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Bad Guy Casey Smith. Buyer Backs Out, what do you guys think?

Seems like too many excuses to me, hours being cut at work, car payment his wife in hospital. I would keep it, or maybe tell him you'll put it towards another animal. Had he got a hold of you sooner being lenient would be reasonable but he held off the decision.
 
If it were me, I'd probably refund the $60 and write it off.

By your stated TOS on your website, you do not have to refund the deposit. Did he buy through the website?

By the emails/texts you posted, you did NOT state nonrefundable, therefor you should refund.

By the agreed terms, he did not pay his payments on time, while you did your part by holding the animals.

Either way you go, there's argument for refunding and arguments for not refunding. I agree with the "give me proof of the hospital stay" and refund the $60. But personally, like my first statement, $60 isn't worth the fuss and bother, and I'd just send it back and put him on my "Do not sell" list for the future. Things do come up in life, but once you pay a deposit, you usually do not think you can just get it back when you change your mind about buying the product.
 
Ahh, we posted at the same time!! He bought from the website with your TOS stating nonrefundable.

ALso, in the future, instead of a "bad guy" listing, you could use the discussion area instead of the BOI if you just wanted to ask opinions.
 
Ive ran into this a few times. I give my customer one final warning "if I dont receive payment of "this" much by "this" time, I will be putting your reserved animals back up for sale and you will receive credit of what you have paid towards any animal I have for sale at any time except for reserved or sold animals obviously. I also let them know WHY this is happening.. I give the customer the exact date their last payment was due and how long I have "let it slide" because in most cases I do not take this action unless the customer misses payment by about a month. IMO this is the most professional way to handle these situations. Hope this help!
 
Royality Ball Pythons said:
Ive ran into this a few times. I give my customer one final warning "if I dont receive payment of "this" much by "this" time, I will be putting your reserved animals back up for sale and you will receive credit of what you have paid towards any animal I have for sale at any time except for reserved or sold animals obviously. I also let them know WHY this is happening.. I give the customer the exact date their last payment was due and how long I have "let it slide" because in most cases I do not take this action unless the customer misses payment by about a month. IMO this is the most professional way to handle these situations. Hope this help!
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This is an excellent solution that I have used myself. Professional and allows the buyer to recoup his loss in the future

Incidentally, for those who are harping on the fact that the email does not say "Non-Refundable".....who the Heck has ever been charged a refundable deposit to hold an animal? The whole concept of a deposit is to lock in the sale. If someone is offering a refundable deposit payment plan they really do not understand the concept of a deposit.
 
Suncoast Herpetological said:
harping on the fact that the email does not say "Non-Refundable".
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Good point (as usual) but I think maybe future emails could link to the TOS that says this, as the customer is actually requesting the deposit back.

It might be a bit classier to refer to the TOS than to say 'Whaddayoukidding, no ***ing way, bud'.
 
I know its a bit off topic but, after he asked if the blood was a boa or a python I would have returned 75 bucks so he could buy a book and educate himself about what he's even buying before he would get one of my animals.

If he doesn't even know what he's buying, you know he has no clue of the proper husbandry.
 
I think you had the right to do whatever you wanted regarding the refund, but I don't think you should be posting this guy's name and e-mail address on here with his e-mails. At this point you owe it to him to send him a link to this thread so he can tell his side. Not cool at all.

One more thing, I know it's not the sellers problem, but when someone doesn't know what kind of snake they're even buying it'd be a good idea to ask a few questions to try to find out if they're capable of taking care of it.:shrug01:
 
Bobby Douglass said:
I think you had the right to do whatever you wanted regarding the refund, but I don't think you should be posting this guy's name and e-mail address on here with his e-mails. At this point you owe it to him to send him a link to this thread so he can tell his side. Not cool at all.

One more thing, I know it's not the sellers problem, but when someone doesn't know what kind of snake they're even buying it'd be a good idea to ask a few questions to try to find out if they're capable of taking care of it.:shrug01:
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Why do you think this? Granted the thread should be an info thread, but other than that, why should his name and email not be posted?
 
scaledverts said:
Why do you think this? Granted the thread should be an info thread, but other than that, why should his name and email not be posted?
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I don't think he intentionally did anything wrong other than getting in over his head. The seller should have at least waited to see how he responded to not getting his deposit back before posting here about it. The buyer was wrong, but I don't see why he deserves his own BOI thread.
 
The thread is here, and the OP put it in the required format for this section...the buyer's name HAD to be included. One of Trace's earlier posts led me to suspect that part of the reason it hit the BOI was a lack of awareness of other applicable (sub)forums. Had it been posted in General Business Discussions, it could have been a simple questions about the situation - without subjecting the buyer to scrutiny. The problem with that is that at some point, somebody usually asks for the subject to be identified...or the subject becomes aware of the thread and jumps in to defend himself; and once the person it identified, with the problem outlined, it is no longer appropriate to that section.
 
Suncoast Herpetological said:
This is an excellent solution that I have used myself. Professional and allows the buyer to recoup his loss in the future

Incidentally, for those who are harping on the fact that the email does not say "Non-Refundable".....who the Heck has ever been charged a refundable deposit to hold an animal? The whole concept of a deposit is to lock in the sale. If someone is offering a refundable deposit payment plan they really do not understand the concept of a deposit.
Click to expand...

I expect ALL my customers to have read my terms on my website. Which is linked to in every one of my email messages to them. So I typically dont mention all my terms within email messages. If someone is going to make a purchase through me and not look into my reputation and check my website to read into my terms and business ethics than I would feel fine throwing this in their face after the fact :p lol. Because I find that very irresponsible as a purchaser of any live animal. for those who dont have a website with this information... I CAN see an issue with that if terms were not stated properly via email... yet.. being non-refundable should be a given to everyone imo.
 
Send him his deposit back. I had a similar situation where a lady gave me a deposit and then could not come through and finish the deal. I just refunded the deposit through paypal, and I do not think I got charged any fee. Yes you could probaby keep the deposit on a technicality, but do you need $60 that bad? If you do, send the dude his $60 back and I will paypal you $60.

Now, if the guy is being rude and a @#$%, tell him to go fly a kite.

Dave
 
I think the email you sent was fair Trace. At first I was thinking, I would be offended if someone asked me for proof, but then again, I would never have gone into that much detail about the problem with my wife, and usually those fine details are there for a reason, to build sympathy. If he can't come through with what you requested, I wouldn't write him of as a liar. I would do what someone mentioned about credit towards a future purchase and I would put an expiration date of a year on that in case he comes back five years down the road when the value of the snake is less than the deposit.

The second option that I thought would be fair would be just to refund the buyer to put the matter to rest and prevent escalation HOWEVER, everyone has seen this, it's here forever, and you will be known as the guy that will refund deposits ... "why can't I get my deposit back? You did it for this guy?" Or, "well now I have a problem, and I do want the snake I put a deposit on, but I guess I can get my money back and just buy it later."

I think the lessons learned would be to paint a clearer image to the party of what will take effect and what they should expect if they can't follow through to prevent these silly requests for deposits in the future.
 
I would "IF I HAD A TOS" follow my TOS. If I didn't have a TOS that covered that particular situation, then I refunded the money, but I operated as a business not "your friendly neighborhood store that extended credit to everyone".

***snicker***
 
Non refundable means exactly that. He agreed to the terms by sending you the deposit. I agree with what all the rest have been telling you. Keep the deposit and find a new buyer.
 
David Reid said:
Send him his deposit back. I had a similar situation where a lady gave me a deposit and then could not come through and finish the deal. I just refunded the deposit through paypal, and I do not think I got charged any fee. Yes you could probaby keep the deposit on a technicality, but do you need $60 that bad? If you do, send the dude his $60 back and I will paypal you $60.

Now, if the guy is being rude and a @#$%, tell him to go fly a kite.

Dave
Click to expand...

The only problem with this is that if she does it for one person, then others will follow. I've done the whole return thing only to have the same person try it again. I didn't refund that time. This thread is here for any potential buyers to read. I would hate to hear the "well you did it for him" post.
 
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