Bad experience with orchids-forever on Ebay

[hhilgen2]

My husband ordered an aerangis fastuosa and ascocentrum for me for mother's day. He even made a new account to order them as a secret, which he told the seller. The aerangis was listed as "in bloom" with a picture of the blooming plant and the listing specifying that this was the exact plant being purchased. No disclaimer about it possibly being out of bloom by the time of shipping, etc.

Package arrived quickly, ascocentrum was in fine shape. Aerangis was out of its pot, with no flower and a spike with a spent node. All but 2 of the roots were rotted. I immediately contacted the seller for a resolution. They became hostile off the bat saying that " It is hard to keep up with hundreds of plants in a greenhouse" and that "It showed no sign of bad roots".

I understand that mistakes happen and said as much, sent a picture as requested.

Seller offers 50% refund or sending back on our dime. I said I would like full refund or for them to pay shipping as the plant was NOT as described and was in poor shape. They said:
"Ok so you want to keep the plant and want us to issue you a full refund for the plant. As you probably are aware our auction states we do not accept returns. We did apologize about us forgetting to remove that the flower was spent and that is why we offered you a 50% refund. As we mentioned it is hard to keep track of hundreds of plants in our greenhouse when one may have a flower and when it fades.

But in regards to the plant itself we did ship you a healthy plant that just finished blooming. There is no reason as you state it will be rehab and if it survives. There is no reason the plant should not keep thriving especially since the photo you sent shows new roots.

We are sorry but we do not issue full refunds on a plant and the buyer gets to keep it. Again we will issue you a 50% refund."

I say that this is not acceptable and we will escalate through Ebay for a fair resolution for all. He counters:
"We do believe a 65% refund is fair and you get to keep the plant. You state you have bought many many orchids over the years on eBay well your userid shows you have been on a couple of months and have only 1 positive feedback. That is odd. You also state that this is the first issue you have had. Well this is a first that we have given a buyer a full refund and they got to keep a plant for free. "


I say that I appreciate the refund, but not how we've been accused of dishonesty. I say I will not leave negative feedback on Ebay, but am inclined to post a review of my experience on Orchidboard due to his poor attitude:
"And we have issued you a full refund as you requested and you feel you need to warn buyers.......wow that is definitely hurtful to a seller."

Save yourself the stress, orchidfriends!

[Ray]

Stick to your guns. That plant should be worthy of a full refund if it had been billed as healthy. Then it's up to the vendor to decide if it is to be returned at his expense, or allow you to keep it. Either way, it is in recoverable shape.

[kentaki]

I have a story to share, too. I have also purchased two plants from her, and they arrived their blooms finished. I also complained because they were at the end of blooming, but nothing was mentioned in the description.

I contacted her, and did not hear for two days. I went ahead to give a negative feedback. She sure was not pleased. She wrote that her husband was ill, etc. I would have changed the feedback, but this is what she wrote:
"it is a shame that people have no patience" After reading this, I was no way in a mood to change feedback.

We continued exchange a little more, and I rebutted what she responded. She was successful to remove my comment and feedback, but I was successful to get a full refund.

That was the round 1. I tactically started to compare all pictures she uses for her auction. I promptly contacted owners of pictures. Many were removed, but she still uses two pictures from SBOE. One is Enc. prismatocarpa and the other L. jongheana. Anyway, I sent an email to somebody known for blue Cattleya breeding, who happened to be in the same state she lives. It got somewhat escalated, and he even tried to talk to her over the phone.

This breeder told me that somebody in the neighboring state sells orchids to this woman. The thing is, the owner of the nursery is known not to sterilize tools when dividing, cutting, etc. The breeder flatly wrote me that he had "never seen or had a plant from XXXXX that was not virused". I heard about the virus issue from another vendor who found out one of his purchase from the said nursery was infected. So I got two plants for free, but they may have virus.

Lately, she appears to have wised up because she uses pictures from Wikipedia, which are rights free. But she still have pictures from other people, and in one case, she Photoshopped. Just my wordy two cents.