Anyway to make communication a feedback category?

pbcg

pbcg

Feedback: +24 / =0 / -0
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
1,955
Anyway to make communication a feedback category?

It seems enough is a enough. How often do we see threads about how during a sale or trade communication is great, right up to the point money or goods are sent and then one party drops off the radar and all communication stops?

Even when it still works out and people get their goods. The stress and worry caused by this type of behavior is completely inconsiderate and unnecessary.

I know you can leave a negative feedback but that often only leads to a retaliatory negative feedback so people are reluctant to do that. Plus you may have gotten your end "eventually" so you can't really say the person cheated you. But the behavior sure made you feel you were being cheated for day's or even weeks while you waited without any word.

So I ask, is there a way to have a separate category for communication, where you don't have to leave a negative feedback but can say or rate poor to non existent communication to warn others that this person lacks basic consideration and also perhaps provide some incentive for people to do the right thing instead of, I'm going to sell a bunch of knives and once I get paid or my end go on vacation, not tell anyone and won't be available for the next few weeks so tough luck if you have any problems or concerns.

It's especially frustrating when you see the person who is ignoring your inquiries is still active and posting so you know they have Internet access.

I get not everyone is glued to their computers or smart phones but baring real emergencies, how hard is it to give someone a few second update to let them know what is going on?
 
I don't have much experience in this arena, but couldn't this fall under the Neutral Feedback category?
 
benchwarmer380 said:
I don't have much experience in this arena, but couldn't this fall under the Neutral Feedback category?
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Sure, neutral or even negative. But I'm thinking more a separate category that you don't need to read the narrative to figure it out. You can only leave a very short narrative in the feedback the way it's currently set up.

Something immediately available along the lines of:

Communication was: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Very Poor.

The hope being to attach more importance to the subject for those not otherwise inclined to be considerate.
 
Sounds logical to me as well. Have done many, many transactions here (don't be fooled by my feedback #, I have been buying/selling here before the advent of the feedback system). I have, personally at least, had only outstanding transactions here in the forums, yet I see where you are coming from. Communication is the key in trades, sales, and just about any other post here. I would certainly sign up to such a rating system, even if it was voluntary.
 
It wouldn't be a bad idea, but the implementation is another thing. It might not even be possible. This Feedback section is pretty much the place to discuss such things, and has been for a while. What I'm seeing is that more people are visiting and posting in this area than before. More threads are being made, and involvement by the community has certainly gone up.

There's been some interesting threads posted lately. One in particular comes to mind. The seller offered items and offered to text pictures of the items. A buyer accepted to purchase, and claimed he was unable to accept photos on their phone via text. It happens. However, it would have been just as easy to send pictures totheir email address. For whatever reason it didn't happen. The buyer received the item, wasn't happy. Rather than communicate with the seller, it was easier to hit the seller with a thread complaining. The seller offered a refund, buyer refused and became defensive claiming the sellers attitude was horrible, etc.. The seller contacted me yesterday and stated he issued a full refund. The buyer apparently sold all of his knives and had a "I'm leaving the forums" sale, and claimed that he didn't want to explain his reasons, didn't want to deal with anyone anymore, etc. It ended in a self induced meltdown.
 
RevDevil said:
It wouldn't be a bad idea, but the implementation is another thing. It might not even be possible. This Feedback section is pretty much the place to discuss such things, and has been for a while. What I'm seeing is that more people are visiting and posting in this area than before. More threads are being made, and involvement by the community has certainly gone up.

There's been some interesting threads posted lately. One in particular comes to mind. The seller offered items and offered to text pictures of the items. A buyer accepted to purchase, and claimed he was unable to accept photos on their phone via text. It happens. However, it would have been just as easy to send pictures totheir email address. For whatever reason it didn't happen. The buyer received the item, wasn't happy. Rather than communicate with the seller, it was easier to hit the seller with a thread complaining. The seller offered a refund, buyer refused and became defensive claiming the sellers attitude was horrible, etc.. The seller contacted me yesterday and stated he issued a full refund. The buyer apparently sold all of his knives and had a "I'm leaving the forums" sale, and claimed that he didn't want to explain his reasons, didn't want to deal with anyone anymore, etc. It ended in a self induced meltdown.
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It sounds like the buyer got Scammed . I just did my first trade. I am waiting on the knife that I traded for. I will give the right feed back plus post the person name on the boards too.
 
richard thurman said:
It sounds like the buyer got Scammed . I just did my first trade. I am waiting on the knife that I traded for. I will give the right feed back plus post the person name on the boards too.
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The point is communication. Some people do not feel they need to ask questions for whatever reason, they have issues that prevent them from reaching out to people in order to reach some level of understanding. They want everything brought to them, as if we were some sort of mind readers. Have you ever met people that for one reason or another were simply miserable? No matter what you do, they simply refuse to smile, laugh, or have fun? Even though everyone else around them is having a great time? Same thing.
Another aspect is that some people have a subtle agenda if you will. Nothing is good enough, apologies, refunds, everything is too little too late. So in this case, the buyer got the knife and a refund. The seller is the one that was inconvenienced, having to literally guess what the problem was. The buyer provided no proof of his claims, expected everyone to take his good word on it. Right. We do not like malicious buyers any more than we like malicious sellers.
 
Rev,

Thanks for your reply and input.

If you say setting up a separate feedback category isn't feasible with the current system then I accept that. I just wish there was some way, other then leaving a negative feedback or starting a thread about an individual to alert others to a potential flake or worse. Or more importantly re-emphasize the importance of good communication to those who take the matter a bit to casually or frankly just don't seem to care at all.

I really feel for those who have to agonize with the decision if they need to take the next step or not and report a potential problem because the person their dealing with fell off the map. Especially when a ten second update would be all it takes to put them at ease.

Thanks again, I truly appreciate the expertise and experience you bring to this part of the forum and all the great work you and the other mods do to keep these, and other problems to a minimum.
 
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pbcg, iTrader has a 3-part feedback system.

The obvious part is the good, neutral, bad.
The last part is the narrative, visible only to buyer, seller, and moderators.

But between them is a one-line statement, like "great deal, fast shipping"
Onto this line, squeeze "communication could have been better"
 
RevDevil said:
There's been some interesting threads posted lately. One in particular comes to mind. The seller offered items and offered to text pictures of the items. A buyer accepted to purchase, and claimed he was unable to accept photos on their phone via text. It happens. However, it would have been just as easy to send pictures totheir email address. For whatever reason it didn't happen. The buyer received the item, wasn't happy. Rather than communicate with the seller, it was easier to hit the seller with a thread complaining. The seller offered a refund, buyer refused and became defensive claiming the sellers attitude was horrible, etc.. The seller contacted me yesterday and stated he issued a full refund. The buyer apparently sold all of his knives and had a "I'm leaving the forums" sale, and claimed that he didn't want to explain his reasons, didn't want to deal with anyone anymore, etc. It ended in a self induced meltdown.
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I kind of feel like I dodged a bullet. I sold that same guy a knife right at the same time. It could very easily have been me on the receiving end of that thread. I also noticed he had the knife I sold him up for sale in his going away sale.
 
Esav, that is a great idea. I've tried covering that aspect when I leave feedback for someone.

Dan, it got messy for no good reason at all. The tug-o-war via PM was amazing, relaying what anyone else would consider positive news was met with a ho-hum attitude and one wave of negativity and rejection after another. It wasn't good enough, but I suspect offering a refund and allowing the person to keep the item outright was not good enough either. Can't win them all.

This example was where a buyer is also accountable for communication after the sale. Some easy steps for the buyer:

1. If you are not happy, say so! We will never be able to read your mind.
2. Be clear about why you are not happy, and indicate what the seller can do to resolve the matter (be reasonable)
3. Ask for details before the purchase, ask for pictures and ask questions.
4. If you are happy at the end of the transaction, say so! Give appropriate feedback.
5. Before dropping a bomb on someone in here, make some effort to resolve the matter privately. This forum is your last resort, not your first stop.
 
I just did my first trade. I read about one party does not like the knife because of something that was not told about it. I went ahead and sent the person the knife first. told them to look at it. if they like it then ship there's out to me. if not then just ship mine back to me. please tell me a better way to do it than this.
 
Richard- that sounds like a good protocol for an unestablished trader to me.

Rev thanks, and its to bad common sense ain't so common.
 
benchwarmer380 said:
Richard- that sounds like a good protocol for an unestablished trader to me.

Rev thanks, and its to bad common sense ain't so common.
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Yer durn tootin' ;)
If folks actually communicated to one another, as if they were standing face to face, things would be so much more pleasant for all. The only thing we can do is try to guide and set an example through our own interactions.
 
I have dealt with a communication issue for the past couple of weeks. I would be all for a seperate rating for it except for this scenario. Sometimes life happens, not everyone sits on this website constantly. My recent interaction has been completely unpleasant, and i tried being polite through it all, and the individual could have simply told me what was going on, especially family situations etc. I understand that. The situation would eventually arise where something like this could happen to someone who is an awesome trader, they just have a rough couple of weeks, with family issues, or a loss or something of that sort. And again they could be dealing with someone impossible to please who is impatient and shows no sympathy to said situation and ruins that persons good rep because that knife was more important to them than someone else trials and tribulations which to me isn't ok. Wish my situation were like this and i didn't feel like something odd is going on, but i am still giving the person the benefit of the doubt and not jumping to completely ruin their rep if that makes sense
 
Steve, I completely understand what you are saying, and also the considerations you are taking into account and why I suggested a separate category where you could still give a positive feedback, and not ruin someone's rep but comment on the communication aspect alone. The idea being to promote better communication by attaching a category to it one will be judged on.

I also distinguished between real emergencies, and that will be up to the person leaving the feedback to consider what's appropriate to their individual situation. Just like leaving a positive or negative feedback is now.

I agree that not everyone is glued to their computers or smart phones, however, if they are being active it's obvious they have the ability to respond and how much effort does it really take to just give a quick update if there are going to be delays. I would think most if not all would be very understanding because we get "Life" happens but a simple update would go a long way in helping to ease some of the concerns one has when they just don't know because no one is getting back to them.

I read your thread and know what you are experiencing and really hope it all works out and am really sorry you have to even go threw all this. You Sound like a really good guy and that's exactly why it bothers me so much when I see it happening and as often as I do.

Again, I really hope it all works out for you.
 
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pbcg said:
Steve, I completely understand what you are saying, and also the considerations you are taking into account and why I suggested a separate category where you could still give a positive feedback, and not ruin someone's rep but comment on the communication aspect alone. The idea being to promote better communication by attaching a category to it one will be judged on.

I also distinguished between real emergencies, and that will be up to the person leaving the feedback to consider what's appropriate to their individual situation. Just like leaving a positive or negative feedback is now.

I agree that not everyone is glued to their computers or smart phones, however, if they are being active it's obvious they have the ability to respond and how much effort does it really take to just give a quick update if there are going to be delays. I would think most if not all would be very understanding because we get "Life" happens but a simple update would go a long way in helping to ease some of the concerns one has when they just don't know because no one is getting back to them.

I read your thread and know what you are experiencing and really hope it all works out and am really sorry you have to even go threw all this. You Sound like a really good guy and that's exactly why it bothers me so much when I see it happening and as often as I do.

Again, I really hope it all works out for you.
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Now i understand a little better what you are going for and and i agree that would be great! Thank you very much for the kind words, i was simply using that as an example. but you do bring up the great point, which is something that made my situation horrible, and that is when you cn see someone is online but still they will not speak or reply to you. Communication is, aside from actually sending your end, the single most important part of any trade or sell. Rev is right sometimes you just come across people who are down on life, or just don't have great personalities then you just can't win and maybe if they saw enough complaints about their communication it would wake them up
 
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