Cracking down on late shippers

[mikesilvia]

I have fielded several complaints related to people sending out their trades/sales late. Additionally, the communication has not been great with some members even though we offer a simple Private Message system and an easy way to e-mail other members. We even provide a detailed trade manager to track your trades.

I'm looking at instituting a new rule that I want member feedback on.

Member will receive a negative feedback in trades or sales if they send out a package more than 3 days after agreeing to a sale/trade unless otherwise noted in the trade manager. The dates used will be the SCF trade manager date and the post marked date on the package. If a deal involves a trade then both packages must be postmarked within 3 days. If it is a sale, PayPal must be made or payment postmarked within 3 days. Members receiving negative feedbacks due to late shipping may have a Must Send First tag assigned to their count on a case by case basis.

I think 3 days is more than enough to make a payment or package some cards and get them to the post office. I can't do much about lack of communication, but I can verify these dates by having the trader wishing to give a negative feedback scan the postmark.

All members wishing to be a solid, respected member of SCF should get packages out in a timely manner. If you can't, then communication is the key. Most members are understanding of personal issues. But if you fail to communicate and send out a package late then a negative feedback and possible MSF tag will be issued.

[gladdyontherise]

Myself personally, i know i already complained today, and put it in dispute (almost 3 weeks) but for some people i know they can only send out once per week on a certain day, which i think should be maximum, maybe say "3 days unless you notify trading/selling/buying partner otherwise" but i agree people who take forever to ship with zero communication should be punished!

[mikesilvia]

Myself personally, i know i already complained today, and put it in dispute (almost 3 weeks) but for some people i know they can only send out once per week on a certain day, which i think should be maximum, maybe say "3 days unless you notify trading/selling/buying partner otherwise" but i agree people who take forever to ship with zero communication should be punished!

Yes, I added "unless otherwise noted in the trade manager" for that reason. If you come up with your own agreement it must be mentioned in the trade manager!

[gladdyontherise]

Also I think to warn other members who may trade with them, it'd be a good thing to get a "star rating" like on ebay. where you get rated by 5 stars

[mikesilvia]

Also I think to warn other members who may trade with them, it'd be a good thing to get a "star rating" like on ebay. where you get rated by 5 stars

That is something to look at. You are talking about the little survey at they end where they asked you to rate like 4 areas by stars?

[gladdyontherise]

That is something to look at. You are talking about the little survey at they end where they asked you to rate like 4 areas by stars?

yea, that way if you dont want to deal with someone with slow shipping practices, you can check and can do so accordingly, it'd probably cause for less trade disputes and show the good and bad traders, this could also cause a "retailitory" situation where someone is mad at the stars they got so they kill the others in return just to do so

[gmoney168]

I like Dan's idea except I would have 3 areas to rate by stars:
Item condition as described
Shipping Time
Communication

Same as ebay, except I don't think there is a need for shipping charges...

As Dan mentioned above, I would also like it if there was a way to prevent retaliation. That could be taken care of by not letting the other person know the feedback that was left for them until they leave feedback themself.

[RenegadeLonghorn]

I'm against a star rating because we have a MSF rule here. Trades dealing with MSF members may take up to two weeks to complete. You have to wait for them to ship, then receive, and then you ship. You could get a low star rating even though you shipped a day after receiving your end. How? Because the member may only look at when the trade was created, instead of when you received first.

[Jefff]

The three day rule unless otherwise negotiated is fair and is being used at other sites. Communication is the key.
I like the idea of voting or rating the seller based on shipping times, quality of product etc.
There should be a penalty for those who do not adhere to the rules.

[mikesilvia]

I think Ash is correct. Our MSF rule is better than a star rating. Unlike Ebay, you can't have thousands of negative feedbacks. If you start racking up negs then you get a MSF tag and everything is solved. We will take each on a case by case basis, but if you agree to 3 days then you are held to 3 days. I can see your first negative being a warning unless it is terrible like 10 days late with no real excuse. A few negs and you have a MSF tag, so no stars needed.