Well I've been reading all that's been posted about the problem. Believe it or not my very first auction win went alot like you folks problem. Even before I bid I asked if the plant could be sent asap as I wanted to get it into the ground in Sept. so it could settle in before winter. I was told as a MO would speed up the process, so I bid, won and sent out payment by Priority Mail. Check with the PO and it was delivered in 2 days. 2 weeks later I emailed to ask when plant would be shipped. No answer. 2 weeks later emailed again. Same response. 6 weeks after winning the plant recieved an email that plant was shipped. Plant never came. Emailed no plant showed after 1 week and get another that it was shipped again. No plant again. 2 months after win emailed that they may as well winter it over and I'd stop otw home from the South and get it. Still no answer. Heck even got their phone number and never got anything but a machine. Emailed Mike my sent emails and asked him to help see what was going on. Did the seller receive my emails and told him about the long delay, emails stating plant was shipped and no plant showed. Oh and the excuse I got was they were too busy planting seeds before the weather got too hot! Long story short this pissed off the seller (roflao)and I got a refund with a letter stating how I'd never be able to grow daylilies (heh I grew up farming LOL), I was a stupid new daylily person that didn't know anything about daylilies and he wouldn't ever ship any plants as it was too late in Nov. and I'd have a big hole in the Spring and want my plant replaced. (yea I wouldn't never of thought the plant could survive this. Then they ended the letter with don't bid on any more of my auctions. Oh yea...like I would do that! Was I upset...you bet. Did I let it eat on me for long. Heck no...life is too short. You just have to figure that you sow what you reap. They will get their just reward. *-) I'd suggest that you move on from all the negative and work with Mike. You'll be alot happier and less stressed out. *-) Well as it turns out I bid on more fans of the same plant for less money. See sometimes things happen for a reason! We've been all around this sellers garden visiting others and we spent thousands of dollars with other gardens, but they won't ever get a dime from us even if they are priced 1.00 for new intros! Now as a new seller on the LA we've had 3 auctions not paid for. See the shoe fits on both feet. Mad yes..but we just added them to the banned bidder list along with the problem seller as he does buy also on the LA. Bottom line...be patient and let Mike do his job. It worked for me and I have complete faith he will get your money refunded. There are so many good sellers on the LA. The best way is to know is by the amount of bids on ones plants, then look for feedback that reads great plants, extra fans, fast shipping...things like this. Add that together and you will get a pretty good idea. Unless it's a newer seller if there are many auctions for a seller up and very few/no bids on them...the red flag should go up. I like Carla's idea. Having only registered users from the LA to join would be great. We just don't have the time to help her though. 8-( Our 2 cents.

We lived in Georgia when I was eight years old. Had a cool creek that ran through the backyard that my friends and I spent lots of time in, catching crawdads and throwing lily pads at each other. The first week of May I got horribly sick with what the docs guessed was an allergy. I couldn't breathe, even though I've never had asthma. My face turned very red and swelled to the point that I couldn't see. My hands swelled so much that they actually cracked and clear liquid ran from the cracks. It lasted for several days and then disappeared as suddenly as it came on. The following year it was back -- again in the first part of May. It was worse the second time and I ended up in the hospital, on oxygen and being pumped full of antihistamines. After asking tons of questions about anything new in my environment, the doctor finally told my mother that he believed I was deathly allergic to something that only bloomed during that time of year. His suggestion, besides documenting everything that I'd recently come into contact with, was to be GONE from the area well before the following May. Needless to say, we moved up North, and there were no more episodes until I went to an Easter Sunday service where the church was filled with blooming LILIES. The uncontrollable coughing started before we were even seated. Within five minutes I was having trouble breathing and freaking out. Mystery solved. I got out of there like my pants were on fire and my butt was catching! Nowadays I don't go to Easter services, or weddings, or funerals. I steer clear of the floral department in garden centers and grocery stores. No more lilies for me. For the record, I don't think I'm allergic to ALL types of lilies, but I have no plans to test that theory.

Hmm, I miss a day or two, I miss a LOT here, ladies! I've been running a lot, distracted, and just plain scatterbrained. Must be spring fever (at least, I'd rather blame that than a mid-life crisis, lol!). I have most of Debbya's box ready to go - I just want to do one more thing, then send it on its way. It's been fun learning about your names and their history. My first name has NOTHING to do with my family heritage - my parents just liked it. My middle name, Marie, is for my mother, Mary. My daughter's first name is Juliana, for the medieval Christian mystic Juliana of Norwich. Her middle name is Pearl, for my grandmother, who died years ago. Our son's name is Ian (Scottish for John - his grandfather, great uncle, and uncle-in-law are all John/Jon, and his father is Sean, the Irish form of John). His middle name is Joseph, for one of my favorite men in the Bible. Oh, how we debated about Ian's name! He's our first, and my mother was pestering us mightily about what names we were considering. So, we had an ugly name contest, and kept telling her all sorts of outrageous choices. Keep in mind, our last name is RUDD. So, Dudley Bud Rudd, Elmer Rudd, Evan Rudd (think Evinrude motors), Vladimir Rudd (just because), etc. etc. AND, we couldn't use any names that started with C or K, because that would make his abbreviated name C. Rudd. CRUD. That cancelled out all sorts of names we happened to like, for both kids, lol! My favorite outdoors tool is definitely bypass pruning shears. Indoors, I have to say that I really MISS my dustbuster. It recently croaked after years of faithful service, and NOW I realize just how much I used it to clean up after the kids, birds, and cats. LOLOL about the moon story! Our son stayed up late to watch part of the eclipse, and really thought it was cool. Laurel

These agency issues are one of the most researched and well understood things in business, especially in accounting, where the agency issue is constantly present. There is extensive research on small mom and pop businesses all the way up to multi-national corporations, and the research almost always points to the same conclusion. Despite the prevalent belief otherwise, business relationships are almost always customer driven. Businesses simply do things to make customers happy, even when it is less profitable. There is a sociological and psychological need to create conspiracies to explain less than satisfactory outcomes, which explains why so many people believe that every field has insiders and outsiders and the deck is stacked against outsiders. I am not saying this is what happened here, but sometimes I like to throw a fact or two out there, just because I believe in the power of knowledge. P.S. defamation in the form of either slander or libel is not a crime...