A swap I carried out with another member went bad. The packet I sent got damaged in the post, and from what I can gather most of the contents fell out and were not delivered.
I don't consider this to be my fault as I took all due care to pakage the items, but in any event I should have thought the recipient should have contacted me and explained what had happened, and discussed their grievance with me first, rather than leaving a seriously poor rating for the swap in a language I don't speak.
I can only assume that the member has a personal grievance against me and wished to destroy my reputation on Numista and thus prevent me from swapping with other people in the future.
This whole instance has left a bad taste in my mouth.
I saw the feedback you got Matt. The French forum also has mention of another British collector sending coins with unsatisfactory results.
Try not to take it personally. Clearly the collector was disappointed but there is clearly an issue with postal services rather than your packaging.
Anyway Matt stay calm. I'll be looking to trade with you soon.
Whilst I can understand that the potential recipient might be disappointed, I feel that leaving negative feedback is always a last resort. Before doing that, swap partners should message each other and discuss any issues and try to resolve them. I have had a couple of minor problems with swaps in the past but I have been able to resolve them to our mutual satisfaction by discussing the problem and agreeing a resolution.
With more than 10,000 members on this site there are bound to be a few "bad eggs" but my personal experience with swap partners has been nothing but positive and I feel that the vast majority of members are genuine collectors seeking to improve their knowledge and their collections.
Just because you can't see it ... doesn't mean it isn't there - Anon.
I was perhaps a little over sensitive (though sensible enough not to name names, much to my surprise).
I did contact the other person, and say I was a bit upset at the reaction and that it should have been nice for him to contact me first and see if we couldn't resolve the issue.
It appears that the package was damaged en route, in transit so to speak. I don't feel any personal blame for the damage, the package was a strong manilla envelope.
Anyway, he apologised for coming on so strong, naturally he was disappointed and upset and reacted in an understandable but rash manner in lashing out at me - rather than being malicious. As such I have insisted (although he has told me not to) send replacements for what he lost (they were nothing terribly rare or special, and I had some spares).
I guess it is always a problem when you deal with strangers with third parties involved (the postal service) that if someone unknown in a post office interferes with a package, or another parcel containing maybe glass breaks and damages your parcel that the instinct is to blame the sender, and not realise that they may be as much a victim as the recipient.
pnightingale's feedback on 9-Aug-2011
Matt is a very pleasant guy to deal with and takes great pains to make sure the coins arrive safely and in a timely manner.
Nuff said
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Quote: pnightingalepnightingale's feedback on 9-Aug-2011
Matt is a very pleasant guy to deal with and takes great pains to make sure the coins arrive safely and in a timely manner.
