Need advice from the people I trust most; about a payment plan incomplete,what to do?

[angllady2]

Okay my fellow snake people, I need some advice and re-assurance please.

Back in June of this year, I sold my Vanilla Mojave female on a payment plan to a nice fellow who had been talking to me about her for a couple of months. I agreed to a 25% deposit, the balance to be paid in 90 days. He sent me the deposit on the first of July. I only heard from him once in the 90 days, but I wasn't really worried. He did let me know his wife was expecting a baby, and was scheduled for a Cesarean the weekend before final payment was due. He sent another $200 towards the snake, and asked for an additional week after the 90 days to give himself and his family a chance to get settled. I of course happily agreed, I was surprised he had not mentioned it before, but after all it's not my business. I waited the additional week, and then sent a polite email asking how the family was doing, and let him know the snake is just fine. I DID NOT ask when he would finish paying for the snake, I didn't want to seem rude and I was sure he'd get right back to me and let me know.

It has now been 10 days since I sent the email, and roughly 4 weeks since I have heard from him. I am starting to get concerned. The weather is rapidly getting too cold for shipping, and that worries me. I don't want to make the wrong choice here, the guy has after all paid about half of what I sold the snake for, but neither do I want to be holding on to this snake indefinitely waiting to see what happens. I know I am within my rights to re-sell this snake since he did not complete the payment plan as agreed, but that seems so harsh and cold. For all I know, something could have gone wrong with his wife and child, and I sure don't want to add to that. Then there is this nagging suspicion in the back of my mind, I re-read his emails and wonder if he was even telling the truth.

To make things worse, yesterday hubby was "being helpful" cleaning up my email, since I get so much spam, and deleted all but one of our emails back and forth. So now, if I do decide to re-sell this snake, he can claim I defrauded him and I have no way to prove otherwise.

So that is my dilemma. Any advice or suggestions are welcome. Even if it's just a little encouragement or re-assurance I'll take it.


EDIT: I just checked my sent box, and thank heavens they are all still there. Now, can someone tell me how to save them on my computer to prevent another accident?
Gale

[mikoh4792]

How can he file a claim if you just refund him the money and sell the snake off to someone else? That's what I would do.

He might be going through some personal issues but as courtesy he should be prompt on communication. He didn't hold up his end of the deal, so I'd say it's your choice without any guilt.

EDIT: you can copy paste on a word document program like MS Word or Pages on Mac. Or you can just do screen shots and save those pictures in a folder.

[MootWorm]

On the emails, I'd move them from your sent or trash folders to one marked "important" or something along those lines. As for the snake, that's a sticky situation. I would probably send another email asking if he received the previous one, mentioning that the weather is becoming too cold to ship and if he doesn't respond, he'll be forced to forfeit his payments thus far. In my opinion, you've already gone above and beyond. I know others may say you've fulfilled your obligations in warning him, but I'm a softy and would probably give one more chance lol.

[trevo]

Hello,

I work in sales and customer service for a living so if it were me, I would offer him 2 options (Options are always nice) what the terms of those options are is up to you but something along the lines of 1. pay the remaining balance of the snake by X date and I will ship that day, or 2. I will refund the money you have provided and sell the snake to someone else.

Of course its best to dress it up at the beginning, you know like, Dear Sir, Following up on previous email, I understand life gets busy and out of consideration I am emailing you today to in hopes we can finalize our transaction. With weather changing blah blah blah, I require response from you by end Oct X (whichever date you prefer) in order to ensure a smooth shipping experience for both you and the snake. In order to be fair to everyone I would like to offer you a chance to finalize our deal provided you can send the remaining balance by the date stated above, or contact to me to make alternate arrangements. If you are unable to contact me by the date above I will be forced to return the money you have put forward for the animal to date and offer him up for sale once again.

Something like that. Give him a choice and let him know your position and try to be fair to everyone. At that point the ball is in his court and you can make whatever decision you have to without feeling a lick of guilt. You offered the chance.

Hope I could help.

[dillan2020]

I would send him an email that he needs to get back to you asap and let you know what's going on. give him a time limit to respond and be very clear that after that time all emails from him will be deleted without being read. his deposit will not be refunded and you will be selling the snake to someone else.

[bcr229]

This is why I make part of the price, e.g. 10%, non-refundable - if the buyer flakes I can refund everything except whatever portion is non-refundable, and put the snake back up for sale. You really need it to cover yourself for the cost of feeders, time spent caring for the snake, turning away other customers, etc. while the buyer is making payments.

Personally I would reach out to the buyer one last time, ask for the remaining payment within seven days in light of the changing weather conditions, and if you don't hear from him you'll issue a refund and the snake goes back up for sale.

[angllady2]

Ok, well I saved copies of all of our emails to a folder on my computer so I do have a record of the transaction. I did clearly state several times the deposit was non-refundable, and the balance was to be paid in 90 days. So, the deposit I would not return no matter what since I clearly said it was non refundable.

As to the remaining $200. I am not sure about that yet. I mean, I do want to do the right thing. But at the same time, if I put something in Layaway at Wal-Mart and didn't pay for it on time, I wouldn't get my money back. I don't know, maybe I'm talking nonsense. But I could easily have sold that snake in the amount of time I've been holding her for him, and that kind of chafes I guess is how you'd put it.

I am going to send him another email, letting him know the window for safe shipping is rapidly disappearing, and while I would hold the snake for the winter if that becomes necessary, I won't do so without final payment. The question that remains is, if I offer him a little more time to pay, how long do I offer?

Being completely honest here, I DO want him to get the snake. He seemed so thrilled about getting her, says he already knows what he'll pair her with when she gets old enough, I just believe he really does want her badly.
That being said. I cannot hold onto this snake forever waiting for him. There are plenty of people who would be just as thrilled to get her, and who would pay what I ask up front.

I am just so torn.

I know what it feels like to want a snake so badly, and then to have something go wrong and not be able to. I also know what it feels like to think a snake it out of your reach and then have a breeder go out of their way to make that snake available to you. But at what point do I, as a breeder, say I have done my best to help you, but now I must move on? I already know I'm a sucker. I sold a snake to a person I know from here, and because I knew this person I let them take the snake home with just a deposit. That was more than a year ago and I still don't have the last little bit they agreed to pay me.

I just wish I didn't have to make this decision. I wish he had kept his part of the deal, so I wouldn't have to stress out about doing the right thing now that he hasn't.

Gale

[Annarose15]

Gale, I think the folks suggesting you give him a new, hard deadline for completion of payment are right on the money (say, October 25th EOD). However, Option#2 should only be to refund the payment he made after the initial deposit (if anything). Deposits to hold an animal prevent them from being sold elsewhere, which makes them nonrefundable.

[200xth]

No need to feel bad. You've done what you can.

Email him and ask him one last time to pay the remaining balance. Tell him you will need to resell the snake to someone else soon if this isn't finished up.

If he doesn't finish this up, and you really want to go out of your way to help this guy (you seem very nice), you can apply what he has currently paid to a different snake if/when he gets back in touch with you.

EDIT: But there would be nothing wrong with you just cancelling the deal and keeping the non-refundable deposit at this point. No need to stress.

[dillan2020]

Helping someone out who is down on their luck is one thing. patiently waiting while someone completely ignores you is something totally different. if he is down on his luck or can't pay for whatever reason the least he could do is take 30 seconds and shoot you an email.