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Bad Guy James Buban (jpbiggs)

T

thongy

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Bought B.dubias from him. Poorly packaged box had no holes, heat pack was directly on top of the container, and guess what 50% of the dubias got cooked. Not willing to refund/replace when he clearly messed up. Says he gave me an "overcount" when that overcount was suppose to compensate for the lack of 3/4th-1" size. I've ordered dubias before, and this is the first time I've ever had more than 40% of them dead. Also found tiny beetles and mealworms mixed in with the dubias. Shipping these dubias back.


 
I recently had a less than professional experience w/ James as well. He committed to one of our animals and sent payment incorrectly (via Paypal). I wrote him and got confirmation that if I returned the money he sent that he would then in turn re-pay in full the correct way. He agreed, I returned the funds and then he bailed on the deal.
 
VividPythons said:
I recently had a less than professional experience w/ James as well. He committed to one of our animals and sent payment incorrectly (via Paypal). I wrote him and got confirmation that if I returned the money he sent that he would then in turn re-pay in full the correct way. He agreed, I returned the funds and then he bailed on the deal.
Click to expand...

What was the correct way to pay?
 
According to the PMs in contact with Thongy:

"Well, i sent over 60 females and over 20 males. so it seems you received about 30 females and over 10 males alive, which is close to 50 adults. my ad stated that the order would include 50-100 adults. you got a half order so that's 25- 50 adults. You got nearly 50. I also sent over 350 nymphs not including the large ones. So you still got the order stated in the ad. In fact you still ended up with more than 400 alive, so you got more than the amount stated in the ad. You have nothing to complain about. Sometimes some die in shipping. That's what the over count is for. I don't do replacements or refunds on over counts.

Quote Originally Posted by Thongy
Counted the dead ones. 32 females, 9 males, 6 larger nymphs and around 30 newborns not really sure tho. Replace them or refund me partial is up to you.



Thanks


Quote Originally Posted by jpbiggs
how many survived?"

According to the numbers he told me (for what ever reason he wouldn't answer my question of how many actually survived). It seemed like he got the full order in that was stated in my ad. His claim of 40% death is grossly overestimated and he did not consider over count. He wanted to get a 50% refund and I refused. I was fine with him shipping the order back for a refund. Haven't heard from him since
 
I've had several dealings with James and have always found his conduct professional and I know he takes excellent care of his animals. I actually started my roach colony with roaches from James...they were all alive and he was very generous with the count.
 
Also, it's normal for roaches to have mealworms and "beetles" (what mealworms turn into) in them, they actually help to keep your roach colony clean, and many people selling feeder insects sell "cleaner crews" made up of mealworms for this reason.
 
BillZ said:
I just knew that was going to be the answer. So not only would that have left you with no recourse but also would have cheated paypal out of their fee. Please, I would love to know what the $ amount was on that purchase.
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With all due respect, I'm not looking to stir up any trouble. I only want to present my side of the story to defend myself against these petty, yet defamatory posts. I will just say that the dollar amount was what I considered to be large enough for me feel uncomfortable giving up any claim to recourse in the event something went wrong.
 
Labecanda said:
I've had several dealings with James and have always found his conduct professional and I know he takes excellent care of his animals. I actually started my roach colony with roaches from James...they were all alive and he was very generous with the count.
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Thank you for the kind words, Rebecca :)
 
BillZ said:
I just knew that was going to be the answer. So not only would that have left you with no recourse but also would have cheated paypal out of their fee. Please, I would love to know what the $ amount was on that purchase.
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Agree. To me, lying to get out of Paypal fees is cheating and theft, and intentionally setting your customers up for no recourse shows zero customer service.
There are so many quality feeder companies, why would anyone choose do business with one that is dishonest from the getgo?
 
Lucille said:
Agree. To me, lying to get out of Paypal fees is cheating and theft, and intentionally setting your customers up for no recourse shows zero customer service.
There are so many quality feeder companies, why would anyone choose do business with one that is dishonest from the getgo?
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Lucille, it was not James (the feeder provider) that played the Paypal fee sidestep (if I am reading things correctly; I have not slept in a while).
 
BillZ said:
Of course, I think any dollar amount should be enough to not want you to give up any recourse. My point in asking the dollar amount is this, let say the amount was $250, That would mean that this seller had that amount in their hands due to a sold and closed transaction (as long as they completed the shipping and all was well) but for the sake of approximately $7.50 they wanted you to send it so they could circumvent Paypals fees. How greedy and stupid is that? If the $ was lower then of course the fee would be lower and even if it were a $1K sale the fee would be a lousy $30. Who is so greedy that they would give up a sale for the sake of a few dollars. If the $ was not the deciding factor, what was? Was it so that the buyer had zero recourse? Maybe it was a bit of both.

I think my favorite part is that Vividpythons refers to their transaction with you as a "less than professional experience". I would have to agree but I dont think they realize that it appears they were the ones that were conducting business in "a less than professional" manner. I'm not sure what is a worse business decision. Losing a sale over a few dollars maybe by trying to cheat another business out of their fee, and maybe trying to take away any recourse a buyer would have, or coming here and posting about it.

As for your comment that you are "not looking to stir up any trouble". This guy comes here and implies that you conduct business in a unprofessional manner. Implies that you pretty much reneged on a deal. Took your money back after you agreed to purchase. I don't think you are "stirring up trouble" by telling your side of the story. You should post proof of his request for you to send the money as a friend when it was a business transaction. If anyone should have a BOI about them in regards to that transaction it is them.
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The amount was less than $1k, but still sizable. I agree that returning the entire sum payment just to squeeze out a little more money made him look either greedy or suspicious. These concerns are ultimately why, after he refunded my initial payment, I decided not to go through with the sale. As no actual harm has come to me, I did not feel the need to start a BOI about him.

As for the original poster Thongy, I still have not heard back from him, and I don't know if he is just going to keep his order and be happy that he got what was was stated in my ad or if he is going to ship back the dubia. I even gave him the option of a 25% refund. I'm worried that he either shipped it back yesterday or he is going to ship it today without contacting me and then the package will just sit somewhere over the weekend. I'd also like to make sure it will arrive on a day that I will be around to receive the package.
 
Well too bad we can't change the title of the post to Vivid Pythons. Pretty funny to chime in that their problem with James was actually a problem with themselves. I knew exactly what they were saying as soon as they were vague about "sending it the wrong way."

"James sent us the money through paypal the right way, and then when we said "No, you have to send as a friend" he backed out like any wise person would do." I'm paraphrasing a bit.
 
James, if I was in the market for feeders, I would purchase from you.

I would not purchase anything from any seller that requested I send the funds friends and family. I have only sent funds that way to actual family.

For a seller to come here and state that their experience with you was less than professional, especially when they were in the wrong, is low.
 
Do you have the emails or messages where they asked you to resend the funds as a friend? Could you post screen shots of the conversation? It's probably a good idea to bring that to the attention of paypal since they would be the ones losing out.
 
BillZ said:
Yes, it seemed to indicate the real reason the payment was not made in the "correct" manner. Bobby Douglass beat me to the question but I think his mistake was to ask Vivid Pythons what he meant. I had my doubts that we would get an answer from them, even though they didnt really think their post through, in my opinion anyways, so next step obliviously was to ask James. I sure would like to see it in writing though. Vivid Pythons asking james to send it as friends I mean. As rough as the market can be at times, and with all the competition, I just couldn't imagine putting a done deal sale at risk for a very,very small percentage of my asking price. Not to mention that, in my opinion, it is nothing less than theft of services.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if he was man enough to admit that he meant what I thought he did. Apparently he was not.
 
I would say then that Al Sauri A.K.A. Vivid Pythons is the bad guy here.

Maybe now when people do a search for him, they will see that he is a shady character who asks to be paid through PayPal by friends and family.
 
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