What should I do?

[danktat]

I decided to ask this on this particular board as I spend most of my time on this board. I may post on a couple of others to get a balanced opinion.
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I purchased a 10 lot of boas from Phong Ly a few months back. A few people here have babies from that litter either from me or from Phong himslef. I put them up for sale on KS and immediately a guy wanted to buy the best [in my opinion] pair of babies. He initially argued about price and I cut him a discount (as is typical) for getting two instead of just one baby.
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As soon as they got to him I got a call stating that the male was too small and that the picutures that I sent him was definately "photoshopped"....This is the baby....There is also coins in the pic to give a size reference.
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As can see (and as I told the buyer)...he was one of the smaller babies in the litter but his color and pattern was the best of the bunch as well. I also told him that I guarenteed live arrival. I hadn't quarentined the animals and I told him so. It was a purchase to move them for the breeder so that he didn't have to do the advertising and shipping for the animals individually. Anyone who has seen the babies in person from the Pandora litter knows that the color on these actually comes up better than what the pictures show.
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I was a cordial as I could be and said that maybe his computer monitor showed up differently than what the babies looked like and assured him that there was no manipulation of the photos other than to crop the image and fit it to the screen.
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He then insisted that the animals must be sick. The male being that small MUST not be eating. I called Phong back and was assured that they were all eating and that they had actually eaten just a few days before shipping out (allowing just enough digestion time to be safe in shipping). He then said "well what happenes if this thing dropps dead on me in the next few days". I told him that I would guarentee it will live for the next 30 days: if it didn't I would refund his money (minus the shipping costs). Just send a pic of the dead baby if it happens to go down that way.
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I didn't hear from him for a couple of months. Then I get a call, "I think this baby is sick" ... "I told you". He proceeded to tell me that it eats but won't gain weight. Said it didn't regurgitate. Claimed he went to get treatment for internal parasites at a vet just in case that is what was keeping it smaller. Complained about the bill. I told him to keep me posted and let me know what the progress was and we could maybe work something out depending on the result.
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I didn't hear from him for another couple of months. Then I get a call. He explained that the boa had died and that he wanted a full refund (bear in mind that this is more than 4 months after the intial sale). He did send a pic of the animal that seemed to be the baby I sold him and that did appear to be dead.
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My question to the sellers on this board and those who buy snakes, what is the protocall on this kind of a situation in this kind of time frame.
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any input would be appreciated.
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Thanks.

[burmeselover15]

well i would say that it is his own fault for what has happened to the boa that he had obtained from you. if you guys checked up on everything and was sure it was healthy before shipped out then im pretty sure it was. i would nigotiate something around like half price back or something since you told him the 30 day garanteed yet he did not wanna swap back in the first place when he figured out something was wrong or was guessing that something was wrong, when he had a chance. as you can see something must have happened when the boa was in his care not you guys. foreal though i wouldnt give him anything back. but if at the max i would offer half price back since it took him so long for the swap and exchange that he wanted. yet im not a seller so thats my best advice

[heckyess321]

well i dotn think u need to give a refund. things die its nature. and when people say like a week guarantee its jsut a guess you never know when nature is going ot take its course. i so no refund. my opinion

[Allysen]

Did he bother to get a necropsy? If he didn't, it's more than a little suspicious. If I had purchased a boa that I even *thought* might be a little sick, or fishy, I would have been in contact with you at least once a month, and upon death, would have gone right out for a necropsy to see what the problem was, to see if it was something I did wrong, or something that the baby had come with.

As the seller, if he didn't bother to get a necropsy done, there's really not a whole lot you can do. Offer him a discount on a future, similar baby perhaps, but really, you've done your part. You extended the guarantee, and he was suspicious, but not suspicious enough to really DO anything about it, aside from getting parasite medicine. Did he even have the vet test for parasites, or did they just preemptively treat it? If he had something going on like a bacterial infection in his digestive tract that was hindering his absorption of all the nutrients from his food, then stressing him out with medicine for something he didn't even have in the first place would just exacerbate the situation.

I had a similar issue with a baby BCI that I purchased last year. She'd been eating and pooping, but not gaining ANY weight. At purchase, she was 90 grams, and 5 months later, eating once a week, she was 86 grams. We went to the vet, thought it might be parasites, but after a few swabs and bloodwork, it wasn't. We tried some broad spectrum antibiotics, but she stopped eating and died less than two weeks later. After the necropsy was performed, we discovered she had an absolutely GIANT cyst on her heart that she was most likely born with, and there was nothing that we could've done. If it was something congenital like that, there's really nothing anybody could have done, but if he didn't get the necropsy, you'll never know.

	Boa Constrictor Imperator

[PythonGirl]

I would not expect a refund by any means.... If some one told me a 30day guarantee, its just that.... a 30 day guarantee. Its just like at any other store on the face of the planet. If their return policy is 90 days... even if you take it to them on 91 days to return... TO BAD you are out of luck. I think that you even offered to refund if it died before a month was quite a good deal. ANYTHING can happen in a month, and he wants to let you know more than 4 months later. Its sad that the little guy died because he was a very impressive looking animal, but at this point.... I dont think its your responsibility.

[danktat]

I even went so far as to when he called me back after it arrived to tell him that if he wanted to ship him back I would readily take it as there were several other people who had inquired about that one (heck, if it wasn't a male I would have probably kept him myself but at the time I was looking for a female so I kept his sister).

The only issue I have is that in this hobby/industry reputation is everything. I find it more so with locality breeders than with morph breeders. If he starts spreading the word that I am selling "sick" animals or am terrible to do business with that could take a while to recover from. (wether or not it is true sometimes is irrelavent). I would like to minimize the fall out and be as fair as possible to both him AND me. Not sure how to handle this one.

[PythonGirl]

I think your offer was more than fare. Unless he bold face lies... anybody who is considering buying an animal from you that hears you are giving 30day guarantees will def still buy from you. What he might leave out is that he waited 4 months to contact you about the "sick" animal. But in that case you could have sent him a prefectly healthy animal and told people not to buy from you just because he wanted to be a (for lack of a better term) Shmuck. You send him a refund.... then people who have had animals that might have been sick for more than 4 months will be calling saying "but you did it at 4 months or whatever for that guy" stick to your guns dank... IMO you wont loose business or any kind of reputation for being more than fair.

	IMO In My Opinion

[Cristina]

if he wasnt happy to begin w/ then he should of asked for a refund and sent the boa back..you gave him your guarantee of 30 days and thats it..I would stick to that..u were fair..if he brings it to the BOI or drags u're name thru the mud im sure u have enough ppl to back u up....did u keep all e-mails??

[danktat]

Most of the conversations were on the phone.

[AbsoluteApril]

Don't forget to check the BOI in case he posts about it, so you can tell your side.

You gave a more than normal 30 day guarantee. I agree with the others, 30 days is up, that's it. You have no idea what kind of care that boa was receiving over the 4 months it was at his place. Did you sell the boa 'as is, appears healthy' then that is all there is to it. Some boas just die... I understand what you mean about reputation. I sold a boa as a female, 3 years later, the guy comes back and says it turned out to be male, woah was there egg on my face! (I didn't guarantee sex in my TOS at that time). Since it had been so long, I had no obligation to do anything but I offered the guy a nice discount on any future orders and tried to help him find another snake he was looking for at a good price. Basically, I guess what I am trying to say is, you did your part, he could have said he was unhappy and sent the boa back at the start. You gave an extended guarantee. In the future, make sure to have a good TOS and send it to all customers to sign off on, just in case. (If you need a sample TOS, let me know)