Reasonable Time of Response Post Delivery

A few days seems reasonable to me. I would imagine that any decent trader is going to send you an update on status if something has come up on their end within a few days of receiving your box. Only thing I can think of is if they went out of town or had a work thing come up, and people I have traded with have always updated me on things like that very quickly. In 40 trades I have never had anyone leave me hanging for more than 24 hours.

 

After 24hrs I would hit them up with a little check-in message

 

Well if his baseline comm level is patchy I'd give it another 24 and hope for the best. Really hoping you didn't get burned.

 

Some people don't really see the merit in sending the "box arrived, everything is good" message so I have found that it helps to just drop them a line after a day or two and ask if everything got there okay. On the other side of the coin, you can pretty safely assume that if something WAS wrong, you'd hear about it almost instantly.

 

This is common practice bro. Keep it up.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of humans don't behave decently.

 

^^^This
48 hours max, and if something came up or they had to leave town, they should tell you ASAP in case you need to put a temporary hold on it. @Yourahoser the recipient didn't give you a shipping back window?

I'll usually tell the recipient when it arrives, if I see the tracking says it was dropped off that day and I haven't heard from them by the time I check the tracking that evening. When I get a box, I will tell them it arrived right away and how the contents look (usually great). If I get the box and can't open it til later, I will still tell them it arrived, and when I'll be opening it. Then message immediately after opening.

Over-communication >>> under-communication!!

 

Let it breathe for a little while before we go down the bad trader road. The benefit of the doubt should be given for a reasonable amount of time. I'd hate for you to call him out and have it blow back at you because he had something come up.

I know it's hard (sometimes agonizing) when you're waiting to hear from a trade partner. Me personally, I'd give it the weekend and come Monday, I'd probably be a little more assertive in asking for answers. If by then he's been on the site but isn't responding, then you could probably reach out to a moderator to see what your next step should be.

I've just seen too many bad trader discussions that were posted prematurely and they didn't end up favorable for anyone.

 

I have to admit, the more I see bad communication turn into a early warning sign for a trading partner flaking out, the more I fall to the mindset that we are waiting too long to post Bad Trader threads. After all, there are a few things to consider:

1. Bad Trader threads are intended to warn the community to avoid more people being duped. The best warning is an early one.
   
   
2. Poor communication, while not nearly as egregious as stealing beer is, imho, "bad trading" behavior. Yes, we all know life comes before beer, but following through with people who have agreed to do business with you--even informal business like beer trading--deserve at least a brief response. The easiest way for someone who has fallen victim to life's hassles to distinguish themselves from a scammer or flake is to fire off quick message. It takes as little as 30 seconds. EDIT: I want to clarify that I wouldn't give someone bad trading feedback for having lackluster communication. I might mention it in my comment, but if the beer arrives on time and as expected within reason, there is no reason not to give positive feedback.
   
   
3. If it turns out that a person has been called out in error, there are two ways in which the situation can be fixed: the thread in question can be deleted, or it can be left up whereby other users can draw their own conclusions about the events and the manner in which they unfolded. More information and transparency is better, and if a person is called out who has a valid reason for their lack of communication, then people will see that and understand accordingly. While I can certainly understand the reticence to call someone out, scammers use that communication grey area to their advantage. Maybe more people would put more effort into communication if they realized that failure to do so might result in scrutiny.

All that said, ultimately what matters is whether or not your situation meets the criteria for posting a Bad Trader thread:

• Was the trade conducted on BeerAdvocate?
• Is your trade partner's account verified?
  
• Did you use the Feedback System?
• Was beer shipped, either by you or the trade partner?
• Have you given them a chance to make it right?
• Have you exhausted all methods of contact?

Assuming this trade was conducted through the Feedback System, the only two bullets that are in question are the last two. And the uncertainty surrounds the length of time that should be considered a "chance" to make it right.

OP, if you have a phone number or email, I'd suggest using one or both of those options to see what's up. In my experience, a reasonable person will feel bad that they have you worried, whereas a flake or a scammer will get defensive and pissed off that you aren't being more "chill" about it.

I don't think I would wait a week to see what happens. At the very least, you can reach out to one of the mods [DOUBLE EDIT: Don't reach out to a mod, per the sticky on posting a Bad Trader thread.] to see if they have an opinion on the matter. @blue-dream @F2brewers, I know you're both very busy--do either of you have any thoughts on this? Am I being too harsh?

 

I think people are getting a bit over the top here.

*One* day... *two* days... and we're ready to call out the dogs? I think not.

A week with nothing...that's probably unusual (but not unprecedented or necessarily bad in my experience).

If you don't trust the person you're trading with to go a few days without a response, you shouldn't be trading with them.

Period.

Communication (that's both talking and listening (and I do mean listening...not "hearing")) is paramount.

Aside from communication, trust is crtical. If you don't trust, don't trade. /discussion.

This age of instant gratification is sometimes too much. IMO, if your style or comfort zone demands daily responses (and plenty of people's do), make sure you tell your partner that early on in your discussions.

If it becomes an issue or they're not comfortable with it, don't trade with them.

Realize that you may come across as a control freak or whatever else in some situations and that may wreck the trade too...it goes both ways, so you need to take that into account as well.

Be mindful that it's not just about you and that trading is a two way (at least) street. You need to consider your partner's needs as well. Don't talk past each other. Make an effort to listen to what you're both saying and try to come to an agreement you're both comfortable accepting.

Wait, is this turning into some kind of weird family or marriage counseling? Actually, it's not that different in some ways.

As ever, it all comes down to communication. I can't stress this enough, especially to new traders.

Think about what's important to you and how you'd like it all to play out. Maybe that's not how you live your life day in and day out, but if you think this is going to be stressful, I think you need a plan. Know what you want.

Discuss and agree to appropriate expectations before clicking that agree to trade button. That way, if things change, you've got something to hang your hat on if it goes bad.

Communicate.

Communicate some more.

If in doubt, communicate again.

I can't remember the last time we had a thread here about someone who communicated *too much*. I'm sure some of you have felt that way at times (perhaps even trading with me), but it's the golden rule.

Did I mention communicate?

 

What do you do for a living? You do an awesome job of putting your thoughts together and writing!

 

Disagree @F2brewers. Contacting someone to say thanks for the beer is just common courtesy. IMO the person who can't be bothered to do that within 24 hours is the one who shouldn't be trading, not the person who expects good communication. Obviously if something terrible happens that's one thing, but if it's just "life is busy," sorry but it's rude not to take 10 seconds to send a quick thank you. The other concerning thing here is that OP's box was already received and he doesn't even have a ship date let alone tracking number. So we're really talking about 3+ days of silence after beer was shipped. Not cool to ask someone to mail you a bunch of beer and just drop off the map. I personally wouldn't start a bad trader thread about it, but I'd be irritated for sure.

 

You're way too entitled. Get over yourself.

You have no idea what other people have going on in their lives, nor do you have any perceived "right" to expect an immediate response.

It's just beer and if you can't wait a day or two without some lengthy "explanation" about why your parnter hasn't told you they got the box, reconsider trading.

Sure it's nice, even preferred, but don't get your knickers in a twist.

 

Cmon now, are you having a bad day? That is a very harsh response to @rightcoast7. All he is doing is advocating some common courtesy.

 

Evrery day is a bad day when you're a mod.

When people selectively choose parts of a post to call out instead of the totality, they get what they give.