• 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.

Tom Belrose of Barerootshydro.com has my money

Lucille

Lucille

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About a month ago I ordered some leca from Barerootshydro.com.

http://www.living-learning.com/store/media/leca.htm

Leca is a substrate for terrariums. I'm getting some little frogs and setting up terrariums for them. Someone who is into frogs gave me the name of his business, although she doesn't know him, just because before all this I didn't know what leca was and she wanted to help out.
I paid for the leca via Paypal.
After several weeks went by I emailed the owner, Tom Belrose. He told me he would check with his supplier, so he didn't even have it when he sold it to me.
More time went by and no leca. I sent another note and no answer. I finally filed with Paypal and they gave him 10 days to respond, he didn't. They were only able to recover $8 something of the $98 and closed the case.
I emailed him again and he said he had not responded because he had been dealing with his daughter's death. I sympathized, but also asked paypal and my refund.
He started giving me excuses, like Paypal had given me a complete refund (they hadn't, and he should know that) and then he said that they could have given me a refund because he had money in his account (I contacted them, and the case is closed, they would not go back and look). He is no longer responding to my emails.
I at first had some trepidation about posting here because if he is dealing with a death, that is a terrible thing. But if so, wouldn't he just ask for time (which of course I would grant) instead of all these notes about Paypal?
I'm assuming that if Paypal recovers even a little of the funds from a seller, they would notify him?
I don't know what to think, here: whether he is overwhelmed, or what. A little note from him saying he would get to it and take care of it was all I would have wanted, but he isn't saying that.
 
Well we know the store address is
234 Page Hill Rd
Waterville VT, 05492
 
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do yo have emails to prove this ..sounds like he gave good reason as to the delay :shrug01: maybe your being a little impatient :yesnod: lmao :rofl:
 
greatlakesreptiles said:
..sounds like he gave good reason as to the delay
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Only if it is an HONEST reason. If he has time to reply to even ONE email, he had time to refund the paypal balance. I'm sorry for him if the death is real (and despise him if it is a lie), but I believe he has likely had enough time to clear up business if he meant to.

Lucille, what was the date you sent the money so we all have a clue as to what time frame we are looking at here? Did you pay from a PayPal balance of a CC? I ALWAYS true to use a credit card since that gives you a SECOND avenue to pursue to get your money back if PayPal doesn't treat you fairly.

KJ
 
I sent the funds via Paypal on May 1, but it was direct from my checking account.
 
do yo have emails to prove this ..sounds like he gave good reason as to the delay maybe your being a little impatient lmao

I think if Lucille says this to be so...I believe her, hands down!
 
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lanceheads said:
do yo have emails to prove this ..sounds like he gave good reason as to the delay maybe your being a little impatient lmao

I think if Lucille says this to be so...I believe her, hands down!
Click to expand...
...............
just basically saying there's no meat on the bone! i.e. nothing to back her story up........ :shrug01: words of a wise man?
 
lanceheads said:
do yo have emails to prove this ..sounds like he gave good reason as to the delay maybe your being a little impatient lmao

I think if Lucille says this to be so...I believe her, hands down!
Click to expand...

Thanks Randal.

There isn't a lot of money involved here. I guess I posted because I want to hear how all of you deal with personal issues brought up by a buyer or seller .
If indeed this happened, he has my deepest sympathy. But am I being impatient? Is it OK for me to expect for him to say something to the effect that when he can again cope with business, he will attend to our deal? He hasn't said anything like that.
I don't know what to think.
What would y'all do, in this situation?
 
Dale,
Let me rephrase that statement.
I have always known Lucille to be honest and forthright.

Randal Berry
 
I would... email him, expressing my sympathy and ask him to please contact you once he is ready to resume business.

And I would also see if anyone out in that area could do an obituary check to see if the death has been reported. Or maybe have someone else contact him with regards to a business question (looking to buy) and see if he responds and how quickly.
 
I did express my sympathy; but when he started the Paypal games I told him I was going to take some action. (And, I have). I do not think that he was levelling with me about his communications from Paypal.
I think the first red flag, for me, was when I asked about my shipment on 5/13, almost two weeks after my order, and he said he would check with his supplier which meant he did not have the item when he sold it to me. While I don't really have anything against that practice for supplies, since it is the item itself I want,and it isn't like a snake where one wants the quality of a certain breeder; he never followed up with a return email that would have informed me of an expected shipping date.
I would appreciate if someone would make inquiry at his site about wanting to order items, that is a good idea.
 
greatlakesreptiles said:
...............
just basically saying there's no meat on the bone! i.e. nothing to back her story up........ :shrug01: words of a wise man?
Click to expand...
On one hand a respected and well known member of these forums .....on the other hand some dude who runs a website selling stuff to grow your own dope.

Who to trust is pretty damn obvious :D

Lucille - in the future try http://joshsfrogs.com/ for frog terrarium needs. Well known and trusted fellow.
 
WHAT??!!! Leca is for terrariums. I would never give my business to a site which catered to that sort of clientele.
I've looked at Josh's site and when the terraria are ready I might get some frogs from him. I hang out on the Dendroboard some and have seen some good vendors there including him, but this one was chosen because a member of Redtailboas.net put his site in a post (she doesn't know him and I bet she will be just as mortified as I am if indeed his clients grow, well,.....jeez :rolleyes: )
 
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L.E.C.A stands for Light Expanded Clay Aggregate. LECA is used as a media in all types of hydroponic systems including NFT, Aeroponic, Ebb and flow, and Drip/ Trickle feed systems.

It is made by baking pure natural clay at 1200 degrees Celsius for 3 hours to create a porous growing medium. Due to the neutral nature (no acid or base/alkaline qualities) of L.E.C.A, along with other properties it is perfect for growing plants, especially indoor plants in hydroponics.

L.E.C.A provides an ideal balance of moisture, food and air to your plants. Capillary action on the surface of the lightweight pebbles wicks nutrient solution to the root systems of your plants. Root rot is eliminated due to the space between the pebbles allowing all-important oxygen to get to the roots.

L.E.C.A. is often the growing medium of choice of novices and professionals alike.
wouldnt this have been a clue rite off the front page of his site ???????? :shrug01:
 
A clue to what? A lot of plants are grown hydroponically.....doing some research on another seller on the BOI awhile ago, I visited many hydroponic sites. Some were questionable at best, some were obviously geared toward the grower of "recreational" plants....and some look like legit sites for growing legal crops. This one looks pretty legit, IMO. Not to say that some of his clients may not be 100% straight up, but it doesn't appear that he purposely caters to that sort of crowd.

That said, his reason for delay sounds reasonable, though unfortunately too many scammers have indeed used excuses like that to drag things out. Tough call on this one....did he ever offer some sort of refund?

And cripes, how much of the stuff did you order? It looked like one 50 pound bag of the stuff was like $45, if I saw it right. That is a whole lot of terrariums!
 
Hm, in fact looking thru the forums there, it appears that even the mention of growing anything illegal will get you banned....
 
Cat_72 said:
And cripes, how much of the stuff did you order? It looked like one 50 pound bag of the stuff was like $45, if I saw it right. That is a whole lot of terrariums!
Click to expand...


For a decent frog terrarium, you don't need but maybe 1 or 2 lbs of the stuff at the most. A 50lb bag would be HUGE. This stuff is VERY lightweight.

I had a coworker dump a box of the stuff on me about 15 years ago (box measured 3' L x 18" W x 3' D) and it was not heavy at all to pick up and carry. I still have the junk laying around the yard actually. I could not use it all up (originally intended to be used as drainage in dirt filled flower pots) so I spread most of it out along the walk space between our fence line and 25 foot long shed to keep grass from growing since the lawn mower wouldn't fit back there.
 
Wraith said:
For a decent frog terrarium, you don't need but maybe 1 or 2 lbs of the stuff at the most. A 50lb bag would be HUGE. This stuff is VERY lightweight.

I had a coworker dump a box of the stuff on me about 15 years ago (box measured 3' L x 18" W x 3' D) and it was not heavy at all to pick up and carry. I still have the junk laying around the yard actually. I could not use it all up (originally intended to be used as drainage in dirt filled flower pots) so I spread most of it out along the walk space between our fence line and 25 foot long shed to keep grass from growing since the lawn mower wouldn't fit back there.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought....I was kind of wondering if Lucille had made a mistake ordering such a large quantity (she said it was $98 worth). I looked again, and it is $45 for 50 lbs.

No bearing on the fact that the seller hasn't sent it or been willing to refund her....just wondering, really. :shrug01:
 
Hit post too soon....

Was GOING to say....no bearing really, but was wondering....perhaps it WOULD have an effect on the amount of time it would take to initially ship the order. If he normally doesn't keep that kind of quantity on hand....he should have let her know that from the get-go.
 
Cat_72 said:
Hm, in fact looking thru the forums there, it appears that even the mention of growing anything illegal will get you banned....
Click to expand...
Yet on his front page is a link to some odor control carbon filters. Tomatoes don't stink much when they are grown :D

I'm sure lots of 'legit' folks shop at online hydro shops, I've toyed with growing orchids semi-hydro myself. But the reality is people who grow their own marijuana (both legally as well as illegally) have deep pockets and lots of these online growshops exist only to dip into them.

FWIW - a new popular trend is to use foam blocks or styro peanuts in place of the leca. Or skip it altogether and use a false bottom system
 
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