So a week ago I purchased a sunglow boa on MorphMarket and the seller asked me to share a screen shot of my forecast which showed lows in the low 30’s. The seller said we’d have to wait until temps came up, which totally reasonable. He told me to keep him informed once the forecast shows better temps. Today I sent him a message letting him now that at least right now the forecast the week on Jan 27th is showing lows right around 40. He responded that we need the lows to be in the 60’s before he can ship. Has anyone ever heard of this. We won’t have lows in the 60’s until probably at least may, or later. He never marked the snake as sold or on hold and had me pay by PayPal friends and family. I told him that if he was going to have such high temp requirements for shipping that he needs to have that stated and that if he was going to hold the snake for that long that I wanted a refund. And now nothing but radio silence. Has anyone ever heard such a high temp requirement for shipping and what recourse do I have? If I got a refund, I’m going to a local reptile show this weekend where I could maybe pick up a boa I want.
Did you read the store page TOS? They don’t always have that info on the sale page so it’s always good to check that too before a purchase.
That said, it sounds like the breeder is putting the safety of the animal over the FOMO. Is it really that important to have the animal now? I know I’ve waited 4 months for weather before on the snake I wanted. However, ghosting messages is never okay.
I don’t work with boas personally, but I do try to avoid the minimum temps as much as possible. Even last week, the only reason I did ship a snake was because the low was 49 and the snake was going to a city a 3 hour drive away. So not a long stay outside of a building.
If the snake has not been marked as sold or hold and the ghosting would be reasons to check in with MM support. (Email Support[at]MorphMarket.com)
Depending on the seller’s policy they may not be able to help negotiate a full refund but maybe a partial since technically the animal was on a weather shipping hold and now you’re backing out. Non-refundable deposits are fairly typical because of reasons like that.
Gonna tag @eaglereptiles for eyes on this.
They have no TOS on their store page. Requiring lows in the 60’s is not reasonable. Use a heat pack and insulated packaging. I had a hognose and a SSTP shipped to me in November right at 40 degrees for lows.
As Christina said, this is one where you should probably contact customer support.
A few things to be aware of in the future: A thorough seller shouldn’t be asking you for your weather if they know where they’re shipping the animal. It is their responsibility to know the weather at the departure, hub, and arrival destinations. Always check the about and store policy sections, the lack of either can be an indicator of how much time/effort they put into their operation. Also, I know a lot of sellers have it as an option, but do not use PayPal F&F for your purchases. If you do this, your purchase isn’t covered by PayPal’s protection policy, and it’s against PayPal’s terms of service. MorphMarket has a help page on this topic:
To be fair, they didn’t insist on F&F. They requested it and I obliged because I was trying to keep it friendly. I can tell you that I will NOT do that again.
Yeah … I missed that PayPal F&F bit.
It’s basically paypal service charge and tax evasion.
F&F doesn’t get reported as a taxable amount since it’s meant to be a gift for friends or family. Same reason for not having the service charge, which if the seller also asks you to pay for separately from the animal’s price is another red flag. The seller is responsible for the service charge they incur.
Also, if there’s no TOS on the page, they do still need to adhere to the default MM TOS, so don’t forget to give that a readover as well