EDIT: Just wanted to update and say that everything worked out and the seller was being honest. We met up and I got the snake eventually It’s easy to go into a spiral when you’re just waiting with anticipation!!
Original post: I’m new to MorphMarket and came here to look for an IMG boa. It’s my first time buying a snake (but def have had a snake before) so yea a little green to the marketplace…basically I paid 2 weeks ago and still haven’t gotten my snake and now im worried I may have gotten scammed… would love to get your opinion.
I wanted to pick up locally so chose a breeder in my state. Contacted the seller (who has about 100 5-star ratings, pro account, been on MorphMarket for years, buyer protection) about an IMG RLT at 50% off ($700). He asks me to text him to discuss further (first mistake). I do that and we get on a phone call. He seems friendly and responsive enough, answered my questions knowledgably. He says he’s on a work trip out of state for the next week since he owns multiple businesses but he has an on site husbandry manager who may be able to meet with me to give me the snake. I ask for pics of the parents which he doesn’t because he’s not physically there and has hundreds of snakes but sends me links to his FB business page and says pics are somewhere on there. The posts on the pages go back years and show tons of snakes, him and his family etc, so I thought it was legit (didn’t occur to me the person I was communicating with could be impersonating). I ask if he happens to have an IMG motley and he says he would need to get home next week and check since his employee doesn’t know genetics. I agree to pay for the IMG RLT in the meanwhile and if he doesn’t have the IMG motley I would just keep that snake. He asks me to pay via PayPal friends and family to avoid taxes and fees. The PP handle and name match his info so far so I pay in full (I know, I’m stupid). Well it’s been 9 days since I last heard from him and i even gave him a day to decompress after he said he’d be flying back in before contacting him, but no response. I’m starting to get antsy. I paid 2 weeks ago but still no snake or update. Did I just get scammed or am I just being paranoid? I just read Moroh Market’s buyer protection guarantee and it said to keep all communications and transactions on the site which I didn’t, and I paid PP friends and family… do I have any recourse or am I SOL? what should I do next?
Yes he was silent for 9 days. He said he got back from his trip yesterday. I contacted him this morning. He actually just replied this afternoon and said he’ll check on the snakes on Monday. I’m getting nervous with the repeated stalling though. Do scammers do this so you don’t report them or the time frame for opening a dispute lapses?
I had a back and forth with a breeder for 2 months. Shipping was just not working out between different things that popped up. So sometimes issues do happen.
It is a bit odd putting off a local pickup for that long, unless they were already out when you contacted them? Since they say they’re just back from a trip give them til Mon.
In the meantime, I would screenshot the conversation you had off MorphMarket just in case. You would need to contact support on the market side regardless for any issues, so you would want to have those ready if they do drop contact again.
The multiple reviews, full Facebook page and info where the names all match are all good signs.
As a warning for future purchases, I would avoid using Friends and Family. Obviously the first reason is you loose the ability to file for a chargeback if you do have an issue. The other reason is that you can be risking your own account by using F&F to avoid fees. A seller needs to pay their own fees, they also should absolutely not charge you a fee to cover them.
To me, this doesn’t sound like stalling. This sounds like a busy business owner who is keeping you apprised of the situation.
I think, as of right now, there’s nothing here to support that this is a scam. The seller is still in contact with you and has given a timeline of when you will hear from them again. Even if MorphMarket were to intervene, which they have no obligation to as the transaction occurred off platform, the seller is still being responsive. In addition, had the transaction taken place on MM SoL on non-delivery is 60 days from the agreed upon date or 90 days from the date of payment and you’d be nowhere near either of those. As for PayPal, as @armiyana mentioned, you can’t dispute F&F payments as sending via that option to avoid fees violates the ToS. Your only real option would be if you used a credit or debit card, in which case the limit on chargebacks is usually 120 days unless otherwise stated.
In my personal and professional opinion, the chance this is any sort of scam is incredibly low. It really just sounds like you weren’t aware of how the process works, the seller didn’t walk you through it, and you’re rightfully a little wary of how this will go considering the amount of money in play. You’ve been given a date, I’d see this through and come back if you have further issues.
He did say during our initial phone convo that he was currently out of town. Retrospectively I just didn’t think that this could be a scam tactic at the time until I had that week of silence to think about things. And definitely learned my lesson on Friends and Family.
Thank you for sharing about your 2 months. Must have been nail biting. But yea I’ll try to be patient. Hopefully he doesn’t say something else came up when Monday comes around
I have locked this thread as it is clear that communications and the transaction are still in progress as of right now. If you have concerns about timelines, I do suggest communicating those with the seller directly.
It’s easy to go into a spiral when you’re just waiting with anticipation!!
I just read Moroh Market’s buyer protection guarantee and it said to keep all communications and transactions on the site which I didn’t, and I paid PP friends and family… do I have any recourse or am I SOL? 