Discussion: How do you deal with "pilots"?

[vinz]

Many of us trade in the forum and sometimes we come across irresponsible members who do NOT show up on time or at all after making appointments. How do you deal with such people? (There are other problems, like failure to pay, bargaining after agreement of price, etc, but let's just focus on pilots in this thread.)

The one thing AQ would like members to do is to rate these people on iTrader accordingly. The iTrader system will allow the community to see the track record of members (buyers/sellers) and hopefully will also discourage irresponsible behaviour. This will allow others to make informed decisions whether to deal with them. iTrade is not just for rating sellers, but also vice versa, to rate buyers.

Other than using iTrader, how do you deal with the person/situation?

[Shadow]

How about if rating reach certain minus point, he/she will be ban for posting in Buy/Sell section?

Advice user to reconfirm the meeting 1 or 2 hour before the agreed deal time.

[eviltrain]

for me personally, i will just save the number, and put a ( ignore ) besides the name.

[vinz]

eviltrain, do you rate them in iTrader? That will help the community in general.

[eviltrain]

i will highlight in the iTrader if the person never give me a valid reason.

luckily for me, i haven't encounter this kinda person before in this forum.

[Ecalyte]

I've actually had a very bad experience with a 'pilot' from this forum..

He booked about 25-30 shrimps. I even gave him massive discounts to the entire set... He asked me to hold it for 2 whole weeks! I agreed in good faith and seeing how I was in no hurry to release them... I put them in a breeding box. The day that he was supposed to collect the shrimps, he was completely MIA. I called him over 10 times.. SMS flooded him, no reply. Finally 3 hours after the agreed time and date (AGREED ONLY THE NIGHT BEFORE!) he sms'ed me saying he has money problems and cannot complete the transaction. Asked me to hold it for a further MONTH!! I mean.. money problems suddenly crop up in the space of 16 hours from agreed time and date? I was convinced this was some sick prank.

Regardless, from the beginning he asked not to be mentioned on the forums about reserving the shrimps.. not even to reveal the last 4 digits of his mobile. I found that a little fishy.. but I gave him my word. I stuck to my promise and never revealed the person.. But because he didn't give me his name, I cannot give him an iTrader rating.

I feel that there should be a name-and-shame section of this forum for unscrupulous people like this.. This will severely deter people from dealing in bad business. Of course I think this section will be super HOT and needs to be heavily moderated haha!

[Panpierce]

He staying at serangoon ? Haha

[Ecalyte]

Haha I don't know man.. all I know is that he works in the city!

[y26tan18]

So I'm not the only one who had dealings with terrible pilots -.='''
Sorry for airing my annoyance in the wrong place.
But where is this iTrader ?

[vinz]

I've actually had a very bad experience with a 'pilot' from this forum..

He booked about 25-30 shrimps. I even gave him massive discounts to the entire set... He asked me to hold it for 2 whole weeks! I agreed in good faith and seeing how I was in no hurry to release them... I put them in a breeding box. The day that he was supposed to collect the shrimps, he was completely MIA. I called him over 10 times.. SMS flooded him, no reply. Finally 3 hours after the agreed time and date (AGREED ONLY THE NIGHT BEFORE!) he sms'ed me saying he has money problems and cannot complete the transaction. Asked me to hold it for a further MONTH!! I mean.. money problems suddenly crop up in the space of 16 hours from agreed time and date? I was convinced this was some sick prank.

Regardless, from the beginning he asked not to be mentioned on the forums about reserving the shrimps.. not even to reveal the last 4 digits of his mobile. I found that a little fishy.. but I gave him my word. I stuck to my promise and never revealed the person.. But because he didn't give me his name, I cannot give him an iTrader rating.

I feel that there should be a name-and-shame section of this forum for unscrupulous people like this.. This will severely deter people from dealing in bad business. Of course I think this section will be super HOT and needs to be heavily moderated haha!

The iTrader is supposed to be the "name and shame" section. And it's meant to be self-moderating... as in if person is decent generally, the majority of the ratings should be positive. Of course, there will be exceptions due to misunderstandings, miscommunication, unfortunate circumstances or simply unreasonable counterparts.

Hopefully, through these discussions, a set of tips, guidelines and expected code of conduct can be formulated.

I think first and foremost:
1. Interested parties must reply in the ad thread (to ensure iTrader ratings can be given)
2. Members should make it a point to check the other person's iTrader rating before agreeing to deal.
3. iTrader ratings should be given (both ways) upon completion of deal.

So I'm not the only one who had dealings with terrible pilots -.='''
Sorry for airing my annoyance in the wrong place.
But where is this iTrader ?

Nope, you're not the first to "miss a flight". Looks like we need a guide on how to use iTrader. A quick one:
1. To check someone's iTrader rating, look at "Feedback Score" above his posts, right side. Example at the time of this post, EvilTrain (see his post above) has 13(100%) which means 13 ratings and 100% positive.
2. You can view the details of a member's ratings by going to his/her profile or clicking his Feedback Score in his post header.
3. To give an iTrader rating to someone, the person must have replied to your sales thread in the Marketplace forums. View that thread and below the person's post is "Rate Seller" (regardless of the role, it is always "Rate Seller". Will find a way to change it to "Rate Trader" or similar). Click it. The form is quite straight forward.

EDIT: After typing all that, I realised you already rated him... LOL. Nevermind, it'll help others.

[Yulbrainer]

From other forum (not in sg) i used to involved in "buy and sell", money (down payment) will solve this "pilot" issue.
Seller will reserve the item because money already in his hand, and buyer (probably) will not cancel the deal.

[fotoudavid]

I do not give negative feedbacks, only good feedbacks.

When facing pilots, which i encounter a few this 2 months, i just say bad luck. When i posted in my threads for selling or trades, i some times put: PILOTS WILL BE EXPOSED. Hope to keep some out.

[vinz]

David,

I take it that you don't want to be negative and/or nasty. But if you don't give negative feedback, then others will not be warned and the community as a whole cannot keep track of traders they should be wary about.

It can also serve as an educational tool, to show such members what behaviour is not acceptable. iTrader is not a punishment system, it is a feedback system.

[eviltrain]

Vinz, but also depends on situations.

that time i sold something but the buyer accuse me that i sold broken product ( which is completely new ). at the end of the day, its actually some tape up on the box. i showed the buyer my other box and its the same.

imagine the buyer never highlight the thing to me and just gives me negative points, will be a bit unfair.

-all kinds of peoples around-

[Ecalyte]

In that case I think that the iTrader system should be modified to allow the accused to defend himself against the accuser probably through a commenting system at the base of the iTrader rating/comment.

[eviltrain]

In that case I think that the iTrader system should be modified to allow the accused to defend himself against the accuser probably through a commenting system at the base of the iTrader rating/comment.

don't have to la bro, 1 more things for mods to be headache about.

i suggest changing the rule on the sales thread. any bad experience can just type in the sales thread ( since negative comments are tag with the sales thread ). it will be easier for the rest of us to know what really happen.

[fotoudavid]

David,

I take it that you don't want to be negative and/or nasty. But if you don't give negative feedback, then others will not be warned and the community as a whole cannot keep track of traders they should be wary about.

It can also serve as an educational tool, to show such members what behaviour is not acceptable. iTrader is not a punishment system, it is a feedback system.

I do agreed the iTrader is a system for feedback, but i felt that may be the other party really got problems how? Also, to me, this is an hobby, no point having enemy and bad relationships as well. This is just me.

I think as i always like to trade here and there, may be lost track, i may be one of the pilots as well, may be...... haha

[fotoudavid]

don't have to la bro, 1 more things for mods to be headache about.

i suggest changing the rule on the sales thread. any bad experience can just type in the sales thread ( since negative comments are tag with the sales thread ). it will be easier for the rest of us to know what really happen.

Bingo, why drag the mods in for the disputes???? Good point as says by eviltrain, whatever happens should just highlight in the thread. But only problem is that the thread in BNS does not goes to the top of the list, it will just eventually fade away.

[Yulbrainer]

In that case I think that the iTrader system should be modified to allow the accused to defend himself against the accuser probably through a commenting system at the base of the iTrader rating/comment.

CMIIW, there is a "report bad rating" feature in iTrader to defend our self from user who try to give bad reputation to us.
I am not sure how it works, maybe moderators can give more insight on the feature.

[Ecalyte]

Ohhhh ok! What's CMIIW? Haha!