How to use this Forum - we want your comments!

[rosey]

The goal is to help ensure that the Swap Meet stays honest and fair for all.

This Forum is a device to alert the member who is complained about that they need to take action to remedy the situation.

The username of the member who has not dealt fairly with you should be the Title.

Use the Message part of your post to give details about your transaction.
Please make your complaint without emotion or name calling, just the facts m'am.

The moderators will decide if the complaint is serious enough to merit posting. Simple misunderstandings will not be posted on this board.

Members who have complaints lodged against them are invited to reply and explain, and the complaint can then be removed from the board.

We appreciate your cooperation with this new feature, and your comments are welcome.

[*Shira*]

This is a mythical complaint, posted for the purpose of helping Rosey test the new complaint feature.

Back in early January, Hildegard Hamhocker (bhuz ID of hamhocks) offered to sell a $500 Bella costume that was my size. I sent her money via PayPal the same day, and received confirmation from PayPal that the money had been forwarded to her.

At first, she responded to my emails acknowledging that she got the money and was preparing to send it. But she has not replied to me since February 8.

Now it is April 28 and I still have not received the costume. It is too late for me to go through PayPal to get my $500 back.

[carolynn]

what are you going to do to make sure the problem wasn't unavoidable (ends up in the hospital after a car accident), or maybe even the complaint is bogus (someone's got an axe to grind)?
for example, if someone complains that a costume arrives damaged or whatever, that didn't show in the posted photos, you'll have to get the complainer to post her own photos showing the damage.
how bad is bad enough to get banned? if it's X strikes you're out, how are you going to define a strike?

i'm not saying it's not a good idea to have some standards or rules even, but they have to be thought through and posted so everyone knows what they are and what will happen.

[rosey]

Please see Shira's thread about Swap Meet Rules & Etiquette http://www.bhuz.com/forum/showthread...=8440#post8440

The key to making this work is to exercise moderation in the telling of the complaint, as well as in taking any action. A costume that arrived damaged is not a feature that would merit posting on the complaint board. Nor is receiving something that is somewhat less than was described. The complaint area is for egregious breeches of the buyer-seller relationship.

This board provides a place for people involved in a transaction to take notice that they are being talked about and to remedy the situation, and to put other members on alert that they may be dealing with someone with a spotty record.

We are not looking to be punative; our goal is for the Swap Meet to be a place where people can buy/sell with confidence.

[Uulady]

Also, I am sure that if a situation was rectified with the buyer or seller in question, the person that wrote the initial complaint can add that to the thread as an update. We already do that on the boards.