I'm looking for unbiased advice here.

A fellow realms-goer and I agreed to a trade. As he had about 20 more refs that me, I sent first with DC. About a week later I checked the DC, and saw it had been delivered a day or two prior. Always wanting to keep communication up, I sent him a PM, something to the effect of:

"I saw you received my package. Can I ask that you don't forget to leave me a ref? Also, please don't forget to PM me with the DC when you ship out."

I got a PM back right away that he had picked up some extra hours at work and hadn't had time to make it to the Post office. I sent back saying no problem, real life gets in the way sometimes, just to keep me in the loop.

A week and a half later, I'm cleaning out my PM box and realize I still hadn't heard anything. Back to communication, sent a PM saying something to the effect of:

"Just wondering when you thought this might happen. Thanks in advance, etc"

I don't hear anything all day. so I check when he was last online. Just after I sent the PM. I send another message asking what's up. Around 5:30 that afternoon I check again. He's been online, and posting on the forums, but still hasn't responded to me. Starting to get irritated, I PM him a third time. I tell him that if he doesn't respond by tomorrow, I will have to negative ref him for the trade, and I will be filing for mail fraud, etc.

The next morning, I get a PM from him where he is blowing up at me, saying his kids were using his computer, calling me names, and says because I'm such a jack### he's going to ship my package back. Also says if I neg ref him he will get it removed by the mods.

My package arrived yesterday, unopened. I find it strange he didn't have time to ship what we agreed on, but found the time to ship mine back as soon as he wanted to "teach me a lesson." Since no harm was done, I don't want to negative ref him, but is this one of the weird instances where neutral ref has a reason for existing?

This seems to me like the case, but I really am not interested in starting a war with the guy, but it was really weird how he just blew up at me when I was doing due diligence for my end.

So I ask you, fellow realmsters. What would you do?

Neutral is justified. Leave it, send (or keep) the details of this to Quebbster or KitsuShel if you get any sort of neutral or negative rating because of it to have it removed.

And most importantly...just move on...

Life happens (as you noted) and you should have many more things in your life to spend extra time on.

Good luck on your next deal

Looks like neutral would be the way to go. It doesn't look as bad as negative, but it still raises a question. And since you're only out shipping costs, negative won't fly due to forum rules. It sounds like the guy made the trade, regretted it and was looking for a way to back out. 3 PMs in one day may have been overdoing it, but he'd had a week and a half to send his end.

Seriously, anyone should be able to find 20-30 minutes of a 10 day period to go to a post office. 20-30 minutes is a cautious estimate as I'm usually in and out in less than 5.

-Immortal_Raven

Yup, neutral is the way to go. He basically backed out of the trade.

Thanks to all, I appreciate it. Neutral left, moving on...