Good morning everyone, it sure has been a while since we’ve connected over here I know. I keep saying that too but luckily I know myself well enough to not promise that it will get better because who knows where the wind will blow me next. I just hope that the proverbial wind has a turbine to store its power because I feel like I’ve been around the world and back and that would be some useful energy reserves for sure!
I come to you today with a follow up of a company and concept that I talked about back on June 13, 2010, Swap.com. At the time they were named Swaptree.com and a bloggy buddy of mine turned me on to the concept as it was a one stop shop to trade books, movies, CD’s and video games. For just the cost to ship the item back and forth you could have a whole new library of media at your fingertips.
Eager to get started, I signed up right away. There were issues with setting up my account and my gut reaction was to give a Two and a Half Leaf Rating. After things were fixed I changed it to a Four Leaf Rating but I think I should have gotten a little further in the pool before throwing leaves around like that.
I listed a book that I had already read that was sitting on my shelf gathering dust. I created a wish list of books that I was interested in receiving. Then I waited. But not for long! By the end of July I had a trade partner who indicated they had the book I wanted and that they wanted the book I had. Sold!
Within a day or two I purchased a bubble mailer (couldn’t believe I was out of them in my stash!) and hit the post office to ship the book. All totaled I spent about $6.00 to get this book out. The book I traded for was one that our Book Club was going to be reading in the coming months so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
Then I waited. And waited. And waited…
In the later part of August I initiated an issue with the trade on the Swap.com website. It was somewhat easy to navigate as there were links to click that said I hadn’t received my trade. We went back and forth through the end of August and into mid September before the trade partner (who had long ago given me a fantastic rating mind you) got in touch to let me know the book had shipped at the end of July.
That was it. No sorry you didn’t receive it, gee it must have gotten lost in the mail, nothing. I understand that things happen but with only one trade under their belt so far and such a lag in communication I was starting to smell the signs of something fishy.
With no additional recourse I had no choice but to just basically deal with it. I had spent money to get the book out to them but I chalked it up to my karma bank and went on with my life. Right after I cancelled my account with the site.
Then, early last week, a package arrived from Amazon and inside it was the book I had traded for. Mind you, I had already gone out to my local used book reseller in September when the trade died and purchased this book, so clearly I didn’t need a second copy.
I started to worry myself that I had somehow ordered it online without remembering and I checked all my accounts but there was nothing to indicate I had spent any money on this item. And with the return address being listed as my own, I was mystified.
Then this morning (November 3, 2010) I received this in email from Swap.com:
“Your trade partner provided the following additional information: The replacement has been purchased and sent through Amazon and the order info is: xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx The order will be received by the recipient on October 22, 2010 and tracking is available.”
October 22 was two weeks ago, pretty close to when the item was received. Way to be on the ball there guys!
I do not regret my decision to cancel my account as I feel that this is clearly the wrong outlet for me. I know that some of you have had great experiences with them and I hope you continue to have those great experiences because that is what makes the internet amazing, the ability to seek out and find what works and what doesn’t for each individual. For me…well, I’ll stick with Half.com when I’m ready to get rid of media from now on.
4 comments:
I'm sad that your one and only trade turned out to be a no-show. As for getting it from Amazon, Swap.com started a new guarantee thing where they'll order the missing book from Amazon on the bad trader's credit or debit card and send it to you. They'll only do this if there wasn't a tracking number for delivery confirmation, because if the delivery is confirmed then the sender did everything they were supposed to and it's not their fault it got stolen from the porch or what have you. But since the trade went through before the guarantee, I bet this was a result of a lot of follow-up stuff so that the book could get to you. It's nice that they actually took the initiative to do that though, instead of saying "too bad, so sad" to all the bad trades that happened before they started their guarantee.
There are always a few bad apples to spoil the barrel, guess that's a part of life. It was nice that Swap.com got the book to you even though it was a bit of; "Too little, too late".
Maybe what they need is something like a clearinghouse, where members send in their used books, videos, DVDs etc and an account is kept of each members listing what items they sent along with their list of items they are looking for. Of course that would never fly as it requires a lot of bookkeeping, staff and then some way to bill members for postage ... yeeps, that means the person would be paying twice for postage, whereas a true swap would be postage in one direction only.
Scratch that idea !!!
I guess one of the disadvantages to swapping via the Internet is that you have to pay to give something away. If you were to bring it to a local bookswap store, they might actually give you some bucks or store credit toward another used book.
Just a thought for the future.
Peace, Judi
Have you given up posting here? I miss your eco recommendations. :(
Hope you're back soon.
Peace, Judi
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