As an insider that used to work seasonally for Jung Seed/Edmunds Roses/Totally Tomatoes/Vermont Bean/McClure and Zimmerman/Roots and Rhizomes/HPS before retirement: "auctioneersbd" is the username of Cale Zondag, the son of Bob Zondag, VP of the company and the "Bob" that is mentioned frequently in the previous posts. "Gentz13" is Cale's roommate and friend, Ben Gentz. Both sell the same exact products as Jung's, Edmund's, etc. After they get orders online, they come right into the warehouse at Randolph and take what they need. Their shipping is free because it is calculated into the shipping fees for customers of the Jung and subsidiary catalogs. This causes HUGE problems with the company because the inventory is never recorded as used. A little ways down the road, you get Jung, Edmund's, etc. customers that were told that they were getting a particular rose when they ordered (because there were enough ordered or in inventory at the time), only to find out later on that there is no product to send them. Check out the ratings on Dave's Garden and you will see there are a lot of people that pay for items that they are later refunded or credited for. Also, per the word around the place, the products that they sell are also not recorded as used inventory because the company can then count it as loss at the end of the year and probably cook the books for their taxes. As for the quality of the products, it is no different that what Jung's and the like send. The Zondag method of quality is to send it if it is bagged or tagged and don't waste time wiping off that mold. It is very telling... Also, those two don't have whatever legal stuff you need to have to sell plants in WI so you have to lie to the government inspectors when they come in and pretend you don't know what they are. Before you think that everyone at Jung's is on board with htis, let me tell you that it is not the case. The Zondags own the company and call all the shots, but it drives the employees nuts because they often get blamed for missing products and inaccurate inventory. They even fired a long time order fulfillment manager and mailroom supervisor because of the inaccuracies in inventory and the additional packages that were shipped to non company customers -- made by Cale and Ben and said it was because the manager and supervisor didn't get along and it was a 'restructuring' matter. Whatever!

Last year I was reading a private "divorce support" blog. This was a group of ladies discussing their STRESS problems and some ways they developed to raise money to pay for extras after their bum of a hubby left them etc. I sent one of them some Cardboard and Christmas palm seeds and a few other things from my garden and they let me in to read the blog. They had some good ideas that I used in my own ebay selling account. The story was of a gal selling her handmade craft items on ebay and from a small website. She also sold seeds, plants and bulbs she grew from her garden in Florida. She was doing great and everyone in the blog was cheering her on. One day she was very upset. A seller on ebay stole her pictures and some of the wording from her website... and her sales were falling. The seller took her wording from her ebay listings and turned it around. They were careful not to steal her ebay pictures but they took the pictures from her website and copied her designs etc. They made some changes that sound similar to these ebay sellers in your story. Ebay never replied to this gal. And the nasty seller was very nasty to her. Anyway evidently the blog members are located all over the USA... and around 15 members living outside the state of this victim... all bought one item from this seller... the cheapest items offered. After the purchase, they baited the seller with silly questions and comments... and the seller got upset in an email with each of them... threatening wording and snotty remarks from the seller to these buyers. So each buyer had a good reason to give this seller Negative feedback and ratings of 1 and 2 DSR stars. What do you think happens if a seller gets 15 negatives and 1-2 DRS stars? Ha! Ha! Ebay will protect their MEGA sellers by changing ratings but not any seller under that catagory. If a seller gets that many 1-2 star DSR ratings, then ebay suspends the seller... so simple. I was laughing my head off reading the blog story. It happened over a 45 day period. They all used credit cards in Paypal and all got refunds on a DOA or crushed auction. Several buyers claimed they never received the auction when they saw there was no DC on the package. The blog members spaced out the negative feedback so it would not look obvious and each had a different comment depending on what the seller said to them in the email. The nasty seller probably suspected something was up but there was no way he could complain to ebay. In eBay's eyes, he was now a bad seller. They spotted this same seller under a new ID and 10 more blog members stepped up to the plate with 10 different ebay ID's. This seller was still using their blogmate's pictures and wording. They put this guy down within 30 days this time. It was great mental therapy for all these women too... banding together to protect the economy of one of their own members. The women all thought it was a good deed because the seller was also using the pictures from other websites and other ebay sellers too. I would hate to be the ebay seller that stiffs any of these divorced ladies in the future.

Hello Conita, I have been buying plumies off of Ebay since 2001. I have had good and bad experiences and lost a lot of money due to bad/fraudulent sales so if you do not mind losing some money than by all means take the chance, to me its like a game, like being in Las Vegas, the gamble and the pay off...but remember even in Las Vegas you can lose BIG... "YOU PLAY YOU PAY!!! LOL But there is another saying for gamblers also "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!" I recently won 10 Thai cuttings off of Ebay and I did get the cuttings the only issues is that the cuttings all look similar, skin texture and color, tip colors, claw colors, etc. To me this may signify that instead of 10 different culitvars I was suppose to get it looks like I got 10 of the same thing. I can not be sure till they bloom and than I have the proof, but one of cuttings looks like there might be an inflo popping out of the claws. I had another seller off of Ebay in 2003 or 2004 RIP OFF a lot of people, sold Thai cuttings even though he lived in West Palm Beach Florida like Thai Rainbow Peacock and Nag Champa and other cuttings for high dollar value, I think I paid about $850.00 for all my cuttings. Well when they bloomed people started posting pics of their supposed Thai imports only to find them blooming Kauka Wilder, Samoan Fluff and some common unknown white plumie..lol I still have one of the plants that bloomed Kauka Wilder..lol I also have a lot of other bad experiences also that are too lengthy to go into, but I have had some fabulous experiences so it's a "Ying & Yang" thing. My point is that you can buy from a seller but you never know what you get, could be the real deal or could be bogus, or just a mistake in labeling. So Buyer Beware!!! The other thing is that I have found that there is more risk buying from a Thai Seller than to buy Domestically, usually you can find a nursery that will carry thai imported plants near you. If you live in Europe or Australia google Jungle Jacks Plumeria Thailand. I believe the Thailand nursery will sell and ship to you. GOOD LUCK

Ebay is a total joke. Spent over 2 hours again filing the complaint and they didn't even want to take down the seller IDs again. Finally I forced them to but they said I should report stuff to ic3.gov which is an FBI site But while I was speaking to trust and safety at Ebay I told them there was no way I could fill out a form on that site since EBay has the seller's name and address and web address not me. They dismissed me and also the fact I offered to give then AGAIN the contact info for Kukiat Tanteeratum and Brad's Buds and Blooms to verify the fraud going on with that Thai crook. and they told me HAVE THEM REPORT EVERY ITEM TO US. I said...that is YOUR job not ours. You say you're passing this along to your investigative team but they do nothing. Also they told me you can report every suspicious item twice, once with fraudulent listing and again under PICTURE as having text or artwork added. I asked if anyone does anything about these reports and was told "we get millions of reports so we batch them and you won't ever know the results of our investigation." I reminded them how difficult it is to even GET IN CONTACT with their Trust dept as they won't assign me a 10 digit case number just a reference number for the phone call and you cannot enter that when trying to reach that dept. She kept telling me to go online, get a passcode and make the call. I kept telling her that does not work since they don't give me a 10 digit case number. But if anyone wants to add to my complaint, the phone reference number is 1-15029893854 and the woman was named "San" Maybe she is Thai or something. LOL Thanks in advance for any help you can add.