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Well I didn't want to ever have to write one of these but this is getting ridiculous. This trade has now been going on for close to half a year from beginning to present.
Anyway it started when I put up a trade thread offering some chaos models in return for the game Guitar Hero: Metallica. Didn't think it would work but I figured it couldn't hurt to try, right? So I got a pm from Clarity on Mon, Jul/26/2010 expressing interest in trading. We pm'ed back and forth on the details, and the final trade we agreed on was this:
Tue, Aug/03/2010

MasterDRD wrote:As a matter of fact, I would like that...
So as of right now the trade is GH:Metallica, Halo 3, Arkham Asylum, and GH2 + 2 guitar controllers, for Dread, Abaddon, a Sorcerer, 2 Rhinos, 4 custom built Havocs with Missile Launchers, 2 Bloodcrushers, Soul Grinder, and Keeper of Secrets. Do you have any of those other games I asked about? (not that I really have anything more to trade, but if you're getting rid of them anyway... )

We also agreed on simultaneous shipping; in fact, he asked for it in this PM:
Mon, Aug/09/2010

Clarity wrote:My shipping is going to be around 35 For canada post first class (roughly around the same time to ship i'm pretty sure), are you ok with simultanious shipping?? I have no references here, but I have 100% feedback on ebay

I agreed to simultaneous shipping, and we both shipped on the 18th of August:

MasterDRD wrote:
*snip* <-- (my information)
Don't have a tracking number though, I could barely afford the basic shipping...

Clarity wrote:Lmao in Canada , Canada post gives one for all levels of shipping, haha and my gf shipped it, I'll grab the number when get home from work and send it to ya tomorrow, Canada posts shipping tracking is down atm anyways

Now this is where things start to get irritating, in large part due to the horrifyingly long time it takes to ship between US and Canada. I PMed Clarity several times over the next month asking if my package had arrived.
On September 4th I received this PM:

Clarity wrote:K i am a complete idiot, I miswrote the address on the box, and it just showed up back on my door yesterday :S I am so sorry, this was completely my fault i'm shipping it out tomorrow, and i'll pay for the extra fast delivery. Again I am unbelievably sorry such a stupid mistake

So he re-sent my package, and I still waited for my own package to get to him. It finally did, a month after I sent it:
Thu, Sep/23/2010

Clarity wrote:I just received yours yesterday! Wow that took forever, I checked your tracking number and it was just accepted at the border, I don't know why it took so long to get through customs, that's beyond me, probably because it was a long slim package hahah

And I got my own a week later. However...
Fri, Oct/01/2010

MasterDRD wrote:My package just arrived in the mail, and now I'm a bit confused.

MasterDRD wrote:As a matter of fact, I would like that...
So as of right now the trade is GH:Metallica, Halo 3, Arkham Asylum, and GH2 + 2 guitar controllers, for Dread, Abaddon, a Sorcerer, 2 Rhinos, 4 custom built Havocs with Missile Launchers, 2 Bloodcrushers, Soul Grinder, and Keeper of Secrets. Do you have any of those other games I asked about? (not that I really have anything more to trade, but if you're getting rid of them anyway... )

That was the final trade we agreed on. I have the GH:Metallica, Halo 3, and one guitar controller. However, it's missing the 2nd controller, Arkham Asylum, and instead of GH2 I have GH3 (which I already have)
The GH switchup aside, I'm wondering where the other items are. Did you ship them in another box? Did you forget them? Or did you decide for whatever reason not to send them as agreed? Considering the shipping mistake earlier and the GH mixup I'm leaning towards accident... Regardless, I'd like to know what's up. Please get back to me when you get this PM. (I could be wrong but I get the impression you only visit here once or twice a week)

Got a response the next day:
Sat, Oct/02/2010

Clarity wrote:No, I completely forgot to ship the second package, that was my fault, i'll get it to the post office tomorrow, i'm so sorry, it's sitting in my basement. My gf only dropped of one, i thought she dropped both but I just asked AND she didnt. My bad!

And my own response:
Sat, Oct/02/2010

MasterDRD wrote:Ah, I see. Well no worries then, eh? What should we do about the GH3 though? Do you want me to ship it back to you? I have no problem returning it to you but I would have to wait until I could get shipping together again... And I'm sure you remember how long that took last time.

And this is where the problem really begins; complete communications breakdown. I PMed Clarity again asking if he had shipped the other half of the package yet, and how we were going to resolve the issue of the incorrect game:
Sat, Oct/16/2010

MasterDRD wrote:Still waiting for a reply about the 'wrong game'... And maybe an update about the package. Have you sent it yet?

I got his final PM the next day:
Sun, Oct/17/2010

Clarity wrote:No I haven't sent it yet, im so sorry, were understaffed at work so i'm working 45 hours plus I have 3 midterms this week, I haven't been able to get to the post office at all, my life is a complete nonstop mess atm. Next weekend i'll drop It off after the craziness has died down.

Sincere apologies,
*snip*

I gave him a couple weeks before PMing again:
Wed, Nov/03/2010

MasterDRD wrote:Alright, well it's been 2 weeks since your last pm. You said things were hectic with work and the midterms, which I can well understand. Anyway now we're going into November, and I'd like to finally conclude this trade. Have you had a chance to mail the rest of your end of the trade goods yet?

No response. Finally I made one more attempt to communicate with Clarity rather than start a Transaction Report:
Wed, Nov/17/2010

MasterDRD wrote:Ok dude this is starting to get ridiculous... It's been exactly a month since your last pm, still no response to mine, still nothing in the mail. Now you know I've been hella patient and more than reasonable about all this, way the hell more than anyone else on this forum would be. But I'm really getting sick and tired of having this incomplete trade hanging over my head. I sent my part, and I've only gotten half of yours. I'm going to give this another week, and if you STILL haven't responded to my PMs then I'm finally going to open a transaction report. I've never had to do one yet and I don't want to start now, so I'd appreciate it if you'd save us both the hassle.

And a little over a week later:
Thu, Nov/25/2010

MasterDRD wrote:It's been over a week now. Just because it's Thanksgiving and I don't really want to spend the time tonight or tomorrow to write up the thread I'm going to wait until Saturday morning. That's it though; final deadline, final extension. If you still haven't contacted me by then, I'm going ahead with the transaction report.

And still no response. So now here I am, writing up this thread. Not quite sure what good it will do though, since there was no currency exchange involved and therefore no 'higher authority' I can really appeal to. And after all this time and stress one thing still bothers me; if this isn't a scam then why no communication, and if it is then why actually follow through with at least part of the trade? I can't even be sure that the rest of the package isn't in the mail right now, because I haven't gotten any PM back since mid-October...
Anyway my goal for this thread is to finally resolve the situation and either get the rest of Clarity's end of the trade, or get some of my own models back to make up for the unsent goods.

this isn't his only transaction report. here's a link to the previous one...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/318496.page

Yeah, I saw that thread. Didn't post in it because I didn't want to overreact to the initial shipping mistake, and also because I didn't want to risk antagonizing him over his business with a different user in a different type of situation.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Finally made contact with Clarity, hopefully this thread won't be necessary now. If a mod would be so kind as to lock the thread it would be much appreciated...

Locking at OP request. If anyone needs to add more to this thread or if circumstances change, please PM me to unlock it.

Given the above quoted correspondence, I also think it would be a good idea to add a post reporting what the resolution to this transaction is... so if nothing else, I would like to unlock it at that point and have the result reported.

And thread reopened. I really did hope this wouldn't be necessary but I guess that's just the roll of the dice, and I rolled Snake Eyes.
So here is the pm I received that made me think this thread might no longer be needed:

Sat, Nov/27/2010

Clarity wrote:Hey man,

In all honesty I have no excuse for not getting your package shipped, real life happened and I just kept putting it of and the days added up and i completely forgot about it untill I saw your last two emails as I haven't been a dakka in a few, I'll throw in some other games I got lying around since I totally effed this up, by never getting you the package, and with the guitar hero, that was completely a mistake, i thought you asked for the one I sent you, either way ill get you a tracking number this weekend coming up. Again apologies, and ill see what else I can send just to compensate for the inconvinience,

later,
clarity

Needless to say, the next weekend no PM came from Clarity. The Tuesday following I sent this to check in:

Tue, Dec/07/2010

MasterDRD wrote:Just checking in, you said you'd get back to me this weekend, and now it's Tuesday... I don't want to sound impatient or anything but I really do want to get this over with and I'm sure you do too, right?

And so I waited. ...and waited. ...and waited. His last PM to me was the one linked above, on November 27th. I waited until after Christmas and sent one final PM of my own:

Sun, Dec/26/2010

MasterDRD wrote:A whole month. You said you'd get back to me in a week, and I've given you a whole month. I let this go until after Christmas was over. This whole time, not a single pm back. I don't see how anyone could possibly be so busy thay can't type up a quick pm, over the course of an entire month. What's going on? Did you lose the games or something? Are you trying to drag this out in hopes that I'll just give up? I have no idea what's going on at your end but I'm sick of having this hanging over my head. I'll wait for one more week until the day after New Year's, and then I'm just going to reopen the transaction report thread I started and then thought I wouldn't need.

Obviously I haven't gotten a response, and so here I am once more, with only half of the things I traded for, on the other side of New Year's.
So to restate my original goal:

MasterDRD wrote:Anyway my goal for this thread is to finally resolve the situation and either get the rest of Clarity's end of the trade, or get some of my own models back to make up for the unsent goods.

Clarity's last post on Dakka is on 11/12... do you have outside contact information for him?

If not, FoxPhoenix135 (the originator of the previous transaction report about Clarity, linked to above) may have some information, since his transaction was through ebay. I believe ebay provides additional contact information to get in touch with buyers.

Obviously, we ask that no one post contact information in the thread, but if someone has this and could PM it to MasterDRD, it may help to resolve this.

Nope, all our communication was via PM. I'll PM FoxPhoenix135, thanks for the heads-up.