Trading Communication

This has come up before. Unfortunately its never going to stop

 

I agree, this is another reason I have pretty much ceased trading in the ISO:FT. Too many kids running rampant, asking for the moon and just being ignorant. It's honestly best to just keep up with your established trading partners and/ or participate in the BIF's IMO. Way more fun, and you get to build longer relationships. You wont be able to teach someone manners over a forum.

 

Exactly, just keep track of those people who do it and ignore them. Eventually they will lose a lot of legitimate trading opportunities.

 

Completely agree. The problem to me is not only that some people are turds & suck at communicating, but I see the same 38 handles over & over & over & over in these threads. I'm becoming convinced that most traders never enter the "Help" forum except to post about the "worth" of their new 250 bottle, brewery-only release.

So part of the problem is exposure; I'm pretty sure 93.6% of traders will never see or read this thread or any like it.

 

#1 is my biggest pet peeve. It's simple email etiquette. But I agree that they're just screening their inbox. It's even more annoying when you respond to their ISO and then they re-post their original trade offer 72 hours later, seemingly because they didn't get their top want.

 

I have had your first point come up more times than I would like. No one likes being ignored, especially since we can tell when someone has read a message. I try to respond to everyone who messages me in a timely manner, as I would like to believe the majority of users do. Its the bad apples who always stand out in the bunch, though.

I have also had it happen to where someone responds to an ISO that I post and then after that initial message they go radio silent. It kinda surprises me when someone goes quiet that quickly. Kind of confused on the whole "Why did you respond in the first place?"

Unfortunately people are going to do whatever they want and if they all of a sudden don't feel like trading, well then there really isn't anything any of us can do about it. Common courtesy would be nice, but some people just don't care...after all this is just an anonymous internet forum, right?

 

@LambicPentameter - absolutely agree with your original post - poor communication is a pet peeve of mine. I am seeing more and more of it, and I have basically adopted the rule that if your first message to me doesn't sit well, I cut you right off the bat. I am getting so many responses from people that don't even have any of the basics of friendly communication.

Of the last dozen or so responses to trade posts, I would say 70% of them have been literally "I have X, interested in your Y" as if the most socially autistic person alive sent the message and they can't be fucked investing any effort at all. I am at the point now that I just reply 'no thanks' and do the trade with someone else.

 

I've had both of these instances happen to me. I think it comes down to people changing their mind or trying to get more/better beer for what they have to offer. Some people just don't have the courage or courtesy to say "no thanks" to a trade. Or when a trade offer comes thru there's no spine to counter offer.

There's no harm in just saying "no thank you". It saves time and effort. Allows the trader to continue conversations with others. If you get multiple offers, tell the others that you're fielding multiple offers and you'll get back to them.

 

I think communication is important and going forward with trades that is what I look for. What I have experienced before landing my first trade is what you all have expressed frustration with and that is silence. I have responded to ISO and never hear back even if I send two messages. If you closed the trade just send a quick response. Although I want a response to my messages I do not want to have a chit chatty back and forth about superfluous topics. I would rather be right to the point that way there is no mistake of what is expected and what is included in the trade. I guess when I am trying to make a transaction Im responding to an ISO and I don't want to waste the persons time. The majority of my message is you have this and I have that so what do you think. Maybe I sound autistic but I guarantee you will at least get a greeting and a salutation.

 

This is where I come out on the huge lists of FT and/or "PM me for ratios" too. Somebody dumps some middling names into a post, names a totally out-of-reach ISO, and wants us to come up with a creative offer that they'll either ignore or come back to with another demand? I've made some great friendships here, but most of my interactions and ISO:FT postings I've responded to over the last couple of months have been a total joke.

 

Agreed. I don't want to devolve into the same 'old man shouting at kids' but the trade forums are definitely looking a bit worse for wear lately.

 

I honestly can't tell which one of the two scenarios in the original post I despise more. I'm currently in the midst of the second one and it's driving me nuts. I received two offers for a trade that I posted over the weekend. Preference went to the guy who messaged me first. I messaged him back pretty much instantly, we'll call him Guy A. The guy who messaged me second - we'll call him Guy B - also received a reply from me because I'm not a monster. I told him straight up I already had something in the works but if it didn't pan out, I would message him.

Back to Guy A. We agreed in principle to trade and, after the first round of messages, I sent a follow up to iron out details - how much, when, etc. Nothing. Since then, I sent another message letting him know I was interested in getting something done this week and if I didn't hear from him I would have to move on. Still nothing.

So I messaged Guy B and asked if he was still interested. He had already committed to a trade with someone else and politely declined. So to recap, Guy A went freakin missing like he just found out his high school girlfriend is pregnant, and Guy B moved on to something more concrete. So bad communication cost me the whole trade, one that I was definitely excited for. Stuff like this drives me to the brink of insanity and it's most of the reason I stopped trading last winter.

 

Here's another scenario I've encountered which sort of relates to point 2. Working on a trade with somebody and almost to the point of sending a trade request when they go silent. After 5,6,7 days I go to the next person, then the original person finally gets back to me. I inform them I'm not interested anymore and they get mad and act like I'm the bad guy for moving on. I've gotten the "I was on vacation" or "I was busy with work, why couldn't you wait for me to get back to you?" Well, they should've let me know that before going quiet. I'm sorry but if I haven't heard from you in that long I assume you lost interest, were shopping your bottles around, or are just flaky and not somebody I want to trade with anyway.

 

What about the people who respond to your ISO:FT post asking for an even more expensive, harder to acquire beer than what you posted FT. For example I offered a Last Snow for HF Everett, someone came back asking about FB Snowed In...Seriously?

 

Im some scary way, this sounds like modern dating (or maybe that's just me!)

 

simple response: "No thanks." and then remove yourself from that BM.

I've done this at least a dozen times recently. No harm in being direct and ending the conversation.