We knew it’d happen sooner or later, and honestly, we probably wouldn’t care if the person hadn’t gone out of their way to mislead us & then block us.
As the person repeatedly said after being caught, there are two sides to every story. Here’s ours:
This person, who we’ll call Flipper in this post, reached out as soon as we listed our 2-week old doeling for sale.
We explained that the doeling was heavily discounted because her dam had double orifices in one teat and that it was important she remain a pet or food. Flipper acknowledged and promised to keep the doeling as a pet/family milker and eat all kids.
Flipper asked us to hold the doeling, and we offered to keep her up to 10 weeks of age for free. Close to weaning, but not quite there.
During the 8 weeks we kept the doeling, we began to suspect that Flipper was a flipper, after seeing them buy and sell other cheap sales barn goats online. But we thought/hoped that maybe it was just practice or something, because Flipper was always friendly.
At 9 weeks of age, Flipper checked in about timing, and we reminded them about the doeling’s birthday & age and that she’d need to be bottle fed for a few more weeks until weaning. Flipper did not want to bottle feed and asked us to hold the doeling until she was weaned. We stated a boarding fee, and Flipper chose to pick up the doeling at 10 weeks & wean her themselves.
On Saturday, Flipper picked up the doeling and tried to fit her into a way-too-small crate. Apparently, the younger ND buckling they had bought as a companion was much smaller. That was another tense moment, because any decent goat owner knows not to keep an intact buckling with a doeling due to the risk of juvenile pregnancy.
In the end, I handed Flipper a nipple to bottle feed the doeling, along with our clearly labeled Terms of Sale, which include a buyback clause.
Today, Flipper posted the doeling online for double what was paid, saying she was an older age & without disclosing that her dam had double teats. One of the places Flipper posted was in a group chat – that’s where I saw it. I commented on the post that I had just sold her for half that price, and then tried to PM Flipper to see what had happened. She had blocked me! On FB, blocked parties can still see group chats, so I’m not sure whether I was blocked right after handing over the doeling or after commenting in the chat.
Since I couldn’t private message Flipper to resolve things quietly, I posted on every local farm group until some very kind people convinced them to unblock me and let me buy back the doeling.
Flipper shared their side, saying that I wasn’t blocked (I have screenshots), that I didn’t tell them the doeling’s birthday (also screenshots), that they didn’t receive ToS (no screenshots, but everyone receives them and now, after this ordeal, we’ve made them much bigger & bolder & more obvious), that they priced the doeling at double the cost so that they could have room to haggle AND buy a different goat, and that they eventually would have disclosed the doeling’s potential flaws privately. M’kay.
But since it was a public forum and Flipper didn’t want to be banned, they agreed to sell back the doeling at their cost if we drove a state away to get her. So now we’re heading there this weekend to get our doeling, quarantine her, and try again to find her a pet home that’ll be honest if they do rehome her. We could just eat her, but we know that she’d be a great pet for someone honest.
We know that there’s nothing we can really do to stop people from doing shady stuff after an animal leaves our care, but we thought we had vetted this one decently. Did we handle things well? Probably not, but we don’t care – we will fight to the death to give the animals we raise the best lives and/or deaths that we can, and to make sure that nobody is misled about an animal’s potential faults.
Ugh, what if they forcibly weaned her or gave her a disease? What if she’s pregnant now?
We’re blessed to have mostly had pleasant interactions with kind and caring people, but others are legit the worst!
