What recourse do I have?

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Burdluvr

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I replied to an ad on Petfinder.com classified in reference to 2 birds up for adoption. After several e-mails and calls with a price agreed on, I sent a postal money order to the receipient who received payment yesterday. I have not heard back with any information as to when the birds will be shipped. I did leave a message last night and a follow up e-mail today. At this time if I do not hear anything back today what recourse do I have to obtain either my money back or the birds that I wanted to adopt?
Thank you
Antoinette
 
If you've only left a message last night and a follow-up email today, it seems a bit too soon to discuss recourses. Is there a reason why you cannot wait a couple of more days to see what the recipient does?

If at the end of the week you still have not heard any reply, I would suggest checking with petfinder.com - do they have any policies regarding its classified ads and the exchange of goods?

I am not familiar with petfinder.com, but having participated in online communities where folks have exchanged money for goods, I have heard of people filing mail fraud when they failed to receive their goods.

Hope that helps.
 
Originally posted by Burdluvr
I replied to an ad on Petfinder.com classified in reference to 2 birds up for adoption. After several e-mails and calls with a price agreed on, I sent a postal money order to the receipient who received payment yesterday. I have not heard back with any information as to when the birds will be shipped. I did leave a message last night and a follow up e-mail today. At this time if I do not hear anything back today what recourse do I have to obtain either my money back or the birds that I wanted to adopt?
Thank you
Antoinette

Juriste has some good points and you are probably jumping the gun a bit. Maybe they are away, didn't get a chance to check email, could be a lot of things.

Looking at your concerns about Petfinder, I'd bet that Petfinder probably has disclaimers with regard to transactions that occur between it's members. I took a quick look and found this:


Disclaimer: Petfinder is only a directory of homeless pets and pet adoption organizations. No information in Petfinder is guaranteed. Although the information on Petfinder is updated frequently, it is always best to call the facility or organization that lists the pet to insure it is still available and to insure the information listed in Petfinder is accurate. It is crucial that any pet found through an adoption service be thoroughly examined by a veterinarian immediately upon adoption. Any pets found, adopted through, or listed in Petfinder are the sole responsiblity of the adoption organizations and/or the adopting party. Petfinder accepts no responsiblity for any liability or for any injury or damages to any person or property caused by any listed animal, as well as any cause of action, claims, suits or demands whatsoever that may arise as a result of such injury or damage.


That doesn't bode well for a claim. I'll say this much -- I would never use a bank check, money order or Western Union to pay for items. I would only use a personal check or credit card to pay since fraud is so rampant.
 
freebird is right, basically you have no recourse against petfinder. You only have recourse against the person you sent the money to. So you would have to sue that person for breach of contract. The bad thing is, that virtually all courts have decided that you have to sue him, where he lives. Often this is far away from where you live and therefore it would be too expensive to do, so most of these fraudsters get away with it.

The golden rule in online auctions and the like is: never ever pay with money order or cash. Always use a credit card since there normally you can make a chargeback.
 
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