How to leave feedback when they sell to someone else?

I was in communication with a seller for at least 2 weeks communicating back and forth, told them if they needed any details to let me know etc as it was my first time using the site and suddenly today they tell me they sold the snake to someone else!
If they needed a deposit they should have let me know I’d have been happy to give it asap but now I’m just left feeling frustrated and lied to. Also, since they set the listing to being ‘sold’ I can’t leave any feedback of how I was treated during it all and worry others might end up being messed around with too.

Is there any way to actually leave feedback after they do this?

There is no way to leave feedback on a seller that you did not complete a transaction with.

I’m going to be blunt, I don’t mean this personally but rather as a outlook on business as a whole, not just the reptile world.

Money comes first!
No matter what.

Until you have paid for something then you have no claim over its possession. I understand it is frustrating, belittling and down right rude in your eyes, but to the seller they just want the deal done and dusted.

If sellers waited for everyone that said they wanted a certain snake, they would still be waiting for 90% of them to pay a year later and only make 10% of what they would selling to the first to pay.

To guarantee that you get what you want, especially in such a fast paced business, you have to be prepared to drop the money on inquiry or risk losing out.

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Two weeks is a long time. If I see a snake I want to purchase but need held, I ask on inquiry if they will hold… after purchase. Once agreement, money follows immediately.

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I can see why they sold it to someone else, if you didn’t offer to put at least a deposit down right away. Money always talks in this hobby.

I’ve had to turn down buyers before because someone else was faster in offering payment, which sucked because I felt bad about it… but that’s how it is in a competitive business like the reptile market.

A good way to combat this is look at several similar animals, and narrow it down to your first choice/second choice/etc… then if one falls through, you can try the next one. The Saved Items list on the marketplace helps a lot with this. At least then you’re not scrambling trying to figure out what to do next!

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There is a way to leave private feedback.

About 5 days after your inquiry, you’ll get an email that invites you to fill out a short survey of your experience. We can’t show this kind of thing publicly on the site, but we do collect this feedback per seller, and when we have access to it as context when we are investigating other situations.

Sorry for your frustrating experience.

We do discuss this a bit in “What Buyers Can Expect”

Most sellers will not hold an animal until they have received payment or at least received a non-refundable deposit. This means it’s possible that the animal you inquire about could get sold while you are exchanging messages with them. While this feels unfair, please understand that inquiries can last multiple days and often do not lead to a sale. For this reason, it’s impractical for them to hold an animal anytime someone asks about it.

However, not having reviewed the conversation, I understand that it was surprising and frustrating, to not get any guidance from the seller.

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Try inquiring , them seeing your inquiry an hour afterward, and not getting any type reply for almost 2 weeks before seeing the bp sold. Sometimes people can be frustrating, but in your case, you should have been more aggressive to putting money down when you are actually getting communication. Too many people ghost from what I gather.

I do not inquire unless I plan to buy, usually if I have any pressing questions, I’ll ask them in the first message along with how they would want to do payment.

Thank you for everyone’s responses, as I can see now I should have been more forward with putting down money first, but I honestly didn’t know that’s what was expected as they’d been talking with me during that entire duration fairly promptly and never once mentioned that they wanted a down payment - They were even talking about organising a courier for me, waiting to hear back from them, so I assumed they were just doing it their way and would let me know their details to send them money when they were ready.

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I definitely understand how you can feel frustrated or having a feeling of being let down when this happens.

As Tom mentioned tho, money talks. Breeders usually expect money down to either hold the animal, or for straight out purchase. I know it’s kinda weird to pay for something before you actually get it, but that’s the way it’s done in this hobby, and mainly to protect the breeder.

Sounds like they were doing a very good job with communication and that’s a good sign of someone who has good customer service.
But usually breeders won’t tell you the details of payment without you inquiring first. Partly because if you ask when can I pay, what type of payment do you accept, can I pay in installments if needed, and here is my zip code I’m ready to purchase, shows them you’re serious and ready to buy. Since this breeder communicated with you before you asked those questions, I’d still try and work with them. They seem to have done a good job with their service and all in all it’s a learning experience you can take away.
Trust me when I first started a long time ago, this type of stuff confused me too :+1:.

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I was just thinking about this, I’ve been in the hobby 12th years and selling for 8. Thinking back, I don’t think I’ve ever had a seller be the first to bring up money in a conversation, main details are generally listed in the ad, so I think that feels like an FYI has already been provided? And further, without thinking about it, I’ve never, that I can remember, brought up payment first either. Mmm, stick that in the “unspoken, subconscious, rules of etiquette of reptile transaction” section. I think because it both feels rude to push for and a question about it signals a non tire kicker buyer and to give it more serious attention, we’ve just moved this potential deal to the next phase of closing it. Tire kickers are common and most sellers don’t really mind it and have probably done it themselves at least a few times but yeah, most sellers have quickly had to develop a money first come, first served policy. When I started, I lost a lot of sales trying to be fair to everyone. Selling kind of sucks, at least for me, because it typically comes in droves. I’ve had ads sit for months with no inquiries at all and then get 6 in a day or 2. Used to try giving everyone 24 hours to commit or back out or even just not reply, before going on to whoever asked next in line. By the time the first 2 or 3 had done 1 of those things or the other, the last 3 would have already bought from someone else and I’d be stressed out, have wasted a few days and not have anything to show for it.

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