When and how should I report poor customer service?

[BlueNalgene]

So this community has some talented artisans, and that means neat things to buy, sell, and trade with other members.  I have a buy/sell/trade problem with another member.  This person responded to the original, friendly PM, but has failed to respond to the slightly more insistent one regarding it after no action was taken in the first message.  Benefit of the doubt says that this person is a very busy individual, but apprehension says I'm being ignored.  The member in question has been active since I sent the latest message.  It isn't a big issue yet, but I smell something coming.  How long until I take a next step? 

And for that matter, what is the next step?  Is this the kind of thing that should be reported to the community at large by outing the individual?  That seems like it is just a recipe for he-said-she-said drama, which I want to avoid if possible.  I'd prefer to keep this little matter behind closed doors.  Since in a community this small, a minor loss in reputation could lead to unfortunate circumstances.  If I were to just report it to the mods, that doesn't accomplish much.  Running and telling the big kids that another one isn't playing fair doesn't alert the community of a true problem (should it exist), adds more work for the mods, and fails to directly address this minor dispute.  I'm not a fan of tattle-tales, all most some of us are adults here and should behave like it.

Posted to off topic, because this seems to be the appropriate place to contain a ****storm, should it occur.

[tbc]

are you the buyer or trader?  if they're not being responsive, i would NOT risk anything on them.  it's still your call at the end of the day.


are you the seller?  just write it off as a 'loss.'  cost of doing business


if you suspect the seller/trader is a scammer, message others who have shown interest and wellknown community members to get some data/opinions.  this is still behind closed doors.

EDIT: derp,  reread title.  i'n going with you're the buyer lol.

[BlueNalgene]

Well **** me.  I went down and opened my mail after posting this.  I found what I was waiting on.  I didn't get screwed over after all.  Now I feel like a total idiot. 

Disregard my assumed situation and chalk it up to BlueNalgene is a royal ****up. 

I'd delete the first post so I sound less like a paranoid lunatic than I actually am, but I think the questions are still valid.  What is the SOP on dealing with problems on this site?

[HoffmanMyster]

What is the SOP on dealing with problems on this site?

Unfortunately there isn't one.  :-/

The community is fairly divided on the "proper" way to handle situations like these, with some people favoring public outing and some favoring handling it on your own.  IMO, if you're certain that something is wrong (more than just a hunch), it's appropriate to make a thread to make others aware (see Reptile).  Doxing is not okay, and will be handled as such.

And speaking generally, if you're ever confused about what to do, PMing some of the more "elder" members here can usually get a lot of useful info.  I'm always more than happy to offer non-official, non-moderator advice.   

[Belfong]

So, for discussion sake - why can't we dox someone like reptile who scammed insane amount and is almost a felony? I think at least reveal real name and pay pal id to prevent him from creating new GH user id and scam more member. There were a few users who had scammed people and for all we know, it's the same guy behind that PC and if we don't call them out, they'll lay low and emerge to strike again.

[nubbinator]

So, for discussion sake - why can't we dox someone like reptile who scammed insane amount and is almost a felony? I think at least reveal real name and pay pal id to prevent him from creating new GH user id and scam more member. There were a few users who had scammed people and for all we know, it's the same guy behind that PC and if we don't call them out, they'll lay low and emerge to strike again.

And if we can't reveal the email addy, can we reveal the part prior to the @xyz.com so that people know?

[Novus]

Classifieds has always been a weird section.
Even now we still see all these stupid GLWS posts which were supposed to have been discouraged since the last major rule change.

Consistency is key and I think we need new guidelines for these type of bad users.
This seems to be a growing issue since we've seen 3-4 of these threads recently.

I do think we need to at least take stronger action for people that are established repeat offenders (like that one guy from Vietnam that misrepresents, that one korean guy that may or may not have gone to jail after stealing from his mother and reptile) and people that deliberately take money from GBs.