I should have remembered my own advise.

[sweetjblue]

Now I've been purchasing plants on eBay for several years and the times I've been disappointed have been few and far between. Mostly I've been happily surprised.
Plants were bigger than stated, came in spike or flower which was not stated, you get the idea. A good deal.

Recently however I purchased a plant which showed 2 pictures of a plant with the statement " This plant comes ..........". To me that meant the plant shown was the one on auction. The plant size was OK for the price and it was one I really wanted so I bought it.

Well the plant I received was half the size/ half the growths of the one in the pic. Naturally I contacted the seller thinking they had made a mistake. The response from the seller was that they were selling more than one of the same plant (though not at the same time, listing was only for one), " its hard to take pictures of them individually." and "actually you got one of the biggest plants." HUH????? REALLY????? Could have fooled me!! Mines HALF the size. Needless to say, I'm not happy and those are lame excuses as far as I'm concerned. I call this misleading to say the least and less than honest.

So my point is this, even if they say something like "This plant comes..." unless they state that the plant in the pic is the EXACT plant you will receive, don't assume, ask the seller if that is an example or the one you will receive. Find out what your going to get before you push that buy button or bid, or you may just get a "little"surprise rather than what your expecting.

Yes, I should have known better and followed my own advise and usually I do but sometimes you just forget to do it.

OK, off the soapbox! Thanks for letting me vent!!



Judi

[MrHappyRotter]

Hopefully your next experience will be better. It always dampens my enthusiasm when things like this happen, and it's part of the reason I limit how much/often I purchase and why I'm selective about whose stuff I'll bid on.

Ebay is a total crap shoot. The ratings aren't even all that useful anymore either. I wish Ebay would/could be a little more involved in resolving these situations. But my experience has shown that the company really isn't concerned.

I'd like to add, that several companies now sell on Ebay to attract customers to their own ecommerce sites. One of them is Seattle Orchid and I have to say, I'd like to give kudos and recommendations to them, their plants have always impressed.

[My Green Pets]

Who was the seller? Do share.

[sweetjblue]

Suffice it to say it was a seller on eBay for a number of years with 100% FB, doesn't list alot but enough that I recognized their name.

This post is more about being cautious and doing your homework, not meant to give a seller a bad rep.

I do have to say that other than the plant being only half the size of what was shown, right now, it appears to be healthy. Time will tell if it came with any hidden (insect) problems.

Judi

[Bulbofett]

Originally Posted by sweetjblue

Suffice it to say it was a seller on eBay for a number of years with 100% FB, doesn't list alot but enough that I recognized their name.

This post is more about being cautious and doing your homework, not meant to give a seller a bad rep.

I do have to say that other than the plant being only half the size of what was shown, right now, it appears to be healthy. Time will tell if it came with any hidden (insect) problems.

Judi

If the item was not as described I would leave a negative or at least neutral feedback after trying to resolve with the seller first.

I had to do that for the very first time, recently. Of course I've received some plants that were smaller than expected, a bit of yellowing, late shipments, etc... but this one was just too far from the description to go unnoticed.

I hated to give out the negative feedback, but the seller just kept prolonging the case. They only resolved after Ebay stepped in and told them their options. This was after a month of back and forth.

Learned my lesson with that one. Even if the seller has 100% positive feedback you need to check out how many items they've sold, and what those items were. This might not necessarily be the case with your seller, as you said you recognized them.

Prior to this plant they'd only sold one other one. The rest of their feedback was generated from book sales and crafts. So while they may be an excellent vendor for books, their plants were a different story.