Need opinions/thoughts on transaction issue

[nelson.jdautobody]

hey fellow reefers. so i wanted to run something by other forum members and see what they would do given the same experience i am having or if they have had this happen to them before and what they did. ok so here it is....i recently bought a coral from a well known vendor on here (i want to leave the name out so as not to slam anyone unneccessarily). it was a very high end piece and i paid $400 for it shipped (it was a supposed to be a 3 polyp frag of a certain acan that i like and have had my eye on recently, i will not name the acan here as it might tip to whom im speaking of). the picture of the mother colony of the acan provided in the thread looked totally awesome, of course. so we agreed to a price and i paid for it. the next day he texts me this message telling me he has "good and bad" news, well this immediately concerned me as i have been on other saltwater forums including this one and have seen some pretty negative feedback, but that said he has been around a good long while so i figure we are all prone to a dis-satisfied individual from time to time even when there was nothing to complain about some people just look for reasons to complain...we all know someone like that. so when i read the text i assumed he was going to tell me the acan was not looking good but he could sell me another one or something like that but that was not the case. he let me know that the good news was that the 3 polyp piece actually has 2 small babies formed as well, the bad news was...he wanted another $100 for the piece. obviously i became concerned and started remembering that negative feedback i had seen in the past and as much as i wanted to just say give me my money back and nevermind, i was worried i may not get the money back so i responded let me think about what i wanna do. and he responded back shortly after saying well his loss can just be my gain, but could i just give him another $50 instead. so i just paid the man so i could get my merchandise, take my lumps, and be done with this transaction. so the next day he ships out the coral and then texts me later that night with a reciept showing how much he paid for the shipping (he quoted me $50 for the shipping so that what i paid but it ended up being $80 and some change), so he wanted to let me know how much money he lost on this transaction and how cool he is being to me and how he would like me to fork out another $25 for the additional shipping costs. so my question to my fellow reefers is has this ever happened to any of you before? and how should i proceed? (oh and the 5 polpy piece i received of course looks absolutly nothing like the mother colony, at this point i couldnt even tell you the frag is from that colony but i believe it is since again, he has been on saltwater forums along time so im sure he sold me a legit piece, but basically they are 3 juvi polyps and 2 babies. $450 is waay to much to pay for anything less than mature adult polyps. lesson learned...i will verify in advance next time for future purchases that i am getting "mature" pieces. the piece is a thriving piece though so i dont want to be petty, the piece is what he said it was just not what i had hoped for given how awesome the mother colony looked i kinda figured a 5 polyp piece for $450 might somewhat resemble the awesome picture of the mother). but i digress. please leave names off of your feedback, this is not a thread intended to slam or hurt anyone or even identify someone as a bad vendor, just want some opinions since the guy keeps hitting me up for that extra $25 for shipping and im not quite sure how to respond. i thought if i just ignored him he would get the message and given how the transaction went he would just realize im not happy with being hit up for additional money TWICE in the same transaction, but at the same time i want to be fair and treat others as i would like to be treated.

 

[Clownman727]

I wish you would say who did this. That way nobody else will have to deal with them. When somebody agrees on a price and takes your money and then try to get more money after that is a crook and should not be selling on here. And on top of that not sending you the coral you paid for. Would tick me off to no end.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I think I know who you are talking about but back onto your issue.

1.) If you (buyer) and seller agree to a certain price shipped then that is ALL that should be required for payment. I am assuming you paid through PayPal. Next time if you feel the transaction taking a turn for the worse, just tell the seller you are no longer interested in the "new terms" as the price seems to increase in his favor. If he refuses to refund you the money, well Paypal will help you with that.

2.) Be careful of "greased" photos. I can tell you I have seen some corals in person that were online and left me laughing. Well named corals like ORA Joe the Coral and so on are always a safe bet. I have turned down many corals due to the coloration online, then in person being 180 degrees different.

3.) DO NOT give the $25 bucks. You already filled his/her pockets more with the extra money you gave.

Hope you have better luck next time and do not detour away from buying again (well not from that person). There are a lot of GREAT vendors on here.

 

[Reefrookie220]

He said 400, then milked it for an extra 50, now wants more? Sounds a little greedy to me...,if he's selling 400$ corals is 25 bucks even a loss?

Sorry about your bad experiences but I can vouch for a fee of the guys on here. Just remember to ask for more pics than the ones you see advertised, if they can provide fresh pics then that's a red flag for me.

 

[TheEngineer]

Definitely don't send any more money. Was this a WYSIWYG purchase or just off of the mother colony pic? If WYSIWYG, then that is it. Who cares if it tripled in size since the last picture. You bought it based on the picture provided at that price.

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

yea and the really crap part about it is that he sent me a picture to my phone via text the same night i paid him and i could clearly see in the picture that it had 2 small babies on the frag which is why i agreed to buy it for the $400 figuring i was getting a couple extras in there to offset the expensive per polyp price. thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[TheEngineer]

You should share who the vendor is. That's not someone people are going to want to deal with.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I think the way you worded your experience is a very fair way of describing what happened.

I also understand having your heart set on something and still want it so as not to get the money refunded, but still not be happy with what you purchased.

I think putting your experience up on the vender feedback would help other would be customers get a more complete picture of dealing with that vendor.

In retail I have found giving a customer a little more rather than nickel and diming them ends up with everybody being happier, and let's be honest, those baby heads didn't cost him any more.