An apology might be in order. After six months of waiting, most of it spent passively or even apathetically, I have received not one, but two games from SaySwap‘s video game trading service. Miracle of miracles …

If you recall, I had some major issues with SaySwap, mostly centered around a lack of depth in their available community inventory. And I think the truth of it still holds. If 40 members want Game X and only 10 members have Game X (and are willing to trade), then 30 members are going home hungry.

Since December, I’ve been receiving daily e-mails from SaySwap. Each time, they tell me that somebody wants one or more of my listed available games. As of my previous post, I’d put one game into their system, but I wasn’t about to let go another one until I saw some progress in return. A little greedy, perhaps, but fair is fair.

So a couple of months passed and nothing happened. Around the end of February, I’d had enough. The steady stream of e-mails just served as a reminder that I’d spent money for nothing. So I contacted SaySwap support and stated my case, saying that I’d like to cancel my account and maybe get back the cash spent on the yet-to-be-useful Trading Tokens. This was the response received:

SaySwao (sic) does not provide refunds for trading token/purchase point purchases, as per the site’s terms and conditions.

The e-mail went on to describe how the process might take some time, that maybe I’d have luck with Direct Trades with other members, and if I wanted still to cancel the account, then I’d have to contact Customer Service directly.

For some reason, I’d no drive to send another e-mail to another department, so I just let it ride. The money was no longer worth the modicum of concern required to care.

Then in May, I get a different e-mail. Instead of the standard “Another user has requested …” subject line, this was a “has shipped” message. What made it head-shakingly funny was that the game shipped (supposedly) was Final Fantasy III … a game I’d received a few months earlier. I’d ignored SaySwap so completely that I hadn’t bothered to update my list of wanted games. But even this was less of a victory than it seemed, because the shipper decided to renege on the promise.

I was ready to return SaySwap to “whatever” status, but last week, I got another “has shipped” message. Two games this time. One I had and the other I didn’t. This was too good not to investigate, so I logged back in to SaySwap for the first time since December to follow-up with the proposed sender. I left a “thank you” message on their board and waited.

This week, I got both games. So now, I’ve got Mario Kart DS and Nikki has her own copy of New Super Mario Bros*. If nothing else, I can call my initial investment of $8 returned and then some. As a show of good will, I sent out one of my listed Xbox titles day before yesterday and will send out a couple more today.

So what’s the lesson learned? Maybe this just means that patience is mandatory for a commercial site based on community interaction. Maybe I should’ve taken the higher ground and sent the titles requested of me as each e-mail arrived. After all, pumps must be primed before they give forth anything of value.

I suppose the true test will be the length of time before I see another of those “has shipped” messages. If we’re looking at another six months, my doubts about the service remain. But if the time is much shorter, then maybe the system’s circulation has reached a sustainable level. We’ll just have to see.

* – Let it be known, Nikki is a Mario Bros Savant. Yes, she curses the game just as much as I’ve done, but she’s hit World 6 in less than two days of casual playing. A force with which to be reckoned, indeed.

[tags]SaySwap[/tags]