Rant about reviews

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by 24storm

If i go asking for PMs do you think people will just start posting in the thread and have it locked down?

Keith

Maybe

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Treebeard

Just wondering, has an eBay type rating system ever been considered? There could be different categories for each vendor on a scale from 1 - 5. Categories could be Quality, Service, Communication....etc. Perhaps a poll for each vendor?

No, we are not rating vendors at all.

[Chin_Lee]

Feel free to utilize the "Forward" features of PMs that you have received about other people's experiences with vendors. This will allow that person to get the information per verbatim from the original author without any misinterpretations.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by mark

Thinking from my Judge Judy watching, if I give negative feedback and it was true I wouldn't have much to worry about, nor would Canreef.

If we were taken to court, even if we're in the right, it involves our time and money to defend ourselves. The owner of the board currently resides in Hong Kong and I can't see that he really wants to fly here to deal with something like that, or hire someone to do it on his behalf.
Thats the whole point here. It's just way easier to run a board without all that trouble. If a business screws people, it will go out of business eventually. We certainly don't need a public broadcast system for vendor alerts, and if someone really wants to complain, file with the BBB, and others can check with the BBB for reviews.
Now, another point, which does not apply to all cases, but many. Everyone on this board has already bought stuff for their tanks. If the place you bought from treated you well, be loyal to them. Don't worry about some new shop that is $2 cheaper, stay with who is good to you. There are plenty of comments on this board over the last 7 years touting how wonderful many of the regular sponsors are. You all gave them these comments, so stick with them.
I heard of one person who was blatantly warned about not shopping at one particular store. They took your money and didn't deliver. Well, this person tried anyway, becase, well, it looked like a deal. Hmm, well, it wasn't and they should have listened to their friend.

Stick with who's been good to you, and you don't need to post reviews.

[Doo]

I think this is a great topic and I have noticed that in general all the aquarium related forums are lacking some kind of "FEEDBACK" system...

I understand the "he said, she said" stuff would get old fast for the moderators & I respect that.

I belong to another forum called "CANADIANGUNNUTZ" (take a guess) and on that forum there is a feedback system for each time you buy and sell - you simply go to the person you bought from or sold to and provide feedback after each transaction. I think this keeps everyone honest and weeds out the people who have bad intentions...

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/

Have a look at the link to the site!

I just love how I can go in and look at each users rating before I buy something from them across the country. Each user has a number behind their user name in brackets {ex: Doo(8)} and that is the number of transactions they have made and when you click on that number up comes a page with all the feedback left for them by others.

This works for vendors and fellow members both alike.

Just my though on a system that works for 10,000+ users and might work for us...

Thank you

Originally Posted by Treebeard

Just wondering, has an eBay type rating system ever been considered? There could be different categories for each vendor on a scale from 1 - 5. Categories could be Quality, Service, Communication....etc. Perhaps a poll for each vendor?

[Aquattro]

Again, we already have a system that works for us. We just dont allow it.

[Tarolisol]

The true problem comes from canreef charging vendor fees, how would you like it if you paid to have your company name on here, and right below your thread is a thread bashing your company. If there were no vendor fees then they have no true legal action. Which i still doubt they have even though they pay to advertise. But thems the breaks I dont even bother with the vender reviews positive or negative anymore its just a waste of time. I only use canreef to gain and extended knowledge to individuals and of course the buy/sell and lounge.

[Aquattro]

I just noticed a "What camera" thread with a link to dpreview.com. Then I thought hey, great idea, someone should start up a reefreview.ca, an online wbsite reviewing vendors in Canada.
Anyone?

[Samw]

Lots of places out there for people to voice complaints. Usenet News Groups, Yahoo Groups, etc etc.

[dsaundry]

If I am wrong perhaps one of the staff can correct me, It boils down to economics as well. Any business relies on advertising and sponsors. The products they sell depends on the word of mouth reports they get from the consumer. Now CR relies on it's sponsors as well, hence the "free to join membership". If members were allowed to slam any sponsor regarding product or service, the sponsors would pull out and advertise somewhere else. I also know that other reef forums will not allow or tolerate their advertising sponsors to be slammed by the members. As I stated before, if one or two members crack down on one sponsor/vendor it can put off other members from doing business and it may have not even been the sponsors fault. I will also point out that in my opinion the staff here are very relaxed about what they allow and don't allow. Check out some of the other reef sites and you will see what I mean. I enjoy the fact that you can have a spirited debate sometimes without having it yanked. Again, try that in some of the other sites. I am very happy with this site and as a business owner I do understand the staff's position. I would like to see a way of rating some vendors but this isn't Ebay. So as I was once told by a former boss when I questioned a companies policy, he said to me. "Don't fight the system, you wont win this one". He was right. The system is set up to what works for them.