Hi there,
My name is Cristian I'm new in this forum and this is my story: I bought insects on eBay (I do it, sometimes), specifically 5 praying mantis at a price of 52 euros shipping included.
These are very special animals and they need special care because of their background (they come from a tropical place). All of them but 1 arrived dead.
No communication from the seller. He had several problems shipping to Spain before and he took my money but he never mentioned that.
Food was not enough. Since there was no food around available for them (they eat fruit flies)
Shipping was too slow (said by others too) he can offer a more expensive service and I would pay the cost so I don't lose 52 euros.
The seller said they were second instar but they were first instar (they molt their skin up to 9 times, instar indicates on what stage of the molts they are). The higher the instar, the higher the chances to survive. Also you pay more for higher instar mantis.
Because they come from tropical places they need humid environments. Both me and the seller live in Europe, so what people normally do is to add a wet cotton to keep humidity levels high so they can molt without getting trapped on their own skin (most died molting from the first stage to the second on shipping, if he would've sent them as second instar, as said on the description, they would have survived because they take a lot longer to molt to the third stage)
We had really cold weeks despite we are on springs. I know, we can't control weather, but sometimes sellers offer heatpacks that I would have paid to ensure the survival. This is not too relevant, but just adds to the whole problem.
I provided all this information along with pictures to PayPal, but they asked me for a certificate from veterinary of the dead insects. I'm not sure about you, but where I live, asking something like that would be so stupid that they would either laugh at me, or even feel offended. A death certificate for an insect? Basically PayPalwas telling me: no help for you, at the same time they automatically allow the seller to continue with this "SCAM", yes scam, and I'm not exaggerating, they know that all the mantis going to Spain are dying (because they had a lot of negative feedback about this), they know the shipping they are paying is too slow, they know they are sending 1st instar mantis instead of second as they state on their description, and they don't care because PayPal support them.
And the best part is yet to come, PayPal not only doesn't refund me my money and other's, they allow this seller to keep scamming, but they also remove the negative feedback from all the buyers who complained against them.
This is a screenshot that I made while the case was open on PayPal, he originally had 7 negative feedback when I've checked the first time but only had 4 when I went for the screenshot
Screenshot
And now he only has 1 negative feedback, mine doesn't appear anymore:
Profile - Magic! From 8 neagtive feedback on the last 12 months to 1!
This is so frustrating, I spent tons of money on PayPal, and is not even about the 52 euros, because that is nothing compared to the money I spent with them, but the situation in itself is so ridiculous, and PayPal support is so inefficient and useless... If you can't do your job properly, at least don't touch the only power we have on this cases, our opinion through feedback.
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