Post-Trade Etiquette and Follow-Up

Last Updated: Wednesday, 30-Oct-2002 01:36:16 EST

You mailed the tapes, and now you run to your mailbox every day in eager anticipation. One of the following situations can occur:

• You get the tapes on time, and they are the shows you wanted.
• You get the tapes on time, but they aren't the shows you wanted, or something else is wrong with them (missing a side, etc.).
• The tapes don't arrive on time.
• The tapes never arrive.

Once you receive the tapes in the mail from your trading partner, drop him or her a line saying that you got the tapes and thanking them for the trade. This is the nice thing to do. Or if they beat you to it, be sure to write back. Post trade niceties often lead to long-term trading relationships.

In the vast majority of cases, if there is a mistake with the way your tapes were made, it was an honest one. If you ever get tapes that are missing a side, or a different show from the one you wanted, just send a friendly e-mail to your trading partner letting them know that they screwed up. They will offer to make amends, probably by having you send the tapes back, fixing what was wrong, and paying for postage both ways. This is what will happen in the almost all screw-ups that you could ever encounter. (The person may not offer to pay postage both ways. If they don't, try not to make a big deal out of it. They really should, however :-)

If the person you traded with doesn't seem willing to rectify their mistake, you have a problem. You can badger them over e-mail for a long time, and they may give in. If you have their phone number, like you should, you can call them up and try to reason with them. Only as a last resort should you call them a "bad trader" anywhere on the net. If you do end up having to make a "bad trader" posting, be sure to include a chronology of your dealings with him or her, including a statement that you tried all other means to contact and reason with the person. Some people say that you should never post a "bad trader" report. I won't go this far, but it should be a very rare occurance, especially if you followed the suggestions put forth in the rest of this guide (and if both of you follow this guide, it should never happen).

WAIT!

Don't do anything until at least five days after the tapes were scheduled to arrive. Many things can lead to the tapes being delayed up to five days, so you should be prepared for this occurance. Hopefully, your trading partner notified you about any delays that may have arisen. But even if they didn't, you should wait five days until you do anything.

So five days have passed, and you still have no tapes. Send a friendly e-mail to your trading partner asking what is up with the tapes. Chances are, they had something come up that prevented them from spinning your tapes as quickly as they thought they would be able to. Even if they have no excuse, your e-mail will probably jolt them into action. They will probably respond and give you another ETA for the tapes. If this deadline passes, you should then call the person and see what's up. At this point, you will probably want to bitch them out, but be polite and ask them if they mailed out the tapes. If they say they have, then you should wait another couple of days. If you still don't get the tapes, call again. If they are ever going to be convinced to send you the tapes, it will be over the phone. But...

This is the worst situation you can ever encounter in a trade, and in almost every case, it means you got screwed. I don't have any statistics, but mail gets lost VERY rarely, and even if it goes to the wrong address, it will usually find its way to you sometime. The person who didn't send you tapes is most definitely a "bad trader," and you should post his or her name to rmp with a chronology of events leading up to the "bad trader" designation (you should wait at least two months after last contact with them before posting this message, however). There is no need to post this message more than once, unless you see someone else complaining that they got screwed over by the same person.

This situation, thankfully, is very rare, and I know plenty of traders who have never gotten screwed mostly because they used the procedures outlined in this guide. Most trades are executed flawlessly, and are a testiment to the honorable nature of the trading community.

Please see the sources for this document. © 1998 Dan Mielcarz

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