Oh yes, absolutely. I only commented on the wording.
RayfromTX Gone..? Huh..?
- Thread starter solardad
- Start date
Oh yes, absolutely. I only commented on the wording.
But yes maybe I over reacted, but I plan to clean these vendor pushers as best as I can. I am tired of dealing with it, and the majority of posts on the forum are managed by myself.
He even used her email too. I thought it was a vendor. When I see emails, phone numbers or Whatsapp numbers, and incomplete profiles (most spam profiles here use default profile image or a girls portrait photo), I instantly assume it's spam.
It's one of the pains of a growing forum. There are also only a handful of moderators, and you having to do a majority of the policing dealing with these things isn't ideal. I'll try to help out where I can.
I spam clean a lot of profiles, even late at night. Every day. Supervtech and myself are the only ones really going through reports one by one, every day. Usually we do a superb job, but not always. I should have sent out a warning or asked him to verify who he was and question what I was seeing on my end.
And that would help a lot, any help would be greatly appreciated.
And that would help a lot, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you @upnorthandpersonal
houseofancients
Solar Wizard
that's just the thing here will... nobody is pushing, this is one member telling another one to talk to them and mention his name so they get extra taken care of ...
Thanks @Will Prowse for looking into this. Glad to see Ray back.
I've asked Will earlier today to make me a moderator (and now I am). I hope I can take some workload away from Will and co.
Referring by name typically means there will be an affiliate commission involved. Let's ask @RayfromTX directly. Are you or were you an affiliate for this company?
Thank you, it is much appreciated.
I receive a commission on sales from Jenny Wu when my youtube channel is mentioned at the time of contact. I don't have an affiliate link. I try hard to not self promote. In the case of the post that got me banned, I was responding to someone that was having a hard time with a payment method so I posted Jenny's email address so she could sort it out and get the discussion off the forum. Many people come here to find this information. I don't sell anything and technically, I have no affiliate links here or on youtube. My income comes from working in construction. I have turned down many offers to promote companies on my youtube channel but I prefer to not go that route.
Bob B
Emperor Of Solar
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2019
- Messages
- 8,604
What I'm thinking is that it is easier to cross the line than I thought.
One of the most common posts from a newbie is to try to find reputable sellers instead of having to navigate the mine field by themselves ... The money involved and buying from the other side of the world where we know scammers are lurking is a scary thing for us poor DIYers.
Many of us have mentioned sellers by name .... and that experience from forum members would be valuable input for a newbie. Seems like quite a tight rope to walk to help others but not over promote.
Maybe I'm still a little confused about the new more strict rules about sellers.
One of the most common posts from a newbie is to try to find reputable sellers instead of having to navigate the mine field by themselves ... The money involved and buying from the other side of the world where we know scammers are lurking is a scary thing for us poor DIYers.
Many of us have mentioned sellers by name .... and that experience from forum members would be valuable input for a newbie. Seems like quite a tight rope to walk to help others but not over promote.
Maybe I'm still a little confused about the new more strict rules about sellers.
Bud Martin
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2020
- Messages
- 4,843
So you are not allow to show Email address of the seller? When I was trying to buy the battery, from Dxxxxx, I forget the website name and Jenny or Amy Email address which I could not find it because the thread was wiped out, but luckily the members were able to provide me the contact and I was able to get the hold of seller and bought the batteries.
Anyone can just go on their website and buy them. You do not need to go through any sales rep. Or you can just pull the email from their contact us page.
curiouscarbon
Science Penguin
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2020
- Messages
- 3,022
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
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.).
Heck their US website isn't the greatest and quite frankly I would have touched it had I not known from here it was fine. That goes with Ali anything too. I bought all my parts outside of Ali because I did not want to deal with the headache.
I don't have a problem with reviewing an actual company and their products and services. Or even linking to them. I only 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.
And I would never trust a random email recommendation from anyone on this forum for making big purchases. I will always email them directly. To use a strangers recommendation on the forum to send thousands of dollars over the internet is not a smart idea. We should judge the company as a whole. Just because people have personal relationships with a couple sales reps does not mean the other sales reps are not just as good. Their job is quite easy too, they just initiate orders. And they are making millions of dollars while doing it.
If someone gets scammed by sending money to a random strangers email mentioned on the forum, we will get the blame and it makes the forum look awful. I've already had numerous emails being blamed for this already.
Sales reps are not special. I could call any company directly and have the same experience with any of their staff. I would rather people contact these companies directly, and not through random personal email addresses.
I think what really happened is our forum is predominantly male, and these companies strategically used female sales reps that were friendly to make a personal connection with their customers so they will turn into repeat customers or refer their friends. I've noticed people actually miss these reps as if they serve some form of utility to making an order. There is nothing special about these sales reps and they are milking the members and this forum for sales.
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