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Terms of Sale feedback

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courtanee

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I would like to get some feedback on a TOS form i am writing up.
All opinions and comments are welcome! thank you! :)

I am going to post a picture of it in one second because my computer mouse doesnt want to c&p.
 
TERMS OF SALE
Payment
We accept PayPal for the time being. We request that you choose the buyer to seller option. We will cover fees. In the message portion of the payment page, please write the name of the animal you are purchasing, ex. “cookie, unsexed”.
Cash is accepted for local, in person sales. We will travel up to a certain amount of miles per price of gecko. Please contact us for arranging local delivery.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone at any time, for any reason.

Shipping
We ship with Shipyourreptiles.com, email us for a quote!
We only ship if conditions are right on both ends. Good shipping weather is a low of 35 Degrees F with a high of 85 Degrees F. We will not ship outside these parameters, so don’t ask.
We either ship to the address listed for the PayPal account that was used for payment, or we ship to a FedEx hub.
If shipping to your direct home address, someone must be available to receive the package on THE FIRST delivery attempt.
We guarantee live arrival if all conditions above are met
In the unfortunate case of a DOA, we REQUIRE you to take a picture of the deceased animal, with a time stamp on or in the picture. It must be sent to us within 1 hour of receiving your shipment. DO NOT DISPOSE OF THE BODY. We will refund you the price of the gecko you paid. Shipping is not refundable.

Health Guarantee
We love our reptiles at Dark Horse Geckos. We want you to love your new arrival too! We guarantee the health of your new reptile for up to 48 hours after delivery. If your animal falls ill within 48 hours of arrival, you must contact us. If animal falls ill within 48 hours and you do not contact us, health guarantee is void. For sick geckos, we request that you take it to a reptile specialist vet. If condition was preexisting we will cover vet costs. If poor husbandry on buyer part comes into question, we will review the case and determine if a refund will be given.

PAYMENT PLANS
We understand that money can be tight, but you just have to have that gecko! We offer payment plans for geckos over 100$ not including shipping. 30 day plans are available with a 15% deposit. If you have another payment plan in mind, please contact us with your plan and we will determine if it is suitable. Payment dates must be strictly adhered to. In the case that you miss a payment date, we will contact you and give you 3 days to reply. If no reply is returned, we will terminate your sale, and refund your money minus 15%. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.

CANCELATION
In the event that you would like to cancel a sale (which may only be done 48 hours before a planned shipment), we will refund your money minus a 15% restocking fee.
Restocking Fee: Let’s say you decide you want to buy gecko #1. You put down a 15% deposit to hold him. In the meantime, we get another inquiry about gecko #1. Someone else would like to buy him. We have to say sorry, gecko is already purchased. Then you decide you would like to cancel purchase for reason a, b, or c. Now I have to relist that gecko for sale. I try contacting second customer, only to find out they spent their money elsewhere. Shucks. A restocking fee is our way of recouping losses when we could have sold that gecko to a different individual that would have followed through with the sale. All other funds minus the 15% will be refunded.

MINORS
We are more than happy to work with parents and their children to purchase geckos. An adult signature will be required to pick up gecko during delivery. Please contact us for help in choosing a spectacular new pet!

HOLDS
Animals will only be placed on hold after payments plans and such have been worked out. No holds without payment. Intent to buy is not the same as putting an animal on hold.

SEXED ANIMALS
We only guarantee sex of an animal over 17 grams. We will sell as “probable” under 17 grams. This is determine based on pore sexing. If an animal is sold as “probable” and ends up being different, we will refund 15% of the cost or you may return the animal to us shipping paid by you. Geckos under 6 grams are sold as unsexed. We will be upfront with you if we are not sure about the sex, and geckos sold as such reflect the price.

PLEASE REFER TO OUR CARE SHEET FOR HUSBANDRY INFO.
 
Aside from the wordiness of the restocking fee explanation (which, btw, is a BS concept since the animal has not left your possession - you aren't restocking anything - call it a nonrefundable deposit), my chief concern would be your DOA policy. Why should a customer eat shipping when they receive a dead animal. It is YOUR responsibility to provide live arrival...failing that, the customer should receive a FULL refund.

Oh, and you spelled CANCELLATION incorrectly.
 
as to the shipping, i wasn't sure about that. I see some people not refunding it and some do. I hope more people will weight in on that portion.
And i work in the firearm industry. Every gun store i know of names it as a restock fee. i guess in this instance re-listing would be more applicable since i would be taking the gecko off of the website "available" category. but tomatos, tomatoes. re-list, deposit. I probably will end up changing it as that seems to be the norm term-wise for the industry.
Any ideas on cutting it down? I made it lengthy i think because i read so many people getting screwed over on both ends, it makes me a smidge paranoid. To me, a TOS is to protect both buyer and seller.
GAH spelling. Can't believe I missed that. I'm usually a grammar Nazi.
 
courtanee said:
And i work in the firearm industry. Every gun store i know of names it as a restock fee.
Click to expand...
Firearms are a different story, in some ways...but without knowing the details of their terms, I cannot comment on them. For you, I would recommend not taking the animal off the available page until it is shipped. Simply add a Sale Pending notation. Of course, if you are using a shopping cart system, that changes things a bit; and "restocking" could be more arguably appropriate because of the added labor of webpage updates. (I hate shopping carts for live animals, so I didn't consider that possibility when I made my initial comment)
 
The only problem, whether you call it a restocking fee or nonrefundable deposit, is that PayPal will simply give them their money back; so it's all just words on a screen. Frankly, in the long run, it really isn't worth the aggravation - my TOS included conditions/circumstances which would result in the forfeiture of funds paid (ie defaulting on a payment plan); but I never once kept anybody's money. Better to just refund and make a clean break than have to deal with the hassles, IMO. My time is too valuable to waste defending myself on the BOI or fighting with PayPal.
 
That's very true. Less of a headache i suppose. You could always offer it to the other person who was interested at a discount or something. Thanks for your input! its appreciated and I'll revise as needed.
 
Don't get me wrong - I'm not suggesting that you take that verbiage out of your TOS...I'm just saying that it's something I'd recommend disregarding when the time comes. The customer will be appreciative, and you'll look better because of it.

As far as the shipping thing - once upon a time it was fairly common practice to not include shipping in a DOA refund, and people's TOS would include the various reasons. Luckily, common sense and good business practices won out, and full refunds are the standard. Just for the record, if you send an incorrectly sexed animal, return shipping is on you (so is the shipping of the replacement). Sure, you might occasionally lose a few bucks...but chalk that up to a lesson learned. It serves as a reminder to step up your game.
Just think about it from a customer's perspective - how would you feel if you received a DOA, and were only given part of your money back? Or if you ordered a female, and received a male, and the seller tried to make you pay for them to make it right? Would you purchase from that seller again? Would you recommend them to your friends? Doing the right thing is cheaper in the long run, and a happy customer is likely to be a repeat customer.
 
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