I have been in the hobby since 1995, and have sold and bought hundreds if not thousands of times. I 100% try to work things out when engaged in a transaction and believe 99.999% of the people are good and try to do the right thing. However, with this transaction, I felt it was my duty to warn others, as this buyer has no sense of doing the right thing.
All the facts presented below can be backed up by text message exchange with buyer. I have not posted any of them here publicly yet
Summary
1. Buyer nisimnick contacted on me 3/19 to buy several colonies of jawdroppers and insanities. I say I don't sell colonies are they are hard to ship - but he insisted that's what he wanted, so I said possibly, but I do not offer DOA on colonies.
2. Buyer indicated he didn't have a tank set up yet, will be set up in April, and asked me to hold specimens (which initially was supposed to be 4-6 weeks and he was planning to take delivery of specimens and leave at his friends house)
3. I flew the specimens to him personally on 6/17, to minimize risk and flight time, and to maximize the environment stability
4. He had a few corals in the tank when I arrived and asked me to put his purchases in his tank for him. The did okay good with polyp extension in the 30-45 minutes I was there to observe.
5. A few days later, he tells me 2 of the pieces had died, to which I said I would help him out, that despite not offering any DOA guarantees, I will give him some frags once his tank is better.
6. He complained some more and wanted a full refund. His response was uncooperative when I was calculating how much refund would represent the 2 pieces that had died. He had wanted a full refund, and not pay for the flight as discussed.
7. I sent him partial refunds for the 2 pieces that died. A few weeks pass by, I don't hear from him, and now I have disputes on Paypal for all his payments.
For those who wants more details, please see below
I will present the situation in bullet points below. I have a ton of text message screenshots, but for the privacy of the individual, I will refrain from posting. If there is a need to ascertain the accuracy of my claims, I am happy to share the screenshots privately.
1. 3/19 initial contact with buyer (nisimnick), to provide what frags were available. I present numerous frags for sale, but buyer was wanting to buy colonies. I discussed my personal experience with shipping and receiving colonies and as such do not want to sell colonies. Buyer insisted on wanting colonies so I told buyer that for colonies, I can sell it, but I offer no DOAs as I have had bad experience shipping them, and again encouraged buyer to buy frags and allow the frags to grow out.
2. After several back and forth, buyer indicated a way to mitigate the risk of shipping and reducing shipping time would be for him to pay for a flight for me to fly from Los Angeles to Miami and deliver the corals personally. Normally I would consider this to be a non-starter, but buyer was looking to buy multiple pieces with total value of $8,000.
3. Once the piece selection was done, I indicate that I could ship them one at a time to mitigate the risk of a shipping mistake and it wouldn't all die at once. It was at this point that he indicated he needed me to hold the corals for 4-6 weeks, which is not extremely unusual as I do hold corals for buyers for several weeks while healing.
4. 3/22 I asked buyer if he needed to wait because he was having issues with his tank not being ready. He then indicated that he was just ordering a tank, and on 4/20 it would be set up. Having kept SPS, this was definitely a warning sign. I must admit that at this point, I should have realized that this was not a customer I should sell to. But wanting to make the sale, and feeling like everyone should have the right to decide what they wanted to do, I continued on. I did emphasize to him that I can hold the coral for as long as necessary, that he should wait for his tank to have had successful SPS before we ship/fly anything over. I spent over 100 messages consulting with him on how to speed up the cycling of his tank.
5. He had ordered specimens from other sellers as well, and those sellers were wanting to ship the corals to him ASAP, so we engaged on the possibility of me holding his corals - I considered for a while, but decided against it as I did not want the responsibility of anything happening to them.
6. This is when he did indicate that he understood there was a possibility that the corals may die "If all these corals die, I'm screwed" "I'm happy you're able to help me hold". I also at this time offered to ship him free corals to test his tank to ensure they survived. (3/22 still)
7. We again discuss logistics of getting the corals to him. We talk about flying the corals to him again, and he wanted me to bring them "all in one shot" to which I responded by saying, I would not recommend it, what if your tank is not ready. Then he responds by saying that he was going to leave it in his friends tank for 2 months. 3/25
8. At point he paid the 8k for the initial first few pieces we talked about. Over many messages I had shown him a couple of other pieces he wanted, and that added another 6k to the order. Fast forward a week, I ask if he can pay for the rest of the order, I didn't mind holding it, but without payment I didn't want to hold for the multiple weeks or months that it will take to deliver. 3/31
9. Over the next few weeks, less frequent contact as his tank was getting set up. I believe it was set up in late April. He laments to me how numerous seller are pressuring him to receive his purchases, and so I offered to continue to hold the corals until his tank was ready. Again 100+ messages of free consulting advice as his tank was cycling.
10. Finally early June, he has a a few small 3/4" frags in the tank that are stable, so we agree 6/17 I would fly the pieces over. I booked the flight and he would reimburse me later, along with the 6k he still owes me. 6/6
11. I again suggest only bringing some of the pieces to ensure his tank is good. He said no, "I'll just take everything. One shot. That's how I am. If they die I'll just quit the hobby and come back later when the tank is mature"
12. By now all the pieces have grown a decent amount. I purchase 32 ounce plastic containers with lids that allowed me to include maximum water and so the coral does not move during transit. I had a 6AM flight so I packed all the corals around 3AM and headed to the airport. 6/17
13. I arrive at buyer's condo, he has no supplies, no salt water, no coral clipper, and he insisted on me helping him mount the corals. In my tank, these corals are placed under extremely high par, (4-8inches below the surface under combination of halides and Radions). I got them all mounted, I actually saw pretty good polyp extension in the 30mins I was there to observe the corals. Then I headed back to the airport to head home. 6/17
14. A few days later, buy contacts me to let me know some of the pieces were not doing well. I felt bad as this person did spend a ton of money, so I told him that when all the other pieces are stable, I would send him some large frags to replace the Insanity that had perished.
15. A week later, buyer msgs me, impatience for the replacements, and threated to file disputes with his credit card company and paypal. I am thinking a) if I send corals now, they will just die again. b) how can this person be some ungrateful and lack the ability to understand the extent to which I went above and beyond to make this transaction work. I did call him quite angry over this, which I probably shouldn't have done.
16. I eventually decided to partially refund him for the pieces that died, even though I was very clear to him that I would not offer any kind of DOA guarantees for pieces this large.
17. Then I saw that Paypal had a dispute from buyers credit card for the charges.
I have done many many transactions and I do not plan to allow this one bad incident make me jaded. Thanks for your time in reading this.
Attached photos
First set is the insanity when he agreed to purchase it on 3/22, and how much it had grown when we were finalizing delivery in june.
The second set is a jawdropper in my tank, and the JD in his tank when I delivered it.
All the facts presented below can be backed up by text message exchange with buyer. I have not posted any of them here publicly yet
Summary
1. Buyer nisimnick contacted on me 3/19 to buy several colonies of jawdroppers and insanities. I say I don't sell colonies are they are hard to ship - but he insisted that's what he wanted, so I said possibly, but I do not offer DOA on colonies.
2. Buyer indicated he didn't have a tank set up yet, will be set up in April, and asked me to hold specimens (which initially was supposed to be 4-6 weeks and he was planning to take delivery of specimens and leave at his friends house)
3. I flew the specimens to him personally on 6/17, to minimize risk and flight time, and to maximize the environment stability
4. He had a few corals in the tank when I arrived and asked me to put his purchases in his tank for him. The did okay good with polyp extension in the 30-45 minutes I was there to observe.
5. A few days later, he tells me 2 of the pieces had died, to which I said I would help him out, that despite not offering any DOA guarantees, I will give him some frags once his tank is better.
6. He complained some more and wanted a full refund. His response was uncooperative when I was calculating how much refund would represent the 2 pieces that had died. He had wanted a full refund, and not pay for the flight as discussed.
7. I sent him partial refunds for the 2 pieces that died. A few weeks pass by, I don't hear from him, and now I have disputes on Paypal for all his payments.
For those who wants more details, please see below
I will present the situation in bullet points below. I have a ton of text message screenshots, but for the privacy of the individual, I will refrain from posting. If there is a need to ascertain the accuracy of my claims, I am happy to share the screenshots privately.
1. 3/19 initial contact with buyer (nisimnick), to provide what frags were available. I present numerous frags for sale, but buyer was wanting to buy colonies. I discussed my personal experience with shipping and receiving colonies and as such do not want to sell colonies. Buyer insisted on wanting colonies so I told buyer that for colonies, I can sell it, but I offer no DOAs as I have had bad experience shipping them, and again encouraged buyer to buy frags and allow the frags to grow out.
2. After several back and forth, buyer indicated a way to mitigate the risk of shipping and reducing shipping time would be for him to pay for a flight for me to fly from Los Angeles to Miami and deliver the corals personally. Normally I would consider this to be a non-starter, but buyer was looking to buy multiple pieces with total value of $8,000.
3. Once the piece selection was done, I indicate that I could ship them one at a time to mitigate the risk of a shipping mistake and it wouldn't all die at once. It was at this point that he indicated he needed me to hold the corals for 4-6 weeks, which is not extremely unusual as I do hold corals for buyers for several weeks while healing.
4. 3/22 I asked buyer if he needed to wait because he was having issues with his tank not being ready. He then indicated that he was just ordering a tank, and on 4/20 it would be set up. Having kept SPS, this was definitely a warning sign. I must admit that at this point, I should have realized that this was not a customer I should sell to. But wanting to make the sale, and feeling like everyone should have the right to decide what they wanted to do, I continued on. I did emphasize to him that I can hold the coral for as long as necessary, that he should wait for his tank to have had successful SPS before we ship/fly anything over. I spent over 100 messages consulting with him on how to speed up the cycling of his tank.
5. He had ordered specimens from other sellers as well, and those sellers were wanting to ship the corals to him ASAP, so we engaged on the possibility of me holding his corals - I considered for a while, but decided against it as I did not want the responsibility of anything happening to them.
6. This is when he did indicate that he understood there was a possibility that the corals may die "If all these corals die, I'm screwed" "I'm happy you're able to help me hold". I also at this time offered to ship him free corals to test his tank to ensure they survived. (3/22 still)
7. We again discuss logistics of getting the corals to him. We talk about flying the corals to him again, and he wanted me to bring them "all in one shot" to which I responded by saying, I would not recommend it, what if your tank is not ready. Then he responds by saying that he was going to leave it in his friends tank for 2 months. 3/25
8. At point he paid the 8k for the initial first few pieces we talked about. Over many messages I had shown him a couple of other pieces he wanted, and that added another 6k to the order. Fast forward a week, I ask if he can pay for the rest of the order, I didn't mind holding it, but without payment I didn't want to hold for the multiple weeks or months that it will take to deliver. 3/31
9. Over the next few weeks, less frequent contact as his tank was getting set up. I believe it was set up in late April. He laments to me how numerous seller are pressuring him to receive his purchases, and so I offered to continue to hold the corals until his tank was ready. Again 100+ messages of free consulting advice as his tank was cycling.
10. Finally early June, he has a a few small 3/4" frags in the tank that are stable, so we agree 6/17 I would fly the pieces over. I booked the flight and he would reimburse me later, along with the 6k he still owes me. 6/6
11. I again suggest only bringing some of the pieces to ensure his tank is good. He said no, "I'll just take everything. One shot. That's how I am. If they die I'll just quit the hobby and come back later when the tank is mature"
12. By now all the pieces have grown a decent amount. I purchase 32 ounce plastic containers with lids that allowed me to include maximum water and so the coral does not move during transit. I had a 6AM flight so I packed all the corals around 3AM and headed to the airport. 6/17
13. I arrive at buyer's condo, he has no supplies, no salt water, no coral clipper, and he insisted on me helping him mount the corals. In my tank, these corals are placed under extremely high par, (4-8inches below the surface under combination of halides and Radions). I got them all mounted, I actually saw pretty good polyp extension in the 30mins I was there to observe the corals. Then I headed back to the airport to head home. 6/17
14. A few days later, buy contacts me to let me know some of the pieces were not doing well. I felt bad as this person did spend a ton of money, so I told him that when all the other pieces are stable, I would send him some large frags to replace the Insanity that had perished.
15. A week later, buyer msgs me, impatience for the replacements, and threated to file disputes with his credit card company and paypal. I am thinking a) if I send corals now, they will just die again. b) how can this person be some ungrateful and lack the ability to understand the extent to which I went above and beyond to make this transaction work. I did call him quite angry over this, which I probably shouldn't have done.
16. I eventually decided to partially refund him for the pieces that died, even though I was very clear to him that I would not offer any kind of DOA guarantees for pieces this large.
17. Then I saw that Paypal had a dispute from buyers credit card for the charges.
I have done many many transactions and I do not plan to allow this one bad incident make me jaded. Thanks for your time in reading this.
Attached photos
First set is the insanity when he agreed to purchase it on 3/22, and how much it had grown when we were finalizing delivery in june.
The second set is a jawdropper in my tank, and the JD in his tank when I delivered it.
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