# coast to coast



## Mez-sez (Jul 15, 2007)

Just wanted to say thats if any one is considering purchasing a lizard from coast to coast in darlington dont bother! heres why:

i have been searching for a snow bearded dragon for a long long time now.

i rang up coast to coast because thier website said they sold snow bearded dragons and macksnow geckos. the lady at the shop said yes we do have both of them in.

we traveled over a 120 miles to get there! when we got there the dragons she was selling were only about 3 weeks old! they had a picture of a pure white bearded dragon on the front stating thats what they grow into! (the picture was the same one from google images)

they were a little black but stupidly i thought oh well they tend to be dark when first born any way.

i payed £120 each for them.

my mopther in law is a gecko breeder/collector. she wanted the mack snows. when we saw them they were yellow. the only white colouring they had on them was the tail which was striped!

so she said she did not want them and went for a chocolate blizzard and a blazing blizard instead. they were also £120 each!

so id spent £480 on 4 lizards (i was not bothered about that)

a few days later we realized the blazing blizard was pregnant. thanks for telling us!

also i regret to inform, the little babies are still darkish BUT they are showing red/orange and the standard browny yellow colours on them.

i dont think snows have any colour in them except WHITE. 

so we had gotten ripped off.
im STILL after 2 weeks waiting for the manager to get in touch with me.

why did i post this? to tell you guys not to bother buying from there if your after a rare breed. they dont have a clue what they are talking about when it comes to morphs.

dont be stupid like i was a certainly dont travel all that way.

good luck peeps

mez


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## dani11983 (Mar 17, 2007)

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience. 

I also travelled the best part of 120 miles to have a look at some of the rarer morphs of corn snakes they had in stock. 

I came away with a Lavender het opal CB06 Serpenco and she is the best feeding snake I have. I love her.

I found the staff helpful and knowledgeable and I've no regrets about purchasing from them. 

I'd definately buy from them in a heartbeat.


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## ashbosh (Jun 23, 2007)

its my local and im in most weeks, i love the place, ask a question they know the answer, kevin is a great bloke, they will be a valid reason why he hasn't contacted you, i think he was in america? but i love that place. ive bought most of my reptiles from them, corns, crested gecko's, frog eyed gecko's and they were great with me everytime. so i guess this may be a rare occurance of an unhappy customer?


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## beardy daz (May 31, 2007)

got to agree with ash its my local bought the daughter a corn couple of years back had a problem and it died took it back got a new one i myself have a beardie and 4 geckos allways on hand for really good advice had a problem with a price for a uv tube a coupl of month ago sent kevin a email got straight in touch sorted i find all the staff really helpfull and always chatty even when they r busy they make time for u sure he will sort it out for u
:lol2::lol2::lol2:


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## Mez-sez (Jul 15, 2007)

well its from bad experience, but what do they expect when they said the manager WILL be in touch with me and all that happens?


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## Mez-sez (Jul 15, 2007)

ashbosh said:


> its my local and im in most weeks, i love the place, ask a question they know the answer, kevin is a great bloke, they will be a valid reason why he hasn't contacted you, i think he was in america? but i love that place. ive bought most of my reptiles from them, corns, crested gecko's, frog eyed gecko's and they were great with me everytime. so i guess this may be a rare occurance of an unhappy customer?


well actually more than 1 unhappy customer its three of us altogether!

they did not even appologize or make any effort and still have not in sorting things out


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## reptiles-ink (Nov 4, 2006)

I got some snakes from them, some were sexed wrong from probing but thats always possible unless they probe male so not really their fault. great condition though.


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## Horny Toad (Sep 9, 2006)

Mez-sez

I replied to your e-mail the same day I recieved it - it did not return to me, have you checked your spam filter?

I will say pretty much the same here as I did in the e-mail. We have no Snows listed, nor have we had any listed. We have Yellow x Snow Hypos on our lists and that is what you originally enquired about, travelled to the shop and bought. Here is a link to our site Coast To Coast Exotics - Reptile Shop / Reptile & Amphibian Breeder / Supplier of Snakes - Darlington, North East England, UK. It was made clear throughout the contact you had with us what you were buying, and luckily the whole sale was caught on tape by our security system, and I can clearly hear Mel (the manageress who served you) saying, after you enquired whether they should grow up to be white, saying "well, maybe, but they are crosses so we wont know until then." You also seem very happy with them, in fact very enthusiastic saying "you can see white coming through already". As for the Mac Snow Leopards, we have had several enquiries about them, and I have informed everyone that they are not the best Mac Snows and that they are quite yellow. In fact several forum members who have contacted me will back me on this one, Mr T springs to mind. I'm sorry if this hasnt happened in your case. We have still sold many now though, in excess of 50, so lots of collectors are happy with them.

In my e-mail I explained that even though you were happy with the Beardies at the point of sale, and obviously knew that they were crosses I would refund the cost of the animals to you - I'm not sure if I still feel that way now you have decided to post all this! It also makes me wonder why I bring in the colour moprhs from the States, I'm one of the only importers to supply this demand, and generally if there are any complaints its always about colour moprhs - they can be so subjective! Mez-sez, call me on 01325 283756 and you might convince me still to give you your money back, even though its just because you changed your mind!

Anyway, I guess even after trying hard you cant please everyone, thanks for the words of support from the customers who we have succeeded with.


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## exotic reptile housing (Jul 12, 2007)

i believe the vivs in there also lack cleanliness some with totally rotton backs and bases


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

exotic reptile housing,

Where have you been? We go in, not as often as we'd like, we've never seen dirty vivs. The shop is always nice and clean and everyone has water etc.

Mez-sez,

I don't think for one minute that the staff would have encouraged you to travel so far if, either, they hadn't explained to you what was in stock or they knew they didn't have what you were after.

All the staff have always been a great help. Right upto taking the igs out so they could show us how to determine sex.
Granted I bought a toad and I'm still unsure of species but I'm happy to believe Kevin when he says it is 'what it is'. It's also quite a rare species to have in the UK apparently. This happens with the rarer animals it can't be helped.

I would say it is one of the 'top' shops in the North East and there are quite a few up here.


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## JonnyEmm (Nov 2, 2006)

exotic reptile housing said:


> i believe the vivs in there also lack cleanliness some with totally rotton backs and bases


I think this comment is a bit harsh. I am a regular visitor to the shop and I usually visit on a Sunday which I presume is a cleaning day, as on almost every visit have witnessed the cleaning procedure which I have never thought for one second was inadequate.

Jonathan.


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## Solo (Dec 23, 2006)

I think C2C is a fantastic shop, it's the first reptile shop I ever went into, quite a few years ago now and when I had a non-feeding royal (NOT purchased from there) - Kevin got him feeding for me pretty darn quickly! 

I don't think you can ever please anyone when you do business - I hope this situation is resolved soon.


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## Horny Toad (Sep 9, 2006)

Cleanliness is a top priority at Coast to Coast Exotics. We dont have a cleaning out day, every day is a cleaning out day. Each animal on the shop floor is cleaned and tended to every day - and records spanning back over 10 years shows which member of staff did the job each day (and I mean everyday, 365 days a year - Xmas, New Years day etc etc the shop is still manned). As far as I am aware there are only a very small handful of shops that follow this regime, and indeed we are one of the cleanest shops in the country as a consequence. Jonnyemm, thanks for the supportive comments but believe it or not Sunday is our less clean day as weekends are always chaotic and very busy and sometimes we cant tend to the animals fully until after we close! 

Some of the vivaria are up to 8 or 9 years old, and one or two are showing their age, but there are none with rotten backs. Again we have a regular maintanence programme with our own carpenter that tends to this. We are also refitting the whole shop this winter and are replacing them all with brand new fibre glass vivaria. The first ones arrived this week and will be wired and decored over the next few weeks ready for installation on the shop floor. Perhaps exotic reptile housing is touting for business?!!

Its very true you cant please everyone, but we do try hard and this shows, we trade fairly, responsibly and with due deligence to animal welfare. Not sure how much else we can do.............


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## jonny_s (May 19, 2007)

Coast to Coast in my opinion is the only shop in the North east with a wide range of stock and the knowledge to display and sell. As a family we have purchased several salamanders here and were originally suprised at the amount of questions we were asked and the paperwork to be filled in. Obviously sales of vivs etc can only help the shop but at the end of the day this ensures the animals go to a good home. We were recently given a lot of advice about bearded dragons and look forward to buying from this shop in the near future.

Jonny_s


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## beardy daz (May 31, 2007)

just another big thumbs up for kev and the staff at coast to coast took my beardy and 2 geckos for a health check on wed had mel checking them out when she found a abcess on 1 of my geckos well spotted because i never had a clue booked into vets on fri got sorted not bad service considering i didnt buy them from there not many places would be like that its normally a case of money in the till now bye bye thanks again darren keep up the good work ps tell me a better shop around north east if you can bet u struggle 
:lol2::lol2::lol2:


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## Esarosa (Jul 13, 2007)

moving to the north-east in three weeks. Stockton-on-tees. How far away is coast to coast from there? anyone know as i'd love to pop in (n probably bankrupt my other half in the process )



Katie


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

20 minute drive up the A66.
Can't miss it.


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## beardy daz (May 31, 2007)

about 20 mins 2 30mins katie
:smile::smile::smile:


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## Esarosa (Jul 13, 2007)

ahh lovely jubbly.. (don't drive) so taxi it is (oh paying of course  )


Katie


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## ashbosh (Jun 23, 2007)

theres a bus that goes down haughton road from teeside, and if you get off at the stop before town, its a 10 minute stroll! and it'll cost you less, train is even easier! get off in darlo, walk down the road to the bus stops, and the 23 goes down victoria road (goes to north road) and some buses go from yarm road down to north road, either way your sorted


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## Esarosa (Jul 13, 2007)

ahh lovely thank you! 

Don't know the area at all you see...three weeks today n i'll be trying to learn quick sharpish! 

Katie


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## Horny Toad (Sep 9, 2006)

Hi Katie

Let me know when you plan to visit, I'll do my best to make the trip as easy as possible. Good luck with the move!

Kevin


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