Should the sale be final or.......

Okay, here is the deal. I put a snake up for sale, someone replied to the ad, decided to buy the snake, paypal'd me, and then I got an email about three days after saying that he "changed" his mind, found a nicer snake elsewhere, and wanted a refund. What should I do? I feel that it is unfair to purchase an animal and then decide to "buy an animal they like better" somewhere else, but I would like to hear what everyone thinks I should do. Should the sale be final or should I give him a refund?
Thanks
Kevin

Normally we will just refund the money if nothing's shipped. This happens on such a rare basis that it's not worth the possible bad press to play hardball over. If you find that it happens more frequently for you then you might want to clearly spell it out in your terms. Also it was only 3 days so you shouldn't have incurred any extravagent (sp?) extra expenses holding it (other than just the wasted time on this customer).

I would say refund the money and then forget about him. If he calls back later, remember this incident and decline to do business with him. He probably would have screamed bloody murder if you had sold the snake to someone else within those three days because someone else offered you more money for it.

And it is this kind of person that leads some breeders/dealers to do just that sort of thing, and THEY wind up on the BOI as a bad guy because of it. What is good for the goose is good for the gander for labeling someone as a "bad guy". I have felt from day 1 that bad customers should be outed on the BOI as well as bad sellers.

In any event, it has been my experience that anyone who will cancel an order like that is just going to be a hassle one way or another in the future.

I'd have to agree with Daniel and Rich. It sucks but its not worth getting worked up over. Just remember the guy and if he contacts you again simply tell him you are not interested in doing business with him any more.

While I would like to see this type of behavior exposed on the BOI I don't know If I would be able to bring myself to name the guy either. Its a tough call.

Steve Schindler

you owe him nothing.........He went into this with his eyes wide open. Who knows what condition you would receive the snake back in , or if you even receive the snake that you sent. The monetary value of the animal is not the criteria for your terms when conducting business.

Unless your terms are that loosely framed that you open yourself up to these kinds of problems, it makes no difference if he contacts you in 3 days or 9 days, the problem will be the same. Needless to say, you ran into a no win situation because you did not spell out the limits to your sale. My position is very clear in these matters, the buyer has an obligation to do whatever research they can when making a purchase. You should not be the reciepiant of their misjudgements because of a price difference. JERRY TRESSER

Did this snake ever ship? I'd assumed that nothing had been shipped. If it had been shipped then Jerry's response would be reasonable.

I would say if you dont have something spelled out on your terms for a situation like this, refund and remember not to do biz with the guy again.
Then rework your terms. This website has made my terms a mile long, but I feel protected by them. We have a non-refundable deposit rule, so I would have refunded him the money minus the deposit
It wastes your time, other potential sales, and depending on how payment is made, you could lose some money.
Dana