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Bad Guy Sarah Selix/Underground Geckos = Bad Guy

I

IvoryReptiles

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I am posting this up as a heads up for anyone doing any kind of business with Sarah Selix aka Underground Geckos. No sob story, just the facts.

I recently purchased a set of 6 display cases from her for the amount of $400.
I paid the money via PayPal and since she is 2 hours away from me, we planned for me to pick them up
on the weekend before the NARBC since we would be traveling to San Antonio for a BBQ. She then tells me that she doesn't feel like cleaning them in the cold weather, and being a friend, I tell her I understand and we will pick them up on our way home from the NARBC the next weekend.
A friend who lives there picked them up and held them for us. Monday morning after the expo, we woke up
excited to see the display cases and were very upset & disappointed since each & every unit had some type
of damages. Hinges are busted and pins are missing, latches are broken. They are in NO condition to hold any animals securely.
After speaking with a person who makes cases, they told us it would cost us approximately $15 to $27 to fix each issue.
I immediately contacted Sarah to tell her that I was not happy with the condition of the cases and that I no longer wanted them.
She then told me that she had already spent the money and it would take "A while" for me to get my money back. I have given her ample opportunity to respond and she has ignored everything today.
We continued to discuss a resolution and she asked for a day of peace, that was yesterday 02/19/14 and today, she has not responded to any of my messages.
I am including screenshots of the whole conversation here. I gave her every opportunity to respond without a word. Please excuse me if it isn't in order, this is the very first time I have ever had to do something like this.
Here are the screenshots of our only conversations :

Original post of items for sale :

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Private Messages that followed:

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Do you have any proof that they weren't damaged by your middle man, and not by Sarah?
 
I think this thread was started a little pre-maturely. Should have waited more than a few hours for her to respond... it's not like you guys scheduled to respond to eachother at that specific time.

Since Sarah already agreed to refund you the money, you guys should agree upon an exact date for her to pay you.
 
Not pre-mature

No, I did not act prematurely, this happened over the space of a week & a half.........please look at the times that are included on each posting.

Please actually read all of the posts, she admitted that they were damaged and she should have disclosed as much before she sold them to me, she even admitted that SHE broke two of the latches herself while she was cleaning them before handing them over. The original add stated that they were "Used, but in great condition"........since when is busted hinges and latches considered "great condition"? She has also been informed that this post exists and has not replied.

I get that she isn't going to refund my money and I am stuck with $400 broken display units. I have come to the conclusion that I will have to shell out the cash to get them repaired. I will probably re-sell them, but you can bet that I will disclose that they have been repaired.

The whole point of this post is to WARN anyone else to beware when purchasing any future items from her sight un-seen.....and not to trust any photos she may post of items. I will say that her animals are beautiful & healthy, I have never heard of ANY incident where anyone had any complaints about her geckos. We were friends in the local hobby and know each other aside from FaceBook. The fact that she has treated this situation so badly came as a complete surprise to me and I am very disappointed that I even had to make this post........it is the first time in over 6 years of dealing with buying from fellow hobbyists that I have had an issue to post. I didn't WANT to have to do it. The simple solution would have been for her to refund my money, take her cases back and go on from there. I would have been willing to make payment arrangements, but instead of discussing it, she avoided me and refused to discuss it.
 
I have read all the screen shots and heard your story, but like Meg90 stated, isn't it possible that these cages might have been damaged during transport? It appears that they changed hands at least once when they left Sarah's hands before you received them, and handheld who knows how many times and by who?? I know from experience that acrylic can be quite brittle.
Sarah did point out the damage that she knew about and you agreed to fix it with the items that she supplied.
 
I read all the screen shots, and Sarah should have informed you of the damage prior to when she did. However, she really seemed to try and do everything she could to satisfy you. On the evening of the 13th, it seemed that she had, so given the current economic conditions, she really can't be blamed for putting the funds you had sent the previous week towards bills. To me, it seems like you became less and less satisfied over those next few days, and there was nothing short of a full refund in addition to the supplies she had already purchased and shipped to you that would make things right.

Also, if you had been dealing with me and become so impatient after not receiving a response within 30 minutes that you called my place of business, you may have received a similar response. Your response to her request not to do so was out of line...period. Most of us in this hobby have families, as I see you can relate to. Because of that we cannot always be available to respond "within the hour". There are times when I can't even promise anything beyond responding within the day (and that's only if it's not a Sunday).

To me, this thread isn't about broken displays. This thread is about a seller who dropped the ball with regards to disclosing condition of an item, and then did everything she could to try and make it right. It is also a thread about a buyer who was unsatisfied, and became unreasonable and uncivil.
 
I gotta agree with the majority here, it really sounds like the buyer had a bill come up and returning the case was the easy way to get it paid. The seller IMO went out of her way to fix the problem but it wasn't the way the seller wanted.
 
3 hours and no response so you post a bad guy thread?!? really?!? Ok I see you're mad but after she said she had spent your money you should have known it was gonna take a week or two to resolve this. I would be pissed and honestly this is why you should have probably looked at them before you bought them. Which is messed up too. "Friends" don't do things like this to each other. I see things from both points of view but you probably could have given her a week or two. Good luck resolving this.
 
IvoryReptiles said:
I would have been willing to make payment arrangements
Click to expand...

Doesn't really look like it, as soon as she told you that she'd paid bills with it and would need a little time to pay you off (which at the time she appeared quite willing to do) you took quite the hostile tone with her, pretty much demanding that she pay you in one lump sum.

I also don't get your statement that just because an item changes hands, that it loses value. If I bought used display cases at what I thought was a fair price, realized they didn't fit my needs, I would be expecting to get out of them what I paid for them. Obviously she thought the price was fair when she bought them, apparently your middle man did also because he'd been trying to buy them at the same time (I don't remember if that is in this thread or one somewhere else) so they both thought the price fit the current condition. She admitted there was some damage (and yes she should have disclosed it prior to the sale) but she also appeared to go overboard buying the parts you needed plus extras.

Every time you have come to an agreement, soon after it's no longer good enough. If I was the seller here, I'd be telling you keep the parts sent, refund you 50$ and mark you off as someone to avoid doing business with in the future. I might consider taking them back and doing a full refund, but only after I had a chance to see them and make sure they are in the condition they were sold to you in because you make it sound like the damage got worse from one day to the next.

Sarah has come across to me here as trying to do everything she can to make you happy, short of sending you the entire lump sum refund only because she wasn't able to.
 
Mikecurtin, Well done! I would like to add on 2/17 at 12:01 it was said The unit where "loaded in to a truck" I am assuming this is a pick up truck so my question is how where they placed in the truck, on their back, standing up, where they wrapped properly, did they go down a dirt road, was it raining cold out ( You know how Acrylic reacts to cold!!) on the way to you.
These displays are not built to with stand vibration,bumps or twists, And they are know to fall apart over time sorry to say. Yes miss Sarah should have mentioned the defects at first, but she did agree it needed a little repair and was willing do what ever it took to get this done for you. You said every compartment was damaged and it was unusable. I find it hard to believe miss Sarah intended to sell you an unusable display or not pay you back.
I am 35 years in this business, seen every rack, cage and display made for the reptile industry, So when I say they don't hold up under stress I speak from fist hand headache

Sarah good luck
 
Personally, I never ever spend $ received from a buyer until they have received, inspected and confirmed their satisfaction with whatever they were purchasing. Just to be safe, and prevent issues like this.

Sounds like Sarah pushed off damaged goods onto someone, and is attempting to use the "friend" card as a reason to sidestep her responsibilities.

While these acrylic displays look nice at shows.....clear, clean deli cups are much cheaper and can look just as nice in my opinion.
 
I really disagree with calling workplaces and passive-aggressive tactics like what this agreement between "friends" turned into. I do think it all could have been avoided if Sarah hadn't misrepresented the items in her initial ad. But after reading all the messages, I think both sides are wrong.

The initial wrongness of this situation happened when Sarah didn't post detailed enough pictures of the cages in her ad. It sounds like "used but in great condition" wasn't actually true, as it turns out some of the units were missing essential parts. By the time Sarah did disclose the information, she already had Jessica's money. She misrepresented what she had for sale.

I do think it's clear that Sarah tried to make things right by offering to send Jessica the supplies to fix the cages, but at that point I think Jessica should have probably been asking for a refund anyway. Instead, she agreed to fix the doors with Sarah's supplies for a discount. :shrug01: This was all before the cages were even delivered. They altered their contract/agreement.

Why didn't Mike go over the damages with Sarah when the cages were delivered to his house to make sure there was total agreement? Why didn't Jessica post pictures of the cages for us to see the actual damage? Why isn't there proof that things were or weren't damaged during transport (first from Sarah's house to Mike's house and then from Mike's house to Jessica's house)?

The bottom line is that Jessica actually seemed fine with fixing the cages even after they were delivered and she checked them out. She went over them thoroughly enough to determine that two sets of pins for the hinges were missing instead of one. It was only after the next morning came that she decided to force a complete refund into the situation. That was a significant amount of time after she agreed to have Sarah order the replacement parts. Can't have it both ways. This is buyer's remorse at its finest.
 
I read all the info seems that she tried to make it right , you agreed, then you changed your mind. If she sent you all the hinges and glue as she promised I think she has fulfilled her duties.
 
I guess no one is looking at the times posted..........she ignored me for 2 days, not 30 minutes. We all have bills come up, I am not looking for a refund to pay my bills. Had the cases been in the condition she claimed they were in, I wouldn't have said a word in protest. She not only did not disclose they were in this condition, but even admitted to breaking 2 of the latches while cleaning them out to deliver to me......and never said a word to me about it. I was willing to work it out at first, and she knew that I wouldn't get to look at them until Monday at the soonest. They were not damaged in transit, she knows it, so does everyone involved. I gave her plenty of time to at the very least, discuss the issues with me, but she chose instead to ignore me and hope it all went away.

As I stated, I have come to accept the fact that I have lost the money I invested. I will take them and hope I can repair them to be useable for my needs or I will repair them and sell them and I will disclose any issues they may still have. I sure won't try to screw someone else out of their hard earned money. Many local hobbyists know what happened here.......they will be wary in any future dealings with her.

I'm not in the wrong here. I know it, so does everyine who witnessed the whole thing go down.
 
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