BEWARE of 2 GERMAN EBAY SELLERS: ARMIN BECHER & THOMAS RAUTE

[andrewtim]

Please Beware of German eBay seller: Thomas Raute (kult08). The butterflies I bought long ago were not even posted and the gent do not  bother himself to answer my emails. I have submitted complaints to eBay and PayPal which brought no results due to my long patience. I felt it is important to report this here as a warning as I cannot find the excuses why a person from the heart of Europe behaves like this(?)

[exoticimports]

Due diligence would have helped. Look at the feedback for zabonmotte- multiple reviews from the same user, then same for another user, and on and on. He has shill buyers paid, probably by an intermediary, to leave positive reviews. Doesn’t anyone check this stuff? Make a phone call?

[kevinkk]

You'll probably get your money back.
In mediocre defense of the buyer, I've made similar mistakes, usually due to not paying attention.
Feedback is important, and anyone with less than 99% needs a look, of course there are unpleasable
individuals, but a few negatives along similar lines is a pattern.
My biggest problem at Ebay are sellers misrepresenting their location,or the location of the item.
I've learned there are no stupid questions when it comes to my money, and ambiguous answers are
a red flag.
I've been ripped off,or attempted to be ripped off by a German that answered a want ad, there are no
limits to the persons who will attempt to fill their pockets with your money, without even the decency
to rob you face to face.
Before Insectnet changed about 2 years ago, there was a feature called "info-sniper" that would give the
person's true location as opposed to the claimed location, there were a lot of people who would claim to be
elsewhere.

[andrewtim]

Kevin, I think they may be just using the chance not to send the parcel because of Covid-19 and my patience gave them enough time to escape the time limit when the buyer can give the negative report and claim. Over the time limit you can not do nothing with the sellers on eBay, and if you want to use the combining option + post offices delays ++, then you are the loser and they have no punishment at all to worry about. It's like a new reality and scam. This is why I decided to draw attention to these dealers. And I have one more in line, but from Peru...

[terry2014]

Andrew, I have been buying from Zabonmotti for many years. He has always been very cooperative. All transactions have been completed with no problems
So maybe the delay is because of the pandemic but I do not think he is using it as an excuse not to send

[kevinkk]

I don't believe that covid is preventing anyone from shipping. Apparently you have much more patience than I do,
I give a seller 3 days to post an item and then email them, no answer? Start a claim. When you use Ebay as a seller,
you are expected to ship things.
Unless you're dead, incapacitated, your obligation is to do what you've been paid to do.
We are still eating, receiving mail, buying beer(if you drink), driving around, and so is nearly
everyone else.
Using covid is ludicrous, it's here to stay period.We had better get used to it and hope this stupid mask wearing
ends soon.
I thought PayPal gave you long enough to make a claim, I'd have to look, but I'm sure it's 30 days or more, that's
a long time to figure out if you're being taken.

And doing business with someone? Ok, I had success, good success with a certain seller, here on Insect Net, and Ebay, the same guy-
now he eventually came through, but after a time I realized, along with others, that he was a pyramid scheme, "pre-orders"...
took the money from buyers, and then tried to fill them, sometimes it worked out, sometimes not,the last purchase I made, he tried
getting me to accept Antherina suraka instead of the Epiphora..something I paid for, what?? I eventually got my money back after some
negative posts here at InsectNet, started by other people.

[Adam Cotton]

kevinkk said "I don't believe that covid is preventing anyone from shipping."

Postal services from Thailand to USA and Japan have only resumed a few days ago after being shut down in March, and it is still not possible to send packages to a number of countries including New Zealand and all S American countries. Postal services are still shut down to even some European countries such as Cyprus. It is possible that there is a problem sending packages due to covid between many countries.

Adam.

[exoticimports]

It took me 10 days to get a package from CT to NY via USPS Priority. USPS says on their website expect more than three days for priority due to COVID.

Since USPS is still on reduced staff, they are subcontracting to UPS for transport. The handoff to UPS is going well, closer to the receiving end they have transfer stations where packages can sit for a week waiting for USPS staff to sort the pallets.

If you want it faster ship UPS.

Inbound to USA is often thru NYC Customs so you can guess what’s happening there.

Of course, assuming this is a wildlife import it will go through Customs and then USFWS, and I presume the latter is also on government-funded furlough. If it is a wildlife import without paperwork and Customs opens it, it will go on the big pile of stuff for USFWS to inspect when they have time. For the first time ever, I’m hearing stories of people receiving letters from Customs notifying of seizure which I paraphrase “you didn’t do the paperwork so tough beans, we are seizing it and tossing it, you may hear from an enforcement agency later.”

[Paul K]

My wife she ordered her stuff in Bangkok and she got her package to Toronto via DHL in three days.
It took three days to move my small order in same city by Canada Post, go figure.

And both happened during plandemic

[kevinkk]

Alrighty then. I do know that currently, even though I look, I haven't tried buying anything on Actias.
So- there' a new question to ask a seller.
We get such conflicting information with covid, wipe off your parcels, don't worry about your parcels, wear a mask, masks don't
work, and on & on.

DHL? kudos to your locale, for me it's the absolute worst way to be on the receiving end of. Maybe it's the priority feature,
and I get stuck with "smartpost".
The USPS is eclectic, 2 relatives and my Mom have worked there, and she thinks it's a wonder we get mail at all.
Grandma was a carrier and we always had comic books missing covers.. but she took her purse to the buffet line too.

[exoticimports]

DHL is an oddity, they must not have strict corporate procedures. How well something moves depends completely on the offices it goes through, and to. For example where I worked we had a big sign “NO DHL TO SAMOA”’

[eurytides]

Surprised to hear that Chuck. I just imported something from NH to Ontario via standard ground UPS. Delivery in 2 business days.

[eurytides]

Sorry, read that wrong. Just realized you said USPS is slow.

[exoticimports]

Oct 14, 2020 19:03:37 GMT -8 eurytides said:

Sorry, read that wrong. Just realized you said USPS is slow.

Yep. Use UPS or FedEx. They are working. USPS is using skeleton crews.

[andrewtim]

Oct 14, 2020 8:48:19 GMT -8 terry2014 said:

Andrew, maybe the delay is because of the pandemic but I do not think he is using it as an excuse not to send.
====================
Terry, I am confused why this happened to me, but I found no answer.
The fact is that I bought the butterflies from the 2 German gentlemen in late January - beginning of Feb. 2020, just when the Covid started. The idea was to make other bids and use the combined shipments option on Ebay. Then Covid limitations took place and I waited patiently when the borders will reopen for parcels exchanges. And when this became possible, even I did not have new wins and no new auctions were made by the 2 gents mentioned above, they just did not replied my questions asking when the parcels will be sent to me. Just like that. So, I am sure it is not about the postal services at all. Russian post never stopped international parcels exchanges, by the way. I got parcels from my best eBay sellers from Austria and Germany at that time. One of the Germans sent me a funny message in August that he is in a collecting trip in Italy and that the parcel to me was sent in May and returned to him OK (which I cannot believe without proving documents), but he never explained what happened and at last agreed to return my money this December. The second - Thomas Raute did not appear till now. This really made me upset with such an attitude. This is why I brought the issue to your attention on InsectNet forum.
Andrew

[kevinkk]

Oct 14, 2020 9:54:28 GMT -8 kevinkk said:

And doing business with someone? Ok, I had success, good success with a certain seller, here on Insect Net, and Ebay, the same guy-
now he eventually came through, but after a time I realized, along with others, that he was a pyramid scheme, "pre-orders"...
took the money from buyers, and then tried to fill them, sometimes it worked out, sometimes not,the last purchase I made, he tried
getting me to accept Antherina suraka instead of the Epiphora..something that I paid for, what?? I eventually got my money back after some
negative posts here at InsectNet, started by other people.

See above post from me. That's as good an answer as any. Success for one, doesn't mean success for all, and people change and or have
issues that come up.
I haven't seen or heard from the above mentioned seller since he was called out, and he was instrumental in providing me with live Graellsia, and the
first mittrei I'd seen offered, but since faded away. 
People have different standards of communication, but having communication, even a week or two late is at least something.

[jonathan]

Hi folks, I made several purchases over a number of years from Armin Becher (zabonmotte) and I do not have a single complaint to make. Everything always arrived well packed to Malta and as seen on pc. I do recommended Armin Becher (zabonmotte) in fact.
Jon