I only had a onetime transaction with Oscar/fruitlovers. It was in July 2020 via facebook messenger. I saw him mention having different selected varieties of caimito in a fb post so i messaged him if he has scions for sale. He responded and gave his rate which was $6 per scion and minimum 5 scions. I was thankful to him for getting back. He asked $25 for shipping and handling. I said i ship mango scions wrapped in buddy tape and charge $8 usps priority and they reach well so is it usps or some other hawaii mail he was using? He said it is usps priority box. I honestly did not know how shipping happens via hawaii to mainland, so i thought maybe it is some special procedure of handling, and paid him via paypal. I then thought i would add some seeds in the same package as $25 might be a medium priority box instead of a small box. He said, ‘no, seeds are handled separately and they will be in a different package'. I said ok, and up to this point i was ok to get some select scions for extra shipping cost. Where it got difficult for me was when i requested he ship on a Monday of any week, he said “sorry, i can’t guarantee ship date of the week, i need to process orders in the order they are received". Then i told him i work out of state and need them shipped on certain dates so they arrive within a certain timeframe. I was in no rush to get them shipped asap even after paying for them but i needed them shipped at a certain future date, next week or week after on any Monday and he said he is unable to do that. Then i asked for a refund and he refunded without any hiccups.
So i am not sure what to say, i did not have a transaction, i am not sure how the scions would have arrived but i certainly had a bad taste in my mouth from the “no transaction” i had. I thought he is either a very busy seller who has to make a living through selling seeds, so a lot of transactions to handle, or a very non- accommodating person overcharging for shipping. In either case, I have not felt like buying from him again. I met a forum member up north who had purchased a lot of seeds for his biodynamic farm from Oscar and had a pretty good experience through and through, so he was surprised when i had mentioned my experience to him.
In my experience being here in forum i have come across a spectrum of sellers and buyers, sellers who gradually became friends who now refuse to accept money but want to trade seeds/cuttings and sellers who have ghosted me after a package they'd sent got lost in transit without any attempt to solve the situation; have seen buyers who are very thankful and buyers who don’t give a shit how much you went beyond your comfort zone to make their whole buying process smooth and ensure their seeds and scions reach well ( my recent brazil seed transaction was an example of that). So for the last couple of years i have maintained a list of the forum members of nasty, ungrateful, rude, obtuse ones, and so i don’t sell to them and don’t buy from them.
People change over time, learn their mistakes so i hope whatever you went through can be remedied, hopefully you and Oscar can come to an agreement and hope he can be a bit more accommodating to us here. After all, i feel we are a small community of fruit growers and can relate and act like part of one big family helping each other grow plants and grow ourselves in the process.
