So after years of not buying or even communicating with Bartek, I decided to buy mantis again. I'll be honest, I got lured into it by the glitz and glam of some rare mantis species. After spending nearly $300 for just a few mantis and paying "as a friend" to Paypal, I found out that night that I had done business with Bartek. I basically knew that my money was lost. Bartek is a scammer and I already know his ways. Virtually all the stuff came dead or dying. Mind you, I had paid extra for EMS and this time my package got here VERY FAST! We're talking 4 days flat!!! I posted feedback on the forum where I bought from him instantly.
This is the entire message:
"This one legitimately bummed me out.
When I found out that Exo-Factory was Bartek, I could not sleep all night that night. I knew I had screwed up buying from this guy. It was too late. I had already paid in full "as a friend" and paid extra fees for that alone. I heard Bartek has changed and treats people better now and I was hopeful.. but....
For one, he wrote down my address wrong. It went to the wrong address, but luckily they fixed that and it went to my house almost immediately.
I found it strange when I asked for EMS to get them to me faster and was more than willing to pay for it, that he'd ask me repeatedly if I was sure.. and that it would cost sooo much more if I did that.
I opened the box hoping to at least have something to work with. I ordered the Truncata, which I had to buy two pairs for $180, and a pair of Rhombodera megaera for $50.
From previous deals, I know Bartek sometimes purposely sends messed up mantis so you have little success and I caught him red handed (it supposedly mismolted in the mail, with a cute shed on the bottom of the container, 3 days after I nurse it back to health it molted again). He is very good at arguing and acting like there was no fault, but a mismolted mantis that molts 3 days later at a high instar.. that's impossible.. he admitted to it. I vowed to never buy from him again.. lucky for him, he changed his name and I was careless.
This time, he didn't even TRY to hide anything. You could tell that a pair of Truncata were already probably dead by the time he put them into the containers. One of them was not JUST dead.. it was CRUNCHY dead. One was missing legs on the same side.. even if it was alive when it went into the box.. it was never meant to live. Also, these things were STARVED to death. Like no food had been given them at all since they day they were pulled from the forest.
It was a nice set up and you could tell the ones he actually wanted to try to ship to me alive. Those ones had a little bit of food inside of them. Sadly, they did not make the trip either.
Out of the 3 pairs I bought, 2 truncata pair were forced to buy, and a megaera pair, I ended up with one live truncata male, a truncata female that just fell to the floor and is breathing her last breath as I type, and one female Megaera.. basically useless to me now.
I spent about $298 total. I even spent an extra $65 to get this package sent to me EMS. It got to me FAST. Roughly 4 days since Poland is ahead of us in time.. yet I opened up to a box of things I could not even work with.
I took somewhat of a break from mantis and I feel like I barely came back for a few weeks only to want to take a break again. Getting scammed like that legitimately hurts a little. He did not even TRY this time.. sending me mantis with missing legs on the same side and CRUNCHY dead mantis. 4 days shipping in mild weather does not produce a CRUNCHY dead mantis.
Some people have told me to try to get my money back, but, I don't believe that will happen. Based on my past experience, there will be a lot of run around that will lead to nothing. I don't want to fight. I give up this time.
Bartek, you win.
I'm not sure why Bartek must send ME bad stuff all the time. I hear he is actually great to some other people. I don't believe I have ever done anything bad to you, Bartek.
Everyone who plans on buying from Bartek or Exo-Factory in the future. GOOD LUCK.
I was extremely emotional at one point yesterday. First with anger then just sadness. I was contacted by Bartek to try and make things right. He's asked me to provide pictures. I will post them here. I understand that things could be risky, but certain folks generally get everything while each time I have dealt with him I've gotten a way shorter end of the stick each time I have dealt with him. This was the fastest I've ever had anything get to me and the weather here has been relatively mild. i've had things get stuck for 2 weeks get to me in better shape before.
Anyways, here goes..
All of those pictures were taken during my unboxing and moments after.. the last picture is this morning after I got a message from Bartek asking me to provide pictures
You can check photos to see date and time they were taken if you'd like to know that I'm not full of BS."
That message was immediately filled with backlash as forum members backlashed at me and Bartek himself would try to bully me to make me erase it.
He went on to use pathetic techniques on the forum also in order to make it seem less harsh on him.
His message to me in public was this:
"Kiet,
As it seems you prefer to talk public, keep attention on you, let me reply you here either.
First of all - You did not even contact us. You had enough time to write such a long post about how sad you are but couldnt manage to simply let us to know what happent ? Ridicilous. We offering a reliable customer service and i m ready to make things right by offer you replacement. Despite ANY shippments are not ON OURS RESPONSIBILTY.
Reason is obvious - its abroad shippment and any thing can happent. Even sending stuff across states shits can happent.
Of course Kiet, as you are that smart and that so knowledged you has no problem with understanding that stuff you bought was WILD COLLECTED and it can have some dissases. Any story could happent with those truncatas as they might be simply parasited or whatever. Saying weather in your town was mild is simply stupid explanation. You think your package showed up in your town just like that ? Sadly Kiet, i must to put some light on it - package been on a transit for a while and went through 3 airports at minimum, then a customs-post warehouse. Of course you are pretty sure YOUR ALIVE INSECTS package was treaten by special way and keep in warm whole the time. Of course Kiet...
Anyway, you should simply contact via private message , tell me what happent and that's it.
Saying this shippment was obvious a kind of playing with you and trying to ripp you off is just a simple lie.
You got pictures of ALIVE MANTIS which were sent to you so at least please stop trying to lie and trying to accuse me as we had no any intention bad intention at whole.
Even your bloody pictures showing you got "just" dead or NEARLY dead mantis. Not the rotten pieces you accuse us !
Backing to the point,-
I m very sorry it happent, You got Kiet few messages from me since that time but despite of that you prefer to keep make it drama.
Dont even want to mention you should simply think twice before posting these all stuff as you simply point on YOURSELF you doing illegal things by making import alive insects to US without license.
Once again, you got the apologize Kiet you got also the offer with replacement proposal from us and that's it. Definetely not going to discuss about this anymore on a public as this kind of drama is simply not necessary."
As always. he was trying to hide and push the blame onto others. He is a very skilled scammer. Beware! He will do whatever he needs in order to "win" these arguments to scam you out of your money! Bartek is a skilled scammer.
This is the entire message:
"This one legitimately bummed me out.
When I found out that Exo-Factory was Bartek, I could not sleep all night that night. I knew I had screwed up buying from this guy. It was too late. I had already paid in full "as a friend" and paid extra fees for that alone. I heard Bartek has changed and treats people better now and I was hopeful.. but....
For one, he wrote down my address wrong. It went to the wrong address, but luckily they fixed that and it went to my house almost immediately.
I found it strange when I asked for EMS to get them to me faster and was more than willing to pay for it, that he'd ask me repeatedly if I was sure.. and that it would cost sooo much more if I did that.
I opened the box hoping to at least have something to work with. I ordered the Truncata, which I had to buy two pairs for $180, and a pair of Rhombodera megaera for $50.
From previous deals, I know Bartek sometimes purposely sends messed up mantis so you have little success and I caught him red handed (it supposedly mismolted in the mail, with a cute shed on the bottom of the container, 3 days after I nurse it back to health it molted again). He is very good at arguing and acting like there was no fault, but a mismolted mantis that molts 3 days later at a high instar.. that's impossible.. he admitted to it. I vowed to never buy from him again.. lucky for him, he changed his name and I was careless.
This time, he didn't even TRY to hide anything. You could tell that a pair of Truncata were already probably dead by the time he put them into the containers. One of them was not JUST dead.. it was CRUNCHY dead. One was missing legs on the same side.. even if it was alive when it went into the box.. it was never meant to live. Also, these things were STARVED to death. Like no food had been given them at all since they day they were pulled from the forest.
It was a nice set up and you could tell the ones he actually wanted to try to ship to me alive. Those ones had a little bit of food inside of them. Sadly, they did not make the trip either.
Out of the 3 pairs I bought, 2 truncata pair were forced to buy, and a megaera pair, I ended up with one live truncata male, a truncata female that just fell to the floor and is breathing her last breath as I type, and one female Megaera.. basically useless to me now.
I spent about $298 total. I even spent an extra $65 to get this package sent to me EMS. It got to me FAST. Roughly 4 days since Poland is ahead of us in time.. yet I opened up to a box of things I could not even work with.
I took somewhat of a break from mantis and I feel like I barely came back for a few weeks only to want to take a break again. Getting scammed like that legitimately hurts a little. He did not even TRY this time.. sending me mantis with missing legs on the same side and CRUNCHY dead mantis. 4 days shipping in mild weather does not produce a CRUNCHY dead mantis.
Some people have told me to try to get my money back, but, I don't believe that will happen. Based on my past experience, there will be a lot of run around that will lead to nothing. I don't want to fight. I give up this time.
Bartek, you win.
I'm not sure why Bartek must send ME bad stuff all the time. I hear he is actually great to some other people. I don't believe I have ever done anything bad to you, Bartek.
Everyone who plans on buying from Bartek or Exo-Factory in the future. GOOD LUCK.
I was extremely emotional at one point yesterday. First with anger then just sadness. I was contacted by Bartek to try and make things right. He's asked me to provide pictures. I will post them here. I understand that things could be risky, but certain folks generally get everything while each time I have dealt with him I've gotten a way shorter end of the stick each time I have dealt with him. This was the fastest I've ever had anything get to me and the weather here has been relatively mild. i've had things get stuck for 2 weeks get to me in better shape before.
Anyways, here goes..
All of those pictures were taken during my unboxing and moments after.. the last picture is this morning after I got a message from Bartek asking me to provide pictures
You can check photos to see date and time they were taken if you'd like to know that I'm not full of BS."
That message was immediately filled with backlash as forum members backlashed at me and Bartek himself would try to bully me to make me erase it.
He went on to use pathetic techniques on the forum also in order to make it seem less harsh on him.
His message to me in public was this:
"Kiet,
As it seems you prefer to talk public, keep attention on you, let me reply you here either.
First of all - You did not even contact us. You had enough time to write such a long post about how sad you are but couldnt manage to simply let us to know what happent ? Ridicilous. We offering a reliable customer service and i m ready to make things right by offer you replacement. Despite ANY shippments are not ON OURS RESPONSIBILTY.
Reason is obvious - its abroad shippment and any thing can happent. Even sending stuff across states shits can happent.
Of course Kiet, as you are that smart and that so knowledged you has no problem with understanding that stuff you bought was WILD COLLECTED and it can have some dissases. Any story could happent with those truncatas as they might be simply parasited or whatever. Saying weather in your town was mild is simply stupid explanation. You think your package showed up in your town just like that ? Sadly Kiet, i must to put some light on it - package been on a transit for a while and went through 3 airports at minimum, then a customs-post warehouse. Of course you are pretty sure YOUR ALIVE INSECTS package was treaten by special way and keep in warm whole the time. Of course Kiet...
Anyway, you should simply contact via private message , tell me what happent and that's it.
Saying this shippment was obvious a kind of playing with you and trying to ripp you off is just a simple lie.
You got pictures of ALIVE MANTIS which were sent to you so at least please stop trying to lie and trying to accuse me as we had no any intention bad intention at whole.
Even your bloody pictures showing you got "just" dead or NEARLY dead mantis. Not the rotten pieces you accuse us !
Backing to the point,-
I m very sorry it happent, You got Kiet few messages from me since that time but despite of that you prefer to keep make it drama.
Dont even want to mention you should simply think twice before posting these all stuff as you simply point on YOURSELF you doing illegal things by making import alive insects to US without license.
Once again, you got the apologize Kiet you got also the offer with replacement proposal from us and that's it. Definetely not going to discuss about this anymore on a public as this kind of drama is simply not necessary."
As always. he was trying to hide and push the blame onto others. He is a very skilled scammer. Beware! He will do whatever he needs in order to "win" these arguments to scam you out of your money! Bartek is a skilled scammer.