Ebayer seller problems continue

[PhilG]

I thought I should inform people about my recent experience of buyer snowdrops from ebayer ricpo-754086.

I won an auction for G. koenenianus. Postage was prompt.
The plant was posted on 1st Feb and arrived on the morning of the 5th - 4 days in the post.

When I opened the box, I found a small non-flowering plant (the seller made no mention, that this is what was being offered), that was BADLY WILTED. A very small amount of moss was included in the bag with the plant, which was BONE DRY!!
The seller claimed it was moist when posted. But moist moss in a bag doesn't go bone dry in just 4 days.
I sat the bulb in water as soon as I got it, in the morning. Througout the day it continued to wilt and by the time I went to bed, it hadn't recovered any (over 12 hours later). I expected it to be dead when I woke up, but found that it had finally taken up water. So hopefully in a few years I'll get to find what he did send me??

But even worse than this - Even though plants this small can't normally be identified, G. koenenianus is so distinct that it was clearly not the plant advertised.
As we know G. koenenianus has heavily rigged underside of leaves and has supervolute vernation. This plant has no ridges and applanate vernation.
As I already have 2 seedgrown plants of this species (I wanted a 3rd for genetic variation), I know that these features are obvious on even small plants.

Initially the seller said "I will check the labeling on my pots", as well as saying mistakes are easily made. Mistakes can happen, Yes, but they should be 'easily made'. After further contact, the seller said nothing about any mix up, just "I do know a lot about snowdrops but even so i don't class myself as a expert".
So I'm guessing he doesn't have G. koenenianus?

Now fair play, he did give an immediate refund. But a small, half dead plant, that wasn't the species ordered, deserved nothing less than negetive feedback (in my books).

I know he has made other sales this year of 'G. koenenianus', so if you are one of those buyers, have a good look at the leaves!

[annew]

That's so disappointing for you. Would be interesting to see his feedback.

[PhilG]

Thanks Anne. Yeh rouge sellers are a problem to all of us.

Interesting developements, which I think speak loudly about this seller.

He started by telling me 'his brother' lives round the corner/over the road from me (a strange coincidence as he is from North England and I'm in SE Kent). He also sent me details about the front of my house to further prove he lives over the road - He has clearly been on Google Street View.
He also said 'his brother' bought from me 2 weeks ago and hasn't left feedback yet! another strange coincidence, especially as I haven't sold anything in over 2 Months! Another veiled threat.

He says in his feedback "These bulbs were bought from a Chelsea award winning grower" .... "we got intuch with the Chelsea grower and he could not believe the feedback". He doesn't say who this supposed grower is and hasn't responded to my requests to know who it is.

Then this evening he's also messaged me "Please could you revise my feedback ime not happy with myself as i am having nothing but bad days
please do it for me."

Maybe I'm being 'too hard'? but this seller sounds like nothing but a fraudster to me.
So if anyone has bought anything from him, BEWARE. Thankfully for me, I bought a species that is so distinctive, it couldn't be mistaken with anything else. But if you get one of these very small plants sent as something else that isn't distinctive, you'd never know until years later, by which time it's too late.

[PhilG]

Unsurprisingly, some (and probably all) the photo's he uses aren't his!

I've tracked down the origin of 2 of them.
His G. koenenianus photo is from Paul Barney's Edulis website.
His G. "Chameleon" photo is from Richard Bashford.

I wonder who he pinched the rest from.
Who wants to bet on whether his plants are actually 'Organic' as stated ?

[PhilG]

Paul has contacted him for using his photo and this guy had the check to tell Paul it wasn't. Paul is taking it up with ebay.

I've reported him to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice.
But when I tried to report him to Action Fraund (as Citizens Advice recommended) I was told it wasn't 'fraud', as I'd been refunded, so there was nothing they could do.
All I want to do is stop others suffering and loosing out at the hands of this guy - it shouldn't be so hard.

He's also selling 'seed bombs' which he claims contain Native Wildflowers, but also contain Red Flax (native to Algeria), Black Cumin (a spice from the Middle East),
Sweet Ayssum (presumably Sweet Alyssum) and Crown Daisy ( Native to the Meditteranean).

I just hope Trading Standards will eventaully deal with this guy

What am I doing wrong when trying to attach photo's?
I've just tried to add a pic of 'his' growing guide - which is probably from someone else.
I click on the Attachments option and select the photo from my comp.
But when I preview, a black box shows up with - Attachment C:\fakepath\
I had exactly the same yesterday when I wanted to add the pic of this wilted plant. What am I doing wrong???

[Maggi Young]

What am I doing wrong when trying to attach photo's?
I've just tried to add a pic of 'his' growing guide - which is probably from someone else.
I click on the Attachments option and select the photo from my comp.
But when I preview, a black box shows up with - Attachment C:\fakepath\
I had exactly the same yesterday when I wanted to add the pic of this wilted plant. What am I doing wrong???

Not sure what the problem is - please see this thread  https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=65.0     Hope that helps.

[PhilG]

No I don't either?
On another forum I can just click on my computor pics and that site hosts the photo's and I insert the hosted pic at the same time.

I'm using the Attach: Browse selecting the pic on my comp and the title of that pic shows in the browse box. I select Inline Expandable Thunbnail. But when I PREVIEW it does as I said.

I wondered it my pic was a tad large, even though only 80kb as it was a tad over 700. But I've reduced it further to 510 x 690 72.82kb. But still no change.
My pic is a jpg and I use irfanView, if that is relevant?

OK PROBLEM SOLVED
It was just the PREVIEW that wasn't showing the photo as being there. Once I hit send post, the photo appeared as it should.

THE PIC BELOW is a notice this guy sends with his plants. My guess is that like everything else, it's been 'borrowed' from someone else.
Anyone recognise this from any other seller / Nursery ??

[PhilG]

But a RESULT.
Ebay seem to have SUSPENDED HIM. As no items now show up for his 'items for sale' and he did have about 80.
Obviously Ebay don't readily suspend sellers as it hits their pocket. So they've clearly considered there was a real problem with this guy.

I'll keep an eye out and inform people when/if he returns.

Anyway, now I've figured out the pkoto issue.

Here is what arrived with me after just 4 days in the post. A very wilted plant and bone dry moss. This was all in a bag, inside the box, so no reason for it to have dried out.


And this is a close up of the 'supposed' G. koenenianus.
Which is just so not right. It could easily be just a G. nivalis??


Which is my guess.
He seems to have started out a few years ago mainly selling G. nivalis and Wild Garlic  (I wonder if his local woods have been loosing any ??).
Only more recently selling less common hybrids and species. I wonder if he figured that for these, if he sent a tiny plant, no one would know until it was too late.
As I say, I'm not saying this IS what has happened, only a possibility.

[PhilG]

Well that didn't last long. 

He's now back selling. Haven't yet checked if there are any changes to his listings.

Something strange going on that I've never noticed/seen before.
Generally when you click on an ebayers feedback 'all feedback', you see it as MOST RECENT FIRST. But when I now click on this guys feedback 'ALL' you get a 'MOST RELEVANT' order list. So you don't realise he's had bad feedback, except that it does record his one negetive.
So it seems you can 'hide' recent bad feedback by changing what order people see it. But even by looking at my own feedback page, I can't see how this could be done. But it seems strange that that is what I'm getting on his feedback page, regardless of whether I'm signed in or now. STRANGE.

[partisangardener]

Another plus with his manner is that sending plants in poor shape on the brink of death, evidence for his fraud will rot fast away.

[Alan_b]

We were fighting eBay snowdrop fraudsters 10 years ago and more.  Indeed the latest North Green Snowdrops catalogue make reference to information about a snowdrop called "The Groom" that was published here as a consequence of an attempt to prevent an eBay auction of what we thought could not possibly be a genuine example of that particular snowdrop.

The usual tactic then was to supply a bulb out of flower so it could not be identified as "wrong" until the time for seeking any sort of redress had long passed.  Or there was one instance when someone tried to pass-off some ordinary double snowdrops as something much better by selecting some neater-looking ones.  Supplying something so moribund that it is hard to identify is a new one on me, and a bit risky because it is likely to be rejected.  Sadly, what doesn't seem to have changed in all this time is eBay's reluctance to take any action.       

[Maggi Young]

Ebayer seller problems continue it seems - buyer beware!