How long to wait before reporting a bad trader?

depends. On lots and lots of stuff. I will say more than 11 minutes.

 

^this... well, lets say 12 minutes..

 

Hahaha...what our resident comedians are trying to tell you is that you need to tell the whole story before we can give you any opinion on the matter. Details such as what agreed on, especially shipment date, are you out of beers, how have you been communicating with the trader, how long has it been, was the trade conducted on BA and if so, did you use the trade system (have an accepted trade between you 2 before shipping the beer). Lots of factors to consider before calling out someone, not just how much time past.

 

^much better answer than mine... my apologies, I've had a few tonight

 

All in good fun, my friend. I'm sure the OP has a sense of humor. Cheers!

 

But humor is banned here Al!

 

Hey Matt,
Did you get his email and phone number? Have you reached out through those means yet? Did you use the BA trade system? Does he have any trade feedback?

I don't think there is a set # of days lapsed before you call someone out, but rather what took place so far in term of communications and whether or not the trader has seen the messages and continued to ignore you (check to see if he has read the messages you sent him on BA, check to see when was the last time he logged on). Personally, 5 days past promised tracking # day is enough to warrant some concerns, but not quite enough to out someone.

I'd send him another message on BA, email, and text, tell him that you're concerned and have posted a thread about it asking advice from other members. Send him the link to this thread, and ask that he updates you on what's going on with the shipment. Depending his response or the lack of it, you can go from there and we can certainly help your decision along as needed.

 

Don't blame you for being nervous. But give it a couple more days. Some people aren't as concerned as others. Hey it's just beer ( sarcasim).

 

You need to give it a but more time. Has he been on BA since Monday? Read your messages?

 

While I agree this is basically the right way, i think a lot of people (myself included) have some issues with this because if you list out all the details like that, its pretty easy to figure out who you're talking about...and then you've basically called them a bad trader. I'm in short of a sticky situation myself right now.

 

Not sure how would you go about figuring out who it is based on those questions. No one can see your pending trades. You don't have to be specific about which beers you agreed to trade with (hence the question was specifically "Are you out of beer?"). The other questions are about communication means and timeline.

 

^ Okay fair enough. And I thought others could see pending trades, good to know. I dont wanna call someone out, but I'm sorta looking for community advice myself. I want to do it without alienating the other person, because i believe they're a good BA, but i think we've come to an impasse

 

Link him to this thread via private message and tell him that you hate to resort to outing him, but his lack of communication may force your hand.

 

Ive got my pitchfork ready whenever you are. My torch is a little low but should be able to make it through the day.

 

Just as a general rule of the thumb, I think you need to tell the person you're considering outing them in a bad trader thread before you do it, but that is mostly because I take these threads seriously. I can't think of a single trader who has been the subject of one of these threads that didn't ultimately end up on my DNT list.

that said, from a pure timing standpoint, it seems like OP has genuine reason to be concerned, adn I'd start going through @mythaeus's list and move towards outing him if this doesn't work.