Vendor Postings and Android Tablets

[gurgle]

There are every day Android Tablet postings made by vendors and other interested parties. The Mods. Super-Mods and Admins are always attempting to walk the fine line for postings. Each day, there are Sales Spam postings deleted and vendors posting as users banned. There are disgruntled users and the occasional troll. The problem always arises what is a valid post and what is sales spam or an insult.

So, if we allow the vendor post. A member buys a tablet, and the transaction goes bad, it can cause a sour taste for us (Mods, SuperMods,Admins) and our monitoring. This is not a reflection on Android Tablets. It is a daily reflection on transactions in real life.

Xaueious created a sticky to vendors on how not to be banned. This provides basic guidelines on how we control the vendors and attempt to remove the sales spam. Potential Vendors should read and follow. We also want to know about problem vendors from members. It helps everyone better understand where to buy and not buy. We do not want it to be a slagging fest either on a sales gone bad.

All of us have bias, I freely admit it. I am biased against any VIA 8505 Chipped Tab. I am also biased for name brand vendors such as Samsung, Huawei and Archos over direct buy Chinese sources due to the support and ease of return. It is not a slam at Chinese direct purchase. I have done it and had good luck. It is my experience, returns can be expensive and a Chinese vendor can disappear tomorrow and you may have no tablet in hand. And 3000 miles is a long way to make a complaint or get a tablet returned.

So what am I trying to say? Caveat Emptor, buyer beware, You get what you pay for, and on and on. Android Tablet technology is exciting to me. I am sure it is exciting to most others. What I do not want happen is a member's enthusiasm soured by a bad transaction.

So, I suggest you use caution and not let your enthusiasm get ahead of your money. There are reputable dealers out there. Look at the comments and threads. You can get great deals buying direct, but choose your vendors well.

And remember, you are sacrificing support or depending upon community support when you buy direct. If scared of taking that plunge, buy your unit locally and do your research. The supposedly great deal may not be so great when you compare what is available more and more every day at a Best Buy or even Walmart.

What am I buying? I have had three Android Tablets and waiting on my fourth. I have only disposed of one tablet at this time. I know, come spring I will likely get a Honeycomb or Gingerbread unit. So, I am a consumer just like you taking the chance.

Best of luck out there, This is my opinion and hope it gives insight

 

[pbrauer]

Could not have said it better myself, the only thing I would add is that the decision to delete a thread or warn a user is not personal. It is done simply based on prior experience and even consult between moderators.

If you feel your message was improperly treated, drop us a note and we will review our decision.

Cheers

Sent from my ADR6300 using Android Tablet Forum App

 

[mgr52]

I have a question for you guys. I have noticed when someone tries to post a link that it is messed up, like it will look like this www.****************.com/*******

is this done automatically or is it edited by a mod?

 

[xaueious]

I have a question for you guys. I have noticed when someone tries to post a link that it is messed up, like it will look like this www.****************.com/*******

is this done automatically or is it edited by a mod?

It's a keyword filter kicking in for shops that already have been banned for excessive spam and attempt to decent forum members.

 

[mgr52]

I know you guys try and strike a balance between a retailer and average user but it seems as of late there has been a flood of sellers in the forums just promoting their site.

maybe we could get a new section specifically for sellers to advertise??

 

[feverhost]

Have you guys thought about setting up an "Approved List" of companies/websites? I have moderated on a few forums that the site would setup a list of companies that were approved. When a company was approved one individual account would be able to have a little blurb under their name that said something like APPROVED TABLET COMPANY (or whatever would be the case). The companies/websites would submit the following information:

Full name of person of contact
Full address, as well as direct phone number contact
Email and website
Proof of on-line existence and stablility
Followed regular forum rules, plus rules of approved companies.. such as not spamming et al.
.. and a few other guidelines that was specified for each forum I was on.

People will spam... heck, companies will spam. What you can do is force them into your bubble. You make them work under your rules. Then in a future time, possibly work on a way to monetize that. In that companies would then also have to pay for the right to be a APPROVED COMPANY, as well as have the information above updated and on file.

 

[feverhost]

hey mgr52:

There is (or will be) a problem with seller spamming. I replied to one of the super-mods thread about a possibility of only allowing sellers that are approved sellers to post. Plus create a section like you said... PERFECT. I'm on a web hosting forum, and that is the only way a seller is able to post about their products... UNLESS the OP or other poster specifically requests.

 

[xaueious]

We are looking into it. Sorry if this has been a problem

I want to leave this topic open for a few days. The weekend is coming up, and we will have more time to think about this then.

Our progress
As a result of our guidelines and spam prevention, I'd say we have had some success in getting a few sellers to actually agree to clearly identify themselves before they reply to posts. This is a milestone for us, because this is a rampant problem even in Chinese forums.

On approved vendors lists
First off, we are not getting any incentives for letting them come here advertise openly. But I still wanted an open environment where even sellers can express themselves. The spam bothers us too. I do not think we want to go that route.

I don't want to blur the line between end-users and sellers. Androidtablets.net operates independently from sellers, despite hosting the Euogo promotion a while back, because we agreed it was a good idea for the community. AT uses Google ads, not links for vendors.

We are structured so we encourage people to buy locally, from retail stores or from places that can provide proper customer support. This is why buying brand name products is important, and we emphasize this in our forum structure. At the same time, we are trying to open up to generic products from China because the selection that and the competitive nature of those products should be ignored.

Dropshippers and generic vendors usually have such small margins that they do not provide hassle-free after-sales support. I don't foresee approving any vendors right now. Accountability is the issue at hand.

They also have a tendency not to respond promptly. It's a combination of their practices and language barriers. We might as well not bother with this.

Vendor section
I was leaning towards creating a separate section for all advertisements and vendors. We are reviewing the reported posts to see what we can setup in our guidelines.

I am questioning this because it becomes a dump forum that no one visits. I don't want that, and I doubt the vendors want that.

Revised Seller Posting Guidelines
When sellers make a post about a new product that has not been talked about before, I want to allow it provided that it is neutral enough.

Neutral wording is key.

Seller feedback
I want to get some sellers responding to this as well.

I have PM'd the ones I recognize.

 

[Nowsupplier]

I also discussed this with xaueious and I think it's a good idea to do this job. So, I enclosed infor. on the signature to show clearly who we are and some contacting infor. for us. indicating we are a sincere and responsible vendor.As what we did before, we will always try to post content relating to tablet rather than anything else. We would like to take care of other issues by PM, email and other channels. We sincerely share the latest tablet here to show what's going on in this specific business. Besides, we also keep our mind open to hear any advices inorder to stimulate and boost the development of Android tablet industry.
Any advices would be appreciated. Tks!

 

[4Nines]

I also discussed this with xaueious and I think it's a good idea to do this job. So, I enclosed infor. on the signature to show clearly who we are and some contacting infor. for us. indicating we are a sincere and responsible vendor.As what we did before, we will always try to post content relating to tablet rather than anything else. We would like to take care of other issues by PM, email and other channels. We sincerely share the latest tablet here to show what's going on in this specific business. Besides, we also keep our mind open to hear any advices inorder to stimulate and boost the development of Android tablet industry.
Any advices would be appreciated. Tks!

To become a Supporting Vendor and to be able to have access to sell to the membership here, you must first get with me and I will work on getting you set up. Anyone interested in becoming a Supporting Vendor here please send me a PM and I will walk you through our Supporting Vendor process.

 

[feverhost]

Vendor section
I was leaning towards creating a separate section for all advertisements and vendors. We are reviewing the reported posts to see what we can setup in our guidelines.

Sounds good...

To become a Supporting Vendor and to be able to have access to sell to the membership here, you must first get with me and I will work on getting you set up. Anyone interested in becoming a Supporting Vendor here please send me a PM and I will walk you through our Supporting Vendor process.

and sounds good