Shipping misunderstanding

As a seller
I am responsible for the insurance.
If there is a change in shipping price....I need to inform the seller....unless I am footing the bill.

As a Buyer
I am not responsible for insurance.  I did not pay for it.  I did not elect it.  Live arrival better be guaranteed to me Period.
If there is a change in prices.  I better be informed before people ship....unless they want to foot the bill.



I am both a buyer and a seller.
What I have printed above is what I as a seller and a buyer expect from people I deal with.

i recently delt with daniel a. i bought a really nice female ball python from him. ( this thing is huge 2000+ gr) he was very helpful from start to finish and also sent a few follow up emails. i cant see him as someone who would try to cheat or get over on anyone. i think the seller should pay anything over the agreed price. i recently had a deal go bad.
i payed for a snake using paypal. i found it on kingsnake.com
the person who lives in texas (lets call them austin)
the snake they had for 1 1/2 years died a day before they were going to ship. sounds fishy huh?!??!?!
thers seems to be more and more scamers getting into dealing reptiles.
andy j.
delgex.com
delgex@yahoo.com

Joe,

You are absolutely right, and it will happen when I have all the facts with me. I'm gone until Friday on a work related trip. In the meantime I expect the check from the airline to arrive and make sure it is for $77.5 as they said it would be.

Today I received an e-mail where he recognized that in the rush he did not check how much he was being charged for insurance. In fact he signed the bill before it was even printed out. I checked with Northwest and the shipping was $75 plus miscelaneous charges (fuel, security, taxes, etc.) and on top of that $3.5 per 100. The price of the snake was $1,000 thus the $35 for insurance. Pretty expensive but that's what Northwest charges for perishable items.

He offered that if I wanted I could send back the snake, and that he would take care of paying every penny back, including the $122 for the shipping, even for the gas to the trip to the airport. Now that's what I call excellent customer service!

But there is a catch. I never said I did not like the snake and I told him so (as well as I did in this forum). So here are the two options I was offered today:

1. Return the snake and get all my money back in full, or

2. Keep the snake and pay the $52.34 out of my pocket.

My answer was that I wanted to keep the snake...

As I said before we will both loose at the end. But I will loose only $52.34... &nbsp;<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

Daniel,

&nbsp;I hope it does all work out for you and if it doesnt, I hope the name and full details of the transaction be made public.

The one thing that I just cant quite understand is why would he make that offer ?? He is willing to refund FULLY, even your gas, but yet wants the snake back. You had NO complaints about the snake, shipping, etc. Just the overcharge. He even admits it was his error ? But, yet states that if you chose to keep the snake, then you have to eat HIS mistake ? He will be eating the $52, PLUS shipping to get it back, PLUS your gas AND not including his gas and time. He wont refund $52, but yet will pay that and ALOT more to get it back ?? &nbsp;Does this make any sense to anyone <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>

The only thing that I can come up with from those two options is that: 1) He has another buyer who wanted the snake and is willing to pay more for it, if he gets it back. 2) Decided he need it for himself for breeding purposes or 3) Knowing that your happy with the snake and that you dont want the hassle of shipping it back, that you'll just eat the $52 dollars. At least this way he covered his base by offering the full refund. Those offers dont make him a great guy in my book. It only adds more questions, then answers. But again, Im not reading or hearing his side (No offense Daniel).

His offer just makes no sense to me. Again, only basing everything that has been written. He owes you $52. Plan and simple.

Joe Dembinski

BTW, Ken. Get your airforce butt down to Columbus !! I believe I owe you diner and drinks !!

Joe Dembinski

Daniel,

I buy and sell herps and lots of other things over the internet. When a seller quotes a price (including a shipping price or insurance price) then that is the price you pay - no more or less. Once the seller learned that the cost of shipping would be more than had been agreed upon (even if it was insurance cost alone that created the rise in price) then it was the RESPONSIBILITY of the seller to inform the buyer of such increase. Until such communication was made and the buyer agreed to pay more for shipping, the animal should have been held by the seller.

As far as insurance goes, when I ship something such as an animal and guarantee live arrival, the extra insurance costs if any always goes to the buyer. Now before some of you professional sellers out there say NO WAY let me explain. You too pass on the cost of insurance to the buyer. You do it in the price of herps that you sell. If you do not then you do not make much of a profit. I choose to tell people that if additional fees need to be paid for insurance then the cost is paid for directly by the buyer. It has been an acceptable policy to date. Sure most less expensive sales don't need it - but if I were selling a $2,000.00 snake - you can bet it would be shipped insured and you can bet I as a seller would not eat the cost but would have it figured in there somehow.

I sell other things such as books, knives, rifles, ammunition, and so forth. Virtually every seller on the web sites I sell through (including Ebay, Gunbroker.com and so on) requires the buyer to pay for all shipping costs including insurance. That is the way it is done. I understand that when you ship an item you are responsible for it getting there. Sure I know animals are guaranteed to arrive alive. There is however a but, of course there would be, and that is: but when you guarantee delivery do you do it for free or do you calculate it into the price of the item you are selling? If you have not already calculated the cost of insurance into your sales price when you make such a guarantee or do not pass exact insurance costs onto the buyer - well, my guess is that you would not remain in business too long because your profit margin would be too low.

Of course I must stress that the seller in this case apparently never said a thing about the buyer paying insurance and never said a thing about increased shipping costs so - the seller should in this case eat the extra cost in my opinion.

Well that is my dollar three eighty of not so wise wisdom for the day. Good luck.

Joe,

It's 5:10 am I'm leaving in 15 minutes and be back on Friday. Did not want to leave your question unanswered though.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">He will be eating the $52, PLUS shipping to get it back, PLUS your gas AND not including his gas and time. He wont refund $52, but yet will pay that and ALOT more to get it back ?? &nbsp;Does this make any sense to anyone &nbsp;
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This is my side of the story. But why do you think you haven't seen his yet? He has posted in here before and he is reading this thread. It was a mistake but doesn't want to be recognized as such. His thought is that I am in it for those $52.34. The only thing he views differently (and you will read soon what he wrote) is that the fact the airline quoted him $70 and he provided me that quote doesn't make him responsible. Now he is playing with the fact that I like the snake and I need it.

Got to go. Thanks

I for one would like to see the other side of the story.