Aquabid, what would you do?

We ordered some hongI cichlids off of aquabid, well they arrived alive at least to us. But there were two females that were bagged together, and all the cichlids were in blue water? and the females were beat up so severely that I put them in a Q tank and am treating them w/ a high dose of melafix and of coarse giving them the vitachem I am giving the rest of my fish.
I emailed the guy I bought from, because I didn't want to give him neg feedback, but I didn't want to give him post feedback saying what "beautiful fish" I got, because honestly.. the only one that was "beautiful" was the male, and he laid on the bottom of the tank for an hour when I got him... He hasn't emailed me back and its been since Friday. I know he has been online since then, he has put up several more auctions. This has really upset me, and what really bites is if I give him neg feedback I will get neg in return eventhough I paid timely, and he gave me sickly fish and not to mention I paid him extra for different shipping, and got an email saying "oops I made a mistake I will send you the extra money u sent I sent your fish throuh usps" I never received my money back. I am up in the air about what to do, I have some auctions on aquabid, so I don't want neg feedback.

I have ordered off of aquabid before and never had any issues w/ the fish I have bought, and this guy had perfect feedback (like 170/170) and had had cichlids for I think 10 years? and bred for 8 of those years.

 

Angela, here is what we did when we had a situation like that...

Remember the situation for a while. You have 45 days to post feedback. Keep a watch under "my account -> Leave feedback" of the count down clock of time remaining before you can no longer leave feedback. Time it out so that at your closest convenience to the end of the count down leave him negative feedback making sure to set the truth out there on the comment box, so others can see that.

We did that with a guy that was very unprofessional and very tardy on shipping. We sprung the neg feedback on him 5 minutes before the 45 day window closed... it was 4 in the morning that he got negative feedback.

Another thing you can do along with this...

We were high bidders on an auction for a very vibrant orange cichlid. We get an e-mail the other day from an apparent ex-customer of the seller of the auction. The ex-customer was saying how he got the same type of cichlids from that guy and they were a pale yellow strain rather than the orange strain that he was advertising and that the seller refused to deal with him to get the problem straightened out...

So apparently the guy e-mails every potential customer of the seller with that information.

 

Okay, it sounds like the male just went through shock of the change. That seems normal. The blue stuff is an anti-fungal, anti-parasite chemical (it has a few other traits that make it useful in medicine and the like).
He put two fish that can get territorial in the same bag and they roughed each other up? That is a huge problem, in my opinion. (Anyone who has shipped cichlids, feel free to weigh in and correct me. I'm operating on theory here).

As far as what to deal with him, don't leave him feedback. He will leave reciprocal feedback if you do (I like that eBay has completely gotten rid of buyer's feedback. It had become a joke, where sellers were refusing to give feedback until they were given good feedback).
With the shipping thing, I would send him another e-mail, politely (key word. Very difficult, but very important) stating that you need the refund or you'll have to go to Aquabid (or Paypal, or your credit card, whichever one of them has the authority to mediate deals in this kind of thing, depending on how long has passed since the transaction, what kind of rules Aquabid has, etc...) to get it. It is illegal, and probably against Aquabid's rules, to not provide the service that was paid for.

Edit: CWC has a better way of dealing with feedback, in my opinion. I still like that eBay doesn't have buyer feedback anymore, but since Aquabid does, CWC's method is great.

 

The blue water is more than likely methlyene blue, a chemical that has the properties SDS stated.

Saddly, we have run the gambit of good to bad, on the auctions and personal dealing with other fishkeepers.

 

The blue water is more than likely methlyene blue, a chemical that has the properties SDS stated.

Saddly, we have run the gambit of good to bad, on the auctions and personal dealing with other fishkeepers.

My next question then about the methlyene blue, doesn't it have copper in it? and isn't that bad for malawI cichlids?

I agree that we have to basicly gamble w/ the good and the bad w/ dealings w/ people.. that really bites... I am so glad that this auction was one of the cheaper ones I have won! The other ones that I got were 60$ but I guess that's what you pay when you are looking for paticular malawi's...
the polits and cynatilapia afra haI reefs were my expensive groups, then my flavus were a little cheaper.... The flavus came all the way from Omaha and they were all bagged separate and very much a healthy group... the polits and cyna. were from NC and all separate and healthy...

Then this HongI group were from NC but a different guy than the other NC guy and this happend..... I hate giving someone neg feedback, I would honestly rather deal w/ him through email, and if the girls live which I think they will they do not like each other which has been apparent when I put them in the Q tank, I have went through the trouble of making extensive rock work for them so they have hiding spots in a q tank no wonder they looked so rough from a bag.... but they are eating, and actually beg for food and act just like all my other cichlids...

So if they pull through w/o any infections and the guy refunds my difference in shipping I would be willing to give him pos feedback, am I on the right track? The only other thing I would have a prob w/ is if the meth blue has copper in it and it would hender their health in any way....

 

There is no copper in meth blue.

 

There is no copper in meth blue.

Okay, that makes me feel better, I must be thinking of some other medicine for fish then. Some kind of ich medicine. Shows how little I know about ich, of coarse knock on wood that's a good thing for a fishkeeper to not have seen ich but one time in a lifetime of keeping fish . It was on a cheap guppy from a lfs. It killed out an entire population of fish I had including my favorite pet, my peacock eel... I was LIVID to say the least... I just remember seeing the white speck on that guppies fin when I set down in the car before I left town, and thinking it might just be a nip... and then by the next day it was all over the fish.. and in two days all my fish had it...

 

Glad to have been able to help out.

 

If you're not wanting to leave negative feedback, would you be comfortable leaving neutral feedback? Still conveys that you weren't totally happy with the transaction, but less likely to have retaliation for it! I completely agree that aggressive fish should not be shipped together like that. I"m glad to hear it sounds like they're going to be ok. Hopefully they give you the money they owe you back. Good luck!

 

Edit: CWC has a better way of dealing with feedback, in my opinion. I still like that eBay doesn't have buyer feedback anymore, but since Aquabid does, CWC's method is great.[/quote]

HI SDS
I sell on ebay from time to time.. and was surprised to see your post that Ebay has gotten rid of their feedback option. When did that happen?
I notice that there is still a feedback option going on there and that new feedback is left every day?
hmmmm..... This is what I found through Ebay. I like the new idea that sellers can not leave neg feedback especially since at times it was not warrented. But there are times that it would be such as if a buyer did not finalize an auction. But it is true, that most folks are afraid of leaving neg feedback for fear that they will in turn receive neg feedback.
This is copied from the site:
In May, we made to the eBay Feedback system to increase buyer confidence and improve buyer and seller accountability in the marketplace. I encourage you to review the changes, especially those designed to hold buyers accountable and provide sellers protection in the new system.

When we made the changes, we said we would closely watch the impact and, if needed, make adjustments. Today, we announced the following two adjustments:

• Neutrals will no longer count as part of the Feedback percentage.
  
  Since we introduced changes to the Feedback system in May, 2008, buyers have significantly decreased the amount of neutral Feedback they are leaving for sellers. Now less than 0.5% of all Feedback left is neutral, and this percentage continues to decline. Since we have removed the ability for sellers to leave negative Feedback, we are confident that buyers are leaving neutrals to represent a neutral experience and not to avoid retaliatory negative Feedback.
  
  All customer Feedback percentages will be recalculated retroactively by late August.
• We will provide buyers with the ability to revise Feedback left for sellers.
  
  Everybody makes mistakes—buyers and sellers alike. Buyers should be able to change Feedback if they make a mistake or if the seller rectifies a problem in a timely manner. Unlike Mutual Feedback Withdrawal, buyers will be able to revise the Feedback, with this new process not just withdraw the rating.
  
  There is a difference in the buyer experience when a buyer receives the item as expected the first time, so, we will limit the use of the tool so that sellers who make fewer mistakes can be differentiated from sellers who make more mistakes.

 

I couldn't belive the changes they made w/ ebays feedback. But it did make it more comfortable as a buyer to leave neg feedback when we needed too.

My situation has been straightend out, I got an appology and the guy said that he would no longer package the fish that size in the same bags, and refunded the difference in the shipping. He also w/o me leaving his feedback gave me positive feedback. So, all and all the appolgy and the concern for the fish in his email made me feel better so I did leave him pos feedback because I am not one to retaliate, it would take a really bad transaction for me to leave neg feedback, he might not have got my first email after I received the fish Friday.
The hongI are spunking up and doing better and I am planning to move one of the girls into the tank as early as tomm. The other needs to rest a few more days. I will still treat the main tank and q tank w/ melafix. They are showing no sign of bacterial or fungal infection from the nips/tears. My oldest cichlid we call Nemo (shes a red zebra) when we got her she was missing one of her side fins and could barly swim, I treated her for a week w/ melafix and she has been w/ me through the toughest of times, and me a cichlid newbie when I got her not to mention she was a 3$ mixed cichlid tank girl.

I have had a couple ebay transactions that the seller made me pretty upset and I settled it by email instead of leaving bad feedback, one kept promising they would ship it out in 2 weeks, and I have yet to receive the item or the refund but luckily it was a 3 dollar item. I guess you have your good/bad experiences on ebay/aquabid. I am a bid internet shopper where we live out in the country.

 

Sounds good that things were fixed. That's always the number one thing. I've only left bad feedback once, and that was after about ten tries to get the situation fixed by e-mail. People make mistakes. As long as they're willing to fix the mistakes, I'm usually happy with the service. ;D

 

Yea, that's how I am, my husband just got off the phone with me and after I told him about the guys email the first thing he asked was did you leave that guy good feedback because it sounds like he was a nice person that just made a mistake.
I am the person who hates returning stuff to stores, etc I will eat food at resturants that taste awlful, and still tip bad service (not as good as good service).
But I grew up w/ an aunt that would embarass the whole family in resturants by always asking for the manager and demanding the food be for free because there was something always wrong w/ it. It was horrible.
I would hate to see her feedback left on ebay lol.

 

I'm so glad it worked out. With a 170/170 rating, chances were that the seller would come through for you. Sometimes we are so upset that our fish have had a bad journey that we rush to react negatively when it was all just a mistake. I am so glad you took a breather and waited AND that it was resolved. Sellers are people too - you never know why they haven't had a chance to respond to emails...Of course,on the flip side, there are some unscrupulous ones out there.

With that in mind, cross your digits, we have a large order of fish due in tomorrow!

 

I'm so glad it worked out. With a 170/170 rating, chances were that the seller would come through for you. Sometimes we are so upset that our fish have had a bad journey that we rush to react negatively when it was all just a mistake. I am so glad you took a breather and waited AND that it was resolved. Sellers are people too - you never know why they haven't had a chance to respond to emails...Of course,on the flip side, there are some unscrupulous ones out there.

With that in mind, cross your digits, we have a large order of fish due in tomorrow!

how exciting, what kind of fish are you getting?? I love fish day!! lol, I always get up at 8am an basicly wait at the door for the delivery w/ my containers to get them ready for the tanks. (whew I need a life lol I am really obsessed w/ my fish). Actually I have ordered so many fish lately I need a new tank, I am thinking of a South American tank or a Lake Tang just to have a reason for new fish.

 

PATREA!!!! Your tanks are full!!! (Inside joke, sorry outside folks. )

(Dino made me do it!! )