House of Reptiles

First off... I used to frequent this store before several years ago and it was run by Ben Sharp(the old owner) It was a joy to go to. The animals were healthy and Ben always treated me with kindness and respect. He always gave me great deals on all of my purchases. Then it changed ownership to some new guy named Ron Smith and it also changed locations. After I visited it the other day, I have to say this store has gone so down hill that I can't believe that it's still in business! I brought up the fact that several animals were dead in their cages and I was told not to worry about it and ""If you don't want to buy something then you can leave"". All I was doing was trying to let them know that they had dead animals in their cages. Most of the animals are either dying, already dead, infested with mites, and have no water in the cages. This place was once a beautiful store when Ben Sharp owned it. I don't know why he sold it or whether he knows what his store has become, but it's a disgrace! I have been a customer of that store since the day it opened, and have been collecting reptiles and other exotics for 20+ years. I've spent thousands of dollars with Ben over the years. My advise is not to step foot in this place and don't do business with people like Ron Smith and his employees. SAD..... more

I've been an active herper for almost 15 years and to walk into a store that has so many infected a diseased animals it was rediculous. prices were way over anyones asking price and he service was just bad also. if i had to go to a reptile store in jax it would be blazin retiles if i had to! Pros: ???hmm Cons: over priced, snakes had RI's not all 2 as far as i could see. smelled like old bedding. rude service more

Contacted the staff to discuss possible trades or sales of my animals and was told that they didnt deal with that even though it states it on the web site - you have to pack up whatever your animals are and take them up there on a day that hopefully the owner is in (Which is not many) without any inclination of weather they are evn looking for what you have, then, maybe you can discuss the trade or sale to them. Their initial customer service to me over the phone was way below average. The manager seemed like she had no clue what inventory or stock they had or wanted. She also seemed like she had better things to do than talk to a customer. Maybe she was having a bad day maybe she is like that all the time I dont know nor will I find out! more