Sold Buyers Beware!!!

[MorandiWine]

Hey everyone

Just a heads up about an ebay seller (ya I know, its a gamble) with the name of “orc393” aka “LA Orchid, LLC”. I bought a few plants from this vendor, none of the plants arrived with roots, two were rotted and all of them are obvious “flips” where they were purchased and then quickly resold. The flip aspect is expected and very common, however it was the lack of any caring by the vendor about the issue of no roots on plants, that was truly upsetting. I sent messages explaining that plants were rootless and the reply was “they will grow”, sure they will eventually but buyers are expecting to purchase plants that are healthy and dont require extreme measures for survival. The person does not care nor offer any sort of warranty or empathy.

All in all, avoid this seller

Tyler

 

[CharlesD]

Sorry about your bad experience. I will say the fact the seller’s name includes ‘orc’ is a red flag for me. Definitely a risk to go outside of your wheelhouse of good eBay sellers

 

[big923cattleya]

I have suspended all of my e-bay purchases for at least six months upon the recommendation of my bank. Let me explain. I have 2 credit card accounts. One is for general purchases such as gasoline, supermarket, motel rooms and e-bay. It has by far the larger credit line.
The second card is for smaller transactions such as subscriptions, car wash account, wounded warrior project etc. In other words, regularly occuring charges. THAT CARD HAS NOT BEEN COMPROMISED IN YEARS.
Now back to the other card with e-bay. It has seen fraudulent charges repeatedly over the last 16-18 months. This has forced the closing of 4 credit cards!!! 4 in those 18 months. INCLUDING ONE NEW CARD THAT WAS HIT WITH A BOGUS CHARGE THIS PAST SUNDAY MORNING AT 4:30 am!!!
I got a text message at that hour from Chase. Did I make a seemingly innocuous charge of $28.58? I said to myself “not again”! I have only had that card for 3 months due to bogus charges. I clicked on the message saying that I did not make the charge in question. BOOM, account closed! You will be issued a new card in 5-7 business days!!! Blah blah blah. Something I have heard a few times lately.
Well, I got up at 6:30 and went to my laptop. Sure enough, I have a new account number with all current charges and balances carried over. STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE. But what else did I find?????? Another bogus charge from a clothing store in Oregon on what I thought was a new, clean charge card! Wrong.
I called Chase Bank. This was getting to be ridiculous!
The Fraud Expert said that even though the new card is issued, it will not automatically stop access. So upon his suggestion he “scrubbed my account”. 23 little piggies I will call them were removed. Companies or individuals who were sucking the life out of the account. Where in God’s name did they come from???
But hopefully now they are cut off!! Unauthorized charges should not come through the expert claimed. He and I realized that in all likely hood, they were through e-bay users or what have you.
Now get this, two other ‘trial balloons’, test charges of $1 and $2 came through on that brand new card, the card that was just opened at 4:30 in the morning.

So no more e-bay for the time being. I have to limit orchid purchases to attending shows or ordering directly from growers. And when I have the time I need to take to the people at e-bay.
Just to let everyone know.

 

[MorandiWine]

Not to defend ebay but dont you use PayPal to pay for stuff there? I find PayPal to be quite secure. Might be an issue with the other places you used the card

 

[gonewild]

Maybe change banks.

 

[NYEric]

I got a text message at that hour from Chase. Did I make a seemingly innocuous charge of $28.58? I said to myself “not again”! I have only had that card for 3 months due to bogus charges. I clicked on the message saying that I did not make the charge in question. BOOM, account closed! You will be issued a new card in 5-7 business days!!! Blah blah blah. Something I have heard a few times lately.

This message may have been fraudulent. Sorry.

 

[Morja]

Your card could be getting skimmed where you get gas too, maybe it isn't ebay- or maybe it is.

 

[big923cattleya]

Skimmers were very common in South Florida when I lived there.
Have not heard any chatter about them being around here. People typically talk about those things.
It is just that I have used essentially two gas stations over 7 years. Never had fraud back then. Since my e-bay usage for orchids began about 2 years ago, I never gave it a thought until Sunday. When the fraud expert finds over 20 little tag along vendors on my e-bay account, hiding in the background, it starts to make sense! No?
I am not suggesting that anyone stops using e-bay. Just think of it as a public service announcement.
Eric, that is my kind of humor! Nice job.

 

[big923cattleya]

Skimmers were very common in South Florida when I lived there.
Have not heard any chatter about them being around here. People typically talk about those things.
It is just that I have used essentially two gas stations over 7 years. Never had fraud back then. Since my e-bay usage for orchids began about 2 years ago, I never gave it a thought until Sunday. When the fraud expert finds over 20 little tag along vendors on my e-bay account, hiding in the background, it starts to make sense! No?
I am not suggesting that anyone stops using e-bay. Just think of it as a public service announcement.
Eric, that is my kind of humor! Nice job.

 

[big923cattleya]

What I need is a better internet provider!