SOUTH AFRICA: Leopard Valley Safaris aka Dave Davenport

I am not on here to bash, I have worked with several Safari companies and been to Africa several times. You cant please everyone all the time!

keith gardner said:

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Don’t mean to be rude, but this only confirmed that you are getting a refund, not the reasons why you are getting said refund.

Spooksar said:

Don’t mean to be rude, ...........

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It's tough being Canadian.

keith gardner said:

......... You cant please everyone all the time!

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I agree.

keith gardner said:

I am not on here to bash,........

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Ok, but calling someone rude and then making statements about how the person treated someone else does enter the minor bashing category. Certainly not in the OP's weight class.

BRICKBURN said:

It's tough being Canadian.

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keith gardner said:

I am not on here to bash, I have worked with several Safari companies and been to Africa several times. You cant please everyone all the time!

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You at least provided some documentation to support your claim.

Hi Keith,

Thank you for jumping in. I really appreciate your comments.

You bought a donation from Calgary SCI that is correct, stipulated dates was for 2017/18

As a donation it is for available dates within the 2017/2018 time period. We are not a hotel / Commercial operation, with only 6 rooms, so we only take a small number of clients at a time.

Can you please supply the rude email, as we have never met or spoken on the phone. We live in a very rural area and have no cell reception and not sure what email you are referring too.

Firstly, you wanted to change the dates to 2019, secondly, you wanted to gift the hunt to a 3rd party, and thirdly, bow hunting. I told you we are a free range area with no blinds, and that bow hunting is not recommended but you are more than welcome to try.

I have an email where you acknowledge that bow hunting in my area is not recommended but that you can still try.

The board of Calgary SCI did contact me, as you wanted to change the stipulations of my donation, a gift of my time and resources. Below my email to SCI, after which you were fully refunded. The Calgary SCI mentioned another hunter wanting the hunt and I agreed to have him take your place. His hunt went off without a hitch, and have an email of thanks. (all emails have been sent to Brickburn)

I will not publish any of your emails or any emails of my clients on a public forum.

Thank you again and have a fantastic week end.

Dave Davenport
Leopard's Valley Safaris

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SENT TO CALGARY SCI BOARD FROM LVS

Good day Dwayne,

Thank you for your mail.

Keith did contact me and wanted to add a number of stipulations onto the hunt.

1 He wanted to extend to 2019

2. He wanted to gift it to someone else and 3. Wanted to change it to a walk and stalk bow hunt. Which we can accommodate



As you know this is a donation , this hunt costs us money. Our animals are hunted on private open ranch land, so every animal shot needs to be paid for.

We try to target our donations to organizations where we will get reciprocal business .

Therefore we target areas where hunters with means congregate. We don't allow gifting as usually we find it gets given to hunters that can't afford a hunt and it costs us money.

I feel this is a case of buyers remorse and don't think it is in line with the spirit in which this donation was given. I feel the stipulations were clear and unambiguous.



If this was a fully paid up hunt we could easily negotiate . Kieth is still more than welcome to come and hunt with us using his bow within the stipulated time.

Thank you for your time

Warm regards

Dave



Dave Davenport

Leopards Valley

Sent from my iPhone

I have no dog in this fight but I will say this. Donated hunts are a freakin nightmare a lot of times. I don’t know the whole story on this one all I can speak to is my experience.
About 1/2 the time donation hunts turn into a cluster f%#*. People buy these and don’t read the offer, many times they never call until a week before they want to hunt ( in the middle of the peak season btw when your booked solid) and then get mad because you won’t cancel on a customer who has been booked for 6 months and has booked the weekend they decided they wanted to hunt. I put a must be used within 1 year clause in my donation hunts. I can’t tell you the times people will call 2 years after the offer expired. I’ve also had people want to upgrade or change expecting me to pay the difference because they decide they want to hunt something else instead of what they bought at the auction. I don’t mind this with an equal or lesser value deal and I always throw in tons of extras but... expecting me to allow someone to shoot an animal that’s 3-4,000$ above what I donated and have me pay for it, uh no. The list goes on and on.... I’ve been trying to make up my mind on whether I will continue to deal with donation hunts. For me it’s a difficult decision because the organizations I donate to I feel very strongly about and want to do my best to help but the hassle and inevitable pissing match that ensues half the time make it not worth it. I’m beginning to think just a cash donation or something is a better idea. Truthfully I’ve had very little to no benefit from donation hunts. In my area there is dang near a banquet for something every weekend. The vast majority of folks who have bought hunts from me as a donation are those who go to every auction looking for deals. That’s great and I certainly don’t have a problem with that but I know going in that they will never rebook unless they buy another hunt at another auction and I also know that there is no way they are going to take any additional animals or even tip. The weekend is a loss and that’s fine, I expect that going in and I’m certainly not donating it for any other reason that to help the organization out but from a business standpoint I just don’t see the benefit.

gizmo said:

I have no dog in this fight but I will say this. Donated hunts are a freakin nightmare a lot of times. I don’t know the whole story on this one all I can speak to is my experience.
About 1/2 the time donation hunts turn into a cluster f%#*. People buy these and don’t read the offer, many times they never call until a week before they want to hunt ( in the middle of the peak season btw when your booked solid) and then get mad because you won’t cancel on a customer who has been booked for 6 months and has booked the weekend they decided they wanted to hunt. I put a must be used within 1 year clause in my donation hunts. I can’t tell you the times people will call 2 years after the offer expired. I’ve also had people want to upgrade or change expecting me to pay the difference because they decide they want to hunt something else instead of what they bought at the auction. I don’t mind this with an equal or lesser value deal and I always throw in tons of extras but... expecting me to allow someone to shoot an animal that’s 3-4,000$ above what I donated and have me pay for it, uh no. The list goes on and on.... I’ve been trying to make up my mind on whether I will continue to deal with donation hunts. For me it’s a difficult decision because the organizations I donate to I feel very strongly about and want to do my best to help but the hassle and inevitable pissing match that ensues half the time make it not worth it. I’m beginning to think just a cash donation or something is a better idea. Truthfully I’ve had very little to no benefit from donation hunts. In my area there is dang near a banquet for something every weekend. The vast majority of folks who have bought hunts from me as a donation are those who go to every auction looking for deals. That’s great and I certainly don’t have a problem with that but I know going in that they will never rebook unless they buy another hunt at another auction and I also know that there is no way they are going to take any additional animals or even tip. The weekend is a loss and that’s fine, I expect that going in and I’m certainly not donating it for any other reason that to help the organization out but from a business standpoint I just don’t see the benefit.

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I hear where you are coming from Gizmo. I've helped with the local SCI chapter for four years (5?). Anyways, it is a lot of work to research the various hunts that are offered to us as donations each year. We sort through the offers, doing our due diligence because we want our purchasers to have the best time they possibly can. We also do a lot of advertising of the donated hunts, trying to give the outfitters value. Our brochure advises that purchasers should plan on harvesting additional animals or book additional days to give the outfitters value for making the donation. We have plenty of small print and encourage both ballroom and online bidders to read everything. We also advise purchasers that it is not kosher to stack donated hunts back to back. This is to try to ensure that the purchaser is not just shooting the minimum donated critters. We want the outfitter to be successful

As with every venture, there is always someone who wants to go outside the agreed upon terms. It can be a quite a hassle, but we try to make it viable for everyone. There are times where I just want to screw it, the dumb ___ is not following the terms of the donation. But that doesn't do any good for anyone. We try to make the best of it.

I don't have a dog in this, but LOL. Dave at leopards valley seem's to be a class act!

Hmmm...I just have to wonder if this new accusation has some connection to affordableafricanhunts.com....

TTundra said:

Hmmm...I just have to wonder if this new accusation has some connection to affordableafricanhunts.com....

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I was wondering the same. Dave seems to be on the ball with providing documentation. It seems this new one is A. A continuation of the failed OP’s attempt to bash Dave or B. Typical donated hunt B. S. Where someone wants to change a bunch of stuff outside the original offer or...... the person who typed up the offer imbelished it without the outfitter’s knowledge which I have seen happen.
I’ve started requiring the entity I donate to to send a copy of all advertisement on my donation before I will approve it. It’s amazing how many times things get added in without your knowledge.

Yea @gizmo the timing of this accusation, the lack of evidence of the accusation and only the agreed conclusion...just doesnt sit right with me. Even the actual wording of this latest attack....

I may eat Crow with more evidence presented, but until then....

TTundra said:

Yea @gizmo the timing of this accusation, the lack of evidence of the accusation and only the agreed conclusion...just doesnt sit right with me. I may eat Crow with more evidence presented, but until then....

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Me too. Certainly won’t be the first or last time I’ve had to eat crow but I tend to wait for legitimate evidence before condemning someone over claims such as these.

Well Dave has answered now to see what Keith Gardner has to say.

It is not related in any way with Affordable African Hunts.

The donation was not embellished. Purchaser and donor could not agree upon dates that were mutually agreeable within the 2year window of the donation terms. Chapter paid Keith what he had paid. Chapter resold the donation with Dave's approval. I know the guy who bought it. He and his son went last summer.

Sounds like it was resolved in a mutually beneficial way.

gizmo said:

.........or B. Typical donated hunt B. S. Where someone wants to change a bunch of stuff outside the original offer ...........

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The devil is always in those details.

Spooksar said:

Well Dave has answered now to see what Keith Gardner has to say.

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KG - Made requests about dates, they were not agreed to.
KG - Unsatisfied, could not work it out.
KG - Complained to SCI Chapter
SCI Chapter resolved matter - refunded money to KG

As KG noted - Can't make everyone happy.

Done

After the fact:
SCI resold Auction Hunt
New Hunters went and hunted critters at LVS.

AB2506 said:

It is not related in any way with Affordable African Hunts.

The donation was not embellished. Purchaser and donor could not agree upon dates that were mutually agreeable within the 2year window of the donation terms. Chapter paid Keith what he had paid. Chapter resold the donation with Dave's approval. I know the guy who bought it. He and his son went last summer.

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That's honestly good to hear. However, the accusations of being "rude", "nasty" amd unresponsive were still presented. It would seem to be owed to the thread for Keith to post those emails or send to Brickburn, eluded to with those "rude" and "nasty" messages.