Bring back the GB Blacklist (yes or no)

Bring it back.

 

Perhaps to alleviate the whole situation group buys could be run a little differently.

If a group buy is started and you want to participate you are required to immediately pay the vendor a pre-established amount.

That amount will be established by the vendor and is required before your name is added to the list.

Once the group buy is over and the final numbers tallied you pay the remainder at the discounted price and receive your product.

If you choose not to pay, your down payment is non-refundable.

No need for lists or excuses, reasons, etc... If you are sincere about your purchase, you will pay. If your not, you probably wont send in your down payment and wont end up on the list.

If you do decide to back out, you automatically have paid your penalty. The vendor is protected with a little insurance money and everyone should be happy except the guy who backed out.

Perhaps there are flaws with this but at very least it will probably eliminate the chaff. It's a put your money where your mouth is plan.

Or the GB can be run simply by the vendor offering a discount which is not tied to the number of people who sign up, thats the easiest way, if you want a product it costs X regardless of if there is 1 guy or 100 guys.

I don't really see the point of a list. Who does it serve and what is its purpose? So Joe Blow backs out of a GB and his name goes on this list. Ok. is it just so everyone can send him a private message telling him he is a jerk? I don't think a vendor is going to check every name on his GB against the list and even if he did would he really care if some dude that says he wants to buy his skid plate backed out of a group buy for led light bulbs?

 

Just wanted to touch on this part for reference. The reason why alot of us smaller companies are able to offer a group buy and have pricing set for different level of sales is because we to get discounts for ordering in bulk. The group buy is us passing the savings along to the customer. So say I'm buying part "x" from my supplier and offering a GB on it. If I do a bulk discount of 25% no matter how many people and only 10 sign up I would loose my butt on it. However if I say 25 ppl have to order to hit the 25% discount then I do ok on it.

Group buys can be a great thing for both the vendor and customer. It allows us the vendors to move alot of product real quick and allows the customers to get some good deals on parts that normally wouldn't be discounted.

As for people backing out, I've had lots of guys back out that had legitimate reasons and I have no problem at all with that. What I dislike is the ones who back out for unknown reasons, or simply disappear at the close of the group buy. I think the customers need to enter the group buy prepared to buy even if there's no discount at all. Customers have to remember that the vendors are prepared to and offering to loose profits to help save you guys a few bucks with these deals.

 

Like what for example? Life always throws us curve balls. If you can't pay then you shouldn't of signed up IMO.

If there is a serious issue and someone needs to back out PM the vendor or whoever controls the list. In the end there can not be one single thread that fixes all the issues or addresses everyone's needs. This is a one size fits all approach to keeping our vendors and members happy.

If you have an issue serious enough to back out and you hurt other members ability to gain a discount what makes you special?

When I signed my finance paperwork for my car or house there is no clause that rescinds me of my responsibility should some emergency come up.

If it's in writing it's simple. There is NO ONE to trust. Either you said you were in/out or you didn't.

After a couple back and forth PM's from mods this is the best answer I can give you from them:

"theres just a lot of butthurt to go thru etc etc - the 2 of us who are awake are ok with the thread...but again...we need to go thru and clean it up etc

It certainly cannot hurt though...if you forward any PMs from vendors supporting the idea
The staff will ultimately make a group decision but i'm behind you on this"

that was 7 days ago

I apologize for people thinking I was out to destroy your GB. I have no idea what they were thinking. I refer everyone to you that asks me about products.

Watching the people drop out of your GB and go to another GB is the main reason I started a new GB Blacklist thread. I have a ton of respect for you and what you do for us. It disgusted me to watch what the members were doing to that GB in particular.

 

to me i recently backed out of one, but i went a different route because the original vendor of my choice started his up, its a matter of oppinion now its something to commit to until the bitter end, but someone who backs out two weeks in advance deserves no right to be thrown on the list

now backing out after its closed or being a flake is a different dealio

i know myself, i backed out of a group buy for leaf springs, 3 months i was back to the same vendor to buy a set, but in this season im not gonna lie its tough, especially when your on the bubble between two companies designs, its also when youll find your most flakes

 

I've got nothing against you or the thread. I was a bit disturbed as well to see guys who had committed back out and jump ship but there's not much I can do about that. In the end all I can do is take care of the guys who didn't jump ship, and even though the current group buy seems to have tanked I'll still do exactly that.


Also as a note to customers from a vendor, you have to keep in mind that although group buys are great for sales numbers most of the time we do take a hit on profits to some extent. Also it's a ton of work for us to process that many orders at one time. I know at the close of the last hi-lift mount buy I spent a couple days... yes DAYS... doing paperwork for that buy. It was very successful and I was and still am happy to have put it on but it does create alot of work that has to be handled immediately on top of the regular work load.

 

again i backed out to the company of my first choice, i was 2 weeks well in advance, it was not pricing, mainly due to my original wanting of the other companies skids overall(in hind site should i have waited sure)

i also did not expect the group buy to fall apart after i left

 

Somehow I missed this one.

You obviously never ran a GB or have been a vendor supplying one.

 

Jeez the fuckery of the English language in this thread is giving me a headache. I'll vote when I get home.

 

Lack of research as to what products are on the market place is not the vendors issue or the other members that did their due diligence. It only became their issue once you backed out.


No one ever thinks their actions impact others. That IS the issue.




Just out of curiosity what are the benefits of the skids you chose to go with vs the other skids you backed out of?

 

lack of research lol it came out two days after, had ATO closed his groupbuy the day i signed up i woulda manned up and paid the guy

i have run groupbuys before, ive been in lots of them too, from JBO, to CSS, to EVOx to here

if you do not require payment until closing date than expect people to be on the list as a feeler, i stopped running group buys because i would stock parts just for it, and id run into extra product on hand


was who i had originally gotten a shipping quote from months ago(little mroe complicated this time with the extra skids), been watching his product for quite some time, im upgrading to 1/4" also

seeing the product before as well on another tacoma, also makes it hard for me to not buy it, the overall fit and finish to me was what sold me before, im also not about to re route my exhaust, yes im losing some clearance but im fine with that, ill survive

does it come to cash some yes, but having seen the product in hand makes it difficult for me not to sway my decision one way, id honestly already bud built skids if bud hadnt pretty much died off,

my list in my order was

bud
relentless
ato
allpro
custom

IMO group buy black list starts when payment is not made

 

Honestly, to me your answers are narrow minded and only further solidify my thinking that any one person can't run this and be fair about it. I've been on the internet for years and years and trust plenty of people ... but trust isn't all encompassing. There's internet trust and there's you're my brother/dad or best friend trust. I fully understand the difference.

And reputation, online or not is huge. Some of these people I know in real life. Some of them I will buy items from, or sell items to. Some I will flip an immense amount of shit and they know I am playing and mean no harm. TW is a community about much more than a Toyota Truck.

Douchebags in group buys? Sure. There are Douchebags in all walks of life. Including people who start threads about Douchebags, some of them are indeed Douchebags themselves. Not calling you one, just making a point.

I say let the vendors and the mods/admins here at TW handle it. I also think the reputation could be done better on TW and if it was, a certain amount of rep should be required to participate in group buys or the buy/sell/trade sections. To many people flag you for flaking on a GB and you can't participate in another until you either positive rep up or wait X amount of months.

 

I voted no because of the amount of crying and complaining on here. I caught crap for my opinion the first time too. I think if you are incapable of keeping track of who paid and what is built you have no business selling anything. I was turned off to the group buys on this site by the amount of complaining and whining during setup and the claims of "if" we get this many people this is the price. I think it is kind of shady and this list will be used to put pressure on people to buy at higher prices. I'm sure I will get negative feedback again for having an opinion.

I also buy lots of parts for my truck and have just now finished the suspension mods required to add 350 lbs of bumpers and winch to my truck (full ome kit with 882's purchased from both members on here and businesses recommended by the site). It is stuff like this that makes me want to deal directly with companies like arb and not take a chance on small business.

 

Wrong.

But anyway, the issue is simply not going to be resolved by a thread with names on it. Have a thread or don't nothing will change from a thread.

 

I think nobody needs to be tared and feathered. Things change in our lives. Money comes and goes, jobs come and go, some are caught up in the heat of the moment. And later figure out they screwed up by committing to purchase in the "GB". Now if they do it more than once, they should be considered a flake and added to a probation term banning them from any "GBs".

 

I think some of you are taking the term "blacklist" in this context too seriously. It's not like being listed prevents you from participating in a group buy in the future. It's just posted in a thread that some people may read. At worst a vendor/member who is running a group buy might see you on the list and choose not to do business with you. I would hope not, I would prefer to see them not count a blacklisted member in the number needed for the group buy pricing but still allow them the group buy price if they pay up.

I also think there is a difference in opinion of how a group buy works. In my opinion when you post in an official group buy thread (not a feeler) that you are in you have committed to paying the final price once the group buy closes, period. This means you should have the money necessary set aside to pay the maximum potential group buy price when it's done and are not on the fence about what product you want. If you don't have the money, don't say you are in until you have it. If you are on the fence for the product, don't say you are in until you have decided. Plain and simple.

 

Let me follow up and say that I am not opposed to people having a good enough reason for backing out and not being put on the blacklist. With a set rule of thumb like the person running the group buy plus five participants in the group buy accept their reason for backing out.

 

You can't, fairness that is, that's why I'm against the idea of a member ran blacklist bash fest. That's what I was saying, this idea isn't cut and dry enough to work.