That is a real shame to hear that this has happened from Brian Barczyk, of all people. While I find it hard to believe that Brian has willingly "stolen" Josh's snakes, I don't find it hard to believe that Josh has simply fallen through the cracks of BHB as I apparently have.
My problem with Brian is not necessarily with any tangible transaction but in discussing with him personally on the phone about working out specific trades when he told me that he wanted to work out a long term partnership so that I could help to supply him with animals and morphs that he simply was not producing on a large scale. He clearly told me to breed everything I have and that he would buy all of those animals wholesale from me. Just to make it very clear, the idea of a "partnership" was his, not mine; I had originally contacted him on the premise of a possible trade. I told Brian that I was concerned about over-producing and possibly being stuck with a ton of snakes; he reassured me that this would not happen, that he would buy everything I produced, even unsexed fresh out of the egg unestablished animals. This concerned me as I don't operate that way, but that was the kind of partnership he was wanting to have with me.
After our phone discussion regarding our original trade deal and "partnership" he started becoming a bit flaky in response time as to when he wanted to work out the details of our trade. There were specific animals of mine he claimed to have wanted but just left me hanging on how he wanted to conduct the trade. I was hesitant about initially wanting to offer those specified animals for sale to others being that Brian said he wanted them, feeling that we had an understanding of trading for those animals and a possible partnership in the works. The last few emails I received from him always promised that he was still very interested in trading and that of a partnership.
In one of the emails he asked me to call him of which I did several times over the course of several days but was unable to get a hold him. The last email I received from him, he said that he was going to call me on specific days, so I made sure to be available for him to answer his call but he never did call.
I eventually sent one final email to him about 2 months ago asking why he never got back with me after a month of no communication and that if he wanted to form a partnership with me, that he needed to be more prudent about doing what he said he was going to do, even if it was just responding with a simple email or short phone call to let me know what was going on because I did not want to start producing a bunch of animals on the promise of him buying them all just to ultimately renege and me getting stuck with a bunch of animals that I couldn't afford to take care of over the long haul. To this day, I have never heard back from him.
For the record, I have known Brian for over 6 years, having spent in between $8k-$10k with him over the years as well as spending many many hours communicating with him over the phone, in person at shows and by email about a great many things, some professional and some personal. For the most part, he's always been fairly good and timely at responding until recently.
It really dismays me though to think that Brian, or his company, has neglected Josh this way by accepting animals that have not been paid for. By his own admission, I know Brian has been having some issues with his business overall, what with the current economy here in the US and his semi-frequent turnover of staff, but I have a hard time comprehending why he's not responding to emails of a business relation such as Josh's when he clearly owes Josh.
With all of that said, I don't think Brian is a thief, I just think Brian has way more on his plate than he can manage or knows what to do with. Right now, I'm just of the belief that Josh, like myself, have simply fallen through the BHB cracks and that Brian will eventually make this right for Josh. However, if I find out that this has happened with others in that Brian has taken other people's animals without paying for them, then that may signal something a lot more concerning than just thinking this was a simple and single oversight on BHB's part in regards to Josh. I sincerely hope this is not the case!
