RayfromTX Gone..? Huh..?

[Will Prowse]

Devil's advocate here again... The website is US only. The email address is a generic one. Many people want a specific representative since others have had good experiences with them. Anyone not in the US wants to make sure they're talking to the right person, and not a scam or whatever. People want certainty before sending a lot of money to a third party.

There has to be a way to allow members of this forum to vet resellers, maybe tied to some reputation or whatever. I fully understand not having random newbies come in and recommend stuff. But just like people going with your recommendations because they trust you, there should be a way for others that have been around the block a few times with this stuff to recommend and also warn new users here on vendors, and the best ways of getting in touch with them. Just the process of using Alibaba is alien to many people (i.e., use the chat function, no you don't call anyone, no don't put stuff in your basket and go to pay for it, yes the shipping cost calculation is wrong, etc.).

Vetting a reseller is fine, but not individuals who are making a direct comission. If we were to allow that, I would then be allowed to post my own "tell them I sent you", and that would not be fair. Many of these rules limit me more than anyone else, and I'm trying to make this as fair as possible. Technically I am the largest affiliate in this space, but I also want this forum to be corporate free. I am liable for all the recommendations on my other site. The recommendations here to random personal emails can easily be done in a way to scam others or push sales. And I will have to take the responsibility if something goes wrong. Which has happened multiple times already.

Vetting a reseller is fine. Pushing sales through a personal email is not. There is nothing special about these sales reps. You can order directly through any of these companies many sales reps without issue. The level of competency to fill an order is very low.

 

[Will Prowse]

transparency is desired for me, i want each rep to make an account here and be referred by user account @ format, then the email can be canonically referred to by the user account profile page

Seriously? If that was the case, every rep at signature solar and these other companies would have a profile. The only reason the cell resellers are trying to make a personal connection with you guys is so they can push more sales and get a commission.

Anyone can fulfill an order at these companies, there is no need for a sales rep recommendation here. I can call any of these companies and make an order without issue. We can review the companies all day long too without pushing it through an individual making a comission.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I'm pretty sure that 99.9% of everyone here who has recommended rep X from company Y or Z is just doing so because their sales experience was good, and not due to some sort of kickback.

 

[Will Prowse]

I'm pretty sure that 99.9% of everyone here who has recommended rep X from company Y or Z is just doing so because their sales experience was good, and not due to some sort of kickback.

Oh sure but I want to judge the company as a whole. The only reason these reps work so hard to push sales is because of their comission. They are females acting friendly for a reason. And they are making a ton of cash in the process.

There is nothing special about a sales rep here. And if their other sales reps are bad, we should mention that as well. I highly doubt anyone will have a bad experience with a sales rep from any of these companies. All they do is take your credit card information and ask where to ship it.

 

[Will Prowse]

But is it a problem now for members here to recommend a rep they had a good experience with?

Yes, it is a problem because each one is getting a comission and there is nothing special about these reps. I can call and make an order with any sales rep at any company.

If I call a company and purchase something, I'm not going to tell you who my sales rep was. Because it should not matter.

 

[Will Prowse]

Keep in mind these rules also limit me more than anyone else. If any of this is allowed, I will become the largest sales rep of them all. I don't want that. I don't want to compete with you guys. If referral of sales reps is allowed, I will try to dominate like I do on my YouTube videos. I will work 24/7 to have the most transparent and useful information around, and will stand by my recommendations. I'm telling you right now, we should not have that on this forum. Or else I will take advantage of it and post "tell them I sent you" constantly. I want this forum to be for education only. It should be for everyone, and free of ads. No exceptions.

 

[Will Prowse]

And like I said earlier, reviewing a company or their products is absolutely fine. Pushing sales through a sales reps personal email on a forum where I am responsible for, is not.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Understand, and I do appreciate that. Without this forum I wouldn't be several $k poorer... wait....

 

[Will Prowse]

Understand, and I do appreciate that. Without this forum I wouldn't be several $k poorer... wait....

Oh were you scammed by a group buy? Or are you joking about spending money in general? Solar and batteries is very addicting. We need an addiction sub forum ?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Joking lol. But reality is, I actually saved money going DIY because I wanted to add battery to my system anyway, and also went LFP instead of the burn happy Li-ions from a used pack from a wrecked car or something stupid. If it wasn't for finding this forum I very well may have made some really dumb choices.

 

[Bob B]

Sorry Will, but in my limited experience, the sales rep matters a lot. I have found this to be true when shopping locally and also on Alibaba.
I can go to a car dealer one day and get a guy who only wants to SELL me what gives him the best commission .... and go a different day and get a REP who is willing to listen to me and help me find what I am looking for.
Going to that 50 year old hardware store with knowledgeable people is a much better experience than going to that big box store where you will probably get a teenager who knows less than you do.

When I bought my first battery (pre-built), I had a TON of question for the vendor. I got lucky and got a REP that was willing to answer all those questions and find the information if they didn't know the answer. Messages were always answered promptly and accurately .... I ended up getting exactly what I wanted and has worked flawlessly so far.
When I was ready to purchase more cells to build my own pack ... I tried contacting that person and found that they had moved on from that company. The new REP was absolutely terrible ... long delays and my questions were never completely answered ... So, I went with another vendor who had been recommended on here ... That purchase ended up going well.

Maybe that first vendor was just a poor vendor and I got lucky with the REP I got .... but the REP made a huge difference.

Your situation is much different than a newbie looking to do their first or even 2nd purchase .... a little TLC and hand holding may be required for the newbie.

 

[Will Prowse]

Sorry Will, but in my limited experience, the sales rep matters a lot. I have found this to be true when shopping locally and also on Alibaba.
I can go to a car dealer one day and get a guy who only wants to SELL me what gives him the best commission .... and go a different day and get a REP who is willing to listen to me and help me find what I am looking for.
Going to that 50 year old hardware store with knowledgeable people is a much better experience than going to that big box store where you will probably get a teenager who knows less than you do.

When I bought my first battery (pre-built), I had a TON of question for the vendor. I got lucky and got a REP that was willing to answer all those questions and find the information if they didn't know the answer. Messages were always answered promptly and accurately .... I ended up getting exactly what I wanted and has worked flawlessly so far.
When I was ready to purchase more cells to build my own pack ... I tried contacting that person and found that they had moved on from that company. The new REP was absolutely terrible ... long delays and my questions were never completely answered ... So, I went with another vendor who had been recommended on here ... That purchase ended up going well.

Maybe that first vendor was just a poor vendor and I got lucky with the REP I got .... but the REP made a huge difference.

Your situation is much different than a newbie looking to do their first or even 2nd purchase .... a little TLC and hand holding may be required for the newbie.

Then build another forum to review/discuss these sales reps. You can have a yelp review site for lifepo4 sales reps, in a sense. I am not going to allow it here and I do not want to have any affiliation with your forum when you build one. I do not want to have any bias or loyalty to any cell distributor or sales rep.

Currently if someone I recommend screws up, I drop their affiliate program and find/build a better one with another distributor.

 

[BuffaloTrace]

While not everyone agrees with the rules, one thing I can greatly appreciate is the steadfast commitment to the rules even by the forum owner, and it's operators/administration. This keeps everything very clear and the ability for little personal interpretation as possible. And this i can commend! So many things these days are left vague, perhaps by design and intention.

 

[Will Prowse]

While not everyone agrees with the rules, one thing I can greatly appreciate is the steadfast commitment to the rules even by the forum owner, and it's operators/administration. This keeps everything very clear and the ability for little personal interpretation as possible. And this i can commend! So many things these days are left vague, perhaps by design and intention.

Thank you! I really need this forum to be the best on the internet for unbiased information. So many message boards are filled with ads and biased information and I cannot stand it.

But I have to reiterate that I did think ray from Texas was a spam profile because there was a misspelling in his email and the person he recommended was recently banned. No profile picture. And recommending personal emails. I really like Ray's videos, and I feel bad that I thought his profile was spam. Will work on this more, and send out a warning instead. I spam clean a lot of accounts daily, and his profile fit the bill. I thought someone was impersonating him. I need to be more strict with verification and get people to verify with real world identification. I'll do that next time.

 

[Will Prowse]

Really have to thank the mods here for keeping the forum going. It would not be possible without them. I'm so glad we now have a platform to share everything we think about various products and help each other. It's fantastic!

 

[curiouscarbon]

Seriously? If that was the case, every rep at signature solar and these other companies would have a profile. The only reason the cell resellers are trying to make a personal connection with you guys is so they can push more sales and get a commission.

Anyone can fulfill an order at these companies, there is no need for a sales rep recommendation here. I can call any of these companies and make an order without issue. We can review the companies all day long too without pushing it through an individual making a comission.

not super serious about the completeness, mainly to communicate that clearly labeled corporate accounts make it more obvious to me when financial motivations are at hand.

anyways kind regards intended; very grateful for the existing efforts to keep corporate strategies out of the play area so to speak.

as you say well, contacting a specific representative should be unnecessary to have a normal exchange ?

 

[curiouscarbon]

have a problem when a forum member is posting "tell her I sent you" and getting a kickback. Any affiliate links or referrals should not be allowed anywhere on this forum.

this bothered me, and ray still makes helpful content. it upsets me when silent kickbacks are motivating advice here.

thanks for removing commercial content like afilliate links and commission seeking behavior.

it clearly takes effort?

 

[houseofancients]

this bothered me, and ray still makes helpful content. it upsets me when silent kickbacks are motivating advice here.

thanks for removing commercial content like afilliate links and commission seeking behavior.

it clearly takes effort?

he's not getting a kickback.

and agree, kickbacks shouldnt be allowed, gives a bad inscentive, and in my mind we're here to help one and another, but maybe i'm just a bit naive.


i do however suggest a list of known good companies to deal with , too many folks have been burned by getting bad cells.
affiliate links should never be allowed in that list, nor specific reps.
i reffer to jenny often, simply because i have dealt with her on a couple occassions and she helped me well and honest, and i have no experience with the other reps.
no affiliation, no business dealings outside my own purchases with any that i regularly mention, just my own experience

 

[curiouscarbon]

in this case, there seemed to be a commission for youtube referrals, but it seemed ambiguous to me what meaning referrals made on this forum bear in the context of that arrangement.

 

[Bob B]

Then build another forum to review/discuss these sales reps. You can have a yelp review site for lifepo4 sales reps, in a sense. I am not going to allow it here and I do not want to have any affiliation with your forum when you build one. I do not want to have any bias or loyalty to any cell distributor or sales rep.

Currently if someone I recommend screws up, I drop their affiliate program and find/build a better one with another distributor.

I'm not questioning that you are doing the right thing for this forum .... and I don't have any concept of the amount of work involved in keeping the forum spam free ..... I applaud your success in doing that.

It's just that one of the things I have always done is try to reward those who do business the right way with my future business and to recommend them to others .... They are getting more and more difficult to find and it just seems logical to me to recommend them to others.
I can understand, however, that you wouldn't want this forum to be held responsible for the recommendation made by forum members .... when there are possible affiliate relationships, there is no doubt that shouldn't be allowed.
Along the same line is recommendations for a particular BMS, charge controller, inverter .... etc.
It's quite a tight rope walk to keep things clean and yet help others navigate the mine field.