Why is there a Time Limit to Leave a Rating?

Now you know. Expensive lesson but essential. Should be one of the first things you do when you get them. Chameleons have different appearances so no need to sex them like snakes, right?

I suppose the REAL question should be what is an exceptable time frame to leave a review or adjust your review: 4 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years… and In there lies the problem.

for instance a person buys an animal that had been eating f/t without issue and then 9 months later the animal stops eating f/t should they then be able to go back and change the review because of something that is out of the sellers control??

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Well I’m not gonna say now I know. This breeder who sold these as a sexed pair at a high price should have to have a review reflecting such. Sorry. @thecrawdfather And yes chameleons are sexed before sold. Can mistakes be made. Yes. Especially if you aren’t experienced. If that happened to someone I sold to would I rectify it. YES.

And as a breeder for many many years, I always got back to people. And I always tried to help or make things right. Always.

The POINT of reviews is to reflect what type of seller someone is. I’d say this should be added to their reviews. Without doubt. They sold something as rare and as a sexed pair. And charged A LOT. Not ethical.

We’re talking gecko.

ok thanks for the clarification that helps a lot with perspective. :wink:

This can also be subjective. I have been a member of MorphMarket from the very beginning and prior to the ratings program you were able to leave a “review” so to speak of the seller that only MorphMarket and the seller could see. I received an inquiry on a snake, answered every single question the person asked (all 20) within a timely manner, sent multiple photos from every angle requested. The person decided not to purchase and the review i received back was " i seemed like i was disinterested in selling the animal. "
Not sure how much more interested i should have or could have been. :woman_shrugging:

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I get it. I know there are a ton of people who aren’t about being reasonable, fair or honest on both sides. And that makes it hard for people who are.

Perhaps if a seller is refusing to respond - and I guess this is why I went to MM - could they not at least contact the seller to say there’s an issue would you please respond to the buyer :woman_shrugging: Idk For me, a big issue is the non response.

But opening to drama and unfounded attacks - which I KNOW this industry has a bunch of ppl who love to do it - is not something to be open to or supported either.

I’m just asking for some sense of good business politics and etiquette.

Having said that - I’ve bought from a couple of other sellers on MM who have gone beyond what was paid for. Kudo’s to those breeders! Anyway … wishing all of you the best :wink: I’m sure I’ll live :stuck_out_tongue: Stay safe y’all :metal:

Well I’m not on the forums for it. @thecrawdfather And a busy chick. But ppl still do contact me to ask questions. Lol As always, I have no issue to help.

Not sure if I can mention my own company here ?? - now shut down (yeah I’m an old timer compared to many of you lol but not THAT old ha!) - not bc I wasn’t successful. I very much was. It was just time to semi-retire. I’m a writer and had other projects to start devoting my time to.

That’s awesome! And thanks for the input it’s good even if everyone doesn’t agree on the specifics I know they want to always be improving the service and it gives people something to chew on even if nothing happens right away.

I have broken this out from the “why can’t we rating on forums” topic, because the real question here, or debate, is “Should buyers be given an unlimited amount of time to leave negative ratings on sellers?”.

When people hit a problem, they typically overlook some things. First, they see it only from their own perspective. They also don’t realize that MM as a starting point doesn’t know who to trust and we get lied to by both sides. (Their view; of course I am telling the truth, now do something!) We have to seek out the truth or at least find a compromise. We do this both in how we set or policies as well as resolving individual situations.

The details of this particular situation:

  • Purchased Oct 21 – more than 6 months ago.
  • Currently we allow ratings to be left only for 120 days after the transaction. We just increased that from 90 to 120 days this past month.
  • After talking with the buyer we did remove the positive rating they had left.
  • Situations like this are very hard to prove. The buyer also has provided no evidence that what they claim is true, and it would be hard to do so.
  • The seller has already responded, on their own, and offered a refund or discount. Sometimes sellers just don’t check their messages that often especially if they are not year round selling.

Back to the big question though, “Should buyers be given an unlimited amount of time to leave negative ratings on sellers?” As has been mentioned above, we have set a 4 month limit on this time period, for a number of reasons. The most general situation would be killing the animal and then coming back and harming the seller for something they had no control over. They may do this genuinely or they may attempt to use this as leverage for cash or discounts.

Do our policies always optimize every situation? No… but that’s impossible. Our goal is the best possible system overall. The reason why this works out is sort of like karma. If a seller has bad practices, the ratings will catch up with them, even not everyone with a bad experience is able to rate. Thats our view of the bigger picture, and we understand that a user may not be thinking about that when they are seeking justice for their situation but cannot mete it out because they’re in an edge case. Truth will prevail, and that’s why our ratings system is both fair and useful.

All that being said, now that the rating system has been out for over a year now, I do want to review its policies in the coming year. For instance, I do support users being able to retract their rating. This is something right now that only admins can do. I am open to being convinced about other changes, but one must understand the many factors we are balancing.

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I just made my first mm purchase of 3 geckos and after keeping contact with the seller since December we both agreed upon temp and date. After receiving the geckos I realized there were some obvious husbandry issues with the animals overfed, bad sheds, multiple missing toes, still stuck shed. Somewhat upset, However I didn’t pay a lot for them and feel they are better off with me. I’m torn on wether or not to leave a negative review. I contacted them once I recieved them and told them they had arrived and we’re safe. I never heard from them again and it has been about a week. Do I bash the guy for being an idiot? Or myself for dealing with one? (The toes thing in on me,. I should of asked for full foot photos but that was me assuming others do what they can to keep happy healthy animals)

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I would leave a review reflecting the condition of the animals. If they were in poor condition, then leave a review reflecting such. But since you didn’t pay much for them and they had missing toes, were they wild caught? If they were wild caught then missing toes, tails, and scars should be expected.

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They’re leopard geckos, so missing toes is to be “expected” with poor care, (I guess). He has no leopards left since he gave me his other stating he has “no time for them”. I feel like that’s what I bought into. He has crested geckos left, But again it’s sadly one of those popular, simple gecko breeds. It’d be better to see them go else where than him be stuck with them over a bad review.

If he is a bad seller, give him a bad review. Don’t leave others to get animals that may be so bad off that they won’t survive. You have a duty to this community to inform people of bad sellers. Going without saying something could cause more issues in the future. If he gets enough bad reviews he won’t be allowed to sell anymore, which will possibly make him think twice about getting pets he can’t care for.

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Leave a bad review! Don’t let them continue practicing animal husbandry is such a poor fashion! Well, let them acts as vendors at least. I know I wouldn’t want to buy from whoever you’re talking about!

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This is an issue with good buyers and sellers too though. If a payment plan goes long and the animal was marked as sold and put on a payment plan, they cant review it when they’re done if it’s been too long. For newer sellers, the ability to “research” might be limited.

There is a “on hold” box to the side that you can check for this very situation. This way you can wait until the animal has been fully paid for and ready to ship.

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I do this and only mark the animal as “sold to” within 24 hours from delivery. I do it specifically since that initiates the ability for them to review. I think it helps anyways when the review reminder arrives right when receiving the animal is fresh and they are feeling excited.

I’ve added some new functionality around the time limit to leave a rating:

  • Within 90 days of inquiry (changed back to 90 from 120)
  • Within 90 days of being marked as sold to the user by the seller

The latter will allow sellers to “bump” the rating window date, either from the messages page or from the modify ad page by assigning it or re-assigning it as sold to a user.

In special situations admins can also use this feature to allow buyers to have an extended timeline. We just did so in a case where the seller had drug their feet for several months, included Paypal disputes, etc. The buyer had done everything right, and it merited leaving a rating.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Buyer Ratings