Bartertown.com

Hi all, my first trade on this site is having a bit of a bumpy time, though there's not malice on the part of the other trader. Here's the situation.

-In July, I agreed to purchase some minis from the other party. We both had no rating so I just sent him the money by paypal. In my paypal payment of $80, I made sure it sent the proper address. He asked me to confirm it with the paypal message forwarded to me and I did. He came back to me and said he didn't realize I was in Canada, so would I mind giving him an extra $5 for shipping. I said no problem and quickly fired of another $5 through paypal, but this time I didn't check it carefully enough and paypal attached my previous address to it. But whatever, I had already confirmed the other address with him. He ships it July 11th.

-On August 4th I let him know that I still haven't got it, just to keep him in the loop. He says, just in case, here's the address I shipped to, it's the wrong one. I try to get a hold of the people living there now, but by the time I do (aug 14th), they tell me that they marked it return to sender and gave it back to the letter carrier already.

-As of my last communication with the other party (sept 15th) he hasn't received it back yet. How should we proceed? I've asked him to look into filing an insurance claim on it. Should I ask him for my money back until it's resolved on his end?

(Presuming we have all of the pertinent information)

Official policy is that it is the sender's responsibility to see to it (to the best of their ability) that the package makes it to the recipient. Until it does so, it is their responsibility.
He sent to the wrong address. In the end, he will need to make sure everything's right (the next round of shipping should be on his dime).

It's been a little over a month since the package was returned. A month really isn't that unusual, and I've had packages take two months to get from Canada to the US. That doesn't mean you should just sit on your hands, mind you.

The first thing you should do is PM your trade partner. Tell him your concerns and ask if he has any ideas on resolving it. Your idea of receiving a refund until he's ready to ship again is a a fair one, provided you hold on to that money and don't spend it elsewhere.

Remember that you've got to cover your butt. If you feel like you might need to file a claim with PayPal, you've only got 45 days... which is fast approaching.

Eric