Bartertown.com

If someone contracts you to do a job, you provide proof of job completion they approve it accept the terms and then disappears and does not pay for the job.. does that warrant a bad trader reference?

Example person contacts me to do a decal set for them.
We agree on a price I create the artwork, print the decals and let him know they are ready to ship. Then the person no longer responds?

This has happened to me 2 times doing decals for people already in 2 weeks.. I spend no little time on these decals not to mention the cost of producing the decals themselves. just to have them disappear. I'm no longer doing work for people without upfront money. its a waist of my time and resources.

I think you'd be completely justified. As you say, you've invested time, effort, and expense. You'd naturally have to go through the usual steps, but I see nothing wrong with posting a neg.

...and definitely require a deposit from now on.

This is very different from someone just backing out of a trade. You've already done the work.

It certainly warrants Negative Reference. Other traders should know that these people have commissioned work and then backed out. It also let's people know not to waste your time, which isn't a bad thing....letting them know that is.

GearHead wrote:I think you'd be completely justified. As you say, you've invested time, effort, and expense. You'd naturally have to go through the usual steps, but I see nothing wrong with posting a neg.

...and definitely require a deposit from now on.

Agreed. This isn't an issue of you just being out time (say, if this were a deal that ended), but resources, money, and hard work. You were contracted to do a job. If the other person fails to pay or otherwise compensate you for the time and effort, neg refs are completely justified.

Hell yes. Nail 'em.

One of them i no longer have proof for .. i just got pissed and deleted all the PM's... but the more recent one... i have all of his stuff... but allot of my pm's back have moved off the list... but i have enough to prove it. I think i spend to much time on this site.. when 3 pages of sends go buy in 2 weeks LOL.

Anyway I'm going to give it a bit more time... then I'll post it.

Tell me about it. My PM box tends to fill up PDQ. It's perpetually around 95% full unless I increase the message capacity.

Same problem from time to time here. However, now that my job has white-listed my Yahoo Mail, I just may switch to that.

Going off topic here.. but cant the site be set up to forward your pm's to a email account instead of storing them on bartertown? sort of like what yahoo groups does?

DarkSoul wrote:One of them i no longer have proof for .. i just got pissed and deleted all the PM's...

Anyway I'm going to give it a bit more time... then I'll post it.

I recommend that you set up separate, off-site copies of all BT PMs "just in case".

I also recommend that you at least open the BTR.

By "Open a BTR," do you mean to start a thread on them?
IMO, that is dumb.
IIRC, negative ref's don't HAVE to be followed up with a BTR thread. Those should be saved for people who are actually (accused of) scamming.
Someone with poor trade practices (which is what this sounds like) is far different than someone who simply cheats you out of your stuff and doesn't send the promised items in return.

Don't get me wrong. I think a negative is warranted. I just don't think a BTR thread would be, unless he actually SENT the stuff.

Just my opinion.

Eric

Bad practices and bad intent often look very similar.

In this case, the OP was ripped off. He invested time and resources on an "at risk" basis doing work for hire, with the expectation that he would be paid upon completion.

In my book, that is "theft of services", and is the basis for a legitimate BTR.