• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Not covering the shipping cost on a DOA shipment?

BenR

BenR

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I am just curious to see what other people think about this. I bought a Golden knee tarantula from a company called <snip>. The Tarantula was dead on arrival, and the seller refunded me the cost of the tarantula, but not the cost I paid for shipping. To his credit, his service with everything else was great, and I didn't ask if there was a full money back guaranteed before shipping. However, I didn't notice any terms page or anything that stated this either. So, I guess I just assume most people would cover shipping as well, as me the buyer wasn't provided what I paid for. I know when I have shipped and had a DOA I covered the buyers full cost, as I guess I just think that is the standard. I want to know what everyone else thinks though.
 
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I agree that a DOA should be a full refund, including shipping assuming live arrival is guaranteed. Since they refunded you the purchase price, they should have included shipping charges as well in my opinion. Did they give any reason why that wasn't covered? Maybe it was an oversight?

I had shipped a boa that was a DOA. I went about it the long way and paid for them to ship the body back (so I could confirm it was the one I sold) and then once I confirmed, I refunded the the full purchase price plus the shipping charges.
 
Thanks for the feedback April. That is how I feel about it too. In 2011 I had an albino burmese python baby die during during shipping and I sent out a replacement for free as they were happy with that and wanted a replacement over a refund. Well, sure enough the replacement died too, and I refunded them every penny, even though I was out on two snakes and two shipping charges across the US. It sucked, but if it only happens once every 10 years I guess I can live with that....lol
 
I think a full refund, shipping included, is in order. Recently (within the past year) I sold a trio of yearling prasina ratsnakes to a customer and everything seemed fine until I got an email 5-6 months later informing me that the male had never fed and had developed scale blisters. Not only had the sale been over 6 months old but at the time I was going through a divorce that had me in financial straights. I certainly could have denied repayment due to the length of time that had elapsed however I immediately refunded the full purchase price plus shipping. Thankfully my life became much less complicated (still divorced but all is well) and the purchaser ended up selling me an animal at a wonderful reduced price due to our previous interaction. I would rather lose any amount of money in order to preserve my ethics and sometimes people see that professionalism and respond in kind.

Take care
 
My only thought is if the T was a LAG ... some sellers have an option of overnight shipping with LAG for increased fee ... or you can have 2 day with no LAG .. if you chose this than you are fortunate they refunded the cost of animal ... shipping would have been minimal with that option.
 
If it's standard Priority mail shipping, then we'll refund any DOA's. But if it's expedited shipping, there's usually some specific terms. But when it comes to expedited shipments, I'm usually discussing the shipment over the phone with the customer. And at that point, all conditions are known upfront. But expedited shipment doesn't usually have a risk because the live produce gets there faster. And incase it doesn't the post office will atleast offer a refund for the shipment (and sometimes a credit for the deceased product).
 
Here is some TOS info on MorphMarket. I am sending <SNIP> a link to this thread as well:

<SNIP>
Store Policy
All shipping is done through FedEx via shipyourreptile.com and is insured up to the value of the snake + shipping charges. Delivery will be by 10:30 am unless you are in a rural area or FedEx delays. Someone will need to be home to accept the package if not the insurance is null and won't be covered.
 
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CricketChitin said:
If it's standard Priority mail shipping, then we'll refund any DOA's. But if it's expedited shipping, there's usually some specific terms. But when it comes to expedited shipments, I'm usually discussing the shipment over the phone with the customer. And at that point, all conditions are known upfront. But expedited shipment doesn't usually have a risk because the live produce gets there faster. And incase it doesn't the post office will atleast offer a refund for the shipment (and sometimes a credit for the deceased product).
Click to expand...

This was well over a year ago, but I'm pretty sure it was sent FedEx priority overnight. The shipping cost as I recall was more than the cost of the tarantula.
 
I didn't realize the name of the company was mentioned. I'll remove it now as this is not the Board of Inquiry section.
 
Ben I notified the company, who said you apparently were not home to accept delivery and according to the seller it sat in its box for hours.
 
It did not sit for hours. How would the seller even know that? He also tried to blame me for killing it as I was gently flipping it around in a video to show it was dead.
 
I think you should initiate a BOI thread, with names and evidence. His point of view of the issue is different than yours.
 
Was it a LAG if signed for on first attempt to deliver .. and if not LAG is voided ... he did refund cost of spider correct? When was animal delivered and when did you unpack and discover dead?
 
I don't believe I have any solid proof to argue against him at this point, and I don't really want to waste anymore time over shipping charges. Unfortunately, there was a 2 hr delay from the time I sent him the video and the package being delivered which is why he is probably saying it sat out for hours. I had to wait for my wife to bring it from our house to my facility which is why there was a delay in me contacting him. She was home to receive it though. I didn't take the video until 11:52am according to the time stamp, and it was delivered around 9:40.
 
BenR said:
This was well over a year ago, but I'm pretty sure it was sent FedEx priority overnight. The shipping cost as I recall was more than the cost of the tarantula.
Click to expand...

That’s a tough call. I probably would have rolled the dice and stood by the guarantee. Next day delivery is usually reliable enough that I won’t think twice about it. But i’ve gotten burned before on similar situations. Best you can do is mark the package with enough “live product” stickers that the carrier gets the idea that this package should not be stored in excessively cold or hot areas.
 
This thread is four years old and hasn't seen an update in two years.
 
I believe it is a better than even chance that this is just a spammer trying to establish a toehold before launching the spam attack. It is pretty common for them to post in really old threads. I guess perhaps they believe such threads are not being monitored and they can skate in under the radar.

IP address points to Canada from a hosting company I have seen LOTS of spammers use.

Sometimes I give them the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes I don't.
 
Yep it was a spambot that just grabs content from other users and reposts it. Have seen similar activity on other forums.
 
Kingetula said:
Crickets from the OP...

That's why you have the shipping company hold for pick up and or talk with seller to ship on a day where you will have time to go get it from the shipper. If that is the point, you don't have time then I would think you shouldn't order a live animal until you do.
Click to expand...

That is not what I was saying Scott. My point about not having time was it was not worth my time to argue over $50 or whatever shipping was at the time.
So I didn't want to get involved in a long thread about this. I simply wanted opinions. This was probably 4 years ago and at this point I couldn't even tell you who the seller was.
 
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