Am I the only one who has had trouble receiving live plants sent through USPS? Or is this just lazy ebay’ers fault? I’m not sure who to be mad at the postal system or how some eBay sellers package there plants for shipping. It’s happened twice so far and I’m thinking that it’s really not worth trying to save money “by bidding” in there auctions. I’ll point out that both are seedlings and I only ordered one item so I’m not sure if this is any excuse to be so” I don’t care kinda attitude” The first arrival was a “2 for one win” which I won by default of the highest bidder “coryanthes vasquezii” what 2 for one? One seedling had 2 leaves with half of one missing and the other was just a bulb with 2 small dried up roots which of course had no chance for survival. The other just arrived yesterday. “Dendrobium Ekapol 'King Dragon” for some reason the Dens took about a week to get to me and they were mailed from Miami! I could understand if maybe I lived in another state. Both were wrapped crappy (not sure if I’m allowed to say that word but it comes best to describing the packaging) the Dens. Looked like they had started out good both looked reasonably sized for seedlings but they had been mailed in a small plastic bag with just some dry shredded news paper both plants are very dehydrated and the roots look brown and very dried out! I left them soaking in water over night and see a tiny bit of green this morning. Crossing my fingers .. : ( Also just to add I've ordered other plants from different websites who use fedx or ups and I've never had such bad results.
That doesn't sound like USPS fault? USPS has plenty of shipping options and insurance options that meet 95% of people's needs regardless of what's being shipped. It's not really Ebay's fault either, they're just the shopping mall. Your issues sound like they rest only with the seller?
you really need to check feedback before bidding!!! i've opted to not bid on plants due to numerous (and recent) negatives with regard to packaging and condition of plants upon arrival. you even need to read the positives...i've seen lots of comments that were generally positive although they do mention a bit of disappointment with condition of the plants when they arrived. you also need to read the description very, very closely - if they state 'what you see is exactly what you are bidding on' then you will/should get that particular plant. if they say 'this is representative' then you're taking a chance on getting something much smaller than what is pictured. in general rooted plants or rooted cuttings are much better than unrooted cuttings. unless you're talking about cacti...then unrooted should be okay as they can really handle no water for a bit (and need time to callous over before being planted). contact the seller and ask for replacement if you really believe that what you received was not what you purchased and/or it was damaged in transit. if packing was lacking, even without it being insured, they should replace it. if it's insured, then the post office will refund the cost of the item to you...you'll need to get the paperwork from the seller and take it and the originally packaging and the items in it to the post office for the claim to be processed.
Sunrize, I would tend to put the blame on the seller. As a result, I rarely buy anything on eBay unless I know the seller and know for certain they have an excellent reputation. There are several on this forum who are wonderful sellers on eBay and always deliver top quality plants. Most of the time they will send you more than you expected! But unless you know that in advance, eBay (in my opinion) is a gamble. Worse is the fact that I see plants advertised on eBay all the time that I know for certain are not the species being advertised. I don't know how eBay would patrol this, and I'm certain they don't want to, but unless you are very knowledgeable about any given plant and buy solely by the name, there is no telling what you may receive! Last year the same seller from, well, a country on the border with Europe and Asia, sold under three different names and almost never delivered what was advertised! Several times they used what appeared to be a photo of sliced potato selling them as very rare plants in at least three genera including orchids! One time they were asking $99 as an opening bid for this pile of sliced potato! The seeds of almost all orchids are almost microscopic! Several people reported on UBC they fell for the scam and received the seeds of noxious weeds. My point? Buyer be aware! Really aware! There are so many great sellers on the net who will guarantee their packaging and delivery I would not consider eBay plants UNLESS you are certain the seller is really good. Now, I'll say this right here, Gypsytropicals, BriansBotanicals and NSExotics are great sellers! And there are several others I'm aware of. I have ordered from all of these several times. Almost always the feedback score will tell the tale!
i'll add in that mojocactus is also a reputable seller. very, very pleasant to work with, willing accomodates multiple purchases combined for one shipping price; ships PROMPTLY and packs the potted plants SO ingeniously (sp?) that barely any of the soil/sand comes out during shipment. has correctly id'd and healthy plants and he sells the plant pictured (iow, what you see IS what you get).
I never really paid to much attention to this EBay thing and then my husband bought a couple items on there and got a pretty good deal and then I started looking at the Orchids and got kind of caught up in the bidding ( I’ll admit I was heading toward being a little addicted.)..lol .. and I really didn’t understand or should I say paid attention to this feedback thing …so in the future I will definitely pay more attention to the details especially the shipping (I don’t want to wait a month for a plant to be shipped out according to there shipping schedule and then a week later after shipping it, it arrives half dead … to be honest I’ve become a little turned off by my experience with Ebay...:-( you live and learn...
