Vendor Rating System
 

well this was brought up on the Trick thread and thought it could use a thread of its own

my first thought was to have a spot where you could post a problem with a vendor and the only response could be from the vendor you have the problem with
It would get the dialog out in the open and stop any piling on by vendictave people with nooses and torches and naybe resolve the issue

also the way ebay lets you leave positive and negative maybe with specific problems you could check off like the polls .

Would be maybe 5 items like late ship wron part bad follow up and the other side great service etc. This would help to keep it concise and not a lot of flowery speeches being made.
This type would give a chance to show how many people have dealt with a specific vendor and how many pluses and minuses they had.

jsut a couple thoughts

How about problems vendors have with suppliers? This also brings up the issue of shady business practices experienced among vendors. The marine industry is small and most of us know each other. Many of us talk on a regular basis and know what is going on long before the general public.

Like; "XXX Marine has us drop ship everything and is slow to pay". or "XXX Marine keeps threatening to sue us because we are impinging on their market place". or "XXX Marine insists on selling YYY Products at or bellow costs so we no longer carry YYY products".

I like the idea!! It will have to be moderated though. Anyone should be able to post about anyone. Vender to vender, vender to supplier, customer to vender, and even personal classified dealings among members.

This keeps venders/suppliers/members aware that if they lie, overcharge, or do something shady they may be exposed. It also gives them the right to defend themselve against those who have no basis to complain or exagerate details. At least we can get both sides of the story. Up to the reader to determine the trueth.

OSO needs rules and should moderate accordingly. Personal attacts, language, or blatent lieing should be deleted or addressed, and poster warned.

I think it should have an anonymous posting/rating ability as well. The system should force the user to log in, and in the background it could save who posted (to stop Vendor by Vendor bashing) but on the front end it would show anonymous.

This would help alleviate problems with the tight nit aspect of this community.

klaw, great call starting a new thread.....here are my thoughts on the subject.

I dont think having a "vendor list" is the right way to go and I think it would stray the site away from the true nature of the fact that this is a very informative and informational site.

Adding a "vendor list" is mearly a "feedback" type of system and last time I checked OSO is not ebay.

I think it was Chris Sunkin who put it best, if a buyer is having a bad day and posts something negetive thats not fair to the seller and I'm affraid this might be the case when adding a "vendor list" to the forum. If this situation took flight the site would be bombed with endless thread with people supporting the buyer, and people supporting the vendor.

I would suggest a simpler solution that is posting a sticky on every page titled "Vendor Greivance's". The content of the post should be something that states any buyer/vendor grievance should be directed at OSO staff prior to any posts....Which will give OSO the opprotunity to get a feel for the situation prior to any grievance "going public". If the vendor and buyer's difference can not be settled then I think the post should be allowed to be posted in "public".

The objective is to protect all party's involved to facilitate time to find a suitable solution prior to anyone's reputation (personal or business) being tarnished on the board...

[QUOTE=long duck dong;2351381]klaw, great call starting a new thread.....here are my thoughts on the subject.


I think it was Chris Sunkin who put it best, if a buyer is having a bad day and posts something negetive thats not fair to the seller and I'm affraid this might be the case when adding a "vendor list" to the forum. If this situation took flight the site would be bombed with endless thread with people supporting the buyer, and people supporting the vendor.

I would suggest a simpler solution that is posting a sticky on every page titled "Vendor Greivance's". The content of the post should be something that states any buyer/vendor grievance should be directed at OSO staff prior to any posts....Which will give OSO the opprotunity to get a feel for the situation prior to any grievance "going public". If the vendor and buyer's difference can not be settled then I think the post should be allowed to be posted in "public".

QUOTE]

If a customer is having a bad day and takes it out on the vendor, the vender is able to reply and post his/her side of the story. I belong to other boards that have a Vendor Experience section and in noway does it take away from the rest of the board. Yea, there are heated debates, yea posts get deleted, yea there are illigitemate claims but the majority are informative and can be used to identify a pattern.

Vendor Greivances sticky? OSO should not to babysit between advertizers and members. Issues could be posted of vendors who do not advertize on OSO. It is great to see how a situation gets resolved. Things from a higher than advertised price being charged to products received not as advertised, how a company handles shipping damage/problems, how fast they repond to a given situation, and also shows customers who are unfair or lie about a situation.

I think it is good to have.

Thanks for polishing the edges on the idea....I think it's spot on.....

I think the most crucial part of this is two ironclad rules-

1. The posts would be between the customer & vendor only.

2. Everything must be cordial and factual.

It's easy to flame someone while under an anonymous user name. That's not always fair to a vendor. At the same time, public outing helps ensure the vendor doesn't seek retribution by screwing around with delivery or refunds.

I actually suggested to Steve awhile ago to add seller rating to the forum for private ads. This works just like Ebay, I had it on my forums and worked great, people loved it.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65730

I didn't see this thread and posted in the Trick thread in response to Chris... so I've copied it over here below...

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I agree with that Chris. Personally I have no problem dealing with someone in a respectable manner to solve a problem. I don't think many other legit vendors do either. It's the piling on factor I think that keeps most vendors off the forums for a large part. I personally can handle that too being that hotboat is kind of like the wild west compared to OO and I deal with it in many forms there. But that's not relevant to this discussion and I think OO has a good opportunity here to keep the piling on factor out of it. I think your idea is good and based on the contents of this thread. A feedback area like this could prove to be a great advantage for members in the future by not allowing situations like this one to develop and flourish for so long undetected or unchallenged due to the fear factor of being flamed for posting something against the popularity club's view. What occurred here is unfortunate for many, OO members and vendors alike.

I also think you're right on on your view of an ebay type rating system. It was proposed on hotboat a while back by admin and I voiced my opinion against it for the same reasons you mentioned in your post. It would not breed interaction or solve much and can be easily abused by someone who just wants to damage a business, vs actually solving a problem. Not to mention its another thing for admin to babysit and police.