I hate to do this... filing a Paypal complaint

[swords]

Hey folks,
I made my final plant & animal order for this year (all aquatics) and thus far it appears my aquarium snails are MIA. They were supposed to be delivered Wednesday and now they are two days late and surely dead if I ever do get 'em at this point. The only record on the tracking is that they left Annaheim CA on Monday at 5 pm. The seller says he won't give me a refund even though I said he could minus the postage .

I know some of you know how to get a refund out of Paypal so, how do you go about that? I've ordered TONS of stuff over the years online and never had to file a complaint until now. Not a great first experience for me on Aquabid...

 

[elgecko]

Did you buy them off ebay?

 

[swords]

No Aquabid

 

[amphirion]

yeah, go to the transaction on your paypal site, then file a claim....then paypal makes you guys work it out. it is critical that you provide as much information about your dealings as possible. if the person in question does not answer, paypal defaults on you winning the claim, and force transactions the money back into your account.

 

[RSS]

If you haven't already, got to the paypal site and search for buyer protection. The short answer is...If you did not receive the item you will get your money back...it will take 1-3 months thou.

The seller really doesn't have a choice. Unless he can show that the item was delivered to you. Why I always use deliver conformation when selling items.

Paypal is very buyer friendly and a seller's nightmare.

 

[Copper]

True, My husband sold a camera to a man in Vietnam. As soon as the guy in Vietnam received the camera he stopped the transaction. My first question to my husband was "Did you use tracking?" He had not and that was that.

 

[swords]

There's delivery confirmation on my package but no record after leaving California sorting facility on Monday. I'm assuming the likely scenario is that whatever water filled container he was shipping them in (I've asked and he won't elaborate how they were packaged) broke open and soaked the box and it fell apart and that's that. He was a new seller but claimed he received fish and snails from Aquabid so I assumed he knew what he was doing.

 

[Copper]

Yeah, good guess. If a box shows any leaking fluid the stop the shipment. I have had that happen.

 

[swords]

Have you ordered aquatics by mail? Do they return it or just destroy it? Do they notify either party to let them know what happened to their package at least?

I was planning to do an "all mail" nano-reef next year buying tiny coral frags and crawly things online to put in it cos the shops don't have as nice of aquatic critters as ebay and aquabid but dead ones don't do anyone any good.

 

[swords]

Well unluckily for me they were delivered today... I must be psychic.

The bag was tied shut not sealed with a bag sealer- the way most aquatic plants arrive, so 99% of the water leaked out and soaked the box - hence they couldn't scan the tracking at all. Then there was no foam box liner or heat pack. The post office wrapped the soaked box in palate wrap so using a box cutter i sliced through the wrap getting an immediate whiff of dead seafood. The black snail was smashed to bits and I am quite sure the three golden apples are dead too but i put them in a tub of warm water anyway just to see. Their growth rims were smashed around the openings but they still have their operculums pulled closed so perhaps they still live? One has been exapnding and contracting ever so slowly but I'm not sure it's not just "death gas" escaping the shell.

Happy birthday to me...

---------- Post added at 11:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 AM ----------

eew yup death gasses

 

[lizasaur]

Oh man, that's rough. I'm so sorry to hear that. Good luck in getting replacements/moneyback!

 

[mabudon]

I am sorry Bro but your last post cracked me up, for some reason all I could do was picture it Metalocalypse style

That totally sucks, tho, but here's hoping that perhaps the "possibly alive" snail is in fact still... well I was gonna say "kicking" but pseudopods would make that hard to do... maybe still being a snail??

 

[swords]

:-( Nope, the last gasses proved it, here's a few non-glamorous shots:

The "puffer" has puffed out his last horrid smelling gasses and is detaching from the shell, no tentacle movement, dead gray eyes

The other ones have started leaked out now and will start to reek too, I double trash bagged the tub I put em in after the pics and took em outside to the dumpster they reek so friggin bad!

I've got sticks of Nag Champa incense burning all over the house!

They were the snails I've always wanted though 3"+ in height, if they were alive they would have been really awesome.

 

[lizasaur]

Gold Apple Snails, you say? I'm pretty sure the LFS carries them pretty cheap. I could probably get you a couple for postage.
I has good plastic lid container, and a bag sealer.

 

[spdskr]

I received some dead dwarf shrimp once and the smell was bad, but I can only imagine the smell of those large snails. Hopefully the seller will refund your money for the poor shipping techniques.

 

[RSS]

If the seller won't refund/reship very quick without any problems. Open a compaint with Paypal. That will get his attention, they take back the payment from his account and hold it Hope he has enough of a balance or it will "bounce" and cost him fees! I'd say you have a 99.99% chance of a full refund if Paypal decides the case.

 

[vraev]

****!! sorry to see that swords.

But those snails!! Damn!! Those were the toughest aquatic animals I ever had. I had some for 2+ years and damn!! they once laid eggs on the underside of the light fixture. They came at a size of a small marble and became the size of an egg by the end. THose are such voracious eaters. ATe up all my aquatic plants.

 

[swords]

Oh man, you guys couldn't imagine the vicious reek when I first unwrapped the soaked box. I can't believe the PO didn't just toss it and send a note. Poor Kevin (my mailman) had to drive around with it reeking up his truck this morning - at least I'm one of his first stops cos he knows my boxes often have plants or critters in them and he wants them alive and healthy for me. He just handed me this and shook his head and said "I dunno man..." I told him I figured as much since the package had vanished for a few days from when it should have been here.

The seller emailed and said he "packaged them properly" "but since the PO destroyed it" he would send me a refund minus the postage if I could send him pics of the dead snails. I don't have a pic of the black one cos it was smashed into goo. Told him I could fish the bag outta the dumpster and take the pic if he really wants it but I sent him the above two shots of the ones that were mostly intact.

Vraev yeah, I was gonna have them in an all rock & gravel tank with some neat tiny blue & red schooling gobies and feed them lots of veggie goodies and have a couple emergent branches with moss and epiphyte ferns and such where they could come up and lay eggs and eat bread soaked in beer and grow bigger and bigger. But maybe I'll find some next spring at a smaller size, perhaps they were just too big to ship safely? At least all in one bag where they can bang together.

 

[swords]

Got my refund for frozen escargots Woohoo!