Beware: Bambiboo3 / Happy Tails / Audriana Gaeta

This is further to my advice post here: http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/530250.html

WHO: Bambiboo3 / Happy Tails

WHERE:
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bambiboo3/

WHAT:  Premade fursuit head and tail, as seen here: http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1026446.html

WHEN: Auction ended on 12th October 2011.

PROOF:

Here's a screencap of my communications with Bambiboo3 from winning the auction. A little explanation first though: I do not live in the USA. I had asked Bambiboo3 prior to bidding if she would ship internationally and she said no. Thus I asked if she would ship this to my very good friend of many years who lives in NC, she agreed, and I placed a bid. My intention from there was to either take a trip over soon and collect the partial or arrange for it to be delivered myself, either way, I made clear to Bambiboo3 that the final part of the delivery would be entirely my responsibility. This isn't really relevant to the beware at all but it might clear up any confusion.

Here are photos of the package:














NB: anything linking to address details has been edited out, as has Bambiboo3's surname as I have not seen this posted publicly.

EXPLAIN:

On October 12th I won Bambiboo3's auction for a premade fursuit head and tail over on Furbuy. I emailed her asking for a quote on shipping, which she told me would be $35, for a total of $435. I Paypal'd over $435. She replies to me stating that:
"you forgot to add the paypal charges so it came in $17.27 short. If you dont mind sending that last bit that would be great"

I was a little taken aback as nowhere on the auction had it mentioned a Paypal fee, and I knew this to be against Paypal rules. I also was taken aback that it was implied I'd "forgotten" it, as if I should have known to add this, or she'd told me to add it. I replied to her stating as much and her response was basically that she asked for $435, but that's not what she ended up with after the fee - thus I should make up the rest. At this point I admit my communications (seen above) got a little irate and not as well phrased as they could have been, I was feeling unwell at the time and was not expecting these difficulties. I asked a number of friends online what I should do (I really did want the head and she was saying she'd relist it) or whether it was fair, to which they said it was not. One of them told me it was against Furbuy policy so I contacted them too, asking about that. They responded that it was definitely not acceptable, and thus I replied telling Bambiboo3 so, and she decided to drop the charge.

So some days pass and the head arrives with my friend on October 26th. She immediately contacts me by IM to let me know and unpacks it to check everything is in order. The head, I am told, is just fine and is nice quality. She did say to me though, "how much did you say you paid for shipping again?"...to which I replied $35. She advised me it was stickered with $10.74 and a 70 cent Delivery Confirmation - making my bill over $20 higher than the actual shipping cost. I was also told it was packaged in an old blender box and packed with wadded up grocery bags, and you can see that in the photos above, meaning that none of that was spent on packaging, either.

Again annoyed, I emailed Bambiboo3 asking about this discrepancy. That was over 24 hours ago, and with all other emails being answered promptly and seeing as she's been faving things on FA, I assume she doesn't have a good simple answer for this. I may be jumping the gun but at this point I can only recommend against dealing with her. I know this head didn't go for as much as she would like - she was looking at around $700 for head and tail before putting it on Furbuy - but my impression is that she just tries to frisk the customer for anything she can get.

EDIT - seeing that Bambiboo has been faving art and posting FA journals, I decided to send her another email:

Hey again,

I see you have been active on FurAffinity so I guess you either did not receive or are ignoring my last email outright.

At this point I want to make you aware that I posted about our transaction to "artists_beware" because I am really not impressed with this.

- Sarah

I feel like I'm probably not going to get anything back at this point, but I think her (most likely) ignoring my last email is really the icing on the cake here.

EDIT 2 - Bambiboo3 has replied to my last email quickly. The conversation is as follows (screencaps available if needed, but it's quicker this way for now):

I havent recieved an email O.o when did you send it?

My response:

The email was sent on the 27th just after midnight your time. Here's a copypaste: -last email as shown above-

Bambiboo:

Wow im sorry , no the first one didnt come through.  So the package was shipped parcel? >.< Oh jeaz i apologize it was supposed to be sent express because i wanted to get it out to you as soon as possible since i was a couple days late getting it out. I dont have a drivers license myself so i have someone send the packages out for me they must have mixed up the packages i gave them that day. If you give me your paypal address ill refund that right away.

Me:

If you would like to refund I suggest you go to your Paypal and open up our transaction, from there you have an option to issue a partial refund. I would prefer it refunded in this way for my records if you could. It would be much appreciated and I will edit the LJ post to reflect this.

Thanks,

Sarah

She has now issued me a refund. I honestly can't say I am convinced by the excuses but I am happy to have a refund and consider the postage part of the beware resolved.