Discussion Forums - Questions about SwapaDVD

Ive asked this question a few times, and have always gotten the response that even if they mailed late you still need to mark it received as long as you actually received it.

Kerry, I think the difference there is in the only one request part. 

If you request a DVD and the sender A never marks it mailed and it rolls to another sender B, then you are only obligated to mark the one that was "sent" by sender B as RCD. 

If  sender A marks it mailed and it goes lost b/c it was mailed past the "mailed on" date and you then request a second copy from sender B (thinking the original is lost) you are still obligated to mark the first one RCD as well.   Though well within your rights to request your credit be returned and so on...

I can't find anything in the Help Center about a one week cut off...I'm not saying Gloria is wrong, but there may have been details pertaining to that particular situation that don't apply to the general whole.

eta - I don't have a problem with the idea of 3 days to accept (though this isn't anything I see changing) as long as those extra days are added to the mail by date for a 3 and 7 rather than a 5 & 5.  I simply feel 10 days to get it out of the house to be acceptable.  Weekends, holidays, bad weather...sometimes (JAN & FEB are the worst around here for this sort of thing) it takes a full ten to fit in a postie run.

David:  To whom are you addressing? You just said "you."  In your case, it would be most beneficial to make contact with receivers and let them know why you will mail later.  I hope you do not mean to say, that you will mail "late" because it makes a difference.  That is what most of us grumpy folk have issues with. And there are legitimate reasons for our having issues with some people's late mailings!  But if you wrote to me and explained why you were mailing late, I'm positive I would be understanding, and a bit more flexible on expectations.  I've found most people on SaD are very nice people. I've said above that even I make contact with people when I set the mail date off when I accept a request. Send a PM.  Most "late mailers" (the ones we are complaining about) either do not do that or they do but lie about when they mailed/will mail. As long as you are up front about it, I don't think anyone would have a problem--not even us grumpies.

I am not consistently impatient with other's, but I do take issue with people lying about their mailings. If they say," I'm putting it in the mail Friday,"  then I expect that my request be mailed Friday. Why waste our time with lying on top of it. That's so insulting. Like we won't figure it out? Late mailers better stay on top of their business because I am fed up with it. That, and getting crappy, scratched up dvds when I make sure I mail nice, new condition stuff. "Uglies" belong in the bazaar with a description. If it looks like you cleaned it with a brillo pad, say so. If you can't mail two weeks out, say so!

well.one heck of debate with good points from all sides.but as far as i am concerned...this is my thought...

If anyone person out there posts an item to trade off...he/she should at least acknowledge with 3 days if he/she is gonna send it or not..i mean heck..isnt this why they posted it in the first place..to trade it....THIS SHOULD BE A RULE!!!! but sadly it isnt. i for one do not want my credit (s) held up fo weeks at a time when it coulda been handled differently...

if a person puts an item up for trade.and doesnt acknowledge it,lets it time out,then posts it back up and so on.they should get off the site.they dont belong here...this is just my opinion mind you. but i mean cmon..hello...get a clue..this is a dvd swap site not a post a dvd and let time out over and over again site.

it isnt that hard to do..trade it or cancel it with good reason already...like Dolly Parton would say...tinkle or get off the potty....(my favortie line in the movie Straight Talk for those of you who are curious)

anyhow..all i am asking is a simple thing..if you post...either send it out or dont bother posting it...very easy...thanks all who comment.

When you receive 2 copies of a DVD after submitting only one request, you are not obligated to give a credit for the extra (canceled) copy.  You are obligated to mark the properly sent copy received.

If you mark the improper one as received, you WILL get a credit deducted from your account. That just says you don't have to gift them a credit for receiving it. But if you go to your TA and mark received, you get a credit deducted. I know, because I've done this in the past.  I had one that went lost, and showed up a full 2 months later (after the system had auto-requested me a new copy when the other was marked lost). The postmark was the correct day they said it was mailed. So I went to the TA to mark it received and it took a credit away.

eta: I just read meghan's response to Kerry's post which said basically the same thing mine did... but there would be 2 requests in the TA no matter what.  If the first sender neglects to mark it mailed, then that shows up and "sender didn't answer in time" or something like that. Then it automatically rolls over to make a new request.  When they actually mark it mailed and it goes lost, it automatically rolls over to a new request if there is one available. So there are always 2 requests. So then what?  It's another one of those things that isn't really clear in the help docs. I was always told to mark it received, but I never saw that part Denise quoted.  I'm not really sure what the policy is now.

I just had this happen literally yesterday.  The sender didn't mark A Chipmunk Christmas mailed so it timed out.  I received the old one yesterday and marked it received :

Dear Jessica,

The DVD A Chipmunk Christmas is now marked as received. The sending member has been issued 1 credit(s).
 

So for sure, you get a credit deducted.  :o)

Regardless of the holiday excuse, I do notice that swapadvd members generally do take a longer amount of time to accept requests (many of my requests took 4 or 5 days for other party to accept) and send products when compared to users of other swapsites. It is odd to receive Paperbackswap items faster when most books are sent Media Mail, and most dvd's only need to ship 1st class. I've gotten accustomed to this trend. I figure film buffs are more patient and laid back than readers. A sociological thing I suppose.

Or perhaps, we over estimate the speediness of 1st class mail and figure we can afford to be a few days late on sending out dvd's. I know too many people who think 1st class mail will arrive in 2 days from anywhere within the country. Out-of-region mail can take a while, especially if it's being trucked to an airport from a small post office out in the sticks. Then we are at the airport's mercy to find room on commercial planes. the process can be laborious.

I was reading this, originally planning to solely respond to Venomn, but now I feel like a comment about ethics is in order (in regard to marking received DVDs as such). A lot of things in life need to be based upon good old-fashioned honesty! This site, being no exception....

We have experienced 4 deaths in our family over the entire summer--3 of which happened in 6 weeks time and one of which was my wife's 24 year old cousin...I work two jobs, and my wife deals with a chronic illness as well as cares for your two year old son; needless to say, yes, we've had a couple requests time out! Everyone is human and so I agree that you never know what is going in another swapper's life! Try not to be hasty or quick to judge. ;) And, if you PM the member, you will often find out what has been behind the delay and you may find that a lot of your DVDs are worth the wait--espeically if wishlisted!

Good luck and don't let this discourage you from swapping! Not sure if you belong to paperswap, but my wife does and you have to accept a request within 5 days and I think mail it within 5 days as well, or it automatically times out. I am assuming the same goes for here as well!

here is another issue i would like to raise up...

but first..David...Sorry about the passings in your family..i lost my dad in May of this year so i can relate..in the 1990's..i lost 6 members then also so i can definately relate.

anyhow...most of the traders i have noticed are taking 4 to 5 days to accept/cancel and then saying almost a week later or more that they will send it out...how can.regardless of a bad situation,take 2 weeks or more to even send out 1 simple dvd...

I feel if one is having diffficulties in life they should at least go on vacation from the site..not keeping ones credits tied up for almost a month..to me there is no reason on god's green earth that this should happen..basically...if a person cannot send out 1 dvd within a 1 week time...why arent they on vacation from the site?

I mean c'mon...how long does it tae an average person to package up one dvd ya know.

Above is just my opinion but wouldnt this cause YOU to not order from that person again if they are gonna take a year for your dvd to arrive?

I know it deters me fom ordering tfrom that person again.just something to think about..

I do find it annoying is when a swapper waits until the VERY LAST day of the deadline to mark "I can send."  THEN, they take the entire period of time allowed to send it out after that. 

Many times I 'm ordering a DVD for a friend or relative's birthday.....this makes it take forever and that means I have to think about a month in advance to order something that I know there are copies of in the system.

Is there any way to *see* who you're getting a DVD from before you click ORDER? 

Laura, there is not a way to see who you are ordering from before you click order.  You can however check the towers of your buddies and see if any of them have the dvd you are looking for.  I have done that and sent a pm when I am looking for something in especially good shape for a gift. 

A nice thing about ordering here for a relative/friend's bday is you can have it sent directly to them  :O)   For the most part, all of my experiences here have been positive.  Perhaps the bad ones just stick out in our mind more/longer.

ETA: I see you have only had a few transactions.  You will see as you swap more that most everything works like it should  :O)  Welcome and Happy swapping! 

To Laura-EXCELLENT question..i second it-is there a way we can see who we are ordering from so we dont order from the same people who take a year to accept and send? People who do this shouldnt trade here in my opinion.

I know we don't but still,we should be able to-i mean hell...who wants to order from someone who doesn't send out.

Thank you for the warm welcome, Aylamonster.

I am overall very happy with things so far, I have quite a lot more transactions on the sister site, PBS. 

If someone mails a DVD late, you only have to mark it as rec'd if you haven't received an offer for another copy. You do not have to mark the first "lost" copy as rec'd if you have already accepted a replacement order and can't cancel from your account. You DO have to credit the second sender if he/she sends on time.

Denise--If you mark a DVD as 'Received' from your TA, the credits will be deducted, no matter what. So if the situation above happens to you and you receive two copies DO NOT mark the late one as rec'd unless you want to give the late mailer credit too.

I've marked several late DVDs from my TA and credits are always deducted. I've also contacted the Team on this before.

Edited: I didn't realize there were other posts with the same info, and a new subject had started!

theres some debate about properly sent being in the rule...hmm

I feel for you on this issue. I am currently waiting on one that I requested on 10/8. The postage was printed on 10/10. It is now 10/15 and it has not been marked mailed. Frustrating for sure!! :( I consider myself pretty patient, but on the other hand, I have had several requests, just in this same period of time, and 2 of them have already made it to their destination and marked received, and the other 2 are in the mail. I usually send out the day of the request. At the very latest the day after.

I usually tend to wait longer to mail an item if I have one already waiting for another member to accept if they want it or not. It's just more conveneint for me to mail everything at once rather then going to the post office everyday.

On a side note: If I print out only the confirmation and get crdit after it's scan. Can I just put "one" forever stamp on and mail it?

you still have to buy postage.... one forever stamp is not enough to send a dvd first class.

Hmm. Ok. Guess that doesn't work out. Looks like I just have to keep going to the post office til I get enough money to buy me a scale.

Kinda stinks,seems i am still ordering from mostly deadbeat traders,seems no one wants to accep and send out their dvd's they post

we should be able to know whom we are ordering from prior to wasting our time with deadbeat traders

SwapaDVD seems to be going downhill as of late

The only trouble i have is just let me know whats up please don't just not answer and leave me hanging

If you get a request for a dvd please respond and if the person whos tower you have ordered from does

not come here anymore then yes put there tower on vacation, so other members with the same movie can get the credit.

I'm on the other end of the spectrum.  I accept quickly and usually mail on Monday & Friday's.  My concern is knowing the requestor has recieved my DVD's but is waiting to watch them.  Fair enough, no problem, just let me know you got the at least and are trying to find time to watch.  I understand!!!

i have to agree with SarithaAnn.. let the system put the account on hold if there isnt a response within so many days..

i myself cannot get out of the house as much as i would like to, as i have to go to the post office to mail the dvd's.. also have had someone that would take them for me.. turned out a few times, they forgot!  so i had to PM the people and let them know.. makes me feel bad, but the responses were really polite and understanding of the incidents.. 

people have various things going on in their lives and may not have a chance to get on the pc to even ck their email!! who knows.. their pc couldve crashed.. how are we to know.. whatever their reasons may be.. going automatically into 'vacation' mode sounds plausable.. then when they are able to come back, they can change it to active and go on with their mailings, etc. 

now accepting them in a timely manner.. i am usually a day or two behind.. and do thank the person who sent the dvd.. sometimes i forget what i requested so when i get the movie.. i am excited to watch it..

this swaping of dvds is great.. and there are many good suggestions as to what can/or cannot be done.. i am in favor of not letting my blood pressure getting the best of me..        it they can send/or cannot.. its all kewl.. i will wait until i can find another or go to wal mart..   this is how i deal with it.. and believe me i am not one of the most patient people around.. but when it comes to things like this.. i have no choice.. !!! so i make the best of it if i can..