Sellers Beware of John Franco!

SELLERS BEWARE OF JOHN FRANCO

On Feb. 2 John Franco contact me about buying a female Chahoua I had for sale. He asked a couple questions like where I was located, and inquiried about a couple leachies I also had for sale, but ended up settling on a 10mo 15g probable female Chahoua that was imported from Europe. He asked what the best price shipped I could give him and I told him $675. He asked a few more questions and offered $550 payment plan. I told him the absolute lowest I could do would be $650. He asked for my paypal and then sent a $150 deposit. There was a little hiccup with receiving payment but we got everything smoothed out.

On Friday (Feb. 5) he sent another payment of $150 leaving a balance of $350.

Then yesterday (Monday, Feb. 😎 he sent me a message asking if the Chahoua was definitely female. I told him I'm almost positive the Chahoua in question is female but since she's 10mo I can't guarantee anything. He said he needed a sexed female and asked that I refunded his deposit. I informed him that because of my Terms and Conditions specifically say Deposits are NON REFUNDABLE, I unfortunately cannot refund his deposit. I offered to give him credit towards another purchase but he declined it. We went back and forth and he threatened to File a Claim with PayPal. I told him I would have to post on Facebook and Fauna because that would be a clear violation of my T&C and I even showed him the original ads and where my Terms and Conditions are listed (which is about 6 different places on my Facebook Profile and 2 places on Fauna).
I even offered to refund $150 leaving the original $150 deposit but he continued to ignore what I was saying, accused me of stealing $400 from him ($145 + $150 doesn't =$400 FYI), and ended up filing a claim with PayPal. PayPal now has the money on hold and he is requesting that I refund the other $150. I included pictures of our whole convo and as well as my T&C (where you can clearly see it says deposits are NON REFUNDABLE).

*February 08

He has also been notified of this thread as well as my other Facebook post.

He could have asked if you were sure it was a female but you should have let him know that you didn't really know the sex instead of referring to it as a female in all of the messages. I'd refund and move on. The "my hands are tied" statement was kind of silly as if you didn't have a choice.

That conversation would have ended for me at (or more likely before) "625".

Also, whenever I am selling a probable [insert sex here], I make strong efforts to be explicit in repeating that the animal is only probable at that point and not definite nor guaranteed. TSM and TSF have this by implication for TSD species. I also tend to use the neutral it instead of him/her/he/she most of the time for those. Probable (and TSD) sexes carry an inherent risk as purchase options. In some cases, this results in a price adjustment. There are some people who want to lean hard on a probable [X] to "will" it into being a definite [X] through wishful thinking and then try to game sellers when fate plays out otherwise, but that is too bad. It was the risk accepted in the scenario. I have had plenty of unsexed , probable, and supposedly temp-sexed go in divergent directions compared to expectations. Part of the game with those from time to time.

Originally Posted by Bobby Douglass

He could have asked if you were sure it was a female but you should have let him know that you didn't really know the sex instead of referring to it as a female in all of the messages. I'd refund and move on. The "my hands are tied" statement was kind of silly as if you didn't have a choice.

I would, too, if I somehow tolerated that escalation of offers enough to accept payment in the first place. It is rare that I do.

Originally Posted by nickolasanastasiou

I would, too, if I somehow tolerated that escalation of offers enough to accept payment in the first place. It is rare that I do.

I would have been annoyed at that as well.

I would return the payments. You continually refer to the animal as a "she" or "her". You still have the lizard, so return the money. Whatever his/her reasons are for backing out, it is not worth the hard feelings. Sounds like purchaser may may buyer's remorse, but let it go.

He contacted me so that means he read the ad. The ad specifically stated no pores so poss female and I told him the gecko was 10 MO.

I understand that everybody makes mistakes, but that means that's quite a bit of time of my time that he wasted. My Terms are stated multiple places on both here and Facebook. Deposits are Non Refundable. I was even willing to refund the second $150 but then he filed a claim.