Welcome...A little explanation of what this board will be

I was a member of a car forum once. I bought some stuff from a forum sponsor who seemed pretty heavy into posting in a forum section dedicated to their main product line. Well, the package came missing some parts. I emailed the company asking them to send me the missing parts and I got a reply saying that they had sent the parts in the box and I should check again. I did, and there were no parts in the box. I replied and they again heavily suggested that I must have thrown them out with the packaging and in that case, they weren't going to send me replacements. I again replied that I still had the packaging and there were no parts left in there. This time I got an angry email in return telling me that "they" had personally packed the box and that I was lying in order to get free parts. Of course, this didn't sit well with me at all so I went to the forum to complain. I started a thread about the problem and immediately started getting tons of replies from other members who had received the same treatment from the company. I also got a very angry email from the moderator of the section who threatened to ban me for life if I didn't APOLOGIZE for writing "false accusations" against this company. I politely asked how this person would know what I was saying was "false" and he replied that the owner of the company in question had messaged him to have me banned and all my posts deleted, because he said so. Of course I refused to delete what I said or apologize for anything because I did nothing wrong. I received a HATE and curse filled email from the owner of the company cursing me out for trying to "steal" from him and then "blackmail" him into giving me free parts by using the forum as a way to get what I want. He then claimed that HE was the one who packed the box with my stuff(even though the other guy had previously claimed the same thing) and then proceeded to tell me that he would only send me replacement parts IF I publicly APOLOGIZED and claimed that I had either made a mistake or LIED to the forum to blackmail the company. Of course I would do none of these things and told him so. I was banned from the forum immediately, my thread was deleted and I was banned from buying from this company "for life". All over a 10$ car part. I sent a message to the moderator asking him why he would take the company's word over mine. His reply was that it didn't matter to him, but the sponsors pay the bills so he has to ALWAYS take their side no matter what. That's policy. I told him that it was a terrible way to do business and they not only do business with shady companies that obviously cheat their customers, but holding a sponsor above the folks that actually spend money with their sponsors is cutting their noses off to spite faces. I didn't hear back from that moderator but I got a message from the owner/director of the website who then told me in no uncertain terms that he simply didn't care what I thought and that I was insignificant to him and the forum. I told him to eat me and ban me all they wanted but I wasn't coming back. As far as I know I'm still unwelcome there!

I couldn't agree more. I am proud to say that I don't know of any bad things ever being said about myself, my company or my business practices in public (or in private). If you run an above-board honest business, there is nothing to worry about.

I can understand that though...They make money from all of us though unique page hits or some bullshit...So, recruiting people is taking money out of Jules' pocket...Don't recruit too much over there - I'm scared I might get my legs broken or something.

Yeah - I got that too. Good to be the king...

I don't think I'll be going over there as often anymore. Just not digging the gestapo-like shit that's been going down. I mean the whole thing with letting dealers/manufacturers moderate things really sucks. It's a shame, really...

I'm not worried about sponsors who are also members of the forum community like Jeff is. I also own 8 of his VP2x preamps, which are great deals. I think this situation is quite different from a forum where the sponsors are ghosts that pull strings on the moderators from behind curtains and only aim to make money rather than be part of the community. I'm pleased to hear that this place won't end up like that and I look forward to being around a bunch.

Well, I have a story about me trying to buy a banner add there that I have never shared except with one or two close friends. Over the course of about 6 months, I was strung along and basically told to go away.

This is the correspondence from our emails.

Me (July 21st, 2010): "I am interested in running a banner add on gs. I am curious on the costs and the different length time-terms available. Can you please forward some info to me?"

Him (July 21st, 2010): "Here is is some info for you attached. Thanks very much for getting in touch! API are one of our advertisers, I trust your ads wouldn't be cause for upset to them, if they would be, we may have to decline acceptance."

Me (Nov 22nd, 2010): "Since it has been a while, I figured I should check in on the banner add. I am ready to put something together for this and wanted to see if anything has changed. Since my company name does not have the other guys name in it (Classic Audio Products of Illinois), I don't think there would be cause for them to be upset. It does not look like they are currently advertising with you anyhow. Not to mention, we are doing different things really."

Him (Nov 24th, 2010): "Want to check with them first if you don't mind."

Me (Dec 2nd, 2010): "Any word on this? I really don't want to put the money into banner programming if you will not run it. Have you looked at my site? Besides having "api" in my domain name, I never refer to my company as API, ClassicAPI or anything like that. I always refer to it as Classic Audio Products of Illinois or the like. There is no real legal beef that API could have with me. No more than AMS/Neve could have with Brent Averill."

Him (Dec 2nd, 2010): "I am sorry, I meant to ask API about it but haven't gotten round to do that yet. I will try to hurry up about it."

After no reply again from him again, I finally got the message......

Romney/Ryan 2012...Oh, shit...


I can say I did my part...

Awesome! Now it's gettin' fun, the Eye-talian is here!

It's been really cool here so far. A lot (most) of the ones' I've seen on this board are the ones I liked reading posts from on the other site. Kinna hope it stays small like this for a bit. That would be very refreshing.

Ohhhh...I get it. You are saying that about people on GS...Now I understand...