Have any of you ever bought Koi or Fish on e-bay?

[mandyplo]

This is my third time doing it...

First time was fine, my fish arrived alive. Good customer service. A+ seller.

My second time I tried a different vendor and it was a bloody nightmare. Half the fish arrived dead, the other half were infected with a parasite (chilodonella) and wiped everything in my pond. Whole pond dead within a week.

Third time is today, from yet a third new vendor. I'm receiving my fish tonight. The distributor gets his fish from Blue Ridge which I'm sure you other koi lovers have heard of. Until today everything has been smooth. I get a message from the seller this morning "oh yea, don't be alarmed when you only have 10 fish in your bag, we didn't ship 3 of the ones you bid on because we lost 1 - don't know where it went, cant find it - and the other two died in our facility" COOL MAN... SOOOO YOU DIDNT THINK TO TELL ME BEFORE YOU SHIPPED THEM? So that maybe I could have payed for replacements of the same kind?!
(How the F*** do you lose a fish? did it get off its leash and run away on you?) I can understand jumping out and dying on the floor but straight up LOSING IT?! Come on... Seller refuses to replace the fish or help me in any other way. He did give me my money back but I would have liked to know about this before he shipped them to me so I could make other arrangements....

To me this is like someone saying "Package deal! Selling computer parts and a case! Build it yourself!" Then you buy the package, they ship it to you, and you get a message the next day "Oh here is a refund for all the parts, we "lost" the computer parts so all you are getting is a case, WOOPS SORRY!" What the H*** am I going to do with an empty computer case?

MY QUESTION IS... how has your luck been with buying Koi online or on e-bay? So far 2/3 times for me its been pretty damn crappy!

Sorry I just need to rant, IM SO ANGRY STILL!!! UGH

Edit: Yea and of course, just my luck, 1 of the 3 that were not shipped was my #1 favorite.. platinum white gin rin butterfly koi... The whole reason I bid on koi this time around was because I wanted a platinum white one... and I only won 1 auction of a platinum white one, and it doesn't even get shipped to me... wtf...