Ebay seller: sjos_2015

[estación seca]

I'm not familiar with eBay at all, nor the process for posting reviews. When I tried to read it a few years back it seemed opaque and convoluted, which is one of the reasons I don't trust eBay. I've been surprised that people I know won't do business with people who don't have a 100% postive rating. Anybody who has worked retail knows there are lots of customers who would be unhappy if you filled their living room with gold bars for free.

If it's really hard to leave negative ratings maybe that is a partial explanation.

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I'm not familiar with eBay at all, nor the process for posting reviews. When I tried to read it a few years back it seemed opaque and convoluted, which is one of the reasons I don't trust eBay. I've been surprised that people I know won't do business with people who don't have a 100% postive rating. Anybody who has worked retail knows there are lots of customers who would be unhappy if you filled their living room with gold bars for free.

If it's really hard to leave negative ratings maybe that is a partial explanation.

It's a lot more than that, actually, and a good part of it comes from the fact that eBay doesn't want negative postings. I've seen situations where the seller clearly ripped the customer off but eBay put up so many hoops to stop a negative feedback that nothing happened. The eBay corporate policy is to protect the seller, who, after all, pays the bills. Ebay doesn't care if the buyer's OR seller's living room is filled with gold so long as theirs is, and the best way to keep the gold flowing in is to make sure that the sellers keep selling.

That said, there are some excellent people selling on eBay. Two of whom I'd name are John Nelson of Louisiana Orchid Exchange and Peter Lin of Big Leaf Orchids. Both are honest, sell healthy plants, and seem to put the satisfaction of their customers above their personal desire to make a buck. I buy from both regularly, though there are few eBay sellers other than them whom I trust.

As a slight aside, on Amazon you can buy from Andy's, and occasionally there's a plant he has on Amazon that's not on his site; when he gets to about 15 plants left he takes the listing from his site.

[Leafmite]

Andy's is really great...I took part in his recent bare root sale and everything was very healthy.

With all the disappointed stories on the internet about Ebay plants, I would be very careful. First look for the orchid from excellent vendors like J&L, Andy's, Exotic Orchids of Maui, Hausermann's, Al's Orchid Greenhouse, etc. and make certain that they do not have it. I have noticed that when googling for an orchid, sometimes these vendors do not appear in the search results. With Hausermann's, looking through the species list can be very interesting. Then, there is Ecuagerna. You can look up their shows to see when they will be in the country and order orchids to be mailed to your home when they arrive for a show.