What changes would improve the trading system?

One change I'd like to see and I've never understood why it's allowed if you agree to trading on this site is the ability for users to limit who may view their full profile.

 

I agree with you on this. If people can't communicate well, or talk like a complete moron, then there's a more likely chance of having something happen. When people are vague in communication or skirt questions then I just say no thanks and move on. When I communicate I try to very very detailed and spell stuff out with the other person and expect the same back. If you have time to search the trade boards then you should have time to communicate with me and be precise. I'd love the option of expanding the simple feedback portion and doing a 1 to 5 rate on communication, shipping, etc, but as you said that's a huge overhaul.

I made the mistake of not following this rule once and I'll never do it again. It's been harder to get trades on here so I started looking on social media and traded with someone on fb. The guy seemed like a tool and the communication was far from educated. I went ahead and did the trade anyway and it was a mess. Told me five different times he would provide tracking, but always seemed to have an excuse why he couldn't. I finally got mad and intercepted my package and that's when his communication changed.

He was part of a private group to out bad beer traders and sent my information out to the entire group so I had 100s of harassing messages and people threatening to give my number and address and everything out on the web. He magically had a tracking number then too, which was dated as being shipped that day (even though he said he shipped, then his gf shipped it multiple times). Damage was done already though and pitchforks were already out so I was called a thief (his box hadn't even left his town and all I did was intercept mine) and accused of stealing lol. I posted everything and proof and was still told it was my issue and I was impatient and they sided with him.

I obviously did some back searching and found out he had been booted from other groups for being a dbag and also found police reports on him. He tried to skirt that stuff though but not listing his real last name online, but it was easy enough to find. In the end I sent my box back again and his didn't arrive for another few days. He kept threatening that the group would do whatever they want with all my info and the harassment would continue so I just sent it back to avoid bs.

Sorry for the rant, but it's just an example for anyone out there to always communicate well and go with your gut feeling. If something seems off then it probably is. Some new changes and updates would be nice, but we can always do our own thing to ensure things go as well as possible. Then at least if something bad happens at least you know you did everything you could on your side first. Don't rush or be in a hurry on stuff. Make sure it's set in stone and settled and that a trade request was accepted and ship dates were discussed.

Cheers!

 

I myself would like to know why someone can set their profile to private as well....

 

Thanks for the explanation as I was really just curious. Makes sense that it’s part of the original software.

 

How difficult would it be to add a section to the trading feedback that lists what the trade was (i.e. my xxx for their yyy) & possibly tie this to the completed trades section. This would be my #1 change & I found it very useful for gauging trades back on Reddit.

 

If it ain't broke don't fix it

 

I personally am not a fan of the 3 different trading headers on here. I kind of understand why it’s done but I liked the single header instead of the three. Seems like trading got harder on here when that was switched. Now I have 3 separate pages to search instead of 1. Although admiidatley my trading has slowed a bit due to my overstocked cellar lol

 

1) I ALWAYS make the title of my PM the subject from the trade post. I am also starting to quote their trade post in the initial PM. It's really easy and makes life much easer for both.
2) Before I accept a trade, I generally will explicitly state what I am sending, and what I expect to receive, with as much detail as possible (brewery, beer, variant, year, quantity, etc.) without acronyms (the acronyms are out of control). I ask them to do the same.
3) Microsoft Excel

 

Maybe I am missing something, but I would like to know why this matters? The only thing I really care about is where someone is from and how many trades have they completed. I don't need to see a profile to get that info.

 

It’s come up a bunch of times in the bad traders threads. More often than not a bad trader will set their profile to private. Then it’s a guessing game of when they’ve been on last and read messages or read their own BT threads and played stupid.

 

There are way too few entries on “completed trades”. What if when someone sent an official trade request they would need to enter the trade (required field) and then it autopopulated a locked forum thread. Couldnt see the participants, just what was traded.

 

If I'm trading with someone for the 1st time I try to do this.