As someone that started one of these threads a while back about a negative vendor experience, I have a thought. Perhaps instead of having a policy like this which is going to be difficult, and subjective, to enforce, why don't you have a policy instead that prevents the "piling on" that many people do? That doesn't mean that the thread has to be locked necessarily to prevent the piling on, but as moderators you can be proactive as to stopping it.

If people cannot post their experiences for fear of being blocked of banned from the site, or even just 'called out', then I fear that we lose the ability to share those experiences to educate future shoppers.

Personally, I wish I had seen more threads about vendors in the past, for some reason I only recall seeing those for the last year, perhaps 2. Perhaps the problems only started more recently such that there wasn't as much to report before that. Whatever the reason, it seems to be a more recent phenomena.

My vote, if I'm allowed one ;) , would be to allow the forum users to share their experiences, but to put a policy in place where the experience need to be fact based. Then warn people (and have as part of the policy) that piling on is strictly prohibited. If someone has an experience they feel the need to share, they should start their own thread that must abide by the same policy. I usually don't feel that the initial post in these threads is so bad, but the follow on is where they tend to go downhill quickly...

Could some variation of that idea work?

Big businesses are using a method called Net Promoter Score or NPS lots of stuff out there on the web about it. I use it with many of my clients as the customer experience is becoming a massive differentiator and profit generator when many companies sell the same thing or near enough to it

NPS basically asks "would you recommend x company to friends or family" you score out of 0 to 10. 10 being absolutely without question. 0 being not a snowflakes chance in hell. NPS is then a formula that says


How to Calculate Your Score

NPS is based on the fundamental perspective that every company's customers can be divided into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. By asking one simple question — How likely is it that you would recommend [Company X] to a friend or colleague? — you can track these groups and get a clear measure of your company's performance through its customers' eyes. Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.
To calculate your company's Net Promoter Score (NPS), take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors.


NPS is % of promoters minus % of detractors

You'd be surprised how many companies have a negative NPS

This would be an easy exercise for us to set up on here. Set up a vendor NPS section and simply allow people to select a score from 0 to 10. To prevent abuse maybe limit people to 3 scores per vendor. Such they can score multiple transactions or if they want to do more than 3 due to more transactions they have to PM a mod to get permission

Now this is simply a rating system but allows 3 categories of feedback that can be equally compared across vendors

The follow on question which could be optional is "why". That is why did you score the way you scored. And maybe this needs mod vetting before it's published to prevent bashing...your call

But I think as a simple start an NPS approach is a simple but effective rating system that could be easily implemented he

Bingo!

My thread about Air Ride's customer service was closed because the administrator needs to verify my story? I said I'm unhappy, that makes it true. My thread was about MY situation. Protecting vendors isn't going to make any of them more accountable for their business practices, good or bad. Censoring any of this is wrong. We can read anyones rants or raves and make up our mind about what we believe.

If I was censoring it I would have removed the thread. ;) The info is still there for all to read, just wanted to stop posts until I could get hold of the company and see if I could get this fixed for you. That is the main goal isn't it? It was not about verifying your story.

I re-opened the thread for now.

I guess for me I just don't understand why this is such a big deal at all.

If a customer is not happy with service from a company then they are not happy. I as a customer want to have a drama free experience. I understand that the story is one sided sometimes but I think that alot of times you can see from the story who's at fault. If you can't hear the story of experiences you can't really make a decision for yourself. I have personally purchased products from site sponsors even after hearing bad stories because I have heard enough good things that I can understand a bad experience or two. I just feel that every company is going to have good and bad experiences with customers. How they make up for the bad is important. If you only hear posative things and are only allowed to say posative things you know that you can't really make a good decision on who to go with. It also takes away from the really good vendors who have very little bad to say about them because people know they are only hearing the good.

what is wrong with having a thread telling about a bad experience? if you don't want to read it and don't want the drama then stay out of it but for me it takes away from an educated decision on who to go with for things all the way around.

because they almost always turn bad. In many cases what the original poster said was flat out untrue, but the vendor still gets slammed. If the thread is long how many read the entire thing to see who was right, or just read the beginning and think the vendor sucks?

We have no problem with feedback. You can post feedback of your experience with a vendor right now, good or bad. But once it turns into piling on bashing, or if you can't stick to the simple facts and start getting personal it will be locked.

What about a star rating system to monitor vendor performance without any text field?

This is just one convenient example I found:

http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/i...8748f1910a.jpg

If a below averaging rating is logged, could it trigger an Admin investigation alert?

I agree, you guys run a great site which allows people to share their cars, knowledge, and passion. With regards to the vendor issues, I think there has been drama for sure and it seems like more drama recently than I have seen in the short time I have been a member on this site. I think people can offer their experience(s) as long as it is done in a mature and intelligent manner. As far as two people or however many people jabbing back and forth, I don't think their problem will be solved by airing it on an internet forum open to the wide world.

I think Jody and Scott are trying to curb the drama before it turns into episodes of the Kardashians or Housewives of wherever...just my opinion.

Jody and Scott are always trying to what is best for all involved. They are not protecting or hiding someone for their own interests, its for all combined.

I think your attitude towards them sucks. The vendor has more at stake to loose so we definatly want to have their side discussed also. If the customer is totally wrong then they just move on with their life, no biggie. But if the Vendor was bashed with lies then they still take a hit even though they are innocent, which affects their income and taking care of their employees and families.

BUYERS BEWARE is the best policy, do your homework and take action responsibly. It does not take long to find out which businesses are above the board around here.

As for dealers, if multiple people have a problem with you , its probably you.

Scott and Jody keep up the good work.