Proper etiquette when bottles break?

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Hope this gets him to make good on the trade!

 

He owes you the bottle period. If he doesn't have another he needs to work something out with you or send your beers back. It is always the shippers responsibility to replace bottles broken in transit. Well if they are part of the trade anyway, not so much for extras.

In my opinion 2 weeks should be plenty of time to make it right. Unless he is acquiring another Hun for you (and keeping you updated on the progress), he should have already made this right.

 

Cases like this is why you shouldn't pre-trade all your bottles or trade them once you have them. People get too excited to trade and pretrade every single bottle and then end up screwed when they lower the limit or one breaks especially if they've just started and this was their 1st big beer trade.

For any newer traders reading this...if you pretrade or even trade, you shouldn't drink what the other person sends you just in case your end doesn't make it and you can't find a suitable replacement that will keep the other trader happy. Also don't trade all your beers from a release at once if you didn't pre-trade. Do one or two at a time and that way you can replace if anything breaks before you commit the other bottles to another trade. Also with pre-trades some BAs can be rather pushy about you pre-trading them a beer that will be released near you and wanna already send you the box and everything so it's final. If you're dealing with one of these people I def. recommend he not send you any perishable beers and that again, you don't drink them until he has his end of the deal. Just some personal rules that may help some of you in not getting in over your heads...

 

If you texted him, you have his phone number. Why haven't you called?

 

I once had a bottle of LeBleu shatter in transit. I sent a replacement, it sucked as I'm in WA, and the beer is in NY, one day annually, but it had to happen. And I thank Frank for being so understanding. But yeah, I sent him another beer of the same, and some more extras. He's a good dude, and I consider myself a good trader - therefore this was mandatory.

 

So did you get your resolution OP?

 

It's his responsibility to replace the bottle...period. If he doesn't have another bottle, he needs to fulfill his end with something comparable that is acceptable with you. Poor trading etiquette on his part if he does not come through.

 

Every new trader should be required to read this thread. Many well intentioned people out there don't understand that they are on the hook for replacing broken/lost bottles and they go ahead and trade the 1st thing that they get of value. It is for good reason that they need to send 1st until they have several trades under their belt.

As a new trader myself (only 5 or so trades done) I'll only deal with a veteran just in case there are etiquettes that I'm still unaware of.

 

perhaps a full "Beer Trader Etiquette" thread should be done...

honestly, on my first trades I was happy I was asked about "extras" as I had no idea that was common practice. Although it's not required, it is good to know before hand.

 

If you read Alewatcher's blog, it covers a lot of etiquette:

http://alewatcher.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-trader-tips.html


Nobody should ever make a trade before reading that, but a lot of people seem to be diving into the deep end head first these days.

 

YES! Also, do not give out your address to the other guy before bottle limits have been set by the brewery. I made this mistake and had to send 8 New Glarus R&D Krieks and 8 R&D Gueuzes to a guy when the bottle limit ended up being 3 per person. I was originally under the impression that there would be no bottle limits, so it would essentially be a grocery run. Big mistake on my part.

Edit: When I found out about the bottle limits, I sent him a message asking if we could reduce the size of the trade. His reply was "Your tracking # is ..., cheers!".

 

I would've returned the box and paid for his shipping. And then been done with him.

 

all that content should be a stickied thread here.

 

No shit. I would have asked what he wanted sent back along with the bottles you were able to get for him.

 

I would resend. I also will not open anything someone sends me unless they get my part of the trade safely. That way if I can't reaquire the beer they wanted - I can send them all of their beer back.

 

I disagree that I should wait until my box makes it safely to drink what I received. Once the beer gets to me it's mine to drink or do whatever I will with it but I'd certainly make it up somehow if I packaged shitty and something got broken in transit.

 

you just opened Pandora's box and a can of worms, simultaneously

 

I thought I was crazy for doing this. Glad I am not alone.

 

I just get screwed all the time - not here trading beer yet - but by businesses etc. Pay it forward. If I trade something simple like Sculpin out - sure that would be different - but rares, hard to get etc - I wait.

 

Pandora's box is actually filled with worms worms so it's not quite as impressive as it sounds. Seriously though, if you're waiting for a specific bottle for a tasting for example and you get your end of the trade before the other guy gets his are you really going to not open/bring it for the rare instance there's breakage? Probably not I would imagine and that's why I said you just make good with something else if you package poorly and the bottle breaks.