| I saw an ad on Dreamhorse, pictured to be a beautiful, black, registered, TW horse, and being sold by a lady named Cynthia Sheppard in Lake Wylie, NC, (at least thats what she told me her name was. ) Advertised this horse as a beginner-safe, kid friendly, lesson/therapeutic, novice-riders babysitter, registered, family horse. On every description she would have in parenthesis "(finished/proficient)" Saying that this horse was used for a physically challenged rider that had eppilepsy and used for rehabilitation, etc...sounded perfect as I was looking for a beginner, confidence builder for my 12 year old daughter. Talked to this lady on the phone and she talked 100 miles an hour, talked my ear off, wouldn't let me get a word in edge wise, knew everything in the book, was supposedly the "trainer" of this horse and has been in the horse business for over 30 years... a very smooth talker. She said the eppileptic girl took therapy lessons on this horse and she was the trainer, and that the girls seizures got so bad, the family had to sell the horse. She told me the family that owned the horse paid 7500.00 for this horse and are taking a huge loss at asking 2000.00 (should have been a red flag right there). She said she had over 70 videos to send me of the horse, which she sent me through Photobucket, (which she removed shortly after she let me view them) after watching the videos (of the horse I thought I was looking to buy) I decided to buy the horse. She also told me she had a shipper that could get the horse to me in a week for only 350.00 (wow another red flag since that is very cheap) Cynthia had me send the money to the gentleman that was suppose to be the owner, named William Flamont. After they got the money I didnt hear from her anymore, thought that was funny since she talked my ear off to sell the horse. When I did hear from her, she was very short and only would text me. She had the shipper lady call me, supposedly with the name LouAnn Schaffer, and she kept giving me excuses why she couldn't deliver the horse...waiting on a quarantine horse in FL...her rig broke down and is waiting to get it fixed...waiting on the coggins because it had to be redone on the horse...weeks went by, one excuse after another. I then started getting real suspicious that I was being scammed, and thinking "my god Im not going to get a horse at all". Also noticed after I bought this horse named "Magic", I kept looking on Dreamhorse for horses for sale and noticed another horse for sale that looked identical to Magic, but his description was different and used the same wording in their ad...then another horse that looked the same again, but they said it was a mare, blah blah blah. They were advertised only shortly and then removed. Hmmm, ok so then I started getting real nervous. I then started doing research and found all these fraudulent reports on this ripoff report site, these people who use alias names, use different cities/towns, use different phone numbers, etc...and reading all these reports, which was the exact case of what was happening to me, made me realize I was being scammed too. Got ahold of Cindy, finally, and said Im sick of these excuses from this so called shipper, I will be coming to pick up the horse myself in a few days, and that I needed an address. She told me she didnt have "an address" but to pick up the horse on the property she was leasing where the horses were being held. She said she was in the midst of moving to Taylorsville, so she didnt have an address, hmmm. She only gave me a road name, called Lee Cline Rd and Eckard Rd. (in Conover NC) In the meantime, they had to get a health certificate done on the horse to ship (which she said she already had, ha!) so I asked Cindy the name of the vet she uses, she hesitated with an answer, ah ah ah, finally got a name...called the vet and explained what was happening, that my horse I bought was coming in for a health cert...so I ordered them to do a pre-purchase exam. The vet clinic said there was no "Cindy' Sheppard, but was in the computer as "Stephanie". The so called lady that brought the horse to the vet said her name was Nancy Cook. I had the vet call me back when he was done with the exam, to let me know what kind of horse I was getting. He said the horse that was told/sold to me to be 8 yrs old was at least 13, had a bad injury to his left eye and was about 150#s underweight/malnourished. Hmmm, yep I was scammed alright. Who knows if the horse I have is even the horse that they did the exam on?? Long story short, We had a shipper pick up "the horse" and we met him in Lexington, KY. I was afraid to see what I had actually bought. The beautiful pictured, 8yr.old, registered TWH, beginner safe, was all a fraud..there is no such horse. I picked up an old, malnourished, partially blind, ragged horse that was probably bought at an auction, that they go to often. Brought him home, had my farrier come out yesterday and he said the horse is no younger than 20!!! So I paid $2000.00, plus shippers expense of 550.00 to get him to Ky., then 500.00 more for gas money on our end to pick him up, so $3000.00 on a horse that I have no idea what it is. I have tried to contact this Cindy person, she wont answer, text her, no answer...I'm sure I wont ever hear from this person again. I am so disgusted that I have been scammed, along with feeling bad for ALL the others that have dealt with these people. I can only hope by posting this report that I can help someone else from making the mistake that I have. We need to stop these people from doing this, as there are kids/children being hurt. Please BEWARE of these people that put false pics and send false videos...marketing these false horses for $2000-3500 and giving people like us auction horses that they pay, maybe $200-400(IF THAT) for. I highly recommend not buying any horses from these areas in NC...Vale, Lenoir, Conover, Newton, Lake Wylie, Taylorsville, Cherryville...these people are all in it together, taking advantage of innocent people. They also advertise on other horse websites as well, so please pass on the word to watch out for these people, they are bad news!!!! Please contact me if you would like anymore information, maybe we can close these people down for good!!! |
