Hi! I recently ordered a boa from someone who seems to be reputable. My problem is they are located in Florida, who recently had a hurricane. Each time I reach out I get sent the same “we aren’t insuring packages right now due to the storm” so he isn’t shipping them. I am being patient because the weather and all- however my female panther chameleon came in from the same area overnight today no problems. It’s been a few weeks, am I being scammed? Is anyone else from Florida not shipping out animals?
Little edit for clarification: I was in fact soft ghosted, they barely kept in contact with me and any time they did answer me over the one month period it was a screen shot of the lack of insurance with no conversation. It is this behavior in collaboration with the fact he only wanted friends and family payments with no mention of reptile sales. I feel bad because I am the one who asked him to hold off shipment because I am scared of shipping animals but there’s a lot of weirdness in his behavior that makes me worried I am out 400
*Final Edit: Finally figured it out, just over all weird communication but no ill intent he should be here tomorrow! Super excited to get my guy in his vivarium!!! Thanks so much for all the reassurance from you guys! 🫶🏻
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The issue is that the hurricane damage didn’t hit all areas or sellers equally. If they are based in Tampa, FL, shippers like ShipYourReptiles are not insuring anything out of the area because of all the storm damage. Redline warns against shipping into or out of any of the hurricane affected areas. Some breeders will not ship if insurance isn’t available, others will, so you receiving an animal from the same area doesn’t mean much. The safety of the animal is paramount, and with the level of damage, there are still significant issues with shipping delays.
So long as the breeder is still in contact with you and keeping you updated, it is highly unlikely you’re being scammed, you may just need to be patient here. Recovery from a hurricane is not fast, it can take months depending on what infrastructure was damaged.
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^^^
This, right here
The breeder is absolutely free to decide for themselves if they feel it is safe or not to ship (I do this all the time when it comes to winter and summer shipping, I have an animal in my rack that is destined for someone in TX that has been waiting with me for nearly seven months because it has been too hot there)
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Have you already paid for the Boa? Next time I suggest waiting to pay until you have a shipping date already set in place to prevent losing your money to a scam.
Howevever I agree with @noodlehaus & @t_h_wyman. Shipping companies like SYR and Redline will either warn or completely prevent insured shipping which means if they ship an uninsured animal they have nothing to fall back on if the animal is lost or dies during shipping, and you wont get a refund because they have no insurance $ to give you a refund, unless they pay put of pocket of course.
The Chameleon being shipped may have been from a completely different area of Florida that wasn’t heavily impacted by the hurricanes, or the breeder ignored warnings and insurance to ship out the animal anyway which I absolutely do not reccomend, hopefully that wasn’t the case.
If the breeder is still in contact with you I don’t think you are being scammed. I’ve had to wait and hold on shipments several times due to tornadoes, hurricanes, hot & cold weather for sometimes weeks/months at a time because either the company I ship through (SYR) would not insure shipments OR I just genuinely felt that it wasn’t safe to ship from where I live at that moment.
That being said there isn’t really a limit on “how long is too long” for the reasons I listed above since there are too many dependents. Usually people who are setting out to scam will completely ghost you once you’ve made payment or they will tell obvious lies to make it seem like they are holding off. This is why its important to pay attention to ad photos- do reverse searches on them, pay attention to the seller’s “behavior” during communication, read their store reviews, and ask for updated photos and information on the animal.
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He has kind of ghosted me. He barely kept in contact with me and any time they did answer me over the one month period it was just a screen shot of the lack of insurance with no conversation. It is this behavior in collaboration with the fact he only wanted friends and family payments with no mention of reptile sales. I feel bad because I am the one who asked him to hold off shipment because I am scared of shipping animals but there’s a lot of weirdness in his behavior that makes me worried I am out 400. I am going to see how things progress in the coming weeks hopefully things will change 
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It can sometimes take me 3-4 months to be able to ship a package, when there are no major weather events. It just happens to be very hot here in the summer and very cold in the winter, so we have to wait for a blip in the weather to meet insurance requirements.
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