Mike @ Outback Reptiles

While the OP was not forced to take a particular day, an agreement was made none the less. Both parties agreed to that day. The fact that the seller did not deliver on that day is not the OPs fault. It falls squarely on the seller. The buyer took a day off in the good faith that the seller would fulfill the agreement. The buyer also attempted to confirm. I disagree that this falls on the OP.

You are right about this being an employee and not the boss. That's a good point. It would have been simple for that employee to say he's bringing this unfortunate situation to the attention of the higher ups for evaluation.

And one more time, none of this constitutes a bad guy. I'm not saying that this seller or company deserve bad guy status, but I won't stand for "blame the victim" mentality. (To be clear, "victim" used here as an expression of speech, not literally in this sense.)

I'm not "blaming" her - not sure where you came up with that one. Though, if she had ever approached me with Lucille said... I sure wouldn't have offered her a pizza.

Originally Posted by hhmoore

I'm not "blaming" her - not sure where you came up with that one. Though, if she had ever approached me with Lucille said... I sure wouldn't have offered her a pizza.

From your previous post these are the words that I took as laying blame for taking a day off to receive the mutually agreed upon and paid for shipment:

"The OP was not forced to accept that particular day for shipping, so the crying about taking the day off falls on (in my case) unsympathetic ears."

I apologize for misunderstanding your intent if those words were not meant to blame (or at the least hold solely accountable) the OP for her dismay in taking a day off to receive the shipment. It is not always easy to get intent from written text.

Originally Posted by BeauBoi

This is a picture of my cell phone showing where I tried contacting Mike on the day I was supposedly waiting for delivery.

What day was this phone call log? Not to , but it would appear that you have this number "Cell: 703-895-0043" not saved as "Mike", but you text messaged a "Mike". Do you have his office number (which would appear to be a land line) saved as "Mike", for which you would be text messaging a land line (which wouldn't work).

Also why did you not call his cell Monday? 703-895-0043, prior to taking the day off.

Again, crappy situation for both. But I think Mike rectified the situation to the best of his ability. Unless he has a track record for this stuff, it would seem that this is mistake that only occurs in a small % of his transactions, to which he tried his best to rectify.

I could see how the pizza thing could rub some people the wrong way, but honestly, when I read that I was thinking to myself "who doesn't love pizza" lol. But to each his own.

Originally Posted by Michael Brown

What day was this phone call log? Not to , but it would appear that you have this number "Cell: 703-895-0043" not saved as "Mike", but you text messaged a "Mike". Do you have his office number (which would appear to be a land line) saved as "Mike", for which you would be text messaging a land line (which wouldn't work).

Also why did you not call his cell Monday? 703-895-0043, prior to taking the day off.

Again, crappy situation for both. But I think Mike rectified the situation to the best of his ability. Unless he has a track record for this stuff, it would seem that this is mistake that only occurs in a small % of his transactions, to which he tried his best to rectify.

I could see how the pizza thing could rub some people the wrong way, but honestly, when I read that I was thinking to myself "who doesn't love pizza" lol. But to each his own.

The phone number I had for Mike (listed as "Mike") is the one I initially called. While on the phone with him, I apologized for calling on a Saturday, and Mike told me that was ok because it was his sell phone and hew was "open all the time". So when I saved it to my phone, I just typed Mike's name into the cell phone info.

At that time, I didn't know that Mike even had a brick and mortar business. It wasn't until after trying to call and message about the tracking number, that even began to look for another number (and the other number isn't much advertised). I will admit, that I didn't occure to me look for alternate numbers on Mike's email siggy.

Irregardless, I called both phones and left messages. No one answered the phones or returned the calls. I emailed. No response. I texted. No timely response. All this after him telling me that he was "Always Open" (which it also says on his FaceBook page, under operating hours). I had NO way of knowing it was his day off.

All of which, seems redundant at this point, since he has admitted it he dropped the ball.

I am answering, because you specifically asked me, but really (for me) this is done.

I accepted Mike's apology and my refund.

As far as pizza goes, my family doesn't like it. I cook every meal we eat unless we are going out with other families to eat. More to the point, I found it mildly insulting -- He refused to actually talk to me, but he wants to buy me a pizza..? I don't get it. The later pic, of him eating pizza, was more than mildly insulting.

The ironic thing, to me at least, was that after I got off the phone with Mike, I turned to my husband and said, "What a nice guy." There isn't a written record, of course, but I thought we had a rather long (for business) and pleasant conversation. it was really disappointing to go through this whole, stressing thing, only to basically be told, "I messed up your order but here is your money back. If you shop here again, we will give you a tiny discount. Be grateful we are offering that."

If anyone asks me a question, I will try to answer it. Otherwise, I'm out of the conversation. I post BOIs on all my transactions, ever since I found Fauna. I am going to keep posting BOIs.

~Beau

Originally Posted by BeauBoi

The phone number I had for Mike (listed as "Mike") is the one I initially called. While on the phone with him, I apologized for calling on a Saturday, and Mike told me that was ok because it was his sell phone and hew was "open all the time". So when I saved it to my phone, I just typed Mike's name into the cell phone info.

At that time, I didn't know that Mike even had a brick and mortar business. It wasn't until after trying to call and message about the tracking number, that even began to look for another number (and the other number isn't much advertised). I will admit, that I didn't occure to me look for alternate numbers on Mike's email siggy.

Irregardless, I called both phones and left messages. No one answered the phones or returned the calls. I emailed. No response. I texted. No timely response. All this after him telling me that he was "Always Open" (which it also says on his FaceBook page, under operating hours). I had NO way of knowing it was his day off.

All of which, seems redundant at this point, since he has admitted it he dropped the ball.

I am answering, because you specifically asked me, but really (for me) this is done.

I accepted Mike's apology and my refund.

As far as pizza goes, my family doesn't like it. I cook every meal we eat unless we are going out with other families to eat. More to the point, I found it mildly insulting -- He refused to actually talk to me, but he wants to buy me a pizza..? I don't get it. The later pic, of him eating pizza, was more than mildly insulting.

The ironic thing, to me at least, was that after I got off the phone with Mike, I turned to my husband and said, "What a nice guy." There isn't a written record, of course, but I thought we had a rather long (for business) and pleasant conversation. it was really disappointing to go through this whole, stressing thing, only to basically be told, "I messed up your order but here is your money back. If you shop here again, we will give you a tiny discount. Be grateful we are offering that."

If anyone asks me a question, I will try to answer it. Otherwise, I'm out of the conversation. I post BOIs on all my transactions, ever since I found Fauna. I am going to keep posting BOIs.

~Beau

Thank you for the clarification. I apologize for the redundancy

* For got to add:
I think both phone numbers are cell phones. Can't know for sure, but the automated (generic) message sounded alike on both of them. Something along the lines of, "The party you are trying to reach isn't available at this time..."

~Beau

Just my thoughts here
Mistakes happen as we are all human and thats what happened here, unfortunate yes but I think a genuine mistake
However it could certainly have been handled much better and Mikes replies so far have just come off as very condesending and unprofessional.
As far as having a tracking number to GUARANTEE that the snake was being delivered also is open to discussion, this year alone I have had 2 snakes delivered that I did not get tracking info for and relied on the sellers word for delivery which they both were.
So in absence of hearing ANYTHING different from the seller it was quite reasonable for the op to rely on the info given to her and expect delivery on Tuesday, I would have been waiting for the fedex van the same!
Also I have received and sent quite a few snakes in this heat and had no issues, yes shipping to a fedex hold facility could be better but as long as you are present to collect the animal as soon as fedex deliver should be fine.

Outback could and should have handled this a little better but the op did get her money back very promptly which is more than some can say.....

Mike apologized, he made a mistake and admitted it.

OP made a mistake too, honest as it may have been, by missing work with the hope that even though there was no tracking information provided. Had the OP not missed work, would this be as large of a deal? Probably not. So while Mike dropped the ball (as we all do), he rectified it immediately. Missing work was not Mike's issue but the OP's.

For future reference. If you have a fedex account you can log in and check the tracking attached to your address. Anytime a label is generated to and from that address you have listed, you will get tracking information automatically. You can use this to validate shipping claims or just better monitor schedules based on shipping promises. It's a great tool to save these instances from happening as much.

[quote=hhmoore;1929520]Like many in this thread, you are addressing this as if it is Mike's system and Mike's problem. Mike does not own Outback Reptiles - he's an employee.

Really? That would certainly make a big difference in my opinion for sure, but on MorphMarket.com he is listed as the owner. Is that not accurate?