Orchids on ebay:( Not a happy customer!

[Optimist]

I bought what I thought was a large bulbophyllum orchid in a 10 inch pot through Insitu Orchids on e-bay. It was very expensive. This person seems to sell a lot of bulbophyllums, and seems to have a somewhat professional manner. Well, I started to re-pot it, only to find it was about 25 or so clippings or cuttings, most useless old bulbs. Hardly any were even good enough to call "divisions." It was almost as if someone swept up the floor and tossed all the bits and pieces in a 10 inch pot and slapped a price tag on it. I sent a note to the vendor, but it has been several months (I bought it back in April). You can do as you like, but I will not buy from this vender again. I was looking for a large plant and not a pot of bits and pieces. I did pot them separately in hopes that after a few years they might yield some plants. I do not have the room for bunches of pots of plants growing on my orchid shelves. This really gets my goat.

[Leafmite]

I am sorry to hear this. I only purchased once from Ebay and it was from someone highly recommended. After hearing so many negatives, I have not again tried. I hope most of them will root for you and you can resell to help recoup your losses.

[Subrosa]

Sorry to hear that. I've purchased 2 plants from the same vendor with no issue, but the way he's handling (not handling) this issue doesn't leave me disposed to deal with him again.

[fooferdoggie]

I have had pretty good luck on ebay.the only one that did not work right was a coconut orchid that was supposed to be in spike. it was healthy but not in spike. I have had the worst expense from a big vender not on ebay so you don't always know.

[Optimist]

Well I sent him an e-mail, saying he obviously knew what he was doing, and knew what he did. He sent one back saying he was one of the best bulbophyllum growers in the world, dropped Bill Thomas's name, called me a baby because I would not talk on the phone, told me I was an amateur because I wanted to re-pot right away (there were slug eggs in the spagham moss), crowed about all his awards, and of course said that none of his other customers ever complained. He showed me a great picture of the original plant. Yeah, sure, it is huge and a beauty, It might have been a specimen, but I got the clippings.

He is right that I am a being a child about not wanting to talk to him. I really would not have said a thing, but for some reason I thought: Hey, I have rights too.

I was not saying his plants were bad. I was saying he did not inspect the plants before deciding what a single plant was.

[Leafmite]

That is just crazy! Did the listing say that it was one plant or a specimen sized one? If not, there is not much that you can do, unfortunately.
I am sorry that he isn't being more reasonable but if there is nothing you can do, console yourself that, with proper care, some Bulbophyllum grow into specimen plants very quickly. Our OS is lucky enough to have Edgar Stehli as a member and he grows quite a few Bulbophylllums and it is amazing what he brings for our show table!

I looked up the place and it lists Jeffrey Tyler as the owner. I will need to ask Edgar Stehli if he knows the guy or has heard of him.
Here is a little information about him:
http://www.orchidsanfrancisco.org/wp...Newsletter.pdf

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

That is just crazy! Did the listing say that it was one plant or a specimen sized one? If not, there is not much that you can do, unfortunately.

The problem is not what he said, it is what he did not say.

If the description had said "expect a 10 inch pot with up to 25 different parts of this orchid" it would have been accurate.

No, it said: "Very nice, very large E.A Buckleberry..." and throughout he referred to "the plant." This, in English, means there was one plant.

I am done with this, I see he has come to OB to stalk me as well.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I often trade (and very occasionally sell) a few plants to people that express an interest in a plant that I "show" online, or when I want to obtain a division of a plant that someone else has.

I try to let people know if the plants are a certain size. Photo shared if possible. Sometimes I have some tiny cuttings or divisions I throw in as "freebies" with the main plant I am trading.

Point is, it is not that hard for an e-bay seller to accurately represent what they are offering. The corrollary, unfortunately, is that it is also easy to mis-represent if a seller wants to.

Whether I buy from a vendor website, or their store online or in person, I expect them to be up front about what is sold. Throwing a bunch of snippets in a pot and presenting it in a photo as representing a plant is just as dishonest as those "rainbow rose" or fake orchid seed offerings.

Vote with your wallet and avoid this seller. Optimist, thanks for the warning.

[Optimist]

Tyler no doubt is a big guy in the Bulbophyllum family of California. He sent me a lost of all his awards. The fact that he joined this forum, and on his first post, posted every one of our e-mail messages kind of disturbs me. That is a kind of weird vindictiveness centered on retaliation because someone was not pleased by your service (imagine if you were a store owner, and someone said that you sold them defective goods-- would you post their letters to you? I mean, that is kind of crummy.) Oh well.

Since it was his first post, how was he able to post pictures? Weird.

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by Optimist

Since it was his first post, how was he able to post pictures? Weird.

I've been trying to figure that out for quite a while. A lot of people post photos on their first post. Others have to wait. I haven't figured it out yet.