wasted money&time!

[Roberto A]

After a few years without buying anything from Petr Pavelka nursery (I had problems with all my previous oreders: every time there were plants sold with wrong names, I received damaged plants and so on), I
bought again from him last spring, hoping he would have improved his
standard.... NOO!! I received damaged plants, due to not careful packing in
my opinion, but he said it was due to bad italian postal service (he knows a
lot: he can even say if the damage was done in Czech Rep. or Italy....); I
received a rare (and costly!) Haworthia with a PRINTED label with different
habitat data from those in his catalogue.... but he said the label was wrong (!) and the data OK, as in
my order... (who knows??). Then, in late summer, I flowered some Pseudolithos
cubiforme seedlings I bought from him in the spring: the flowers were
"wrong" in my opinion, so I sent a picture to him and he admitted they were hybrids. Then, even because he did not even say “I am sorry!”, I asked for my money back: he told me that if I wanted the money back, I
would have to send back the plants. Just not to have problems, I write to
him a few times (now, it seems he was very busy at that moment...) asking
detailed instruction on how he wanted to have the plants sent back; I even
asked if he wanted insured mail, but he said to send the plants "in the most
simple way"... So, I sent them by priority mail. After a few days, he wrote
to me saying the plants were "squashed by bad packing" (even sending a
picture were two seedlings were NOT squashed at all, but just had they roots
removed by someone..... And, by the way, it seems impossible in any way, as I
send them inside a rigid box -one of Mesa Garden seeds- and plants may be
"squashed" if the box goes under a bus, only!) and that he does not refund
dead plants!! Then, I wrote to him a few times, but have had not any answer:
so, it seems he did all just to keep my money and, at the end, I lost my
money, my time and even more money to send the plants back.... and he also has the plants back!!

I can not consider all that "normal"!!!

Have any of you had any similar experience with him??
Any suggestion on how to have the money back?

Roberto.

[Geoff Lovell]

Roberto.
I always try to use PayPal in my transactions, I know some people are averse to PayPal but they do have good insurance if you have any problems.
I cannot comment on this seller having not bought from them, others have and no doubt will comment.

[Roberto A]

Geoff,
thanks for your comments.
Do you think PayPal would have refund my money in such a case? It sounds very strange to me..., but I am not an expert.
Let see any other comments....

[iann]

Paypal is highly skewed towards the buyer in these cases. State what is wrong and you usually get your money back. For the seller, it is a torturous process to contest such cases. There is a fairly short time limit for claims.

[McFarland]

I've bought from him a few times now,

Not really all that impressed with the packing, almost all of the plants I got I received no label with it (unlike say Specks orders)

Only way to identify the plants is by a number written on the bag they are packed in, which is often written in the worst handwriting ever, so I must spend alot of time by process of elimination working out what things are. Not fun when you have similar species or same species from different habitat etc.

Only reason I shop from him is it's cheap, and many Euphorbia have info about where they are from etc

[Chris L]

It seems to me that this last 18 months or 2 years if something has gone wrong with an online purchase the seller (in general, not just plants) has been more likely (than previously similar situations) to create as much hassle and fuss as they can.

At one time they would refund no problems and would often write the item off so you didn't have to return it. In the case of recent problems I've had the seller has tried every which way to wriggle out of giving a refund. The most recent one claimed that the book had been damaged in transit (it was missing it's endpaper/ex-library).

Sadly, I think that a) a lot of the "professional" sellers, be it books or what ever, are now retiring or passing away and we are getting left with less experienced sellers who have little or no selling / customer relations knowledge. and b) they are that desperate for sales and the money that they are really up against it.

I used to sell loads of "stuff" on eBay and now you can't give it away. So I hate to think what it's like for people trying to make a living out of it.

[Roberto A]

I would like to comment on same of your ...comments:

-Ian: as I have been aware of the "hybridiness" of the plants when they flowered a few months after receving them, I would have not had any refund from PayPal, in my case...

-McFarland: many plants with locality data and low prices were the reasons that convinced me too to try again, but at the end I have found he still is unreliable (and if you can identify a wrong species it is nearly impossible to do so with wrong localities!) and not so cheap: small cactus or Crassulaceae are cheap, but if you look at caudiciforms or Euphorbia they often cost much than from Exotica, for example....

-Chris L.: may be you are right, but Specks, for example, still refound you without too much troubles and, then, even if I can understand these are bad times for seller, I can not accept someone "take" (just not to use the right word!) my money to resolve his own problems!!!!!!

[Keith L]

So how often do you ask a supplier for a refund, Roberto?

[Roberto A]

Keith....
the answer is : every time I do not receive the thing I have bought!

Even if I am quite young, I have been buying C&S for about 31 years. Living on an island, I have bought many plants/seeds by post and spent many thousand Euros... I generally order seeds from 4-5 different sources every year and buy plants from 3-5 diferent sources every year, usually more than one time/year from some of them (from Exotica, for example, I have been buying every time they put new plants in their Internet shops, that is 3 times a year during the last years).
So, going back to Exotica/Specks (that I consider a good sources) I may say I have had 3-4 plants substituted/refunded out 20-25 orders...

Have youbeen more lucky with your purchases by post?

[Chris L]

I would like to comment on same of your ...comments:

-Ian: as I have been aware of the "hybridiness" of the plants when they flowered a few months after receving them, I would have not had any refund from PayPal, in my case...

-McFarland: many plants with locality data and low prices were the reasons that convinced me too to try again, but at the end I have found he still is unreliable (and if you can identify a wrong species it is nearly impossible to do so with wrong localities!) and not so cheap: small cactus or Crassulaceae are cheap, but if you look at caudiciforms or Euphorbia they often cost much than from Exotica, for example....

-Chris L.: may be you are right, but Specks, for example, still refound you without too much troubles and, then, even if I can understand these are bad times for seller, I can not accept someone "take" (just not to use the right word!) my money to resolve his own problems!!!!!!

He should refund without question.

I think what we are seeing with online trade now is the experience of buyers (in general) catching up and passing that of the sellers (in general). I think buyers are becoming more knowledgeable about what they are buying and are in some cases buying from fairly inexperienced sellers. I think some sellers struggle even to see when there is a problem.

I get a lot of hassle off sellers trying to pass on to me ex-library books with out them saying they are. Unfortunately for them because of the sorts of books I collect are often ex-library in most cases I can usually tell a book is ex-library before I open the packaging!

How did you pay for your plants?