I know this has happened to me where you try to use similar syntax that you use in shops and you definitely get the wrong mount. Also staff will not help you make a swap. I've seen it happen to a few new people so maybe when you type list at a mount shop it should give new player as to the right syntax in OOC in he list to buy the mount they want.
The mount-buying process should take your haggle skill into account, in all but maybe one place.
The problem has nothing to do with haggle. It has to do with how the mount-seller "lists" his mounts and how the game code provides that mount to you without actually placing it in your inventory. It's a code flaw.
1. a ermine erdlu
2. an erdlu
3. an inix
4. a glossy inix
think I wand the glossy one! That's item #4!
buy #4
The mountseller doesn't have one of those.
buy 2.inix
The mountseller brings out an erdlu, and you climb atop it (because it was 2, not #2, and the code won't recognize anything after the 2 if you put 2.inix, because 2 satisfies the minimum requirement to deliver a mount)
You can buy glossy - that'll work.
But this isn't well known, and unless you are reading posts like these on the GDB, if you're new, you won't know until you screw up and buy the wrong mount, THINKING that you're using the correct syntax because you're using the syntax that the help files say to use when dealing with merchant NPCs.
And there's nothing quite like losing 800 coins on the wrong mount (that you can't even sell back to the vendor) to make you scream at the text on your screen. The mount selling issue is one that I'm very surprised hasn't been fixed by now.
I've only noticed this with a specific mount seller.
Of course, I was using >view instead of >buy, so I noticed the problem and avoided wasting my money.