In recent weeks there have been at least a half dozen e-mails or PM’s come through to myself and other admins having to do with conflicts between members, usually arising from transactions gone bad.
I understand that it is a logical step to notify people like myself and Mike when these things happen but I have to advise all of the users when i say that there is little that we are willing, able and prepared to do in such instances.
Purchasing on-line, particularly between individuals is very much a buyer-beware transaction.
Please use your best judgment and defend yourself against potential issues fraudulent or dishonest sellers. At the same time; be an honest and respectful buyer.
The only cases where Mike, Gautam and I really need to be made aware of a situation is where it involved vendors, potential vendors or persons who are very active sellers on the forum.
It is a shame when some more prominent people in the community are engaged in less than 100% satisfactory transactions and it has come up where requests for vendorship have been denied on account of a less than perfect reputation.
At the end of the day denying a request for vendorship is about as much as we can do to discourage this kind of behaviour.
It is important to let people know about these issues even though ultimately those threads end up being moved to the drama or vendor section.
With respect to iTrader; we are not going to make changes to the iTrader scoring without exceptionally compelling reasons to do so. Moreover, you have the ability and the right to defend or explain yourself in future for sale threads after receiving a -1.
In sum, I realize that people will continue to bring these issues to the admin, this posting is not to deter you from doing so. The purpose here is to set the expectation that we are not committed to and make no guarantees that we can assist with any conflict resolution between members for transactions or other. Reading between the lines should result in your coming to the conclusion that the responsibility falls solely on yourself to protect yourself and to represent yourself fairly.
[FONT=Verdana]My best advice to everyone is to buy from long-time respected vendors and don’t be afraid to pay a premium to them… lol… [/FONT]