(being from New york originally) he of course opted in for the Heat packs.

he received two boxes, one with the Pulchra's(heat pack was not activated) and one with the others(heat pack activated)

both pulchra's were unfortunately half frozen. now his wife had been home to receive the delivery and take it inside and knew enough to take them out and check them. she immediately called him and let him know what had happened, she even moved them into their Bed Room because it was the warmest room in their house with a space heater going at a solid 82 degrees (this is big because she literally HATES anything with more then 4 legs and can NOT stand his tarantulas, won't even usually go into his T room) and made sure they were in a warm environment to try and save them. he contacted them immediately and they basically gave him the same BS about how he "did not specify to have the heat pack activated"
so he responded with the fact that the OTHER pack was activated and not the first, and that it doesn't make sense that they would do one and not the other, on the same order going to the same place without it being specified. they refused to give him his money back for the pulchra's and when he disputed it and put a bad review on their Facebook page, they blew up his account with messages demanding he take it down and that he reverse his dispute. he did not of course and has stated he will never order from them again.

its very unfortunate that a company like them would so blatantly act negligently its very sad and such a horrible stain on the Hobby. :/

 

[SpiderInTheBath]

I actually had a rare decent experience with them ordering a B. Emilia sling confirmed female - they shipped when i asked and she arrived in winter well heated.

I saw the reviews after I ordered and the website said next day delivery if you order before 2pm. Nothing that day. Texted and arranged a date and it arrived OK - but I was super anxious the whole time and wouldn't risk it again.