I am not a breeder, just someone who likes snakes, and keep a few as pets. I tend to send very cut and dry messages, I would like to purchase this animal my zip code is blank. Then they see the message within 20 min and and leave me on “Seen,” then a day later it is marked as on hold or sold. If someone sent you a message before me, thats totally cool, but if you took the time to read the message couldn’t you at least send a short reply? Is saying “Sorry, no longer available” too much to ask? I try to be courteous and not message more than one breeder at a time so I don’t become a “Ghost Buyer,” and my first buying experience on the site was good, but Idk I just might have to be “one of those buyers” since breeders seem to be just as bad. Not saying it applies to everyone, it’s just frustrating.
i proudly become ghost buyer if any breeder do that actually a breeder answered me 2 months after we talk a little and we became friends
Not everyone answers their messages as they arrive
even if seen and for several reasons, a lot of people have real lives they have to (tend to getting kids ready, going to a real job, taking care of the animals, shows, enjoying a day of rest, etc) so they may read all their messages to get back to them later on.
When you are at a show you may read your emails and not answer until after the show is over that day or next day or even monday and that animal may have likely sold.
I understand people want everything and want it yesterday but the reality is that it does not happen that way, because there are things in life that take precedent and people have to prioritize, they can’t just drop everything because someone want’s them to.
24 hours is pretty common.
yeah true 90% of the breeder around in my country are hobbies actually only 1 do the breeder for job
I totally understand that, even the first breeder I bought my sand boa from took about a day to reply because we do all have lives outside of our jobs and hobbies. I mainly brought it up because someone made a post about ghost buyers, but I feel like some of the breeders do the same thing and I was wondering if people were having similar experiences.
I guess it depends on what you define as rude. Sounds like you are referring to breeders who don’t respond.
Everyone’s busy, and some breeders have learned that inquiries which are super short tend to represent people who send out dozens at a time (unlike you). It might surprise you to know, they feel or felt the same way, many inquiries where the buyer is never courteous enough to follow up to their reply. Now there are some breeders who know it’s worth a chance replying and some people who fit your profile do buy.
We plan to add more tools to help breeders better tell apart the “tire kickers” in the future. But aside from that if there’s something that interests you I recommend using a more unique sounding inquiry message.
You might also try targeting breeders with more ratings. Sometimes people inquire on the lowest priced stuff, and yet are surprised to not get premium communication.
I’m still a new breeder on MM. I try to answer all emails in a timely manner. My fiance and I have 7 kids, we are all busy at some point throughout the day. I am a full time breeder and stay at home dad/teacher. There are some of us “breeders” that are available 24/7 with the exception of life getting in the way. I have come across many breeders that reply within 24 hours and are absolutely amazing people. I’ve also encountered (more often than not) buyers that send short questions and then ghost me. It is part of selling animals in general.
I actually have had the issue of ‘rudeness’ come up, but it was because the communication itself was lacking in basic manners, not that there was no communication at all. There’s a big difference between short & sweet, which is great 
, and terse and uncaring 
. I actually feel bad for giving my money to such a bum-head, I hated that I was reinforcing that kind of behavior… but I was weak and couldn’t resist the animal. 
I try to answer inquiries in the order that they arrived, but I will admit that polite, coherent messages take priority over the ones that are rude or downright ridiculous. I’ve closed threads on people without directly replying to them. What I really hate is when the entire message is JUST the ZIP code.