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What a sad day! I ordered some fish from this person on ebay. They seemed quite knowledgeable, were sending 2 plants, 6 snails, and 7 young guppies. However, today I recieved the package. It only took 4 days total shipping time, but the fish were FRY!!!!!! They were dead!!!! And the plants, well one was a torn off peice of a plant, and the other is tiny and scraggly. The fish and the plants were in the same bag, the snails were missing, I only counted 4 young guppy fry! They couldnt be more than a week, 2 weeks old at most.
They were packed in a white kitchen garbage bag, and there was almost no air in the bag.
Ah, what a sad day. Those poor babies didnt stand a chance. And she seemed so knowledgeable!
]:|]:|]:|

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All I can say is, that really sucks.


I didn't know eBay was allowed to sell fish though...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

There are a lot of things you can sell on E-bay. As far as being allowed to sell on E-bay, this isn't any different than the fish auction site that people often advocate here for mail-order purposes.

And Sneaky...boy, did you get ripped off. The only thing you can even really do is to go tit-for-tat on bad feedback with the guy.

That does definately suck, contact the seller and explain the situation, there is a chance may try to make it up to you to avoid negative feedback.. If no help or no response then definately give negative feedback which will hurt their reputation as an ebay seller..

The Amazon Nut...

I am waiting for her to respond to the message I emailed her. I was completely under the belief that she was well-knowledgeable about fish and mailing practices. She assured me they would be "well packaged" with "enough air", and "enough space" for each fish.
Now that I have had time to think about it, It occurred to me: She put the plants in the water with the fish and sealed the box. Lights out. That would mean the plants would only use up oxygen and expend carbon dioxide, so I wouldnt be afraid to hazard a guess that before shabby packaging was the death of those little fish, asphyxiation probably got them first!
I didnt totally ream her out, cuz I am hoping she will make me a counter offer on some kind of i dunno refund or a whoppin load of snails instead. But I did tell her that I thought fish had to be at least 1/2 -3/4 inch or more to ship that kind of distance safely. I mean for Gods sakes, week old guppy fry could never make a 2000km air mail trip!
Anyway it just totally sucked.


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That's terrible

Keep us posted, I'm curious about what kind of response you get.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Well, she replied to me finally. She sounded horrified that the fish didnt make it. I explicated to her why i think they didnt survive, that it could be that the bag wasnt sealed tight and the air escaped, that the plants might have eaten up all the air in the bag, or that the kitchen catchers could be lined with a chemical that might have killed them, or that they were just too young to ship.
She claims to have a successful shipment before. Anyway, she is sending me a larger plant and a large group of snails to make up for it, free of charge.
Poor girl, I dont think she even knew what she did wrong.
I told her I wasnt angry, just perhaps she should have done more research before shipping.


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that sounds fair enough. but she really shouldn't be attempting to ship more fish until she has read up a bit on it. maybe post some feedback on e-bay explaining the whole thing. Say that your fish arrived in terrible condition but the seller was more than happy to compensate you for the loss.

End on a good note.

I'm sorry but if I had ordered anything and it showed up in worse condition than promised I would be livid. She very obviously does not know how to ship fish and should not be out there trying to sell them when all she is handing out is a death sentence.... it would have been quicker to flush them! Then again, I am so not trusting of people on ebay that I use a particular credit card that I know will refund my money back if I just give them a call and explain the situation. Then if the person or company complains to my credit card company they basically tell them to prove that I was satisfied with my purchase. Sorry to rant but your whole experience really ticks me off (for you, not at you).

-Beth

Last edited by bscal at 25-Oct-2004 18:42

I understand Beth. Believe me I was pretty livid too. But I didnt want to send her a totally pissed off message cuz the chances of getting anything in compensation would be slim Id bet.
She still figures it was the cold, but she had insulated the box with 2 inch thick foam insulation all the way around. I doubt the cold would have been that bad, geez, the LFS's around here ship their fish all the way from florida even in december, and thats a much greater distance.
Anyway, the snails and plants will do, but I would reccomend to anyone not to buy fish off of her (elissashouse), unless you are in the greater toronto area and can pick them up in person.
On another note, she did not believe me though that plants produce C02 at night and O2 in the day, she figures they produce 02 all the time. I tried to correct her, but it was like talking to a brick wall.
She is a nice girl, truly is, and didnt mean for this to happen, but just uneducated in the whole shipping fish routine.



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http://games.atari.com
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