General Forum

I am looking for some best practice guidelines regarding a trade I made that I have not received.  Two months ago, in January, I proposed a trade with someone who I had successfully traded with before through this site, and it was accepted.  I sent out my cards on Jan. 20, he marked that he sent the cards on Jan 23.  In the meantime, I noticed that he had stopped accepting trades, but I was not worried because mine were already in the mail.  The cards I sent out were marked as received and the trade completed on the other end on 1/25.  I have still not yet received the cards.

After a few weeks, I reached out to the individual to confirm that the cards were indeed sent.  Perhaps they were forgotten in whatever caused the indivdual to stop trading.  No big deal in my mind, mistakes like that could happen.  Perhaps they were lost in the mail, who knows.  I never received a response to the message confirming that the cards were indeed sent.  I waited a few weeks and sent another message.  Again there is no response.  The messages were sent through the trade portal.  I tried to send a direct message to the indivdiual, however he has turned off all messages.

In checking his profile, he is still logging on on a regular basis.

I know that there are many issues that may come up, whether it is the mail, a life issue, or something else.  However I am befuddled that they have not responded to the messages sent through the trade portal and have turned off messages on the site, yet they still log onto the site nearly every day.  Some communication would be nice.

I am not looking to leave negative feedback, but if someone cannot be easily reached and does not respond to messages, I feel like I have to at some point.

For those of you who have been in a similar situation, what are the best practices as to how to handle this?

Thanks

There is no excuse to not respond to messages if a person can log on to the site every day.  Priorities for all should be taking care of "contracts" first.  I hate those who mark a trade as completed before I receive my cards; it tells me they don't really care if I ever receive the cards they sent me.  This was discussed previously but I still find some who continue this practice.

Now without knowing who the individual is that you are tlaking about, it is hard to comment further.  If we knew, someone may be aware of the peson having life issues that has caused him to pull back from contact.

Agree with @Sandyrusty communication is key and should always be the top priority even if it is to say "I am having life issues and can not send your cards. I will let you know when I do" is better than just ignoring messages.

Hard to give further advice beyond what you have done other than maybe starting a thread saying "Can X member contact me — you have PMs turned off". Other than that naming and shaming as a last resort.

I would leave a negative no matter the out come of the trade, however. I seem overly harsh compared to some but think it is important that if you have a bad trade experience it should be documented. It seems so many fear retailitory negative feedback so will post a good "review" even if they have to jump through hoops and months of non-communication to get the trade completed. That is not a "positive" trade experience to me.

I would agree it is not a positive trade experience. 

I am hesisitant to call out someone by name in a forum because I do not know what it going on in someone's life and I have seen pervious threads where someone was called out turn rather negative quickly and that is not my goal.  This person has 100% positive feedback, although at least one other person mentioned in their feedback that they had not heard back from him after completing their trade.

Certainly calling them out is a last resort but if it has been nearly two months of ignoring trade messages and still coming on here then they should have found the 30 seconds to drop a message saying "I am currently indisposed but will get back to you shortly."

As I said I am probably harsh on this but I think communication is so important and if you fail at that then you fail the whole trade process for me and don't get to moan about any repercussions. Doesn't matter what personal circumstances you might have if you don't communicate them the other person can never know.

Also — not that I have had any bad experiences here — but I am very leary of 100% feedback. I have seen way too many posts here with people saying "I have had a bad trade with X member I wont name but I wont leave negative feedback because then they will retailiate in kind". Well that just defeats the whole purpose and everyone gets 100% feedback no matter what!

Anyway, as I say I may be harsh and are happy to be called out for that.

I have something similar going on myself. I sent my cards out over a month ago. They received them and didn't mark them received nor marked they have sent. After 2 weeks I asked if they received them and if they sent mine. No response. A week later I messaged them saying I'd give it til Friday and I was going to leave negative feedback. Then they responded. They said they had something going on and they would send out next day. That was almost 2 weeks ago. So I guess we'll see.

It is not really calling them out if you ask the membership if anyone knows anything about so and so because you are not getting any responses.  We have had a member who had died so there were no responses.  Once it was asked, someone found an obituary.  Calling them out would be to vehemently post for other to not trade with so and so because he is a scam artist.

And for the record, this will have little effect as big scam artists have been revealed yet they still get trades on a regular basis because many don't read the Forums.  Only by leaving negative feedback is there a chance that there is greater effect.

It is not really calling them out if you ask the membership if anyone knows anything about so and so

This is true but I feel like those threads devolve into insults pretty quickly. There are a handful of users here who have a lot of negative things to say about other users and I don't think any of that should be allowed here at all because it does nothing to solve the problems. 
 

Personally I would just leave negative feedback and call it a write off if I was OP. Perhaps the admins can help if it was a high value trade. 

There is only one "Admin", and all transactions on this site are done "at your own risk".

In the FAQ:

Please note that deals that are made are between private individuals and the Trading Card Database does not have any involvement or take any responsibility in the outcome of these dealings.

Disclaimer text on the Transaction page: 

Trade and transact at your own risk. The Trading Card Database is not liable for any failed transactions.

Please review your partner's feedback rating, available on their profile page, before accepting any transactions.

Pretty clear that Admin will not be stepping in on a transaction, no matter how big or small.

You've been patient and respectful. I think at this point starting a thread for a wellness check would not be the worst thing in the world. Maybe some of us have had more recent and regular contact. If the trader is doing ok, a little social pressure wouldn't be bad either.