Please bear with me while I make a few comments.
1. If someone has a problem with a dealer/distributer, they should first
try to resolve it privately. If they are unable to get satisfaction
that way and feel they have been seriously mistreated, then a one-time
post to the list might be appropriate to give the public on the list a
heads up that there MAY BE a problem ONE WAY OR THE OTHER (IMHO).
Turning it into a very public Hatfields and the McCoys is not
appropriate. All this "he said she said" cannot be verified and these
parties have to work it out themselves privately. Personally, I believe
Steve is innocent unless proven guilty. Wouldn't you want that
statement made of you if someone made a public claim against you? The
warning is ok, marginally, but ok but it should have stopped there.
2. Those who believe that a business has to have a store front to be a
real business, or that a business without a storefront is suspect, have
never owned a retail business. The store front is the biggest cost of a
business and if you're not getting good customer flow and walk-in sales,
it's difficult to survive having to pay the salaries of the people
standing around plus the rent for a commercial space, electricity,
advertising, taxes, etc. We would all be paying more for what we buy if
we had to purchase it only from store fronts. Why do you think AES
closed many of their stores? We all make a huge percentage of our
purchases over the phone or the internet. Your last run of coax, did
you buy it at a store front??? Bet you didn't. It was either a hamfest
(not permanant so not a store front), phone order or internet purchase.
So why should Steve or other any other business be forced to support a
store front? Anazon.com and eBay do not have store fronts, are you
going to say the same thing about them? What you posted about only
storefronts are legitimate businesses is hogwash.
3. This is Steve's list. He spends his time and effort bringing this
list to us. My wife runs a few lists and so I know how much work goes
into it. We wouldn't still be on the list if we didn't gain valuable
information from it. We get a lot more out of it than we put in. Being
Steve's list, he could just wash his hands of it because a small
percentage of the membership have nothing better to do than carry on the
feud. One guy sparks a hot topic then everyone squares off. Who of you
would take it upon yourself to start a new Towertalk and keep up with
all the work involved? See? Closing Towertalk would probably give Steve
more time to spend with his company and boost sales. Do you want TT to
close? It could. Both sides have been aired. Time to move on. If you
don't like the way Steve runs HIS list, it's time for you to move on.
4. I am a member of several lists. Most of them have gone to "no
aliases" because it allows tracking back to who ever made a post. Some
lists require at least first initial or full first name and last name as
well as city & state -- in our case on this list, at least a name and
call sign should be given to each post. This makes posters think
responsibly before they post. Not all the time but most of the time,
people who post anonymously to any list have ulterior motives, i.e.
slander, libel, defamation of character, disruption, etc. They want to
say things that they don't want be held accountable for.
5. To Robert, the original post to this list knowing the same person who
owns the business also owns the list seems more like an act of malice
and this sort of thing tends to only done by cowards to "get even" for
some loss they have imagined. In normal business, if there is a problem,
there are private communications between Buyer and Seller until the
problem is resolved. There are many reasons for shipped merchandise to
come back -- it is common for UPS to return a package to the sender if
the person it is sent to is not there to receive it within a fairly
small time frame, or it is possible that the usual receipt indicating a
delivery attempt might have been blown away in the wind and therefore
Steve would never have known that a delivery attempt was being made
unless Robert called him and told him about it. That doesn't make Steve
a bad person or a bad businessman -- it is simply something that occurs
in the real world. Most businesses require a dissatisfied buyer to call
them in advance to obtain an RMA number before returning a purchase, so
the business knows to expect a return and why. The way I see it (as a
retired retail businessman), there are only two feasible scenarios: 1.
Seller does not have the merchandise back and Buyer has gotten his money
back from the credit card company, so Buyer is not out anything; and 2.
Buyer has his money back and the merchandise, so Buyer is ahead. There
are no other scenarios. The best the Seller can do is be even, if he had
the merchadise back, yet it was the Buyer who made a public stink about
this. Don't you find that a bit interesting about the character of the
Buyer in this case?
6. Sorry, the moderator is "god" when it comes to their list. If you
are a member of a list and don't like the way a moderator is handling
the list, then go to the "powers to be" (owner of the list) and ask to
have a new moderator appointed. If the moderator owns the list, you
either play by his/ her rules or leave.
7. To infer that "I'm not doing business with him because of what he did
as moderator, etc." is Bah hooey. We're hams. We're the cheapest SOBs
in the world. You'll buy it where it's the cheapest or best delivery.
That's why the local ham radio store has faded into oblivion.
8. Joe says: "... for the two individuals to drag their business
dispute into public via this forum was inappropriate...."
Right on. Thank you.
JSilberman
KB4CRT
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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