This is not a big deal but I thought that maybe a more meaningful label would be "Warning" rather than "Avoid".
The individual is the one to decide whether to avoid a dealer or not but at least they would have been warned.
That way there would less disconnect between having DD labeled "avoid" at the same time there is a Group Buy going on.
The same would apply to Tmart. If they continue to have shills posting on here a "warning" label might be called for. I've had no problems with them so far and order from them since I get the items fast but I did consider that I was warned before I ordered and took that into account.
The "Avoid" label is only a recommendation not an instruction.
Plenty of people were quite happy to ignore DD's 'Avoid' label to get on board with their recent offers, so I don't think it seriously effects a stores business.
The difference between that and "Warning" is only semantics anyway.
That wasn't exactly my point. They would have earned the "Warning" rating the same way. Why have an "Avoid" rating on the same board that has a Group Buy for the "Avoid" dealer?
It is true that it's just semantic..."Avoid" vs "Warning" it's just that individuals "avoid" and a board can "warn".
If change is bad no problem. It was just a suggestion or something to think about.
I do see your point but the reasons why DD got the avoid label are still valid imo. Their group buy was good but their website and other business practices are yet to be corrected. I think you pointed out some of the issues, false reviews etc.
By the way in case I wasn't clear (I can't tell from the responses) the "Warning" isn't meant to be a warning to the dealer to shape up or they'll get an "Avoid" rating. It's a warning to the members of BLF that this is a dealer that one should be careful around due to bad practices. Avoiding is something that members may or may not choose to do.
The entire point of a forum and/or review site in general is for participants to share their personal experiences and readers to make their own judgments, since there's no real coercion possible anyway. Even if the choice were to be entirely rational, it's not possible to fully generalize that process down to only one result, ie a matter of interpretation. For example, in tmart's case, it's simply a fact that many of their Ultrafire/"name brand" products are poor quality clones. This is only a reflection of the reality that they choose to sell them regardless, with the full consequences of consumers armed with that information quite obvious. We also know that DX tends to do this after a couple month of selling the original and buyers should act accordingly.
Since it's pretty obviously you can't change how people choose to use that information anyway, it's best to just make sure that it's reasonably based on reality not just some random supposition. If anything, recommendations which are ignored because they don't reflect how readers choose to act tend to hurt their own credibility.
Any generalized rating is only going to be credible and therefore effective if it actually reflect how people choose to use it. Manafont I recall burned quite a few people on the Skyray 3800 recently, some just opted to pay shipping to return it not unlike any other similar dealer. If anything those ratings just seem to reflect how many rabid anti-fans a vendor has, and those are always going to be a minority.
I already find that my personal experiences do not agree with some on this thread. DX at 2.5 is a bit low for me as I have always gotten what I ordered from them and typically within a week after a Manafont order placed the same day. Yes, they are a bit slower but no, I wouldn't rate them half of what I do someone else for that difference. Maybe 3.5-4 for me.
The other problem seems to be that experience is directly tied to geography. Some companies do pretty well shipping to the UK, others to the US, but not both. So a company may wind up with a 3 average which is actually the combination of a 1 and a 5 depending on where you live and is worthless since it doesn't tell the whole story.
In DD's (avoid) case, I believe I have been saved from a terrible experience, so I appreciate the avoid label. Their group buy for the uf-h2 is about the only thing I'd dare get from them.
Whatever label is used for a seller, the nice thing about forums such as this one is that more than one person can express their opinion.
the scores i listed were just an example. but this illustrates how the 5 star rating could be beneficial. the star rating system would make it easier for individual posters to express their impressions and make it easier for the reader to understand without having to read the entirety of every post. the reader would just be able to scroll down the page, look at how many stars each poster gave the seller, and pick out which posts to read in detail.
We actually do have a star rating system enabled for most of the listed dealers. It's at the bottom of the first post. If I've forgotten to enable it for any of them please do let me know. But it's an average of the star rating given by the users, not determined by the administrator.
As for the DinoDirect "AVOID" rating, they earned it. Not just here, but over at CPF and other forums as well. They used to run an utterly unscrupulous, cutthroat business. Since then, I imagine they could change, and I'll be happy to remove their AVOID label when they prove they have made a U-turn. But meanwhile, I think it's wise to leave the warning for a while longer. I didn't get involved with their group-buys, by the way. All group-buys here on BLF are started by individual users who have contacts with a retailer, and they aren't vetted or condoned or discouraged by me. Most users here know and consult the dealer ratings, and they can make their own choice if they want to risk it with an ill-famed company.
I think most of us don't fault the dealer if shipping takes forever. It's obviously out of their control once they submit it to the postal system. The problem is when a dealer tags an item as "in stock" and then proceeds to list it as "Waiting on supplier" for 1, 2, or 3 weeks just to get it shipped out to the postal system. (I'm looking at you, DealExtreme!) If the item needs to be obtained from a supplier, than it should not be listed as "in stock" but rather "back-ordered". And they should not lie to customers that it will ship in 1-3 days when they know it will take upwards of 7 days or more.