ivo
02-17-2008, 10:15 AM
Hi all, i thought i might share my recent disappointing discus purchase experience with fellow members here. Please forgive me that i wrote such long detailed post. All information are based on facts and no making up of story to make it more dramatic. I live in Sydney and have kept discus for five years, and currently i have 29 discus of various sizes. I bought all my discus in Sydney since i prefer to see the fish in flesh first before purchase instead of looking at pictures and buy discus from other States in Australia. I am bit conservative and like to check out the discus health, overall appearance in the flesh since photos don't tell everything.
I have been looking for some special fully spotted discus (spots on gill plate and face) for a while and no luck in Sydney. I was told that there is this experience discus importer and breeder in another State (Brisbane) who has access to top quality discus, so i phoned him to enquire. There is no A grade fully spotted discus available at the moment but he told me that he has just received a new shipment on the day we spoke. He said he received some good quality golden leopard snakeskin and some very clean red melon. I was very interested from the description so he emailed me the pictures. I was impressed with the GLSS especially there are couple of them in the picture which i fell in love immediately. I asked whether i can actually pick the ones i like in the picture and if this is not the way that he conducts the business, then i understand since i am only buying two GLSS (12cm). He told me to circle the ones that i want and email him back the picture. According to him, since i was the first person he showed these GLSS picture so they were all available to choose that time. I was very excited especially with one of my picked ones since it has a lovely round shape, spots are evenly spread and separated, and there are quite a few spots on dorsal fin. I was happy and thought it was my luck day. I then also ordered two 8cm clean red melon from him. During the wait of releasing from quarantine i further asked again whether i will definitely receive the two GLSS i chose and i received confirmation on email sent by him. I thought he confirmed in writing then it can't go wrong.
Two weeks later i went to the airport to pick up two GLSS and two melon. It was 11pm by the time they were released to me at the airport. Took them home and they were not the two GLSS that i circled for my chosen one. Instead of ringing him so late at night and jumped into conclusion too quickly and i spent about three hours studying the spots pattern rather than accusing someone wrongly. How i knew that they were not mine one just from looking at them in the bag? It is because they have the worse shape discus can possible have. They are the elongated american football shape instead of round shape. From the second i saw the shape i knew i was stupid trusting a complete stranger.
I phoned him the next day and the first question i asked was "can you put your hand on your heart and tell me that you sold me the ones i chose. He said no they are not what i chose. I was very upset on the phone and i used no bad language, but i have to admit my voice was louder than normal since i was very upset by his breach of trust. He said the ones i chose were sold to his other regular aquarium customer and he told me that he chose two good ones for me instead based on his knowledge on discus. These two GLSS have ok spots and colour but the point is he confirmed that one thing and delivered the discus that i didn't ask for. The worst thing is i hate american football shape discus and i will never buy them and here we are, he told me they are good one chosen by him. I would think many members here would agree with me that football shape is not desirable. Surely with his years of experience he knows no one likes to buy long shape discus. Our conversation didn't go well and the funny thing was his voice was louder than mine. He sounded more upset than me on the phone. At the end he said he will take a loss and told me to ship them back to brisbane and he will pay for the shipping. I guess thats what he meant by "loss". I further argued with him that i told him on the phone couple of time that i like round shape and absolutely hate long shape. There were many other round shape GLSS in the picture but why i was given two very long shape ones. He said if i want round shape they would cost more. Another point i made to him was if you want to charge more for better round shape why not say so, and instead he only gave me a flat price for these GLSS. I understand that this was the first time i purchased from him and i only bought four, so he probably would give the top quality ones to his other regular customers. Fair enough, but why confirmed in writing that i would receive my chosen ones? Otherwise i would not go ahead with the order and got hurt by the false hope he promised.
I decided not to ship back the discus for refund simply i have no trust in his words anymore. Also, i don't know how to ship discus to other State plus it is a long way from home to airport and i will also have to take time off work to do that. I told him that i wont be bothered to ship back for refund but i am considering to share my terrible upsetting experience with fellow members on forum. I will treat this as a lesson learned. It was not a threat i made to him, i just want to tell the truth and state all the facts to relive the hurt i got from being so naive and stupid.
He then emailed me on the same day after i said i am considering to tell this true story. It is funny that he wrote and said i phoned him simply for the sake of abusing him instead of accepting his solution to ship back. Again, there was no bad language used by me on the phone and i stated that the solution i want is to get the discus that i chose. I just want what i was promised and paid for. I further said that since they were sold to his other aquarium customer I would actually willing to pay again to buy them back (my thinking was i offered to pay again to buy them back the next day after they were released so there is a good chance that the aquarium wouldn't have sold them yet). In this case, there will be no loss to him. Unfortunately, there was no more reply from him. It is nearly two weeks now since i told him my resolution that he would like to know but have heard no more from him so here i am, have given him enough time to response but he failed, therefore, i decided to share my experience here and hope it is what this section on the forum is about. All of the above are facts and a lot of them are in writing via emails. I won't contact this guy again since there is absolutely no point. I consulted with my solicitor before i made this post and he confirmed that as long as i only state the facts.
I also decided not to report this matter to Dept. of Fair Trading. I understand that this is his long term business and he may have a family to support so i chose not to go down that path. It is a lesson learned not in terms of money but about too naive and stupid and take some stranger words for granted.
Any share of thoughts by fellow members are welcome and i would like to know what you think about my experience. Is it in fact this happens quite often in the discus market? Thank you for reading such long post.
I have been looking for some special fully spotted discus (spots on gill plate and face) for a while and no luck in Sydney. I was told that there is this experience discus importer and breeder in another State (Brisbane) who has access to top quality discus, so i phoned him to enquire. There is no A grade fully spotted discus available at the moment but he told me that he has just received a new shipment on the day we spoke. He said he received some good quality golden leopard snakeskin and some very clean red melon. I was very interested from the description so he emailed me the pictures. I was impressed with the GLSS especially there are couple of them in the picture which i fell in love immediately. I asked whether i can actually pick the ones i like in the picture and if this is not the way that he conducts the business, then i understand since i am only buying two GLSS (12cm). He told me to circle the ones that i want and email him back the picture. According to him, since i was the first person he showed these GLSS picture so they were all available to choose that time. I was very excited especially with one of my picked ones since it has a lovely round shape, spots are evenly spread and separated, and there are quite a few spots on dorsal fin. I was happy and thought it was my luck day. I then also ordered two 8cm clean red melon from him. During the wait of releasing from quarantine i further asked again whether i will definitely receive the two GLSS i chose and i received confirmation on email sent by him. I thought he confirmed in writing then it can't go wrong.
Two weeks later i went to the airport to pick up two GLSS and two melon. It was 11pm by the time they were released to me at the airport. Took them home and they were not the two GLSS that i circled for my chosen one. Instead of ringing him so late at night and jumped into conclusion too quickly and i spent about three hours studying the spots pattern rather than accusing someone wrongly. How i knew that they were not mine one just from looking at them in the bag? It is because they have the worse shape discus can possible have. They are the elongated american football shape instead of round shape. From the second i saw the shape i knew i was stupid trusting a complete stranger.
I phoned him the next day and the first question i asked was "can you put your hand on your heart and tell me that you sold me the ones i chose. He said no they are not what i chose. I was very upset on the phone and i used no bad language, but i have to admit my voice was louder than normal since i was very upset by his breach of trust. He said the ones i chose were sold to his other regular aquarium customer and he told me that he chose two good ones for me instead based on his knowledge on discus. These two GLSS have ok spots and colour but the point is he confirmed that one thing and delivered the discus that i didn't ask for. The worst thing is i hate american football shape discus and i will never buy them and here we are, he told me they are good one chosen by him. I would think many members here would agree with me that football shape is not desirable. Surely with his years of experience he knows no one likes to buy long shape discus. Our conversation didn't go well and the funny thing was his voice was louder than mine. He sounded more upset than me on the phone. At the end he said he will take a loss and told me to ship them back to brisbane and he will pay for the shipping. I guess thats what he meant by "loss". I further argued with him that i told him on the phone couple of time that i like round shape and absolutely hate long shape. There were many other round shape GLSS in the picture but why i was given two very long shape ones. He said if i want round shape they would cost more. Another point i made to him was if you want to charge more for better round shape why not say so, and instead he only gave me a flat price for these GLSS. I understand that this was the first time i purchased from him and i only bought four, so he probably would give the top quality ones to his other regular customers. Fair enough, but why confirmed in writing that i would receive my chosen ones? Otherwise i would not go ahead with the order and got hurt by the false hope he promised.
I decided not to ship back the discus for refund simply i have no trust in his words anymore. Also, i don't know how to ship discus to other State plus it is a long way from home to airport and i will also have to take time off work to do that. I told him that i wont be bothered to ship back for refund but i am considering to share my terrible upsetting experience with fellow members on forum. I will treat this as a lesson learned. It was not a threat i made to him, i just want to tell the truth and state all the facts to relive the hurt i got from being so naive and stupid.
He then emailed me on the same day after i said i am considering to tell this true story. It is funny that he wrote and said i phoned him simply for the sake of abusing him instead of accepting his solution to ship back. Again, there was no bad language used by me on the phone and i stated that the solution i want is to get the discus that i chose. I just want what i was promised and paid for. I further said that since they were sold to his other aquarium customer I would actually willing to pay again to buy them back (my thinking was i offered to pay again to buy them back the next day after they were released so there is a good chance that the aquarium wouldn't have sold them yet). In this case, there will be no loss to him. Unfortunately, there was no more reply from him. It is nearly two weeks now since i told him my resolution that he would like to know but have heard no more from him so here i am, have given him enough time to response but he failed, therefore, i decided to share my experience here and hope it is what this section on the forum is about. All of the above are facts and a lot of them are in writing via emails. I won't contact this guy again since there is absolutely no point. I consulted with my solicitor before i made this post and he confirmed that as long as i only state the facts.
I also decided not to report this matter to Dept. of Fair Trading. I understand that this is his long term business and he may have a family to support so i chose not to go down that path. It is a lesson learned not in terms of money but about too naive and stupid and take some stranger words for granted.
Any share of thoughts by fellow members are welcome and i would like to know what you think about my experience. Is it in fact this happens quite often in the discus market? Thank you for reading such long post.