darkside

Warning to anyone that is considering using this website to trade games or movies. Over half of the trade offers I have received in the past month have been scams. Luckily out of the eleven I received I only got suckered by the first one. Here is whats going on. People are setting up multiple accounts. Some as many as twenty. They are then creating fake trades between themselves and their fake accounts. They are then giving fake positive feedback to themselves from the fake accounts. Then when they offer to trade with you it looks like they are an experienced trader with lots of good feedback. I got suckered out of a $30 game on the first one, but I researched all the other offers and figured out the scheme. Basically, the best policy is to make any new members send to you first. Some people won't do this because they don't know if they can trust you. The next thing you can do is research people leaving feedback for the person you are trading with and make sure the feedback is real. This can be tough though. The best thing you can do is not use the website. I have contacted Switchhouse and they have basically done nothing to help me when I have been cheated and don't seem to be trying to clean up their site. The eleven bogus offers were all from different people around the country, so there is no telling how many people are using the web site to cheat people. Not worth the effort in my opinion even though signing up helps DVD Talk. I would have done better just sending Geoff the $1 myself.

4KRG

Dude that sucks, thanks for the heads up.

Fhrx

Dude, paragraph tags...

kvrdave

Hmmm. I kinda' wondered about that. Thanks for confirming it. I think the Swap are of DVDTalk is probably the best bet, still.

gcribbs

sorry to hear about this. I hope others see this tonight.

Anthony Soprano

I have heard this about that site before.

Bushdog

It's funny cuz I was thinking the same thing!

Colleen

I'm sorry you've had such trouble. I've had over 20 successful swaps, and I haven't had any problems. That's not to say I won't, but I do check people's feedback carefully, and have new members send their items first. I'd say one of your best bets for finding a trustworthy member is not to look for the number of swaps or the number of positive feedbacks, but to pay attention to their overall longevity with the site. Someone that's looking to run off with some free movies is unlikely to make a network of fake identities and arrange swaps and feedback for months at a time.

Of course, now that I've said all of this, I'm fully aware that I've cursed myself and will get screwed shortly...

jpcamb

Yikes! Glad I read this because I'm down to only a handful of VH$ and was considering trying to sell them off quickly at sitchhouse rather than at Half.com as I don't know if I have $50 worth of stuff left to sell...

djones6746

Thanks for the warning.....

Blade

Moving to Online Store forum.

mtucker

Yeah, I've sworn off that site and any other trade sites. I started at http://www.xchangecity.com . My first DVD trade went OK. My second DVD trade didn't go so well.

First of all the guy waited to receive my package. He then took my DVD out of the package and put his in and stamped the package "Return to Sender" so he didn't have to use any postage. On top of that, he sent his DVD in a jewel case. I had to find an unused Amaray case and printout the artwork to make my own DVD case.

I then tried Switchouse which I mostly used for Dreamcast games. My first trade went OK. The next trade was a bust, I sent my package, but received nothing in return. The next trade was legit, but it to FOREVER for me to receive my game.

That was all I could take. Right now if I want to get rid of something I try to sell it first, then use the money to buy what I want. The trading sites have proved to be a gamble that that I just can't afford anymore.

I'll definately try out DVD Talk's trading forum though if I ever try trading again.

darkside

Try to be helpful and get flammed for sentence structure.

I feel like I'm back in High School again.

Oh, well to update a bit. I never received a response from Switchhouse, but I noticed that two of the people that had sent me questionable offers have been suspended. Here is a link to one example.
http://www.switchhouse.com/publicpro...=SnoopDogg1985

If you notice all of his fake feedback people have been suspended as well, so at least Switchhouse got this one.

Grenadier

Traders might also want to visit http://www.gametz.com, with it's sister sites, movietz.com, booktz.com, and musictz.com. I've been using this site for several years now, and it's really built up nicely into a community of traders, who tend to police themselves and new members pretty well.

There are chat rooms and message boards for communications, and a pretty decent matching system, for matching people with common wanted and offered items.

-Dave

Music

Oh, well to update a bit. I never received a response from Switchhouse, but I noticed that two of the people that had sent me questionable offers have been suspended. Here is a link to one example.
http://www.switchhouse.com/publicpro...=SnoopDogg1985

If you notice all of his fake feedback people have been suspended as well, so at least Switchhouse got this one. [/B][/QUOTE]

Just looking at the addresses of the people that gave him feedback, you know that it's fake.

RevLiver

jpcamp

Just so you know, you don't have to have $50 worth of stuff to sell. The $50 limit refers to how often you will be paid. If your balance on the 15th of the month is $50, they will cut a check at the end of the month. If it is less than $50, they will wait till the 15th of the following month and cut a check for everything you sold the entire previous month. So by all means, sell your VHS there.

Darin

PGHFlyer

Well, I am sorry it hasn't gone well for all of you, but I have had great experiences at this site and plan to continue using it.

GoldfishLegs

I've had good experiences so far. One thing you should always check for at Switchhouse: "Verified member".

You can tell a member is verified when their smiley face alternates between a smile and a star.

http://www.switchouse.com/verified_member.html

I don't ever trade with anyone that's not verified. It's not foolproof, but it's a step in the right direction.

I've also used GameTZ for about 20 swaps - no bad deals yet.

stingo

BadSwappers as the name suggests lists questionable/bad swappers.

lodger_001

ok, couldn't you charge the scammers with fraud? the post office/government takes that pretty seriously...

[Edited by lodger_001 on 02-20-01 at 05:02 PM]