Vendor Ratings Forum

[cprowler]

I think this is the best way to do it. Is it perfect? Absolutely not but I think it the lesser of two evils.

A lot of people are shy and/or anti-confrontational especially other cultures and won’t participate if it is not anonymous. I know people that have been members on CR for years and years that have never posted and only became members just so they can PM and buy stuff from the buy & sell forums.

What was stopping people from vendettas and grudges in a PM? They are basically anonymous, only the person receiving them can see them not the vendors or anyone else. At least this way it is monitored to some extent.

If anything I would think this may be more accurate than starting a thread, “PM me with your experiences with vendor X”. A lot of people might not take the time to reply with positive or negative feedback.

IMO

[wickedfrags]

Kindly remove wickedfrags.com from this vendor rating forum until controls are in place to ensure people leaving comments are accountable for their comments.

Like some others, I have spent considerable time time trying to establish an online feedback system on canada.frags.org which I provide a link to in my signature attached to every post I make (you can click on it below...)

Individuals who leave any type of feedback on this system (either above or below the average feedback rating) can be traced back to their username, IP address and network card from the computer they used. I can then find out if they are in fact a customer or simply a loyal customer of another sponsor, again, should I see fit under the circumstances. Thanks.

[Myka]

I think it should be a PUBLIC poll where we can see who voted how. That would be much more fair. I think negative votes should definately have to prove their case. If I have a grudge against an employee for example...I could easily leave a negative vote, and never have to explain myself.

[EmilyB]

Exactly, or a grudge against an owner who only talks to you if you are spending money...

[fencer]

I thimk this a good start. Really if your in the business of selling things expect to have some negatives. If your service is good people will say so. Anonymity guarantees an honest answer. I think most 99.9% of the people on this forum are honest. Considering the amounts of money being spent at these vendors I sure would like to see some opinion about the vendors performance. If I was interested in ordering from a vendor that might have a less than stellar performance, I would be inclined to ask more questions before I order about return policies and DOA polices. Gives vendors a chance to improve their service in deficent areas and ultimately more business for them. This is not a perfect system but consumers have a right to voice too.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fencer

Anonymity guarantees an honest answer.

You think? I would think quite the opposite!

[mark]

Originally Posted by Myka

I think it should be a PUBLIC poll where we can see who voted how. That would be much more fair.

Great idea.

Vendors could PM poster to sort out problems if they wish, other users could PM for details and whole thing isn't public.

[fencer]

The system is not perfect. Giving out names will start wars and vendettas on Canreef, usually dragging personal stuff with it. I say give this a trial for a couple of months. The sys admin is watching closely for abuse. I will add one thing vendors who have more 15% negatives, (it is not just about gripes from one person but from many and it is a service problem)...should make it a practice to follow up the orders they just sent.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by fencer

Giving out names will start wars and vendettas on Canreef, usually dragging personal stuff with it.

Exactly what we don't want. And I may want to post that I was unsatisified with a store, but I don't want to rehash out the whole issue. I'm not going to give my opinion if it means some vendor is gonna keep bugging me via PM or thread to be more satisified. Just accept that I wasn't, you can't please everyone.
Anonymity is the only way we feel we can get honest responses. Most people we spoke to would not be comfortable giving a bad rating if their name was attached. They would just say nothing, which would skew a rating to show only good replies.
Honestly, if a vendor has 50 "very satisifed" and 1 "very unsatisified", I'm gonna order from them.

[midgetwaiter]

I think it's pretty useful as it is. If you expanded the scope of it to reduce anonymity or add some qualitative information to the feedback it would be more useful but a much, much larger undertaking.

IME people enter some situations with unrealistic expectations. With a few years retail experience under my belt I even notice myself doing it sometimes. It's just they way people are.