So in December I purchased a beautiful Dutch mare from the Netherlands. The seller was wonderfully helpful, made everything easy, talked to me multiple times a day, everything was just great. I made plans to have her imported through a company here in the US that handled all the paperwork, transportation, bloodwork, plane tickets, just everything. Global Horse Transporters sounded great, their website was professional, I thought everything would be fine. Wayne worked with a transport service in Holland to arrange her flight. She ended up being shipped with an expired CEM test and was denied entry into the US. This was the transporters in Holland's fault. So, she needed to go back. Here is where my experience with this Wayne Rakshys takes a drastic downhill turn. I had wired Wayne $6,000 and had all the paperwork showing what the $6,000 would be spent on. It was to get her from the JFK airport, keep her in NY for her 3 day quarantine, all her vet work, transported to the 2 week CEM farm, board through all of her 2 week quarantine, and then shipped to my barn. It was all-inclusive. Well, when she was denied entrance, Wayne contacted me saying that he would need an additional $2,000 to get her on a flight back to the Netherlands. (What had happened to the $6,000 I already sent...? Plane tickets are NOT that expensive...?) So being naive and trusting, I wired him the next 2k. So she went back to the Netherlands. She stayed there for probably another 10 days while her test was done. During this time, nobody communicated with me. I had no idea if she was safe, if her tests were being done, or when she was scheduled to come back to the US. When I tried to communicate both with Wayne Rakshys and the transporter back in Holland, I barely got a return email or call, and if I did, it was brief and elusive.
Ok, so now it was time for her to come back to the US. Wayne emailed me to let me know he would need another 6000 for her to get to me! What?! I don't think so! WHY would he need another $6000, and if he did, why would he think I would willingly pay that when this was the tranportation company's messup?! If he truly needed this money, he should have contacted the company in Holland that messed up, and demanded it directly from them. I should never have been expected to pay it (although I am sure the $6,000 was never actually needed, but just a way to scam more money out of me). I asked Wayne to send me a detailed report, showing me what the 8,000 I had now wired to him had been spent on (6000 originally, then another 2000 to supposedly fly her back to Holland). He never answered me, and never sent me a report of expenses. This is where all patience and understanding I was trying to hold on to quickly went out the window. I threw a fit, and my attorney was notified of the whole mess. She quickly assured me that this was not my responsibility, and I could not be held accountable for another $6,000 to pay for Wayne Rakshys's services that I had already paid for once. I wrote a very respectful, but blunt email letting Wayne known that there was no chance I was paying $6,000, and that if my mare did not arrive, legal actions would be taken. I forwarded the email to the transporters in Holland, as well as my mare's original owner in the Netherlands. The previous owner was the only one who ever answered my email. I emailed Wayne AGAIN, asking where my horse was, asking if she had arrived at the airport safely. He answered with a very blunt email "of course she is, I thought we had already covered that base!" He never again asked for the $6,000. I am sure I was part of a scam. Wayne does not give me good vibes, and I will never again use his company or refer him to anyone I know. I need to be reimbursed for the extra $2,000 I spent... I may involve my attorney if he does not send it willingly, because I think Wayne needs to realize that he cannot get away with extorting money. What a dishonest man. What a nightmare of a situation. I know there are trustworthy, well intended importing companies out there - Global Horse Transporters is not one of them.
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