Question about leaving "bad" feedback

I always think it's funny in these situations how "life" gets in the way of the bad trader not responding to messages and not being able to ship beer, but it doesn't get in the way of the bad trader logging on to BA and reading messages and receiving and drinking beer.

 

My thinking is that if you've had a bad experience with someone, especially of the magnitude we've seen here, then yes, that experience implies a bad trader. Everything I've read here suggests that Jake is not someone I'd ever trade with. It's kind of you to give him the benefit of the doubt, but unfortunately by doing that you're allowing others to undergo similar experiences.

Jake, you may be a good dude, but everything I've read in this thread, your comments, the excuses, all point to you being less than trustworthy as a trader. Just my take. The OP and others may disagree, but I for one, would not have faith in trading with you.

 

I'd trade with him but I'd probably request that he ship 1st.

He shipped promptly but the box was heavily damaged & was nearly a total loss. There were unavoidable delays after that due to weather conditions in the recipients state. Once the weather improved, Jake erred in promising to ship, while failing to do so several times.

When he initially promised to ship the replacement box perhaps Jake was being optimistic due to a sense of responsibility & an eagerness to make it right, get it done. Perhaps there were legitimate, quite reasonable, situations affecting his ability to ship the replacement box promptly.

This past winter I asked trading partners to wait for better weather prior to shipping. Many of the boxes included at least some low abv beers & it was almost two months before it was safe to ship. Following one nice week, cold weather snapped back for a couple more weeks.

In the meantime *gasp* life went on. Several people who were prepared to ship mid Jan when our trades were initiated now had things arise that made it difficult/impossible to drop everything & immediately ship my box. Naturally, I negged every damn one of the ungrateful bastards. After all, life revolves around me, me & my beer, to be exact.

Welll, maybe not...All were very apologetic, however, they had done nothing wrong. They waited patiently for months to ship only to have life interfere when it was finally safe to do so. Imo, it was my turn to show a little patience for a few weeks if necessary.

The delays on Jake's part might have been understandable, but he should not have repeatedly promised to ship & then failed to do so. Again, this might have been an honest mistake on his part due to being overly optimistic.

Yeah, he undeniably dropped the ball, but not necessarily because he's a bad or untrustworthy trader.

If in fact, *my* optimism is warranted, Jake will learn from this & won't repeat his mistake of promising to ship & then failing to follow through.

Given the circumstances, I'm not convinced even neutral fb would be fair. That's ultimately the OP's decision. He might have additional info regarding what caused the delays which could affect his judgment for good or bad.

@tylerk88 I've got all fingers crossed for you & I'm eagerly awaiting your updates when this is finally resolved.

 

@tylerk88 when FedEx loses/damages a shipment you rate the trade on how the person handled it to make it right & ensure that you rec'd the beers you were due. There was an additional complication in this trade due to those pesky weather conditions which necessitated additional delays.

 

Actually it seems the weather caused a week or two of delays - the rest of the delay was on the sender. IMO if you can't drop off a box (Fed Ex does pick up as well so that shouldn't be an excuse but w/e) then just be honest and say, "Hey bro, super busy at work, my girl is nagging me about the shipping expenses, etc., etc" - Not cool to repeatedly say, "It's going out tomorrow" when you have no intention of sending the box out the next day. Generally I know my schedule well enough that I can be fairly certain if that schedule will allow me to swing by the fed ex drop box the next day. Once the box is packed up getting it to a drop box is fairly simple. And I never ask for a receipt at fed ex, I set them on the counter and they've always made it to their destination.

I think bad feedback with a link to this thread is appropriate.

 

How do we know that he had no intention of sending it out?

I agree that he dropped the ball on the delays in re-shipping but I'm not convinced the delays were malicious.

Many people successfully drop boxes at FedEx without waiting for a scan receipt. Personally, I don't consider it worth the risk. IF it's not scanned & something goes awry there's no proof it was ever shipped. I just don't want to risk that situation. But I'm a cynic. Paranoid, too.

 

It's kind of bizarre that OP and his trader have disappeared from this thread.

 

IMO, it doesn't matter if he had legitimate delays or not. If he had a legitimate delay, (a death in the family, his wedding is fast approaching, his child is born) then he should say that and I'm sure 99% of people here would be understanding. Instead he kept kicking the can down the road - by repeatedly saying, "I'll send it out tomorrow" without actually sending it out the trader in question makes it quite clear that getting the box out is not a priority and he'll do it when he damn well pleases.

 

This update is what I wanted and what most of us come in here looking for. We're looking to make sure you are made whole. Keeping folks updated helps with that. If Jake didn't come through on his end, lots of BAs would be happy to take care of you.

 

The thread won't be deleted, it is good reference for other traders. At some point in time if it is resolved it will be locked though.

 

what are you even talking about?

 

Fair enough. I didn't interpret that post as having been shipped.

Glad to hear all is being made right.

 

FWIW @jakewatt135 and I were talking about doing a trade in March, and he let me know mid-March that he had some things come up and wanted to wrap up current trades before committing to anything else. NBD to me, I said we should reconnect later.
I believe some things came up (and he was not trying to bilk anyone). It was unfortunate the first box got broken, and that he kept saying he'd ship and didn't follow through. But he came into this thread to answer questions without being called out, has remained civil, and hopefully some boxes arrive soon. This seems like a learning experience.

@tylerk88 Update?

Posting tracking numbers publicly can be a risk. Sending them to trusted BAs following the thread who can update others (in addition to the recipient, of course) is safer.

 

Closing this, but moving the subsequent question about how to handle bottles that can't be replaced to its own thread.