I've just received the "T blondi" slings from a friend who came down from PTA and am shocked at what I've received.




Clearly not a T blondi sling and its far too small. The one is only about 0.5cm and the other is even smaller. The pic above is of the bigger sling and I have to agree with what others on the post are saying and that it looks like a brachypelma sling.

I have also been told by Machiel that they do not offer refunds but are willing to offer other T's as compensation?!?!?!?!?!?

Has anyone found out any more info on the matter?

The hobby has a serious dark side. I too am saddened at how bad it has become.

I think when people buy T. blondi they must first inquire as to the size and if possible a picture.

From my point of few, surely the person buying the spider ask for photo's of the spiders, I'm talking about Machiel now, and all of you guys who bought from them.
When buying curtain spiders one needs to ask to see the mother and father and the mother on the egg sack basically a breeding report. Especially when you are buying something as rare as T. blondi's .
Also just in a general sense if you don't know the person who you are dealing with, try get the full story or history of the spider.
If you still don't trust the person photo ask them to write something on a piece of paper, like number ans ask for the photo to be taken next to the paper witht he number on. If people get pissed off and don't want to do that just walk away from the deal.
If you don't get photo's then you should have an Idea the person has imported them or something is not right, if it is a legit deal the breeder of the spiders will not have an issue supplying you with photo's, it is in he's benefit.

And surely Ann-marie and Machiel have emails or some kind of interaction on record on the conversation of their dealings?
So the truth can come out, who is the person who did the dodgy deal.
Cause it sounds to me like pass the buck as started, and Davey being the head boy of the deal, he is blaming them know.
Unless he wants to say where he got the spiders in the first place? (I doubt that will happen)
But one needs to have Davey's side of the story, he might have been screwed offer by the person he bought them from?

Also the seller needs to state if he offers refunds or computation in another manner.
But at the end of the day the seller has the right to decline refund or guaranteed arrival.


But I think it will be a waste of time to lay charges, just deal with it as a dodgy deal and sort out the people who have bought the spiders from you, make right where you can.
You got burned and you all have learnt a expensive and valuable lesson in dealing in the wonderful world of scam artists and being scammed
Unless you have proof of the conversation and of the product that was meant to be sold and it was the wrong product you are going to get thrown out of court and waste your time, as you need to prove it was a scam and he sold them to you knowing they were the wrong spiders.

At the end of the day, people did advise that it was not T. blondi's, and you went along with the deal and you bought the spiders regardless.

Sorry that it happened but it is not the first time or the last time, people are going to bump there heads in the hobby, you just need to be smart and if the deal sounds to good to be true, one must not rush in blindly, first do your home work and ask around to make sure.

I hope this gets sorted out!

If thats a T.blondi i must be blind....... Look like the Brachypelma genus.... :rock

@ spinnerkop thank u for that very clever remark! Are u in the ANC?

Hi Guys, sorry I am only getting onto this dicussion now but I have not been at work for quite some time so only getting onto the internet now.

To give eveyone the quick history of this whole story from our side and maybe a lot of this will make sense.

These slings were bought from Davey and we collected and paid from them at the petshop itself in Krugersdorp.
He stated that the slings came from his cousin's eggsack and he even gave us photos of the apparent parents.

He stated upon buying them, that if they do not turn out to be t.blondi's we can bring them back to him alive and he will refund us as him and his father were adiment that it was t.blondi's

After the first molt (1st instar) we sent him pictures of them and he stated that they looked right and they are t.blondi's.

they even sent us new pictures taken in October of the aparent parents.

anyhow, we sold them on and bought new T's as we are resellers and havent started breeding ourselves at that point. We have never seen T.Blondi's ourselves due to the scarsity and due to their size we believed Davey's story in good faith having dealt with him numerous times before and this seems to have been our biggest mistake. (Trusting Davey).

After this, we got phonecalls from the people we supplied stating that they were not T.blondi's and I then strted talking to some known breeders after a mission of tracing some of them and they confirmed this as well.

Due to the fact that we already bought new T's , we obviously didnt have the cash available to refund everyone and was willing to exchange the T's for the same value. (Bearing in mind though that we told everyone who bought them from us the history of the slings, we gave them Davey's contact details as well and even sent most of them pics and they still bought them).

However, we are not cheating people and want to make right with everyone so have agreed with the parties to compensate them in either exchanging for other T's or refunding them , and taking back the slings.

We have since confronted Davey on the slings and he simply delted us from bbm and refused to take our phonecalls.
after that he started trying to make our names look bad by telling everyone that we switched the T's.

However, we have posted the stories on the bbm groups and our contacts and since then loads of people have come forward with their stories on how they have been cheated by Davey and it seems not only with T.blondi's but other T's and also some other illegal animals like advertising dwarf caymans and it turning out to be nile crocs.

They have since been reported to different authorities as well as the news papers to make as many people aware of them as possible.

We are also doing our best to make right with all parties that were involved as we are honrouble people and do not wish to cheat anyone.


We are truly sorry about the inconvenience it has caused for those who bought them, as it has caused us lots of grievances as well and we have learned a valuable lesson with this as well.

Anyone wanting more info or who want to assist us in not letting these guys get away with this, feel free to PM me and I will get back to you.

just as a last note, we did manage to get hold of the "number for the raymond guy who apparently bred the slings as t.blondi's" , however after trying for days and weeks there was only an answer once from his apparent girlfriend and she stated that he went out and she doesnt know where he went.

All other attempts to contact him failed. We also had someone going to the petshop and asking for Davey, and they went as bluntly as denying that they know him...

From the guys we spoke to who also got scammed by Davey, it seems his MO is the same. The moment you confront him he deletes you from bbm, and does not answer ur calls.

We know where he lives, however I will let that confrontation up to the authorities in order to do it in a legal manner.