Forum sponsors, and misleading sales.

[obrianmcc]

.... ditto for Northridge ... go to Northridge!

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[Jtschnel]

After all of the contacts you had with them trying to resolve the problem, I would just ignore those vendors and not purchase from them. Usually there are plenty other options out there.

Reporting the vendor thread might help, if it's advertised here and not being honored, but I've never tried.

I would hope that the moderators or those administering this forum would maintain the integrity of the forum by looking into the situation where a vendor appears to show a pattern of deception. Not saying they are, but if they appear to be, it should looked into.

 

[Rahkmalla]

I would hope that the moderators or those administering this forum would maintain the integrity of the forum by looking into the situation where a vendor appears to show a pattern of deception. Not saying they are, but if they appear to be, it should looked into.

It's fine line to walk between making sure your site's sponsors are quality, and making sure your site has enough sponsors to turn a profit equal to the time invested.

I think the fair response is the more hands-off approach. Don't ban members for disparaging a bad sponsor, but also don't stop sponsors who want to keep paying you. At the end of the day everyone here is aware the sponsors are in no way endorsed. Just let the cream rise to the top and the trash will take itself out.

 

[staying_tuned]

Does Q still sell stuff? I thought they just ship quarterly catalogs meant to remind folks to circle back with Northridge. Forum has to turn a profit for sure though and you'd be surprised by how quickly fees run up on an resource intensive legacy stack based forum. Hah, ironic that I get a blocking ad while writing this response. Notice no close button and its position is fixed so I cannot scroll my response up or down to look past it. Stuff like this is kind of lame but hey, at least I don't have to submit myself to FB.

 

[KrashEd]

I think the fair response is the more hands-off approach. Don't ban members for disparaging a bad sponsor, but also don't stop sponsors who want to keep paying you. At the end of the day everyone here is aware the sponsors are in no way endorsed. Just let the cream rise to the top and the trash will take itself out.

I'll second this approach. I just unsubscribed/marked as spam for all of the misleading email advertising and the catalogs make an ok fire starter. After ordering something from one of the vendors mentioned in this thread and waiting nearly a year for it, I cancelled the order when I could not get a straight answer when the order would show. When I see other sellers having the same item in stock, but at a higher price than what I originally paid (yay, inflation), it gets old to get the runaround, knowing this part was bought and paid for almost a year previous. They earned interest on that money when I could have been had I'd known that I would never get it.

The other thing I've noticed are vendors (one mentioned in this thread) and manufacturers that ask you to review an item and don't publish the review when it's not favorable for the item they sell. It's not a fine line in this case; it is about driving profits. I get it, but so much for helping out the next guy or gal thinking of buying that part. I guess you just stop buying from them as well if the lack of integrity bothers you enough.

 

[Alpine Warthog]

LOL, my first thought was Exteme Terrain. ?‍

 

[Rahkmalla]

The other thing I've noticed are vendors (one mentioned in this thread) and manufacturers that ask you to review an item and don't publish the review when it's not favorable for the item they sell

Ooooh yea, i'd forgotten about that one. Bought some wheels with one of their supposed positives being their low weight per wheel. They showed up 10lbs per wheel heavier than advertised. When pressed Qtec said "we post the information our vendor gives us"

Here's the rub, the "vendor" is Tactik, which is a brand wholly owned by Qtec. The HQ for Tactik is the same address as the HQ for Qtec.

I kept the wheels, but asked them in email, Qtec CS chat, and by phone to change the advertised weight at least a dozen times over the course of almost a year so others wouldn't get duped like I did. Nothing, they completely ignored my requests. Then is started leaving reviews.

2 bad 1 star reviews just vanish. Finally i leave a 3 star review citing wheel weight as a lie, this one stays and the finally fix the product information page, 10 months after it's first pointed out to them.

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