Heath is a whistleblower and everyone should be one too! If not for the whistleblower or snitch, people would be getting screwed out of more everyday. People should be honest and up front period, then is it really being a snitch, I don't think so. It seems Heath saw what he saw and as with all potential whistleblowers his livelyhood was at stake, he would have been fired immeditly for telling the truth. People like him need to open businesses, smart, business savvy, understanding and have conviction. His parents did a great job!!!!!!!

Remember quite a while back when a few folks ticked him off and he had a temper tantrum deleting his existence off of OSO? He threatened to leave forever but folks pretty much begged him to come back and in my opinion rewarding some unstable behavior.

Some how I doubt you will get a response, from my past observations in his mind it's some how everyone else's fault that Trick failed.:(

Hope my gut is wrong and all that deserve a response, parts or a refund will get what they deserve.

I AGREE, but see the following that I posted....

When I first came to the board I purchased some equipment from someone who really got screwed by Fred. I had no idea who Fred or Trick Marine was. I posted a small fraction of what I was told and immediately got flamed up by the Fred Cecil/Trick Marine Nut-Huggers....Thats right I said NUT HUGGERS aka Flag Waivers..... and I sort of backed away from the board....after I paid for my membership

I certainly understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I choose to look for the positive when listening to someone else's point of view....but I always know in the back of my mind there is always a negetive when you have a positive.

I hope that everyone on this board has learned a SERIOUS lesson from the practice's of Fred Cecil/Trick Marine as we all sort of go through the aftermath that has been left for us to figure out on our own.

The lesson to be learned here is that people are people and no one is perfect, we all make mistakes. If someone has a bad dealing with someone you need to let that voice be heard without flaming that voice up or sweeping the thread under the rug or deleting the thread. It doesnt matter if they pay to advertise here or your a personal friend or whatever....

I personally enjoy this community and it has done allot to cure my endless stock in boredom that my wife and I have aquired over the short and cold winters together. I hate it that people have lost money and reputation value over someone like Fred Cecil/Trick Marine and I wish the people who have fallen victim to Fred/Trick Marine the best in recovering what you can.

Don't get me wrong, I am open to suggestions. I was just telling you why we have not implemented one and what happened when we had the Bad Business list.

The other issue with Vendor ratings is that human nature is when you are happy that a company made a transaction smooth you go on with your life and when you are unhappy you want to slam them. IMO businesses could be unfairly slammed.

Like you said make sure that people post in a respectfull manner and keep it up.

Steve I applaud you for leaving this thread and others like it up. There is much good information for people in threads like this and in my opinion (as a moderator myself on hotboat) is that truth is better served with threads remaining with perhaps individual particularly offensive posts edited or removed by moderators or admin at their discretion.

My company has been applauded and also flamed on numerous occasions on that board. Sometimes the flames are deserved sometimes they aren't. When they are deserved I step in and take responsibility for whatever the issue may be and do my best to correct whatever it is. I never ever complain to admin about it (which I easily could being both a moderator and advertiser there). When not deserved I have no problem putting someone who is out of line in place (not talking about moderating here, talking about defending my company when falsely accused of something). In either case I think the board members are better served by viewing how the company representative handles or does not handle any given situation. In other words pulling complaint threads in my opinion is seldom in the board member's best interest in obtaining the truth in any situation.

Based on the history here and the number of posts I've read about people with bad experiences that were reluctant or afraid to post about them it's my opinion that the forum (any forum) is better served by allowing the vendors themselves to step in and handle problems (or not) as they choose. If they choose not to, or to ignore complaints as I've seen many times, that pretty much speaks for itself about how they will likely handle other issues with other customers. Every company and business has problems and screw ups. It's how they are handled that make the difference.

Again I think you do a great job here. I know how hard it is to make everyone happy from my moderating experience on hotboat.

Ok thanks for clearing that up. I never did hear the correct ending to that. :D

The real issue with vendor ratings is that they're usually negative. Happy people just keep on moving, they don't often write about their positive experience. In addition, many people have a heightened concept of customer service. Even if you tell them "you're getting it cheap and it's going to either take time or the product might be imperfect", as soon as they pay, sometimes they forget that part.

Ebay's ratings system sort of works but it doesn't give you a true picture- no different than what we went through with Fred. It's a double-edged swors. No one wants to post a negative because they're going to immediately get one in return. That often disguises the proble people. With Trick, many figured if they biitched, there late shipment would be come WAAAY late.

If kept factual and respectful, posting an issue about a vendor should be just what it is. Others commenting isn't really necessary. If you post, "so and so is a good guy...", that's nice but it doesn't help. The only other comment that could be posted is someone calling the individual with the trouble a liar. That's not helpful either. Maybe since it seems all the suppliers serving the community are on here, they would be the only one's allowed to respond.

Mike-

We were typing at he same time. We basically have the same thought. Nobody needs a pile-on. If a particular company's name is repeatedly in the section with little or no response, it speaks for irself.

If OSO were to create a "Vendor Issues" category where only the customer and vendor post, I'd be all for it. Facts and respect would have to be hard-and-fast rules though.