Negative reviews

[Oliver]

[EDIT]


Woooooops, seems I've made a big mistake here and pretty much everybody thinks I'm wrong. So I'm probably wrong!

I'll remove the rule.............


Let me just quickly explain my thinking behind what I did: It has concerned me (and quite a few members) for some time that there was too much activity by the suppliers in the review board. So I removed supplier posting privileges here.

However, it did occur to me that it would be unfair for suppliers to have accusations thrown at them without the right of reply - hence the rule.

Perhaps it was too much of a leap, and I pre-empted this sort of problem too far ahead of it actually occuring, so we'll carry on with the old rules, minus suppliers in the forum.

Sorry for any upset this caused.

SmokeyJoe


[/EDIT]


Hello everybody.




Please refrain from posting negative reviews about a supplier's service here. If you have a problem with the service, please contact the moderators who will decide whether it is appropriate for the review section.

We have had many people make postings saying things like "I paid for my products on xxx date and didn't receive them for xxx months" and the such like. If you have this kind of problem, please sort it out directly with the supplier - if you don't get a satisfactory response, contact a mod.

However, if you do get a bad product, please check which model it is in the general discussion area. If it's a new model and there appears to be a problem with it, by all means post a review. If it is an old model that you think needs improving, or is just plain bad, feel free to post this but please acknowledge the fact that it's likely to be a generic sold by many other people.

Please note that failure to comply with this may result in a temporary ban/reduction of posting privileges.

Thank you for understanding,

SJ

 

[Mommyshann]

SJ - This is just my opinion but I think that customers need to be able to post if they receive "bad service". From previous posts it seems that other customers generally overrule anyone with a complaint that is unfounded or hasn't been dealt with by talking first to the seller. Service is just as important as product for many users and if we aren't able to post about bad experiences then our hands are a bit tied. I want to know when someone has a truly bad experience with a seller so that I can make a note to stay away from that seller. A perfect example is e-cig.com. They took several months to mail out products and didn't respond to buyer emails. I think that is definitely relevant to these forums and should be allowed to be posted. I understand that there will be flaming of suppliers by buyers with unrealistic expectations and/or underhanded reviews by competitors. This is going to be a fact of life that people have to deal with and I personally feel that other members manage to take care of those types of posts with their own responses. Just my 2 cents

 

[Kate]

I agree with Shannon, people should be able to share their experiences in all aspects of esmoking, including customer service.

Experienced forum members are able and willing to point out most fake and unrealistic reviews.

We rarely get flaming of suppliers here and where it is unwarranted it is nipped in the bud quickly. Protecting suppliers from negative reviews also dumbs down the usefulness of the forum and implies that all is well in La La Land.

We wouldn't know to watch out for ecig.com, loongtotem, smokingeverywhere, egar, gamucci and others if we weren't able to share negative experiences.

 

[madog]

Ditto . . .

 

[PeteMcArthur]

I'm also worried by this, how many people would have wasted money at e-cig. However since suppliers can no longer reply to negative reviews, I can see why this has been done. I don't think this is an ideal situation.

 

[Kate]

Presumably suppliers can report fake negative reviews still.

This forum could become an advertising space for commercial interests rather than a users community. That would be a pity. It all seems to be about sales and reputations but users really need to be able to share experiences somewhere, good and bad. Many of us are sensible enough to counter unreasonable expectations.

 

[PeteMcArthur]

I would certainly hope that suppliers could report fake posts and the mods would deal with it. I think people need to know when a supplier is mucking about, I really wish to be able to report a bad experience...

That being said I did have a bad experience with a seller, took some weeks to sort out, if I had mentioned it here I would have been flamed into extinction as the seller is held in very high regard.

 

[leaford]

SJFrom previous posts it seems that other customers generally overrule anyone with a complaint that is unfounded or hasn't been dealt with by talking first to the seller.

Absolutely. SJ, I think this is one area where you just have to trust the community to moderate itself. I understand your intent, but it is TOO limiting to simply ban negative reviews. A fake or unfair review can, and probably WILL, be countered by others, and in extreme cases maybe deleted. But a blanket ban to head off potential problems is an overreaction, and undermines the real purpose of the forum. Are we all here to help and support each other, or are we here to protect the suppliers? Is this forum ulitmatly for the users or the suppliers?

Can this forum be a bit rough on them, even unfair? You bet. Too bad. It has to be that way if this forum is to be of any real use. We users have to be free to say the good and the bad, and that means unscrupulous people can say bad things too.

 

[ApOsTle51]

Hello everybody.

Please refrain from posting negative reviews about a supplier's service here. If you have a problem with the service, please contact the moderators who will decide whether it is appropriate for the review section.
SJ

I don't get that.

So your only allowed to post positive reviews that will boost sales to that specific supplier, but not a bad word must be spoken against them.

quite funny also is that you want people to contact a mod for their decision but that's farcical if some are also suppliers. ( 80% of them )

I know it's a private forum and there are rules but censorship of people experiences will debunk the usefullness of the reviews section.

grrrr.... i hate censorship...but like what other are saying and the most recent neg review, regular users will put in there 2 cents worth .

 

[Misty]

Totally agree with Shannon & Kate!
I lurked for months in this forum before buying an e-cig not only to learn everything about it but also where to buy it ..that's how I chose a supplier who had rave reviews and knew to avoid other situations, like JC liquid when it killed atomizers..or people who are waiting months for their purchases. I just don't want to read the "good" things about suppliers if there's a problem- I also see often that if someone is out of line or wrong, the regulars really clamp down on them within hours!

 

[e-pipeman]

Bad service MUST be commented on if the e-smoking community is to be properly served. Referring such things to mods is hopeless - if this forum is to last another month, let alone another year, this new "rule" needs to be reversed.

 

[Psyclown]

I agree.... Curious to see if democracy wins here.

 

[Kate]

Don't pin your hopes on democracy, the decision gets made where the buck stops - SmokeyJoe. It's his forum, his liability and his decision. He's a nice bloke though and will probably listen to us.

 

[dc2k08]

+1 from me on everyone's post bar the original.

 

[Zach]

Well why don't you just call it the ...-kissing forum instead?

 

[Tumbleweed4829]

Ok so from now on I can't believe any positive posts about suppliers because with that positive post there could be 20 negative posts but we won't know because they aren't allowed anymore.

Ok so don't come here to find out what e-cig/supplier you should use because no one can be truely honest with you about the suppliers..ok got it.

 

[ApOsTle51]

kind of ironic that we're posting negative reviews of a new rule about not allowing to post negative reviews..

 

[youfillintheblank]

I am positive that negativity can be positive without being too negative inciting more negativity. Positively, if you post a negative review, you create a positive for the customer who will not buy a poor quality product, thereby negating a negative situation. Positive reviews on the other hand COULD be negative. As someone will positively spend all their cash on the best product and have their bank account go into the negative.

negative...........positive.............the words have lost all meaning now.

We need negative reviews, there's quite a few places/products I've learned to avoid. We just have to restrain ourselves from going over the top, i.e. "crappy-ecig.com are a f*****g bunch of sh*****ds with ecigs that taste like cat p**s", that sort of thing. But....for time being I personally will consult with the mods before any negative comment on a supplier, which is most highly unlikely since I only deal with the best ones! You know who you are!

kind of ironic that we're posting negative reviews of a new rule about not allowing to post negative reviews..

 

[imhotep]

wow i cannot believe this one.... is only my second post here.... but reading the forum for couple of month and the place that influenced my decision to get involved.... are you not fed up with bans allready.?... if memory servers me, this movement started because of a ban.... we are all in this TOGHETHER... what a mod has to do with a supplier.. ? you asked us also to donate for this site ( and i did by the way) and now you're the one suppressing our freedom of expression and you're some sort of a guru to decide what is good and what is bad? also if this site was aimed to any other topic, product, etc.... that did not affect my health directly i would still be ...... off of the attitude it self.... but again I'm reminding you that we deal with poison.... and we all took the decision to go ahead and be the Guinea Pigs for the industry... I'm guessing that you do not think that we are all ......? if you do and this ban passes you'll hurt us, yourself and the suppliers....

your shot....

hope that my post stays,

Marian

 

[RjG]

LOTS of other long established forums simply have a section for RANTS.

You can open a new topic in there, and be as crabby as you want.

The more usual use for it though, is that Mods can *move* topics they feel are a bit overboard to the RANTS section (like waiting a couple days for an order to ship) so they don't impact the rest of the forum negatively.

Simply disallowing anything negative is wrong.

People are generally smart enough to know when browsing the RANTS section what it's there for, it actually adds a bit of comic relief.

A disproportionate number of rants from any particular person also reflects of bit on the credibility of that person. A large amount of RANTS for any particular product/supplier can also point at a much larger problem. So there is some value in not just deleting them.