Just received a snake, and im pretty certain that the snake I received is not the one from the advertised photo. The patterns are different and its lacking the spotting it had before.
I confronted the seller, and they said “Cameras don’t always show the proper colors, but he was also going into shed when we sent him out to you”.
Id appreciate some second opinions, as well as advice on how I should proceed. I would like to return the snake and get my money back.
I attached the original photo of the snake, and then photos from their instagram and a tiktok they sent me. Lastly I added a photo that I took.
Honestly it’s hard for me to tell because of how small the pictures are, and I can’t fully see the top-down view of it’s head and neck pattern in the last picture (which is the one you took, correct?), but yeah, from what I can make out none of the pattern (to me at least) seems to quite match up to the one in the ad. There aren’t enough large keyholes on it’s side, and the neck pattern isn’t quite right either. But I would need a full view of your snake’s side and top to say for sure.
As for what to do in this situation,personally as long as the snake is the correct sex/visual genes (assuming you’re not dealing with any hets), I think I’d just keep him rather than hassle with trying to ship him back and hope the seller is honest enough to refund me.
Yeah. They sent me the tiktok they made after I had already purchased the snake. So before I even received the snake in the mail (but it was already on its way) I was pretty sure I was mislead.
We take misrepresented ads very seriously, but honestly, as @nmarcellus notes, the images you’ve provided are not the easiest to make judgement from. With that said, with what I can see, i agree with Elisha, these do look like different animals.
If you have exhausted all possible attempts to work things out with the other party, you can fill out this form: https://www.morphmarket.com/incidents/ . It will help us expedite our investigation as well as create a permanent record in our database.
After you’ve filled out that form, an emailed copy of it will be sent to you. Please reply to that email with any additions or changes you want to make to your original statement, as well as any relevant attachments such as photographs of the animal from as many angles as possible and screenshots of any text messages that took place outside of the original MorphMarket Inquiry thread.
I would ask to see the complete ad as opposed to just the photo in the ad. There are some sellers that have multiples of the same morph and use the ‘Representative animal pictured’ tag. So if that were the case here then it would not be misrepresentation
Is it just me, or does the one in the ad seem like a slightly older snake as well, size wise? It seems more robust in general, but that could very well be because of how it’s laying and because it’s on a plain background.
Either way, it’s definitely not the same animal. I didn’t think about it being a representative photo though. Not all the sellers I’ve seen do it will use the tag for it, but they will generally mention it somewhere in the description of the ad. However it sounds like the seller is claiming it is in fact the same one?
I agree with @t_h_wyman .
Sellers will put in (small print sometimes even!) That the pic you’re seeing is just a representational photo. That might be what happened especially if all the pics after, are of the one you have.
Here is the entirety of mine and the breeders conversation on the topic. Im not sure how I feel about only receiving my refund after they receive the snake…
If you look at the pattern on the right side of the snake near its head it thickens up very slightly about an inch or so back. The same pattern in that spot can be identified in your photos.
Taking photos of a snake in different lighting, with different backgrounds, and with different cameras can yield very different results in regards to color intensity etc. But identifiable patterns will remain.
The seller should probably invest in a better/more accurate camera setup or use different lighting but if that snake is healthy I think you should keep it, given it is the same snake that was portrayed in the ad.
The representative photo is part of the Standard and higher Membership plans. When this feature is used their will be a notification tag right under the image on the ad that looks like this…
If a seller is not using this tag to indicate that the animal for sale is not the exact one in the picture then we are extremely unlikely to side with them.
I still would like to see better pictures of the one they sent you before giving my definite opinion. One from above of it stretched out, preferably with lighting as bright as the sellers pictures.
Now going off of the response from the Seller in the above messages I would say that is extremely professional and there is not much more you could ask from someone that doesn’t have a large collection
This is correct. Sellers have a lot more to lose than buyers by not refunding another party.
Going by these two photos you can see the pattern is the same behind the head. Regardless of color variation, which is caused from different background/lighting, identical pattern means it is the same snake.
Actually sorry, I take that back. Looking at the second connecting pattern back in the photo from the ad it is noticeably thicker. In the OP’s photos it looks like a very thin connecting point. Maybe these aren’t the same snake. Tough to tell from such a low resolution/poor photo from the ad.
