Bad Trader Reports

[sharpinthefang]

I think there needs to be a better system in place about bad trader reports.
The current system is highly unfair, surely, those traders, like my self, who have completed lots of trades should be given a bit of belief when reports are filed against them.
Sometimes accidents happen, we may miss a card or put the wrong one in.
Also, at times, fake cards are REALLY hard to tell apart from real ones.

With the current system, if the person who is reporting doesn't cancel it in a couple of days, regardless of how many trades the accused has completed with no problems, or even if they have paid for a premium account is deactivated and they are banned for life.

There are even a few people out there who like to file bad reports for no reason.

There should be a better system in place to protect everybody.

[chibionineko]

The bad trader report is not as arbitrary as you make it sound. There are easy ways to defend youself including using delivery confirmation to prove that the cards were deliverered. Usually the users that are banned that have alot of references failed to reply to the admins messages in a timely manner, either because they no longer have that e-mail or they just didn't check their mail often.

[sharpinthefang]

I recently had a bad report filed against me, and they way that the message that i received from the admin was written made it sound like i had 3 days or i would be banned.
I tend to have to ship as cheep as possible, so i don't go for tracked trades. If i was to start going for that option then i would only be able to ship to the UK.

[marigoldfroggy]

Unfortunately, it's incredibly difficult to make the bad trader report system any better than it currently is. Unfortunately, people with lots of references and huge trade history do steal from new members.

Here's an example:
http://www.tradecardsonline.com/im/showTrade/trade_id/186678
Basically, when I was new to the site, I was trading with someone who had way more references than you. They had maybe 50 or more references. They picked this point in time to keep everything that was sent to them first and not send out anything where they were sending second. This was the only trade when I had cards stolen from me; the lost cards included a charizard and a boxtopper. As you can see from the link I provided, I had used tracking to prove that my part of the trade had been received so it made filing a bad trader report a lot easier for me. Besides stealing cards from me, they also stole cards from 8 other people, which you can see here:
http://www.tradecardsonline.com/im/listTrades/this_user_id/215020

Here are some tips for how to protect yourself:
1) Keep very good communication with people you are trading with. If you have to mail cards late, let them know why and when you will be shipping. Don't mark off your part as sent until after you have sent the cards.
2) For international trades, make sure that the person you are trading with understands that it may take a month or more to receive cards from you. If they aren't willing to wait more than a month for each end of shipping to take place, don't trade with them.
3) Fully tracked international trades are often prohibitively. I usually only have a US customs number to show that my part of the trade has left the US (I am usually able to get a customs number whether I use a package or a letter).
4) If you see that someone hasn't received cards from you after a lot of time has passed, check up on them to see if they have received the cards. If you have something similar to a US customs number, ask if they would like you to check on the status of whatever tracking you have. Personally, every time I have checked up on someone, the response is typically along the lines of "Don't bother checking the customs number yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it took a few more weeks for the cards to arrive and I'm not worried."
5) Do everything you can to make sure the person you are trading with is happy. If something is lost in the mail, send them a new shipment or compensate them monetarily (personally I've never had to compensate someone monetarily, but I would if I had to).
6) Before you decide to accept a trade, consider how likely it is that the person you are trading with could lie and claim they never received cards from you. If someone seems untrustworthy, don't trade with them unless you can afford tracking or you can afford to compensate them monetarily if they lie about receipt of your cards. You should also consider the shipping costs of the trade before accepting. If an international trade's value is not much more than the shipping costs, don't accept that trade.
7) If you have a bad experience with someone, don't trade with them again.
8.) When you have active trades, you should be checking the website often (more than every 3 days) to make sure there are no problems. If someone messages you about a problem and you don't respond within a day or two, they will be concerned and more likely to file a bad trader report. The ability to respond to an admin message within 3 days shouldn't be a problem because you should already be on to check that often anyways while trading.
9) Keep in mind that children do use this site and may not understand how shipping, tracking, or international trades work. Be extra careful if you think you are trading with a very young member of the site.
10) If a trade times out for any reason, contact the person you are trading with immediately.

Keep in mind that bad trader reports are reviewed by the admins. This prevents people from filing false reports. In your case, the person you were trading with most likely didn't wait long enough before filing a bad trader report because the international shipment may have taken a month or two to reach them. It also looks like the person you were trading with has had cards stolen from them before even though they have been using this site for a very short amount of time, which is something you should be extra sensitive to.

If you have any questions for me about trading tips or the report system, let me know! =)

[archangel93]

great advice above, the only thing I can suggest if you are concerned about being scammed, is to make sure you send with confirmation delivery, that way they are less likely to scam you and and fraud can be reported and losses can be re-cooperated.

I was scammed before, but unfortunately, it's almost a learning experience for every trader.

[sharpinthefang]

Thanks everyone.
I check the site at least once every two days, usually once a day at least!
I have now put a message up on my profile explaining that it might take me a little while to post, due to living in the back end of no-where. Hopefully this will help!