BallBids.com?

Originally Posted by JudyC

I honestly don't believe it was intentionally misleading. I think they just ripped the TOS off of some other penny-bid site and didn't bother reading it or adjusting to to their very unique situation of dealing with live animals.

It's just another example of very poor business savvy, at the very least.

The fact that they would simply plagiarize someone else's TOS...the fact that they don't bother reading it to see if it even makes sense...the fact that they can't be bothered to adjust it to meet their very specific and peculiar needs....each says a lot about the skill and capabilities of those trying to get this business off the ground.

Well put, Judy.

So let's say you go through $100 in bids and finally win a male butter for $6.72. If it dies in transit they refund your $6.72 and keep the $672 in bid money, including your $100 in bids. They could make over $600 on a dead snake.

Originally Posted by garweft

So let's say you go through $100 in bids and finally win a male butter for $6.72. If it dies in transit they refund your $6.72 and keep the $672 in bid money, including your $100 in bids. They could make over $600 on a dead snake.

That's the just of it

Originally Posted by garweft

So let's say you go through $100 in bids and finally win a male butter for $6.72. If it dies in transit they refund your $6.72 and keep the $672 in bid money, including your $100 in bids. They could make over $600 on a dead snake.

you won't even get the $6.72 back

FWIW...this was added to their "Terms and Conditions"...

Update 12-7-2011: As requested, these Terms and Conditions now include the following provisions:

1. Shipping is always free, including return shipping on live animals, not including the cost of heat/cold packs. All other materials should be maintained from the original shipment.

Unfortunately, under the "Returns" section, it still says this:

Certain items, such as live animals are not eligible for return once they have been shipped.

Originally Posted by SPJ

you won't even get the $6.72 back

But you can see what I mean. A guarantee doesn't cover what your actually paying for.

Hi everyone!

Please allow me to copy-paste my previous response from Ball-pythons.net.

"I'm sorry for taking so long to respond to your posts! I'm sure you can imagine how backed up we've been with today's fiasco!

Anyway, I read through all of your threads, and I'd like to go through a few major topics that I see being mentioned over and over again:

1) Quarantine: I confused the previous question about quarantine with general housing. For that, I apologize. The truth is that we don't have a proper quarantine set up, but it hasn't been an issue until this point because all of our snakes have been with us for about a month now, none of which are showing signs of health problems. However, we will have a proper quarantine set up in no time. As I mentioned earlier, we have the necessary supplies to build several more hatchling racks, which we will separate from our primary snake room and use as a quarantine.

2) Warranty, Live Delivery, Health, and Genetic guarantees: Our terms and conditions make several references to items that we "intend" to include in the future, such as tanks, heat pads, thermostats, etc., which is why you see items being referred to as "it". in general, the terms and conditions are only meant to provide us with legal protection, but I'm prepared to make necessary changes as you all see fit.

I'll begin by making necessary provisions that guarantee free return shipping and the exchange of live animals, in the case that you are unhappy with the snake you receive, live delivery, good health, and published genetics. Please, let me know if I missed anything.

3) Our backgrounds: It's true that I've only been involved, hands-on, with this trade for several weeks, but I'm primarily the tech/web guy, so, although it remains important, it's not AS important as it would be if I was a dedicated breeder. I depend on Zack's knowledge and experience, and although he may not be the most experienced breeder or snake handler around, he certainly knows enough to get us where we need to be and to keep our snakes in good health.

Also, we're both from South Florida, but we now live in Louisville, Kentucky. Zack's been up here for about 3 years, and I just recently moved up a little more than 2 weeks ago. And no, the website wasn't thrown together in 2 weeks time. It was built and modified multiple times over the last 6 months. It was only because of our impending launch date that I finally moved up to KY. Is there anything I'm leaving out?

4) Banner advertising: It's become very obvious that our banner ads need to be modified so that there is no confusion as to whether or not we have already auctioned off several snakes. As of now, all of our display ads on google have been paused, and I'll be crafting some new ones shortly, none of which will imply that any auctions have been "sold".

5) Multiple account registrations: This is actually my fault, as I told Zack to register a new account under the name zackBallBids, that way it was clear who and what he represented in his responses. I wasn't aware of his multiple account registrations, but that doesn't excuse him from the fact that he did what he did. The new account has been banned, which is a reasonable penalty. This will not happen again.

6) Constrictors Unlimited: Mike Wilbanks is not affiliated with us, and naming him as our "supplier" could have made him look bad, something I did not expect. Instead, I should have only mentioned that we purchased our snakes from him, and that's all. i apologize for creating any confusion, and I intend to post disclaimers on all of our live animal auctions from here on out.

7) Server crash: I've been doing a whole lot of advertising over the last two days, but I had no clue how far my efforts would reach. On day 1 we had about 2500 visitors. Today, on day 2, our dedicated server was completely overwhelmed, even after we made modifications. It became obvious that the server wouldn't survive the last few minutes of the auctions, so I tried to extend them by 1 hour to give us time to work things out. Being in such a chaotic atmosphere, I accidentally added an extra day to each auction, instead of an hour. Because of the server load time, it took me a while just to go back and modify the auction end time again so that it reflected the extra hour instead of the extra day. This is why you see users mentioning one or the other, or both.

I've been catching up with emails and live support requests since all of that happened, so I apologize again for taking so long to respond to this thread. And please, let me know if there is anything I left out.

-Avi =)"

Are you refunding any of the people who may have purchased your bids?

Hi guys!

Just a quick update: Our terms have been updated as I mentioned.

http://www.ballbids.com/page/terms-conditions

Please check them out and let me know if I left anything out.

Thanks! -Avi =)

Originally Posted by redhood23

Are you refunding any of the people who may have purchased your bids?

Hi redhood23!

We haven't had any refund requests as of yet, but if that were the case then the answer would most certainly be yes. I made sure that the 5 free bids that were given upon registering were also credited back.

-Avi =)