Trade Assistant (my personal pet peeve)

I know many of us have talked about sending countless trade request through the trade assistant and only getting 1 or 2 out of 10 or more responding be it for a trade or not.

What gets me is when someone sends me one and I reply back immediatly only to never hear from the person again. I understand that many times I may send a Trade Request for the same pin to multiple people and if they never answer, thats fine (technically), but if 2 people answer my request, I will do the trade with the first person who responded and have the courtesy to thank the other person and let them know I have already obtained the pin.

I mean come on, this person send's ME the request, I respond the same day and accept their offer, I put the pin aside and wait to hear from them. 4 days go by so I send a friendly reminder that I am interested in doing the trade thet THEY offered in hopes of hearing back only to never hear from them again.

Do you guys have this happen to you much? It just bothers me that they cant at least say thanks, got it already since I took the time to respond to them. Am I asking for too much common courtesy?

And the reason I am so dissappointed at this particular one is I put the pin aside, got another request and told them it was committed and then the trade fell through due to no communication and when I contacted the other person to let them know, they had already traded for it and I really would have liked the pin they offered too. And apparently I have nothing else for the pin they offered me originally.


UGHHHHHHHH!

Hi Dan
I am glad I am not alone on this..I just passed up on a few trades because of the same thing you went through

Judy

Hey Judy, you must be excited, getting to see your boyfriend in the new pirates movie....lol
Looks like I am 3rd in line now...lol (but thats a secret shhhhhh)

Now this is a thread that I can get on board with. 100% agree!!!!

rohad said:

Now this is a thread that I can get on board with. 100% agree!!!!

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Seconded!!!!!

And for some reason, it's always the best trade requests too!

Lol, I was just lamenting this today...I've had this happen the last three days in a row! I'm up at 6 am every morning so I'm dressed by 6:30, right when I get the batch of emails, and I typically respond right away as I wait for school buses. Get an offer, reply back within a few minutes of the request being sent out and then no reply. As if trade assistant isn't frustrating enough. How hard is it to say"no thanks, not an actively sought after pin for me"

WDWJUAN, here I am the Rides & Attractions guy and I cant figure out what ride that is in your avatar.
Considering it says FIX ME, one would assume it's out of service.
What ride is it? And how long had is been down?

OK, now I have something to add to the thread that just happened which is why I came back. A person actually sent me a trade request. I accepted. They sent back asking if I had anything else for the pin THEY offered (lol). I tried to explain that they wanted MY pin and offered their pin. I never asked for thier pin. I think they may be new and confused but that one really got me. I actually did LOL.

Once I tried to "discuss" this very topic over at Dizpins. I was practically handed my head on a platter. The mods shut down my thread because people got so mean and out of control. It seems that a lot of people who use the TA, "don't have the time to sit down and reply to every message sent". I try to reply to them all. Even if all I send is a "Thanks, not interested at this time". I secretly hope that one day they send out a request for something they really want and they are ignored!

I do not care if the person responds to the original request, in fact, if they are not interested I would almost prefer they didn't as I get my hopes up to trade and then see a not at this time or whatever. I do AGREE that if someone responds to one of my requests with an acceptance that I try to answer them all letting them know that I have accepted another trade at least. For the very reasons mentioned already I think it is common courtesy.

iamdisneydan said:

WDWJUAN, here I am the Rides & Attractions guy and I cant figure out what ride that is in your avatar.
Considering it says FIX ME, one would assume it's out of service.
What ride is it? And how long had is been down?

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It's called Journey into Imagination at Epcot. That's where Figment comes from. The original ride was one of the best rides in any Disney park (same category as Haunted Mansion and Pirates, if not better). Find one of the tribute videos on YouTube and you'll see its greatness. It was shut down in the late 90s and replaced with a cheap and crappy replacement. It went from about 15mins to only 5 or so mins. The ride v2 was so poorly received by the public, that v2 was replaced just after a couple years. V3 is the current ride in the pavilion, but is still crap compared to the original. Imagine BigThunder Mtn being replaced with the parking lot trams -- that kind of crap.
There is talk that WDI is working on a replacement to bring the ride back on the quality of the original.

Thanks for the info.
I am a bit biased to DLR because it's my home park.
When I decided to collect rides and attractions, I decided to stay with my home park to narrow the playing field. If I started to do WDW / Epcot, them I would need paris, Japan, etc.

I checked it out. Even the que looks pretty cool. Nice to see our good friend Dr. Nigel is in charge...lol
Cya

Spiffie said:

It seems that a lot of people who use the TA, "don't have the time to sit down and reply to every message sent".

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It's simple courtesy. If they had time to look at the e-mail, it does not take that long to reply with "sorry, I can't do the trade right now" or even a no thank you. You get left hanging there not knowing what's going on. Its worse when (like Dan says) someone responds and then nothing happens.

Spiffie said:

Once I tried to "discuss" this very topic over at Dizpins. I was practically handed my head on a platter.

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I know how that feels. People were kind of funky there. It's much calmer here. Another reason DPF rocks.

iamdisneydan said:

I checked it out. Even the que looks pretty cool. Nice to see our good friend Dr. Nigel is in charge...lol

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NOOO!!! Dr. Nigel is the devil!!! lol

that's the newer version -- the old one just had figment and dreamfinder

wdwjuan said:

and dreamfinder

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Who's that? :lol:

I had a trade recently and I got 2 responses for the 2 pins I asked for, first one came in the next day and the second response came 2 days after that which I let them know I already accepted another trade and I didnt have anything else on there wants list which was a shame as I wanted their pin as well lol

But I do agree that it is common curtesy to reply. And now Pinpics has removed the inactive traders, you would think people would start getting responses from the so called active traders but yet its still the same old no responses. Ive been sended out trade requests for the past week for the remaining pins on my wants list and the only email I ever get is the Pinpics Trade result then nothing...

We experience this all the time. Far less than ten percent of the requests we initiate are responded to, which has made us all but give up on sending out trade requests. We do much better on requests initiated by others, but do run into the same problem of accepting a trade and never hearing back from the initiater. I think this happens when people use the trade assistant, don't edit what is being sent out, and then realize they offered a DA LE100 for an easily obtained pin. It could also be that they initiated two requests for their pin and accepted the one that was better for them or the one who responded first and were too embarassed to admit that they no longer had the pin. Either way, the situation is frustrating.

We do not use the automatic trade request, choosing rather to look for specific pins to trade for specific pins. Afterwards we check to see who the requests match up with and remove all of the anonymous (have never gotten a single reply from them) and those we have found to be "difficult" traders. That way we minimize wasting anyone's time except ours. We also try to trade with individuals we have successfully traded with on previous occasions which increases our odds of getting a response.

So, although pin trading can be fun, we have found that it is often easier to obtain the pins we want through buying.

Just out of curiosity, what are some examples of trades that you accepted and then got no response? I am a firm believer that the TA should not be taken literally unless the pins in question are of similar value (market value). If people are saying "yes, let's trade" to requests that are skewed in their favor then I can see how people might be put off by that and not want to respond. Most of my trades nowadays involve multiples in one direction or the other so I rarely expect the trade to be just like the one set up by the TA. I usually just respond that I'm interested in working something out because I don't want to insult them by presuming they were offering a one for one trade and that it was fair in their eyes.

If I took the TA literally then I'd rarely use it because it doesn't work well for me on one to one trades. Most of the pins I'm seeking require give and take in negations so I choose to view the TA as an invitation to talk, not a representation of the actual trade or a promise that the trade will actually happen.

Even if I don't like the response I try to say no thank you and then of course the person on occasion is rude back to me claiming that I waisted their time. After that kind of treatment, I could understand why some just choose to ignore lopsided acceptances in these situations.

To write back with a thanks for wasting my time is really rude. I would rather get nothing than that

erudolf said:

If people are saying "yes, let's trade" to requests that are skewed in their favor then I can see how people might be put off by that and not want to respond.

Even if I don't like the response I try to say no thank you and then of course the person on occasion is rude back to me claiming that I waisted their time. After that kind of treatment, I could understand why some just choose to ignore lopsided acceptances in these situations.

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We cannot understand why a trader initiating requests cannot take the time to edit their requests to avoid ones that are lopsided in either direction. It would reduce the frustration on both sides and consequently the number of rude or non-responses.

Even if the trade request is used to open dialogue, editing would still make sure that the requests are not lopsided and a note that indicates a desire to negotiate would be helpful. The veteran traders should remember that there are newbies out there who are unaware of how the TA is used, and may not know the "trade value" of the pin.

Here's one for you all... Receiving the same TA request for the same pins a couple weeks apart for the third time! I've accepted the two previous times with no response, and have just accepted this request for the third time, so we'll see what happens!

It isn't always possible to edit it so that is fair. If I'm looking for a pin but only have one pin that matches someone's want list then I'm still sending it because maybe I do have something that they just don't know they want yet. And in the other direction, maybe someone else only has one pin on my wants list but if they added others I could trade out it might work. Even when I do edit and put that multiples may be needed I still get the lopsided acceptances now and then.

Whether the TA is edited or not, that is no excuse for a rude response. I don't take decisions to trade out a high end pin lightly so if someone tries to make me feel bad for not completing a trade then I don't particularly want to deal with them. Plus, it isn't usually the newbies that come back with rude responses. It is the people that know what they are doing and thought they were getting a good deal and then are mad that it fell through.

Related to this topic- I ALWAYS assume someone is offering pins 1 for 1 UNLESS comment is made: "some of these offers may need an additional pin". I think there was a similar thread about this on Dizpins. I said at that time, I would be unhappy if I accepted a trade as a 1 to 1 and got a "No thanks" back from the original offerer!!! I would also let them know my displeasure. if that is interpreted as rude, I think saying "no" to an acceptance of a trade offer is ALSO rude! Yes, I don't like silence after an acceptance, either. I have been trading (and for the most part enjoying it) for 11 years.

I always try to respond, but can't until the evening. I have a pet peeve about a certain trader that trade request me a great pin for my great pin only to never get a response, but the next day I get a trade request from the same person for my pin and they offer rack (core), hidden Mickeys for my LE 100. I respond, no thank you, but I will trade for the original request. They never respond and always do this so now I block them completely. I have also removed all hidden Mickeys (have tried to remove) so I can stop the lop sided trade offers. I am open to multiple trades for one of my pins and I just completed one for multiple Ariels and Donald's.

suzanneb said:

I ALWAYS assume someone is offering pins 1 for 1 UNLESS comment is made: "some of these offers may need an additional pin".........I think saying "no" to an acceptance of a trade offer is ALSO rude!

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If that is the way people look at the TA then that conditions me to never ever offer up a pin for multiple lesser pins for fear that someone will snip at me if I, heaven forbid, forgot to put a comment. And I don't always like putting in comments because you can't control who they go to. While I may need multiples from one person I may not want someone else to think I am asking for multiples from them. At that point, why bother with a comment at all? Why not just have the TA always put in "multiples may be necessary in either direction". Then we don't have to worry about it.

Better yet, I'd love it if Pinpics changed how the TA worked all together. The TA seems to have been built back in a day when pins didn't vary so greatly in value and edition size. When times change but the tools available don't, you basically have two choices. You can:

1). Refuse to adapt by staying set in your ways and get mad at others for not thinking the same or
2). Open your mind to other possibilities of using an outdated tool and rather than assume what the other person means just ask and open the lines about communication.

I choose to change the way I interpret a TA that doesn't meet my needs. So, for anyone reading this, consider yourself informed about how I look at things. If you get a TA from me, don't just assume I will accept whatever the TA set up. It just means I am interested in talking. There is a reason there is a joke about the word "assume"...

Whichever path you choose, it isn't ok to scold someone for seeing things differently. Now, I agree, if someone replies to your trade request then you should reply back, but I do not think you should be obligated to complete a trade. You have every right to change your mind up until the addresses are exchanged and the trade is mutually agreed upon.

I was just thinking about posting something exactly like this! It drives me crazy! and when they do reply saying its a trade and you send your address and are all excited for the trade but then you never get their address or hear from them again! GAH