• 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.

Refund Question

deadheadvet

deadheadvet

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This is a question to get feedback on how to handle a request for a refund due to buyer's remorse. The customer in question gave a large deposit to hold a number of yearling tortoises until the paperwork was in order. This was August of 2015. Until recently the customer decided that they did not want to go through with the deal and wanted to know what their options were. The reply was, wait and see when you get your permits in order and we can discuss it further. 3 months later, the customer notifies us that the permit request was denied and now wants a full refund. My question is should we just give the money back and move on or are we entitled to compensation for the care of these animals over the past 8 months. Lesson learned for us is: If you do not have your paperwork in order at the time of purchase, no sale and if the animals are sold by the time you get everything in order, too bad.
 
If you do not have it in your TOS that a certain percentage of the deposit is non-refundable should the buyer back out of the sale then you owe 100% back to the buyer.
 
Hi, Evan. I would refund in full since product cannot legally be delivered based on denial of permit (that is assuming that claim made by the "buyer" is true...). Melinda's input also rings true.

Some other things you might or might not want to do-

Let your network know that this person reneged so that members of your network will not be dealing with the same scenario.

Check the registry to find out whether denial of the CBW permit actually took place. Just to know if that factor was or was not truly involved versus pure buyer's remorse.

Avoid any permit-applicable sale unless the person actually possesses the permit. Do not sell based on possibility of future approval.

Consider briefer payment plans or none at all. I have been burned in the last year by people I have been really generous/nice/semi-flexible with on payment plans. Some of them are even repeat customers. Non-payment. Flakes. Delayed payment without acceptably adequate communication. Delayed payment with claims of hardship while I know they have bought other animals at the time from people in my network or connected to people in my network (as in they are buying other animals from other sellers in full while telling me they are short on cash to make payments to me according to schedule). I have had many more excellent payment plans get followed through without any hiccups. A few bad apples have spoiled this for me, so now everybody loses. Instead of getting burned again by this sort of situation, I would say to limit payment plans to a brief period or get rid of them entirely. It might also be less of a hassle to agree to hold for payment in full rather than in installments just so you do not have to play with refunds for people whose word is without value, but then that also creates its own "word without value" alternative. Probably best to just tell them they can buy it if it is still available when they get all of the money together. Save yourself the booty pain.
 
Refund

Thanks Nick:
Agreed. I did check the registry and it appears based on what was sent to me is that the applicant did not follow through with answers regarding the permit reviewer. Since the questions went unanswered, the file was put in inactive and the permit was denied. Clearly to me the buyer sabotaged the application after changing their mind on the purchase. Now we will not engage any transactions unless permit in hand or legally allowed to purchase. A full refund was indeed returned. It required forward thinking on our part, in that we didn't want any bad PR due to buyer's remorse.
 
deadheadvet said:
Now we will not engage any transactions unless permit in hand or legally allowed to purchase. A full refund was indeed returned. It required forward thinking on our part, in that we didn't want any bad PR due to buyer's remorse.
Click to expand...
I would still have a percentage of the purchase price be nonrefundable due to buyer's remorse, especially if the buyer was on a payment plan.
 
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