There are several people who I have "traded" with & have not received anything from. Some of those I have dmailed & not received a reply. How long do you wait for someone to send there end of the trade before leaving negitive feedback?
Also, if you are one of the people who I've sent something to & you have not mailed mine yet, please let me know what's going on. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the wait but get annoyed when I don't know if you are planning to send them or not. So just let me know if/when you will mail them please.
This is my first year gardening but I saved seeds from several of my plants, my moms plants & even some of my aunts plants so that I could trade them & get new things to plant next spring. But I have had at least 12 people who I've sent seeds to & not gotten anything in return. (Not all from this site though) But it is really disapointing to a new gardener (or a old one either I'm sure) to take the time saving seeds & mailing them expecting to get something new in return & then get nothing at all.
Ok, enough on the rant I suppose. (Sorry about that) Back to the orginal qustion:
How long do you wait for someone to send you seeds or at least a email letting you know whats going on before you leave negitive feedback?
feedback?
Dixie, I do not know how to answer your question, but want to give some feedback from the other side. To the best of my knowledge we have never traded, so hopefully I am not biased.
I have about 3 unfulfilled requests for seed where people are still waiting on me. One of those is my fault as it is taking me longer to get the seeds cleaned than I anticipated. However, the other two will likely remain unfulfilled for some time, simply because I do not know where to send the seed, who asked for them or what they want.
Simply put, I am seriously considering not offering seeds any more for postage, as I had a bad run of "difficult" requests this year. The kind that don't follow the instructions, short you on requested postage, don't tell you what they are requesting, don't tell you their Dave's handle so you can rack it down, don't include a return address or the return address is not legible, etc. I had a whole bunch of these this past year, and gradually have been tracking them down, sometimes because I get a d-mail asking what is taking so long. Don't get me wrong, these are all nice people, who simply had a "senior" moment or otherwise had a lapse of judgment along the way. I'm sure I've done similar.
My point is that there can be many reasons why there might be delay and the first step, in my mind, is to make sure that you have opened the necessary doors for communication. That includes making sure that people know how to reach you before you do the trade, and reaching out to those that are running late or have not responded to make sure that there is not a breakdown somewhere.
I want to emphasize here that there is two way responsibility for a successful trade that starts with good bi-directional communication. I'm not saying that you didn't do this, but stating what needs to be said for the benefit of all.
Personally I would not leave negative feedback until I was quite sure it was deserved, regardless of how long it took. For example, I made a post to Watchdog this year regarding a negative vendor experience, but waited years before doing so.
That is what I was afraid of with leaving negitive feed back. If I leave them feedback then they later send there end of the trade I know I can go back & change the feedback but there could be someone who read the negitive & decided not to trade with that person because of that.
I think I've gotten all of the seeds that I've ever requested for SASE though. Just aint haveing any luck getting good trades this year. To be honest, I didn't even bother with checking the feedback that others had left for someone before agreeing to trade with them. Last year, I bought some seeds & gather some off of my moms plants & done a few trades. I always got everything that i was suppose to so it never crossed my mind to check there feedback from others. But this year I've noticed alot of people not sending there ends of trades. Who knows, maybe it has something to do with the economy.
I do know what you mean with forgetting what you was suppose to send someone. Last year, I agreed to do a suprise swap with someone. They sent me this big old box just full of stuff! I looked everywhere for the address. (Of course, I had thrown the box away as soon as I had taken the plants out.) I thought I had a email from them still but couldn't find that either. I even went to all of the sites I used for trades but couldn't find anything. I never did get to send them anything because I couldn't find a name or address. That was completely my fault because I should've wrote it down. They never emailed me wanting to know where the package was.... so to this day I owe someone out there a trade. I did learn a lesson from that. Now I use my tradetracker for every trade, even ones from a differant site.
I don't mind waiting as long as I know that they are going to send them. One person sent me a dmail. She had been in the hospital & the plant she was sending died. She is going to try to get another one rooted to send. But there are others who I haven't heard anything from. Which annoys me because I see them posting on here or other sites so I figure they could at least send a email & let me know if they do intend to send them or not.
Thanks for your input. I will wait a little longer before leaving negitive feedback. Hopefully I will get some of the stuff.... keeping my fingers crossed !☺
Dixie,
wow, so sorry for your trading woes.
I guess i've been lucky to have gotten all my trades reciprocated.
There were a handful where i'd have to send a reminder of.... "Did you happen to mail my seeds yet?"
it's possible they just forget, as i'd get them within a week.
Negative feed back can be 'sticky', but i also think it can be reversed.
Have you checked the other feedback from the person? any negatives, all good??
How long has it been since the trade? and the second or third Dmail?
I certainly hope you get this resolved.
we crossed posts.....
That's what I can't figure out. It seems like most of them have positive or no feedback. Only 1 or 2 had any negative feedback at all. Maybe since the holidays are over they will see this post & remember to mail my stuff :) Or at least that's what I'm hoping for.
There are some that I mailed out 3 or more months ago, some a little longer, some not quite as long.
I think over half of them did acknowledge that they have received the ones from me at least.
On a completely differant note here, What's the deal with gardenweb? I was emailing someone from that site & I included " dixielol on davesgarden" so that they could come here & see my feedback or trade list. It wouldn't send my email. I got a message saying that I had to remove "davesgarden" from the message or it would not be sent because of "spam" or something. It won't let me link to my tradelist here either.
yeah.... there are issues, it seems between our site and theirs... don't quite understand it though.
I've had a few trades with folks on GW, but only a few. all positive though.... come to think of it... it was always for postage. so I sent them a SASE and got the seeds in return.
on here... i have many many trades, where someone send me seeds, no postage due, and i'd do the same.... 'from the heart' sort of thing... never felt that on GW.
I'd probably wait til the holidays die down and send another Dmail saying something to the sort of....
Just curioius, I"m checking to see if you mailed the seeds out, I still have not received them in the mail, just want to make sure they did not get lost.
If you dont get a reply after that... I'd probably wait a week or so... plenty of time as i know you get an email notice for any Dmail after 3 days.... then i'd probably leave a neg comment... as i do think you can go back and change it.
If it were me I`d let the lady who was in the hospitol off the hook. There are times when the spirit of giving is best.
The worst trouble is when seeds get lost in the mail. Most people will not send again or they don`t have any more to send. My best advice to traders is to stuff a little paper in the envelope to get the 3/4" required thickness and invest in delivery confirmation. That is worth every penny because then your package is traceable.
I have decided I will not trade without using DC because "just in case" you never know. Also I tend to stick with tried and true people I have traded with for years which are quite numerous I`m proud to say.
I have only had One person to keep saying they mailed,then they would find it while they were cleaning house unmailed and swear they jumped right in their car and mailed 10 minutes ago da da da...3 weeks later...nothing. Meanwhile, I`m carefully checking the mail every day not to mention disappointed because I sent them something very nice,plus sent postage in exchange for something else I was looking so forward to but it turned out to be false hope. So I feel not only Seriously let down but shorted or ripped off in a way.
Well, once they get set like this it becomes akin to setting a forest fire in order to roast one marshmallow. It isn`t worth it. lol!
That one person`s Dmail is in my "untrustworthy trader" folder I created. This person has friends and I have to think about is the social implications worth negging someone who has a lot of friends? I don`t think so. In this case no it isn`t. I have decided to let that one go and move on.
gardener2005: I think you misunderstood or maybe I wasn't clear. The lady that was in the hospital is not one of the ones that I was talking about. She actually is really really nice & is going to root me another piece to send. But just in case it sounded like I meant her, I think I will send her a dmail to be sure she knows I wasn't talking about her. Thanks for pointing it out so I know she might think I meant her. She even had a friend dmail me & let me know what was going on before she could get back on here.
I didn't post names of the ones I was talking about either because of that exact reason. I figure they know who they are.
I also love that idea about the folder just for those who you don't want to do a trade with. I do something like that with the DG tradetracker. I always add a note about the person. (Like if it takes them a long time to mail, if they mailed quickly, was rude or really nice.) I'm happy to say though that most of the notes are about how nice they are. Only a few are neg. notes.
I am going to do what TCS said. Wait a little bit after the holidays are done then send a reminder dmail. Then give it a bit longer after that for leaving feedback.
No, I didn`t think you meant that. I am glad some of the trades are working for you. :)
hello
i am from the netherlands and i trade a few years now with daves garden members
for the first i had trade with the gardenpassion and another site but the have not a feedback and i had to much trade that have no sent seeds to me,and if i sent email the never answer and now i trade with the davesgarden with feedback i look fist in the feedback before i going to trade with a person
sometimes it goes wrong and i give a feedback but thats mostly about 3 or 4 months later and i have than several d mail sent to that person
and if it goes good after 4 month than a give o good feedback also
from my way if there seeds not coming on the place i sent new seeds
i answer always the d mails and if it takes to long to get seeds to the USA than i sent a d mail
with the quiestion if the receive mine seeds yet and if not i sent always new seeds
so it s a very good thing that feedback so whe can trade with a good feeling
marjolein from the netherlands
I read people's feedback too before trading, but sometimes a newbie requests (I look at how long they've been a member and how 'active' they are) or someone who may not have been much into trading before. Those are the ones that I usually have the troubles with. I won't post bad feedback unless the situation is at least 6mos and I have emailed several times with no response (no neg feedback submitted to date). I have one now that I sent the last of one type of seed I had and still have not received his end or any response to my inquiries. Oh well - not the end of the world or worth getting too upset over. My experience has been that most folks on Dave's are very generous, well-meaning people, so I can just let the occasional dissappointment go. But I do think the responsible thing to do with folks who are very irresponsible, unresponsive, and not holding up to their end is to post feedback. It is important to warn others so that they have the information they need to make good decisions about who they should trade with. I can live without most of my seeds if something goes awry, but some people may have very special seeds or plants that are more valuable to them. So I think they should know the reputation of who they are trading with. Stacey
dixie, if there are certain seeds you did not get, just dmail me and if I have them I will be glad to give you some. I will attempt to contact them but after 3 tries and no respond, I leave a negative feedback. You can always change the negative feedback later. It helps the other gardener take precaution when trading with that person. I've been burned several times, but there are so many good gardener here who are willing to share their seeds and plants that it make up for everything.
Dixie... I'll echo what Lili said... if there is something you really wanted, and i may have... I'll shoot it your way.