Beware buying online

Well I unfortunately have to deal with this quite often.

The first thing I learned is to never ship on Thursday, if you use Fed Ex or UPS most of the time you wont get it until Monday.

Most companies are absolved of financial responsibility once they are handed over to the shipper. All shippers do not guarantee anything due to weather delays.

So you are in between a rock & hard place. Hopefully the shipper will work with you, even though they are under no obligation.

I usually check the weather, not only here, but in cities that your package has to travel through. There has been a few times I got screwed when the weather here was perfect, but icy in Indianapolis, which is a major fed ex hub.

Now if you use an airline, check the temp of the package when it arrives. They are obligated to keep the package warm to ensure survival. If the temp is cold, then they can be held responsible weather delay or not.

 

I believe most shippers offer insurance for this, you will have to ask shipper to include it for the extra charge

 

Shippers insurance never us to cover any type of live animals. After they figured out people were shipping corals in the late 90's early 2000's they got smart and stopped covering it.

 

Rod that sucks! can't believe that the vender is not willing to do anything. What about Paypal? Do they offer any insurance to the buyer?

Kp

 

I can honestly say I have never dealt with this before everyone that I have ordered from has credited me back if there was ever an issue with the order. I'm sorry that they are not doing anything about it.

 

You said you paid thru PayPal..... Can't you request thru them to get your money back ? Since you did not receive what you paid for?

 

Same here. Sounds like a vendor issue unfortunately.


I know that with non-live items anyway, that it is commonly accepted that the seller is responsible all the way to the hands of the buyer... Or at least to their front porch. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/wink.gif





I had an issue with something I bought from ebay, and another issue from something puchased elsewhere online (I don't remember where as it was a couple of years ago. Might have been an Amazon storefront for someone where Amazon isn't the one actually fullfilling the order.) and i nboth cases, the shipper UPS one time and FedEx another, messed up and the stuff was damaged. It was the seller that had to eithe reship, refund, discount, or whatever for me, and it was their responsability to take things up with the shipper.





The same thing happened when I was helping my mom sell a bunch of stuff on eBay. She was going WAY above and beyond on the packaging to make sure that items made it to their destinations. We had 1 person get s broken item. It was a very rare collectible doll from like the 1940's or something. Couldn't be replaced. We were told, by eBay, that we were "legally responsable" until the item was basically opened by the customer. We were a litle shocked that we were expected to not just get it to the person's address, but that it had to survive a game of "kick the box" by the neighbor kids, being tossed around by the family dog, etc until it got opened. Not saying that those things happened, but that was my question to eBay about it when they brought up the "seller is responsible until the item is opened by the recipient" statement.


There is a lot of vague information online about who is "legally" responsible for the shipping, but even major online fish/coral shops have a DOA policy, and of which will at least refund the cost of the item, which still doesn't cover shipping but is better than nothing. Heck, even LiveAquaria will refund your cost (minus shipping) or replace and THEY cover the overnight shipping for the reshipment.


All in all, I still say that this is a vendor issue. An issue for them to resolve for you, and an issue in how their treat their customers.

 

not if it wasnt the shippers fault & it was listed in the terms of service.

The shipper did their part by getting it to fed ex. http://bluezooaquatics.com/guarantee.asp http://saltcritters.com/faq-guarantee/

 

I have always dealt with online vendors that took care of me if anything happen before it gets to me. I guess I have been lucky. I know gonzos has a 5 day guarantee on all his corals so I order quite a few time from him just for that reason. I also check weather before shipping like xroads does. But I have had several delivery on Fridays with no problems. I did have a problem with one on a Saturday so I will NEVER receive on a Saturday again. A good vendor will take care of their customers. There are only a few vendors I will deal with when shipping sps frags or colonies. Because they can be very touchy with temp changes and some just don't ship good at all. So find a few good vendors and stick with them or its a gamble. Good luck Rod. Sounds like you have everything taken care of.

 

That sounds good.

He is out as well as he is replacing corals that cost him money.

The one at fault (fed ex) gets off scott free again.

 

Even at other places, and with my own personal experience, there were plenty of disclaimers and terms, and even though it WAS the shipper's fault, the seller was still responsible for refunding the money and placing a claim with the shipper.





Glad that it worked out in the end. Nice to see that they did the right thing even if they had a disclaimer or term of service that got them off the hook (or maybe they didn't). /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/biggrin.gif

 

Sorry Rod!! I just saw this after getting online. :9( Looks like you have it resolved... Hopefully everything goes smoothely this time! FWIW, I try to do all my transactions through PayPal and my credit card company. It's always ugly when something goes wrong, unfortunately!

I am currently going through something similar with Zoa Paradise, also known as Midwestclownfish. I have had others contact me about their problems with this hobbyist. All I can say is "BUYERS BEWARE!"