Bartertown.com

Dilemma for B-Town.

I agreed to a trade (Mar 10)with a new user (0 rating), army for army swap. He shipped first and it arrived (March 21). However there were a few things wrong. Item like mini's that had broken in shipping, some things not as described, etc. I catalogued it, took pictures and informed him of it. He said he was willing to make it right. He had insurance on the the shipment and wanted to go through USPS to cover the costs. I said I was fine with that. After awile of no communication (I had not shipped my side of the trade yet), I finally got a hold of him through email and he replied that he had just returned from active service, and had to get a hold of USPS. The last communication I had with him was March 31, which was also his last visit to B-Town. Since then both email and PM have gone unanswered.

I would like to complete this trade. I have my part and would like to send him his part, however I would perfer we both are happy. Right now I do not have a complete trade from him and he has nothing. I am not happy with this, however I feel I have put a reasonable effort into trying to have this resolved. I have stored his part of the trade safely and have not even used it for a game.

At what point do I just consider this a failed trade? It's been over a month with no communication despite me reaching out. I want to resolve this and I wanted for him to have him have a successful trade. I feel bad that his first trade on B-Town went sour and hoep that I haven't discouraged him from trading again.

I'm torn as I don't feel it's my responsability to be trying to fix this and yet I don't want this trade to go bad for him. How much more effort should I put into this?

You have his email address. Use it to look him up on Facebook. If you find him, message him there. Look at his Friends list for people with the same name, or who he has listed as relatives. Reach out to them. I've had good luck with those methods before, when trying to reach people who had open BTRs on them and disappeared. Just be polite and make sure they know you're trying to HELP and not make accusations of any sort.

LEGALLY speaking, I don't know how long you have to hold your items before considering them abandoned. You DO have an obligation to hold them for a period of time, however.

I hope this helps.

Eric

To add to MM's post, you said he was in active service? He very well could have been deployed again and he forgot (or did not have time) to update everything. When you go about the Facebook way check to see if he was deployed again and if they know when he will be back.

Abandonment law is different in every state (and every country really) and is usually only met when it is in writing (aka a contract has been written up saying "if you don't... by this date... be considered abandonment". Kind of like how storage places give you a certain amount of days past due before they own your locker). I would look up your state law and see if they have a clause that states time frame, for example PA Law states that it is only abandoned if the owner (in this case your trading partner) has shown clear signs he is giving up his rights to the property (in this case the models) and has shown intent that demonstrates that he has knowingly relinquished control over it. Most states have similar things so you would need to look it up for your home state. I know some places though never consider it abandoned unless it is in writing and require you to file a report with the police to see if contact can be made, which in turn they would give a certain amount of days before you were okay.

Just noticed you live in polar bear country with me - Pretty sure you need to contact them via registered letter if you want to consider it as abandonment (since no agreement was made and it is an international trade). This might be hard if he is deployed over seas. I'm not legally licensed or anything so nothing I say is legal advice, just needing to note that here - I would contact a lawyer for the legit (but most likely expensive) truth behind what is law for us Ontario-ans re: Abandonment.

I would look into contacting him through Facebook or loved ones. Obviously if you can get it sorted out the better. I'm sure if you PM an admin (*cough* MM) he might be able to help you further in tracking down more information about your trading partner.

Best of luck!

Ryan

Sure. Send him my way.
I've got nothing else to do. I just sit around picking my nose and flicking it at the wall all day & night!

; )

LOL


Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:Sure. Send him my way.
I've got nothing else to do. I just sit around picking my nose and flicking it at the wall all day & night!

; )

LOL


Eric

From MM himself, he has nothing to do. The nose picking obviously translates to how helpful he wants to be.



Ryan

P.S. - I'm sure any member of staff would be more than willing to help you -

I actually have his cell as well, I just sent him another email and a text. I tried the FB route but the email wasn't connected to anything. I did find some old posts (2012) on Warseer under the same email and username. Last message said he had just gotten out of the military.

To be clear I have no intention of abandoning this trade, I want to complete it. I want to have 2 satisfied traders out of it (him and myself) my question is really about how much effort it is worth putting into it.

If he doesn't respond to my most recent communications I'll ask MM to stop picking his nose, wipe his finger off and work his magic for me.

I can't work magic without my nose-goblins. That's where I channel the power from.

Eric

You can keep mining for gold MM, I managed to reach him through email. He's offered to cover the errors with $. Not my prefered method but it is a resoultion.

Good news all 'round, then!

Eric

So I know this might be thread necro but I have an update/looking for more advice.

after contacting him, we reached an agreement where I would source the bits and send him the cost of what they were and he would send me the money. It took me a while to source the bits but I finally did, sent him an email confirming everything and received no response. I tried texting as well again with no response.

I still have his part of the trade ready to go and am content to leave it that way until he decides he wants it. I am hesitant to ship without receiving confirmation of his address (who knows what has happened in 8 months? I know I moved)

Do I keep trying, do I extend my attempts to other forms of contact, at what point do I just leave this trade forever in limbo?

I'd put it in a holding pattern. He has a history of disappearing. He might've gone active again. I don't know what his position is in the military, but there are plenty of guys out there who are stationary until a moment's notice, then they're deployed.
Look at his profile. Is he logging on actively? If so, send him a PM.
If he's actively posting ads, shoot me his User ID and I will shoot a message to him in his ad (do NOT comment in trade ads, yourself).
Otherwise, keep reaching out via email and, if you can locate him, Facebook.

I'd give it another month or 2, then send out a "you have XXX days to resolve this, or I am considering the trade complete" email. You can only be expected to hold onto this stuff for SO long, after all.

Eric

He hasn't logged in since Mar 31.

Good point on the active service. I guess I can wait until the new year and then call it quits.

Email that to him...
...and use the email address to see if you can't find him on FBook. If so, send him a message there, too.
Also, if you have his physical address, do a White Pages search to see if you can find a phone number to call.

Do as much as you possibly can to find him, so that it cannot be said that you DIDN'T.


Eric