First to pay or First to contact?

As a hobbyist I agree with a lot of what is being said for both cases

I would be (and have been) more then willing to hold animals for extended periods of time for people without any form of payment in certain situations

I think most hobby breeders would agree that in certain situations you make exceptions for some people.

But I would wonder what everyone would expect in one of the situations Harald pointed out...

What if you run a retail reptile store. What if you have sent a few emails back and forth with someone about an animal you have in the store. They have not yet told you they WILL for sure send you anything money wise, they do seem very interested and you have told them your paypal email, but they are just asking general questions about the snake.

You log offline, unable to go back for a few hours because your store got busy. Someone calls in to your store (or even walks in!) and says I want to buy that animal, I can give you my CC number right now.

What do you do....

Business or Hobby,CASH Talks
Tire kickers can just get all the butt hurt they need till they get over it.
Once a seller has responded to an intial inquiry its up to the purchaser to
pay up or move on.
No reason what so ever for 20 emails,4 Sale means "I want PAID!"

Entitlement is a disease in this country

Originally Posted by Metachrosis

Entitlement is a disease in this country

having been on both ends of the customer service world

I couldn't agree more

I think that cash comes first with retail stores and I don't think there's anything "wrong" with that either, it really does make sense. They're pretty much all business, most of their websites even just have automatic checkouts.

Originally Posted by Willow

What if you run a retail reptile store. What if you have sent a few emails back and forth with someone about an animal you have in the store. They have not yet told you they WILL for sure send you anything money wise, they do seem very interested and you have told them your paypal email, but they are just asking general questions about the snake.

You log offline, unable to go back for a few hours because your store got busy. Someone calls in to your store (or even walks in!) and says I want to buy that animal, I can give you my CC number right now.

What do you do....

*cheating* Personally I'd take two seconds to check my email/paypal account etc (It really doesn't take long and most stores have a computer right there on the counter. One store I know often has the cashier looking things up online for customers.) and if the money was there, I'd tell the customer "I'm very sorry, but it's already sold".
Otherwise if it's still not there, I'd sell it to the present customer and send an apology to the online buyer with an explanation quoting my ToS he should have already read. (Because if I actually was a store, you could bet I'd have a solid ToS.)

If I was to follow the rules of your scenario and really not be able to check my email for some reason, then I honestly would sell to the customer whose in my store. It really is too bad for the other guy, but I have a business to run... If I did need to refund the online buyer afterwards, I'd probably offer him something like store credit or a discount with an apology just to try and end things on a better note. Customer service is a big part of running a business and I'd want him to consider buying from me again. (I certainly wouldn't want him to go writing bad reviews everywhere)

Yeah isn't roleplaying fun? This is why I'm glad I don't have any big organization to run, I like having the liberty of being more flexible and I don't mind giving some folks the benefit of the doubt. Being a small scale hobbyist, I don't have as much riding on it. Lucky me I guess...?

First to pay gets it,doesn't matter if it's local or across the country.

If you held every herp that someone says they will buy when they get money you will have to buy more racks or cages every month for all the herps you are holding for people that will never buy them.

You will certainly tick some people off but you will be selling and shipping,not holding.

I produce so few animals that this generally isn't a concern of mine. I generally get a feeler email from a potential buyer that asks pertinent questions about the animal for sale. I answer the questions and give them the price of shipping. If they're still interested in purchasing the animal, we agree upon a payment date and I hold the animal until that date. I always email the day before to check. If any other buyers contact me during this time I tell them that the animal is on hold until that date.

I can see why this method would be really time consuming for anyone with a larger collection, but considering I very rarely just blindly send a seller money for an animal without first trying to get more information on it, I do get annoyed when the seller and I have a dialog going and they sell to someone else. If I contact a seller they generally have payment within an hour once they reply to me... I don't mess around.

Aaaah YES!! the old "PLUS SHIPPING" BS..!
Why cant folks just price an animal for sale and do the deal with out fluffing.
Nice round figures are to simple ? or is the entire simplicity of the concept
just to repulsive?

Walmart doesn't sell a bag of chips and charge you extra for the bag . . . . .

Originally Posted by Metachrosis

Aaaah YES!! the old "PLUS SHIPPING" BS..!
Why cant folks just price an animal for sale and do the deal with out fluffing.
Nice round figures are to simple ? or is the entire simplicity of the concept
just to repulsive?

Walmart doesn't sell a bag of chips and charge you extra for the bag . . . . .

Pricing can very GREATLY depending on locations, package sizes, and weights. I got shipping quotes from FedEx ranging anywhere from $35 to $90 last year, and that was just for small boxes containing geckos. That's a pretty big difference, and I can understand someone not wanting to eat $50 plus out of the cost of an animal just because a buyer may be on the West Coast vs the East Coast or vice versa. Shipping costs go up as weights go up- so if a buyer is getting multiple animals, that could easily double shipping costs as well.... So it's super hard to establish set "all inclusive" prices and not run the risk of losing your shorts, except perhaps on higher dollar animals, or for those big sellers that do enough volume that shippers give them a flat rate.

Most people generally only pass along what they're charged for shipping, occasionally adding in a few dollars for the cost of packaging materials. If you suspect someone is "fluffing" their quote, it's easy enough to look that up for yourself, all you need is their zip code.

And on the original subject- to me it all depends on communication.

As a seller, I may be willing to hold an animal based on a verbal committment, or I may require a deposit up front, depending on circumstances. However, how I communicate that to a buyer is the key IMO. If I accepted an offer and gave someone a verbal sale committment (said "OK, sold) then I'm not going to go back on that no matter how much money is waved in front of me.

As a buyer, I do not generally expect someone to hold an animal for me unless I put money down. However- if someone SAYS they're going to hold an animal for me, but then does not (outside extenuating circumstances), in my view that's someone who broke their word and I am very unlikely to ever do business with them again.