Can you give information on how you have handled swaps that do not turn out well, as in not getting anything in return? Do you post negative feedback? Just let it go? Quit swapping?

I am sure that yo all will give me some good advice.

Contact the hostess of the swap and let them know you have received nothing - she should contact the person that was "suppose" to send to you :lol:

Please do not give up on the swaps I have done many and hostessed a couple and they are fun !

Before you post anything, you better check the rules. I agree with Sharonb - get in touch with the swap hostess.

I know someone personaly who was in a swap and was physicaly unable to participate let alone get online or post emails. and some one had left some negative comment on the mebership ratings section. I wont post iehter name as they both will probably want to remain anonomous. but please get with the hostess and let her figure out how to proceed. swap can be fun and you never know what you are going to get.

I would check with the hostess....sometimes there are circumstances that make it hard for the swapper to recipricate. 2 years ago my mother passed, and she was in ICU for 6 weeks before, and I forgot about a swap I was in. Maybe your swapper had something happen...

Thanks, I have checked with the hostess, and also PM'd a moderator. Moderator is one that suggested the feedback. the person claims to have mailed it, and it is certainly possible that it was lost in the mail, but due to a few strange PM's from the person, i believe she is just not fulfilling her end.

Seems real easy to say "lost in the mail" and who can prove otherwise?? But I do have PM's that don't add up

Yup, this is why it is always a good idea to get delivery confirmation or keep your stamped custom form if you are mailing international as a proof you did send the item. Actually I know many swaps here require you to do so.

I am so sorry this happened to you, but swaps here are a lot of fun, don't let one bad experience ruin it for you.

If I was the sender, I would send you a replacement swap and wait for the lost item to get back to me, because what happen to most if not all "lost" items in the mail is that they get sent back to sender many months later. Just my opinion and experience.

so sorry you didn't fare well in your swap. there are different kind of swaps. I like the kind where every one makes blocks or what ever and sends them to the Hostess who then separates them and sends them onto the other members. no one should be out anything that way.
when you depend on individuals, you do take a bit of a chance. sometimes not getting anything from a quilter.
and some blks are not the correct size, but the fun of swapping usually is enough to keep you joining more.

I've been in the swaps for about 3 months and I have received the nicest gifts. I always send a thank you card, but I've never gotten a thank you for a swapper, I even sent the swap hostess a gift and she never mention it.
I sent a swapper back a gift all the way to Australia and she was so happy to get it she's going to call me and personally thank me.

Wow, I wish I had gotten you as my swap partner. I told my swap partner that I knew her item had arrived as I had delivery confirmation. She didn't even acknodledge that. And I had included an extra little gift!

I have really enjoyed the swaps I have done. I have always tried to send a little PM to let my partner know that their item had arrived. I have been slow on getting some of the items sent, but always sent an e-mail explaining the situation. I have had a lot of sinus infections this year, and have not always felt great. I recently had sinus surgery, so hopefully that solves that problem.

Anyway, I have had good luck with the swaps.

I wish you well with your sinus situation. i had a really rough time with that some years back and one of my sons has killer sinus headaches. Thanks for your input. Guess since I have had numerous problems, in the last few years, I try to be understanding, but I also try to communicate. That's all it takes, Just kinda took the wind out of my sails, so to speak, as it was my first swap on here. :(

Hi Lilrain,

I always get proof of posting even though I live in the UK. We can get proof of posting to whatever country that we post to then if the package goes missing we can claim the cost of the item.

Maybe you could ask the swap moderator to ask the participant to show proof of posting.

Hugs

Thanks, I did get delivery confirmation on what I sent to her and I have asked her to either provide me with tracking numbers so I can check it, or do it herself. She has read my PM, so will see what happens. Just came from the mailbox, nothing again today. i am a widow who has had a lot of problems in the last few years, also losing my mother and best friend. Struggled to get back into quilting after all the problems, and this was my first swap here. More than a little dissappointing. But it is not the end of the world. She is signed up for quite a few swaps, hope her swap partners there have better luck than I did.

an unpleasant truth is that every partnered swap results in at least one person getting stiffed. you simply cannot be 100% sure that you'll get an equivalent return for what you send. neither the swap coordinators nor board management have any control over that. unfortunately, the only thing we can do when it happens is to fuss and nag at the person who didn't send and hope for the best.

i've been discouraging partnered swaps for just this reason. that generates complaints from those who've been lucky and who prefer to swap that way.

either way we go, somebody's unhappy.
:?

the swap coordinator should give the slacker 30 days.

if you haven't received your item by the end of that time, or if the other person has not returned what you sent her/him, report it again to the coordinator. she can make a public note in the swap's group activity matrix and can post a negative feedback under the villain's profile.

you should not post a negative feedback because that will duplicate the coordinator's.

you contact the *swap-hostess* and tell her the issue, and SHE handles it. it is not appropriate for you to take steps. and i would not stop (swapping) because of one bad experience, but i would be cautious about which swaps i join. I join swaps where part of the (deal) is you put delivery confirmation on the package you send and you send that confirmation to the hostess. you should always be in touch with the hostess letting her know when you mail and when you receive. life happens to everyone but your hostess should know what has happened (or not happened) and can (fix) any issue.

Same thing happened to me. My very first swap partner responded to the hostess several times, each time saying she'd get the package in the mail "tomorrow", "Friday", "next week", etc., then she disappeared completely. Kind of disappointing, ya know? :-( A board angel eventually sent me something (thanks again).

I've had better luck with the swaps where everything is sent to the hostess, and she sorts the blocks (or whatever) out, and then mails the blocks back to the swappers. I've also had a wonderful time with the Boomerang swap, where there are multiple swappers. :thumbup:

Do contact the hostess and let her know. I bet she'll get you all fixed up. :wink:

How regular is she at posting on here?
from your posts, it looks like "life" didn't get in the way..or if it did, she didn't say..and is relying on the "it's it the mail, or going to mail"
personally, i would deal directly with the swap hostess.
i did a Beginners swap on a different board..so they would gain confidence, and we could work out the bugs of doing a block ,like the right size-seam allowance,colors,block choice for a beginner etc..i had two people flake on me..because they were all coming to me (they each had to make 9 of the same block,and i swapped them out,for a baby quilt)
i ended up making 18 blocks to fulfill the committment. it was a pain in the you know what.But i didn't want the other newbies to be short or disappointed.
I had one thread with the names of those participating,and changed the color of thier names as they got them in to me..so everyone knew who did not send in thier blocks. It was mandatory to check in with the hostess,at least once a week, to give updates.either privately or on the main thread.

The swap hostess' "talk to each other", so they knew who to avoid in thier own swaps. I kept the names of the women who
"flaked". one dropped of the board,for a few months, but is back..the other is still around.

i thought, with the price of shipping the "one on one" swap would be ideal..but i guess,after reading your issue,i think not.

i hope it gets all worked out for you..and sorry it got to this point.

Thanks Patrice for explaining the procedure for leaving feedback.

And of course you are right, with the one-on-one swap, there is always the chance that the "one" will not send anything in return. Oh well, the way I look it is that they have to live with themselves..but there is always the chance that the "one" will be the best partner ever and that you'll develop a nice cyber friendship. I enter at own risk and open my Pandora's box.Personally, I LOVE the partnered swaps and prefer them.

I still have lots to learn about swapping on here. I neglected to read the rules (honestly didn't know there were rules) So I went ahead and came up with the idea of swapping Christmas Cards, and including a 5" White Square Signed with name, city, and state. I just wasn't thinking about those on here that don't celebrate Christmas and how that may have affected them. There's more to a swap than you might think. However, I had several people to PM me wanting to do this exchange. I think I'll go ahead and keep up my end of the bargain by mailing a card, and 5" fabric square eventhough it cannot be an official QB swap. I felt so bad for getting everyone excited and not fulfilling my commitment. It will be totally up to them if they send anything back or not. Since its my fault (not reading the rules) the swap couldn't take place :( PatriceJ was super nice about the whole thing and just explained in further detail about the way swapping works on the QB!!! Speaking of negative feedback, I really hope noone leaves me a negative. I am new to the QB and still learning how things work.

I just joined the row robin and I really hope that swap works out well. I would love to have a quilt that my new QB friends had a hand in making. I just think exchanges/ swaps are sooo neat b/c every person is different and has something special to bring to the table.