Mike @ Outback Reptiles

Mike, it's not the mistake. It's the refusal to take a hard look at the system that allowed the mistake to happen and the lack of communication.

As to Evyonne taking the day off, if you are told a snake is arriving on a particular day, you HAVE to be there for it. This is a live animal. She tried to reach you more than once and in light of no information there was no other responsible choice for her to make. By not communicating in a timely manner it went from an unfortunate inventory mistake to something a bit more serious.

Again, I don't think you are a bad guy. I understand humans aren't perfect.

I do believe some introspection into your inventory system and communication procedures is in order. You could have saved her wait for a snake that never came by answering her inquiries in a timely manner. That's more than just a mistake.

You're right, if I hadn't made a mistake then this issue wouldn't have happened. I'm glad we came to the same conclusion again, let's move on...

I'm just wondering what the heck this has to do with Lucille? Mike, you can send me a free pizza.

Originally Posted by Bobby Douglass

I'm just wondering what the heck this has to do with Lucille? Mike, you can send me a free pizza.

Only that Lucille and I are friends, and I asked her thoughts on the matter. Which is why I included her response to my questions in the emails, both to Mike and to the post here. Simply for sake of transparency.
~Beau

What makes the offer of restitution so bad is also what makes the opportunity to resolve so great, and that is the very low $ amount involved. It makes no difference if the buyer was purchasing a $10 item or a $10K item, the frustration and aggravation of not knowing if item has shipped or not, and the time wasted, are the same. The small $ amount though is what makes the 10% discount just adding insult to injury. Unless the buyer was going to spend $2K in the near future and reap the benefit of a $200 saving then it hardly seems worth the aggravation. At the same time though. if I were the seller and thought that i could recover from a very bad situation by simply offering to replace the item, at my cost, including shipping, i would have done so in a heartbeat. I would have been extremely grateful if i were able to rectify the situation and satisfy the customer for what would probably amount to a loss of only $80 -$90, all of which could be written of as a business expense. I think that there was a golden opportunity missed by the seller.

I appreciate the OP posting this, because as we often say here, it's what people do when things don't go right that is crucial. Mike, I think you made an honest mistake, you refunded the money and did what you could to fix it. That part is good.

HOWEVER, you are coming across (to me anyway) as being a jerk about it now. Your attitude is flippant and the "I'm eating the pizza" pic is obnoxious. Your attitude is does seem rather "aw shucks, well too bad" and you don't seem to really care that much. I wonder if you purchased something, had your money accepted by the seller, had a shipping date, took a day off work, waited around all day fruitlessly, and the seller's attitude was "oops", would you be so casual about it? Yes, I can see that you did what you could to fix it and you're frustrated that your customer is still upset. But you are the one who screwed it up so maybe a little more compassion would be in order.

I don't think you're a "bad guy" but based on how you're acting now, I wouldn't order from you.

I think you guys went too hard on Mike. He made a simple mistake, forgot, and he apologized, and tried to make it right. This rhetoric about CORRECTING this system so it DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN is asinine, and unrealistic. It reeks of 'I can't believe this happened and it should have never happened and I can't believe it happened to begin with' attitude.

Take this simple advice OP: don't order from someone BEFORE they do a show and expect shipping the Monday AFTER. Shows are exhausting, and good business, and most vendors are highly motivated to sell AT the respective shows, in-person. Whatever's left is what you get. Priority is on the show.

Originally Posted by spawn

Take this simple advice OP: don't order from someone BEFORE they do a show and expect shipping the Monday AFTER. Shows are exhausting, and good business, and most vendors are highly motivated to sell AT the respective shows, in-person. Whatever's left is what you get. Priority is on the show.

Apparently, the OP didn't dictate when shipping would take place. He was given a date, and eagerly awaited the arrival. With that in mind, it's asinine to say that someone shouldn't expect a seller to live up to the terms that they set. Outback's employees had all of that Monday to notice that the snake had been double-sold and notify someone that their animal wouldn't be coming, yet the situation just "slipped" Mike's mind. All of the shortcomings are on the seller's side of the fence; there's literally no way to turn this one around on the OP.

Originally Posted by spawn

This rhetoric about CORRECTING this system so it DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN is asinine, and unrealistic. It reeks of 'I can't believe this happened and it should have never happened and I can't believe it happened to begin with' attitude.

That, I believe, would be Lucille's influence.

My 2 cents. I'll start by saying that I am biased: I've completed many transactions with Mike flawlessly, and I'm thrilled with the snakes I got from him.

That being said: I absolutely never take a day off work if I don't have a tracking number in hand, and I have NEVER gotten a tracking number "the day of arrival." I've always gotten mine the day they were shipped, so if it was past noon and I hadn't heard back, I would have asked for the animal to not be shipped until further contact and went to work as normal. Just how I would handle things, because I've always had sellers confirm with me (multiple times) the ship time/date, including them initiating the contact the day of shipping to confirm that it's still a good day to ship to me. Maybe I'm just lucky? (FYI, Mike has always done this with me as well.)

If you have to take time off work to receive animals to your house, maybe shipping to the local hub would be a good solution to prevent this problem in the future?

I think asking Mike to find you a similar animal from another seller is probably a little bit of a tall order. I don't know about you, but while I like and respect Mike, I would never expect or want him to try and find me a snake based on loose specifications of what I'm looking for as I am 100% sure he would not be able to find the exact one I wanted. Only I can determine that.

He refunded and admitted he made a mistake. He went on to offer a discount to you if you wanted something else. That, to me, is indicative of trying to make it right. Your time doesn't have a dollar amount, and I am sorry that it was wasted.