As someone completely uninvolved in any hullabaloo here at THP regarding vendors, please take this topic as constructive criticism/advice to possibly make feedback here more productive.
These are my opinions only and represent only myself and how I prefer to do business as both a consumer and as a vendor:
1. If you aren't the vendor, and you aren't the customer, consider limiting yourself to 1 brief response on a given subject.
You know, like "I did [trade/giveaway/business] with [so-and-so vendor] and the experience was [positive/negative]." or "I've known [XYZ vendor] 10 years and they're good people, I vouch for them."
Really, just something short and sweet that adds value to the discussion for the community's benefit. That's my understanding of why this forum exists - this isn't eBay, so there's no vendor ratings system, and this is what we've got. I find it odd and off-putting when a member who’s not involved in an issue posts 25+ times in staunch defense of a vendor when the vendor hasn’t even posted once to address the accusations levied against them. It makes me wonder if those members are shills for that vendor (e.g getting sent free goods or $ for the service of defending them), because I sure wouldn’t voluntarily get that involved with someone else’s beef, and I say that as someone who has genuine affection for some of the vendors around here!
2. Don't criticize people when they post a legitimate complaint.
No one person can ruin a vendor's reputation. Really. And even if 5 people agree with that one person, it's still not gonna do it. Hell, 20 people can't ruin a reputation. That is a total misconception.
A reputation is not based on the complaints against the vendor: the reputation is built on how that vendor handles it from there. I would never, ever judge a company from a problem. I judge them on how they solve problems. Being critical of someone's complaint comes off as bullying, and avoiding that would keep these topics much cleaner (see #1) and make the feedback forum useful to all.
If the topics are kept clean and we, the readers, can see 1 complaint and 20 positives, or 1 positive and 20 complaints, then we will be able to get a qualified impression of that vendor without the distraction of a 4-page argument/debate/bullying session to distract from it. That, to me, seems like the intent of this forum, and from my experience it’s how this can be a productive place for feedback.
3. Communication is key & the customer is always right.
It's an age old addage for a reason. If you have a dissatisfied customer, whether they're right or wrong, they are a dissatisfied customer and as a vendor you are obligated to make it right. If it's as easy as answering an email or providing an alternate means to be contacted and setting an expectation (e.g. I will contact you within 3 business days), then this should be simple. Being proactive is even better.
There's really not a lot else to say on this one - if you're running an auction, sale, contest or give-away, clear out your inbox because you KNOW the winner/customer is going to want to contact you. There's simply no excuse there, especially when you're on the forums blasting away with multiple promotions and sales while the member is trying to contact you. I get the “don't send 10 mails in an hour if you're the customer” thing – I’m not talking about that. But if you’re running a promotion at 8:00 PM PST, then by 8:05 PM PST you should be reaching out to the winner/buyer to close the deal. If you can’t do this, don’t run the promotion for that time. Free / paid is 100% irrelevant to this. I don’t understand why people get hung up on that aspect. It’s business. It’s communication – people’s reputations in business are build or broken on this simple concept and have been for hundreds of years.
4. Promotional giveaways are great fun - but they need to be validated as “on the level”.
How do you run a promotion or contest on the level? There are many ways of achieving this - I opted to go with fantasy football draft software to randomly pick names and send simultaneous email results to all of the contest participants. No way to fake that.
I'm not saying any specific vendor's promotions aren't on the level here, but I am saying people need to think about whether they're of a nature that people will suspect as being "not on the level" (and THP rules might help here...just spitballing).
The “pick a number between 1 and 1000" contests are going to raise red flags with most people as there is no way of knowing how the end result is achieved.
Unless the vendor sends another neutral member or moderator a time-stamped private message with the correct number prior to running their contest, my assumption is that the vendor hand-picks the person they want to win and says "yup - that was the number". Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is the most likely to be correct, and in this case that explanation is too often that "pick-a-number" contests are sketchy. A video drawing of a name or number is equally sketchy, because the vendor can simply keep taking short videos until they pick the name/number that they want or stage it with the desired winner’s paper slip on top - and then that's the video they post.
A legitimate give-away or contest means that it is validated and conducted with integrity – and can be proven as such. After all, you're promoting a business. Any impression, positive or negative, could be achieved by this promotion.
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I am offering these suggestions as a member of THP, as a vendor on THP and as a customer on THP who has now conducted dozens of purchases and trades with THP vendors and who has run successful promotions that were fun and positive who wants to see this board used as productively as possible. Fortunately I have yet to have any reason to post a negative review of any vendor, nor have I had cause to have to defend myself from complaints. But rest assured, if something came up it would not result in 4 pages of nonsense. It would be me posting "I'll take care of it" to the customer and then privately doing whatever it took to achieve customer satisfaction, regardless of whether I believed the customer to be right or not. That the customer's perception was that they were wronged is enough - I am at that point wrong and will endeavor to make it right.
I strongly believe that this vendor feedback forum is a valuable check and balance to this community – we vendors don’t have “reputation points” like eBay does. So this forum is what we have. I love seeing positive feedback about vendors, and I hate seeing negative feedback about others - especially when the vendors seem to work hard to make mountains out of molehills.
Feedback benefits everyone at THP. Some vendors go the extra mile – include powders or other goodies with a pepper or sauce order. Some ship promptly and communicate often to ensure service. And good vendors should be rewarded with positive feedback when that happens. Equally, bad vendors should to be exposed for their shortcomings so that others in the THP community can have a better qualified opinion on whether they wish to conduct business or even enter a “promotion” after reviewing that feedback – and maybe those vendors will learn from it and improve their practices, if they are open to improvement.
Respectfully,
Scott
LDHS
Ps - mods, I felt this was about vendor feedback and relevant to this board. If not, please do feel free to move wherever necessary.
These are my opinions only and represent only myself and how I prefer to do business as both a consumer and as a vendor:
1. If you aren't the vendor, and you aren't the customer, consider limiting yourself to 1 brief response on a given subject.
You know, like "I did [trade/giveaway/business] with [so-and-so vendor] and the experience was [positive/negative]." or "I've known [XYZ vendor] 10 years and they're good people, I vouch for them."
Really, just something short and sweet that adds value to the discussion for the community's benefit. That's my understanding of why this forum exists - this isn't eBay, so there's no vendor ratings system, and this is what we've got. I find it odd and off-putting when a member who’s not involved in an issue posts 25+ times in staunch defense of a vendor when the vendor hasn’t even posted once to address the accusations levied against them. It makes me wonder if those members are shills for that vendor (e.g getting sent free goods or $ for the service of defending them), because I sure wouldn’t voluntarily get that involved with someone else’s beef, and I say that as someone who has genuine affection for some of the vendors around here!
2. Don't criticize people when they post a legitimate complaint.
No one person can ruin a vendor's reputation. Really. And even if 5 people agree with that one person, it's still not gonna do it. Hell, 20 people can't ruin a reputation. That is a total misconception.
A reputation is not based on the complaints against the vendor: the reputation is built on how that vendor handles it from there. I would never, ever judge a company from a problem. I judge them on how they solve problems. Being critical of someone's complaint comes off as bullying, and avoiding that would keep these topics much cleaner (see #1) and make the feedback forum useful to all.
If the topics are kept clean and we, the readers, can see 1 complaint and 20 positives, or 1 positive and 20 complaints, then we will be able to get a qualified impression of that vendor without the distraction of a 4-page argument/debate/bullying session to distract from it. That, to me, seems like the intent of this forum, and from my experience it’s how this can be a productive place for feedback.
3. Communication is key & the customer is always right.
It's an age old addage for a reason. If you have a dissatisfied customer, whether they're right or wrong, they are a dissatisfied customer and as a vendor you are obligated to make it right. If it's as easy as answering an email or providing an alternate means to be contacted and setting an expectation (e.g. I will contact you within 3 business days), then this should be simple. Being proactive is even better.
There's really not a lot else to say on this one - if you're running an auction, sale, contest or give-away, clear out your inbox because you KNOW the winner/customer is going to want to contact you. There's simply no excuse there, especially when you're on the forums blasting away with multiple promotions and sales while the member is trying to contact you. I get the “don't send 10 mails in an hour if you're the customer” thing – I’m not talking about that. But if you’re running a promotion at 8:00 PM PST, then by 8:05 PM PST you should be reaching out to the winner/buyer to close the deal. If you can’t do this, don’t run the promotion for that time. Free / paid is 100% irrelevant to this. I don’t understand why people get hung up on that aspect. It’s business. It’s communication – people’s reputations in business are build or broken on this simple concept and have been for hundreds of years.
4. Promotional giveaways are great fun - but they need to be validated as “on the level”.
How do you run a promotion or contest on the level? There are many ways of achieving this - I opted to go with fantasy football draft software to randomly pick names and send simultaneous email results to all of the contest participants. No way to fake that.
I'm not saying any specific vendor's promotions aren't on the level here, but I am saying people need to think about whether they're of a nature that people will suspect as being "not on the level" (and THP rules might help here...just spitballing).
The “pick a number between 1 and 1000" contests are going to raise red flags with most people as there is no way of knowing how the end result is achieved.
Unless the vendor sends another neutral member or moderator a time-stamped private message with the correct number prior to running their contest, my assumption is that the vendor hand-picks the person they want to win and says "yup - that was the number". Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is the most likely to be correct, and in this case that explanation is too often that "pick-a-number" contests are sketchy. A video drawing of a name or number is equally sketchy, because the vendor can simply keep taking short videos until they pick the name/number that they want or stage it with the desired winner’s paper slip on top - and then that's the video they post.
A legitimate give-away or contest means that it is validated and conducted with integrity – and can be proven as such. After all, you're promoting a business. Any impression, positive or negative, could be achieved by this promotion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am offering these suggestions as a member of THP, as a vendor on THP and as a customer on THP who has now conducted dozens of purchases and trades with THP vendors and who has run successful promotions that were fun and positive who wants to see this board used as productively as possible. Fortunately I have yet to have any reason to post a negative review of any vendor, nor have I had cause to have to defend myself from complaints. But rest assured, if something came up it would not result in 4 pages of nonsense. It would be me posting "I'll take care of it" to the customer and then privately doing whatever it took to achieve customer satisfaction, regardless of whether I believed the customer to be right or not. That the customer's perception was that they were wronged is enough - I am at that point wrong and will endeavor to make it right.
I strongly believe that this vendor feedback forum is a valuable check and balance to this community – we vendors don’t have “reputation points” like eBay does. So this forum is what we have. I love seeing positive feedback about vendors, and I hate seeing negative feedback about others - especially when the vendors seem to work hard to make mountains out of molehills.
Feedback benefits everyone at THP. Some vendors go the extra mile – include powders or other goodies with a pepper or sauce order. Some ship promptly and communicate often to ensure service. And good vendors should be rewarded with positive feedback when that happens. Equally, bad vendors should to be exposed for their shortcomings so that others in the THP community can have a better qualified opinion on whether they wish to conduct business or even enter a “promotion” after reviewing that feedback – and maybe those vendors will learn from it and improve their practices, if they are open to improvement.
Respectfully,
Scott
LDHS
Ps - mods, I felt this was about vendor feedback and relevant to this board. If not, please do feel free to move wherever necessary.
