Although I found a neat little trick some years back on the AO forums that at least some of the time can save you the time and hassle of going through a petition.
- Neither char should zone or log.
- If the person giving the item opens trade with the other person again and sees the item in the trade window that person should hit decline.
- This should put a phantom version of that item in that person's inventory.
- Move the phantom item to the bank then back to the inventory which seems to turn it from a phantom item to a real item allowing you to try the trade again.
What this deals with is when items get stuck between chars in a trade. As a result are in a sort of limbo not firmly attached to either char. That's why the items are lost when you zone or log sort of like when you have items in overflow.
If you open trade with the other person and don't see the item then try zoning or logging. In such cases it may just be an issue of it not appearing in the other person's inventory but it is actually there.