Market Feedback Dealing with Dealers going AWOL

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greenhorn

greenhorn

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we've experienced dealers disappearing for brief periods unannounced. But the fact that they might cash out the trust and goodwill that they enjoy is beginning to become very real.

Lets face it, the indian online market for PC hardware/electronics has matured quite a bit in the few years after we started the dealer section in the forum. Most dealers have their exposure spread across multiple forums,ebay etc, and letting go of one forum, and going awol is not too distant.

Sure, the official stand of the forum is that they are just a platform, and they are not involved, but even then, we stand to lose a lot of goodwill if a rogue dealer screws our members. And no, we may not be able to effectively spread the news of a rogue dealer on other , especially competing forums, since we are not exactly the best friends, and that dealer might still be on good terms with them.

I think we just need to be prepared, and have a policy/plan in place, to deter any dealers who might be thinking about the easy way out.

Yes, I know you dealers can read this too. IF you know you're with us for the long term, you know this is not against you. I just am concerned at protecting our members from fly by night operators.
 
^ Absolutely right, excellent point made by greenhorn here. I for one support this, some concrete foundation has to be laid to protect the interests of the members, the forum and the dealers. Irregularity, going Awol and sometimes not bothering to give the customer the much needed information and most importantly keeping the member informed about the situation when problems arise are just the basics that have be dealt with now.
 
It seems none of the dealers (save one) are even interested in replying to pms.
And this trend doesn't seem to be limited to one forum, since I pmed dealers on all forums.

As for communication between forums, let me be the bridge :)

To break the ice, let me start by sharing some info.

The SMC International rep was not available last week since he was on leave due to an exigency in his family which I am aware of.

He will be active again from tomorrow afaik.
 
greenhorn said:
we've experienced dealers disappearing for brief periods unannounced. But the fact that they might cash out the trust and goodwill that they enjoy is beginning to become very real.

Lets face it, the indian online market for PC hardware/electronics has matured quite a bit in the few years after we started the dealer section in the forum. Most dealers have their exposure spread across multiple forums,ebay etc, and letting go of one forum, and going awol is not too distant.

Sure, the official stand of the forum is that they are just a platform, and they are not involved, but even then, we stand to lose a lot of goodwill if a rogue dealer screws our members. And no, we may not be able to effectively spread the news of a rogue dealer on other , especially competing forums, since we are not exactly the best friends, and that dealer might still be on good terms with them.

I think we just need to be prepared, and have a policy/plan in place, to deter any dealers who might be thinking about the easy way out.
Yes, I know you dealers can read this too. IF you know you're with us for the long term, you know this is not against you. I just am concerned at protecting our members from fly by night operators.
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Well ,
You Called Them what "rogue dealers" ,Well you are insulting there hard work ,its a insult Mods Remove this comment from the first post its a insult .
 
^He's not pointing particularly at anyone. He's stating a possibility. Thats not an insult. Im sorry to say but he's right, in real life quite a few people have been cheated out of their money, this possiblity can arise here to. No one is blaming anyone but when situations change everyone will be firing and blaming others for no reason, everyone will flame each other stating their own point of view but noting will get resolved unless pressure is applied in mass.
We respect our dealers, but the recent behavior is not helping and is discounting the respect that has been built so well over the years. All we want is the communication gap to close so that issues dont arise. Pointing out a few sentences doesnt resolve that. I hope you understand what i mean.

Peace.
 
Amarbir[Lynx-India] said:
Well ,

You Called Them what "rogue dealers" ,Well you are insulting there hard work ,its a insult Mods Remove this comment from the first post its a insult .
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When used as an adjective, rogue means http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rogue

no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade:
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This is exactly what I meant, and If a dealer decides to act in the above manner, the above usage is justified. If they feel insulted, (which they may) they should have thought about the consequences of their actions or inaction earlier.
 
greenhorn said:
When used as an adjective, rogue means Rogue | Define Rogue at Dictionary.com

This is exactly what I meant, and If a dealer decides to act in the above manner, the above usage is justified. If they feel insulted, (which they may) they should have thought about the consequences of their actions or inaction earlier.
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Well ,

We As customers are always right and they are always wrong ,pooffff
 
I made that statement in business terms as they say in every business Customer is never wrong /Customers are always right .
 
Ebay is already there?
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Then we might as well scrap the entire Dealer section?

The point is, if we are allowing representation we have to also have accountability.

The community is about technology first, and shopping later. There's been a lot of discussion about this before the last round of forum upgrades and it's heartening to see the buying advice partitioned out of general technical discussion, but a lot of energy is also being spent on dealer feedback because dealers are not behaving in a responsible and accountable manner (mostly by disappearing, as has been mentioned in the first post).

If you really ask me, nixing the section is the best way forward. If 'dealers' want to offer products, let us have one single post in the market section that links to a few selected dealers web pages or Ebay profiles. If that at all. The conflict between a healthy technology discussion and 'marketing' is causing problems. The market section is good enough for most of us and has always been.

I visit TE maybe 4 to 5 times a day on the days I'm home, and out of the 6-700 posts in a day, more than half relate to either market deals (individual buyers and dealers) or shopping advice. I'm not really sure this is the healthiest state for the community - before you know it we'll degenerate into one of the many tech forums in this country that serve no purpose other than a shopping guide, and not a very good one at that. I see maybe 3 or four threads that actually contain healthy discussions, and this is not one of them...

btw going AWOL is not a TE exclusive. There's been many times that I've emailed or called a dealer (before we even had the dealer section) and have never heard back from them. In one case, I've had to wait over three months for refunds for products that were said to be in stock when ordered, but actually weren't. It's just the way business functions in the technology market, because most dealers actually have very little expertise in what they sell. Since it is only a venture to make money, it is treated as a revenue stream. Only the dealers (and thankfully there are a few) who are passionate about technology really treat customers properly - whether on the forums or off it.
 
cranky said:
If you really ask me, nixing the section is the best way forward. If 'dealers' want to offer products, let us have one single post in the market section that links to a few selected dealers web pages or Ebay profiles. If that at all. The conflict between a healthy technology discussion and 'marketing' is causing problems. The market section is good enough for most of us and has always been.
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See below

cranky said:
I visit TE maybe 4 to 5 times a day on the days I'm home, and out of the 6-700 posts in a day, more than half relate to either market deals (individual buyers and dealers) or shopping advice. I'm not really sure this is the healthiest state for the community - before you know it we'll degenerate into one of the many tech forums in this country that serve no purpose other than a shopping guide, and not a very good one at that. I see maybe 3 or four threads that actually contain healthy discussions, and this is not one of them...
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In a distant galaxy, fortunately not that long ago..

There used to be this page with two buttons one said "New Tech Posts" & the other "New Market Posts"

This has the wonderful effect of giving the user EXACTLY what they were looking for.

So was wondering whether they might come back :)
 
^^ And ya now we have a single day when dealers GO,updates, market FS WTB, GO etc is 40-50% of the new posts. And now today we had a deal where a single TE member is selling Iphone 4 16GB, 32GB, Ipdad 32GB, 64GB all in one thread. All sealed. Pppl wanna sell and wanna make quick money here.I am sure if we clode down Market and Dealer paraise for even a month or two just as a temporary measure it will do a lot of good and drive away many of the retards :D

Lol ,

Well i am not your dealer haa haa
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Just that you are not a TE dealer anymore doesn't mean you are not a IT reseller. I am sure you still sell a lot of stuff to TE/E members. Btw I guess there was a report on TDF forums that you even threatened one of you website buyers once he wrote some -ve review towards lynx on the internet :P
 
I totally agree with the fact. Dealers need accountability. Not that I have anything against BuyGamingStuff. He is a great overworked guy, but he could have handled the U2311H situation better. Just hire a patent PR person. Thats all you need. Somebody to listen to rants and complaints.

[RANT]

Mr Amabir, you may be overworked and whatever and may claim to provide best service, but why the heck do you have such a guilty conscience.

I myself am in the customer facing sector and if you are not willing to believe Customer is always right, get out of the business. Just take a look at ASUS and Gigabyte trying their level best to do Image Repair, in India, a country where demand far exceeds supply, a country where customer courts are a joke.

[/RANT]
 
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