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  1. #1
    Registered User Nati619's Avatar
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    Opinions wanted on a recent transaction

    Note: for anyone that doesn't want a lengthy read, I just get the feeling that a seller tried to bait and switch on me

    I recently acquired a snake that was very reasonably priced. Just to make it clear in advance, there's some speculation on my part. There are some things that I have reason to believe occurred, but could be completely wrong about. I'm not going to identify the seller by name, since its entirely possible that there were simply a series of innocent mistakes on his part.

    I initially made an inquiry on a site where multiple sellers post what they have available, that included a request on: what the snake was being fed, if it was ever refusing meals, current weight, what forms of payment were accepted, and shipping costs. He replied back a few hours later after I had logged out for the evening.

    Next day, I replied back that I would purchase if it was still available. He confirmed that it was. I submitted payment, and also provided information that included the transaction ID for the purchase, my name, shipping address, e-mail, and cell phone number. He then replied back to me shortly after that the snake had sold. He offered a few alternatives that were priced significantly higher, or that I could look through what else he had for sale.

    At this point, I had a feeling that something wasn't quite right, but couldn't say for certain that there was any wrong doing and willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After looking at what else he had available, I came to the conclusion that what was available was either more than what I was willing to spend or just not anything that I was interested in. I e-mailed him back explaining this and requesting a refund.

    His reply was basically to the effect of, "Oh, hold on a second. There's been a mix up. That payment I received was from you? I thought it had come in from someone else. The snake is definitely yours. I can ship out next Monday. Please send me your information."

    At this point, I was heavily debating whether or not to just ask for a refund anyway. Everything was pointing to a transaction gone bad. I went ahead and sent my information to him again. The odd part, the same information that I had sent prior was still on the same thread.

    Monday night rolls around, and I had already scheduled time off of work in the morning on Tuesday. He messages me telling me that he got tied up (no specifics) and didn't ship. Can he ship on Tuesday for Wednesday delivery (more red flags go up). I simply replied back that it was fine and requested tracking numbers. Went in to work Tuesday morning, and told them that I needed to push my morning off to Wednesday. Tuesday evening, I never received tracking numbers. I messaged him asking for tracking numbers again. He did reply back giving them to me.

    Wednesday rolls around, and the package arrives. In all fairness, I did receive exactly what was pictured, appears to be in good health, no signs of illness or stress, and so far doing very well in quarantine.

    Now the site in question, allows for sellers to show if a particular animal is on hold. It also enables sellers to immediately remove something that has been sold. I've bought from other sellers on the site before, and they've removed the animal as soon as they received payment. The snake that I bought is still up on the site showing as available.

    My hunch is that the snake might be left up there to draw potential customers in, to where he can attempt to switch them over to others he has available for sale. Most of them have higher sell prices. The other thing that I thought about, maybe he had seller's remorse for putting something out for sale that could have gone at a higher price, and was initially trying to wiggle his way out of selling without reneging on his part?

    Again, this is all speculation on my part. No proof of any wrong doing. At the end I got exactly what I wanted. Maybe this was just a case of him not being thorough when reading through messages. I will be very hesitant to buy from him in the future though.

    I'm curious to hear other opinions though. Am I being overly suspicious here?

  2. #2
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    If you got what you wanted, and everything is good on your end, does it really matter?

  3. #3
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    Really hard to say...most people selling a few snakes have a day job &/or a family to care for (meaning fatigue & distractions)...and just because someone sells
    a few things, doesn't make them the best (most organized) business-man or woman either. I buy a lot of things online (other than snakes) & personally, I'd
    feel the same way you do about this & probably avoid them in the future...not because I'm sure that they have bad intentions, but I just don't like flaky dealers.

    If you're happy with the purchase, be glad the deal didn't go any worse, & chalk it up to "experience".
    Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
    Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

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  5. #4
    BPnet Veteran pretends2bnormal's Avatar
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    Re: Opinions wanted on a recent transaction

    Definitely a weird experience. Nothing actually bad happened aside from the delay to ship by a single day, but that is a lot of otherwise individually allowable red flags in the end.

    My opionion: I would not purchase from this breeder again, but also not feel the need to point them out as a bad seller or talk badly about them either, especially if their other reviews are positive.

    All together it paints a bad picture and is nerve-wracking for you when dealing with a stranger, but the relatively short duration of contact and resulting correct & seemingly healthy animal being sent as originally agreed, I could see being a mixup on his end due to a busy week in his/her personal life. (You didn't specify a longer gap, so I assume this was paid week 1, received week 2.)

    Not ideal customer service, but could certainly be accidental.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

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  7. #5
    BPnet Senior Member AbsoluteApril's Avatar
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    Re: Opinions wanted on a recent transaction

    Quote Originally Posted by Nati619 View Post
    I'm curious to hear other opinions though. Am I being overly suspicious here?
    I obviously don't know for sure but I do think you're being overly suspicious.

    Sounds like the seller is a little busy or distracted in general. Probably hasn't had time to delist the animal in question (since he had to change ship day at last moment and didn't send requested tracking info, they aren't paying attention to the small details it seems). Is it possible your inquiry and the paypal also had different email addresses? Either that caused them to not realize the payment was from you or simply the seller again ignoring details or being overly distracted.

    In the end, glad it all worked out well. I would probably just not do business again with a seller that made me feel uneasy but I don't see anything overly malicious happening here.
    ****
    For the Horde!

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  9. #6
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    Re: Opinions wanted on a recent transaction

    Quote Originally Posted by pretends2bnormal View Post
    ...

    My opionion: I would not purchase from this breeder again, but also not feel the need to point them out as a bad seller or talk badly about them either, especially if their other reviews are positive....

    Not ideal customer service, but could certainly be accidental....

    This ^ ^ ^ ...I wouldn't bad-mouth them either, not without something more concrete to base my dissatisfaction on. And it looks like we all agree so far too?
    And assuming you remain happy with this purchase, if I were in your shoes I "might" even consider giving them another chance IF they had something that I
    REALLY wanted & it was a good deal, but if I had any red flags at THAT point, I'd go & not look back. Even good sellers can have other things going on in their
    lives...even personal illness or injury...it's a fine line between being a chump & judging another too harshly. Sort of have to think about how we'd want people to think of us if we were "less than perfect" a time or two.
    Last edited by Bogertophis; 08-02-2019 at 07:58 PM.
    Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
    Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

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  11. #7
    Registered User Nati619's Avatar
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    Re: Opinions wanted on a recent transaction

    Quote Originally Posted by sur3fir3 View Post
    If you got what you wanted, and everything is good on your end, does it really matter?
    From the perspective of whether or not this might be someone to buy from again in the future, yes it matters.

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  13. #8
    Telling it like it is! Stewart_Reptiles's Avatar
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    From my experience as a seller here is what I can tell you there has been a few instances when several people inquired for the same animal at the same time I give them all the info however even if they say they are very interested etc I am not holding any animal without a deposit (I also tend not to mention that other people are inquiring at the same time because I do not want people to think I am using a pushy sales tactic), now what happen is that some people decide to take more time to think about it and other send the payment to my email address right away (even though this not are are operate anymore as I prefer to send invoices), it is possible that he had two inquiries for the same animal and that both were answered with info on the animal and info on where to send the payment? Yes it is possible and in that case the right thing to do is to immediately refund the payment that came in second.

    Now if in your inquiries and the payment you provided featured your name and email address and they were a match than he should have known whose payment it was and for what animal.

    As far as shipping things happen sometime behind people's control not everyone does that for a living so there is always the possibility or your boss deciding to have a last minute meeting, ask you to work extra hours because of being short staffed or traffic.

    As far as not updating his Morph Market listing not everyone his computer savy and or is on the computer everyday, sometimes it takes me 24 to 48 hours to update my inventory if I am out of town as I prefer to do thing on my computer and not my phone.

    So it is probably all coincidental but I am with you on little thing raising red flags it happens to me as a seller all the time to and usually a simple conversation clears things up.

    My advice research the seller on the BOI on fauna or FBI on facebook and also rely on Morph Market seller's rating.

    And of course the key is communication if the person's communication is subpar before the sale or raising concern it is usually not getting better after the sale.
    Last edited by Stewart_Reptiles; 08-02-2019 at 08:03 PM.
    Deborah Stewart


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  15. #9
    Registered User Nati619's Avatar
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    Re: Opinions wanted on a recent transaction

    Quote Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril View Post
    I obviously don't know for sure but I do think you're being overly suspicious.

    Is it possible your inquiry and the paypal also had different email addresses?
    This was the first thing that had popped into my mind. I did go back and double check that my email linked to the site is the same as the one linked to my Paypal.

  16. #10
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    While the seller may seem suspicious, it is all speculation whether or not it is intentional. Things happen life and it may have been a very busy seller who got confused or not computer savy. You really don't have any proof either way and speculation is simply just that, and that means you are as right as you are wrong. What you can do going forward is to be more careful with your next purchase; not buy from this guy again; and/or buy your future animals in person.

    On a side note, I can confirm that this type of shady practice does happen on the dog/cat rescue business. While many are legit, some are not, they intentionally post pics of cute puppies and kittens or a particular rare breed or high demand breed that was, at one point, up for adoption. The animal is usually already long gone and adopted but they would leave it as available on the petfinder site and their website to lure in potential adopters. Or, they still have the animal but plans to keep it until they had collected enough donations for the animal's tragic story.
    Last edited by Cheesenugget; 08-03-2019 at 07:27 AM.

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