I told you there was reasons!
First of all i would like to thank all of you guys who have put a positive response to this thread on how i have helped you over the years. I would like to give you my reasons why i have not renewed my trader’s membership which costs £100.00 a year to trade on the forum. I hope for once in my life that the controlling party on the forum does NOT allow this thread to be removed unlike many of my previous threads in the past.
I decided on Sunday night to make the members on the forum aware of my new online shopping website which had only been online for 4 days. After i had posted this on the forum i received a PM from the moderator that my traders fees should had been renewed nearly 6 months ago and shunter had sent me an email nearly 6 months ago regarding renewing my fees, after i had read that PM i noticed that the thread regarding my new website in general discussion had been removed as well as i had also been removed from the traders section.
I contacted shunter of which he CANNOT recall and does not have a file of this email that the moderator had stated in his PM that had been sent to me. In the last six months i have received numerous PM's from the moderator of which NONE of them have ever mentioned about renewing the traders fees. I have also spoken to shunter on numerous occasions in the last six months and nothing has been mentioned about renewing my trader’s fees.
Shunter has also told me that the moderator has told him that there is no structure in place with a the forum committee to contact a trader when its time for the fees to be renewed and to then follow it up with further attempts to contact the trader unlike the procedure that is in place for the normal membership renewal fee.
The moderator has told me in the past and has also told shunter that I’m only allowed to sell my body kits on the forum even though they are a small part of all of the products i sell for the 300zx. The reason for this is that there is a rule where a trader cannot sell a particular 300zx part if another trader has been selling this part on the forum in the past. The problem with this ruling is it only takes ONE trader to list virtually every part that is available for the 300zx in his list of parts that he claims he sells and this will then block any other forum traders from selling the same part. This has led to a situation of one trader taking advantage of the ruling for his own benefit and not for the benefit of the members.
If this ruling continues the members on the forum will not always get the best deal/price on parts and group buys etc as ONLY ONE TRADER (who wants the whole cake of selling parts on the forum) will be allowed to respond to these threads.
I must admit that i do not go onto the forum on a regular basis because my Z Centre customer data base does not just consist of the forum members but a much larger data base consisting of the U.K, Europe and the rest of the World.
Due to my large database of customers/enquires/sales i may only go on the forum on average about once a month to check PM's and hopefully read some interesting stuff. I have tried to address the problem of customers wanting to order from me when I’m busy on the phone (giving advice or taking orders) by having this new website with online shopping.
Unless the ruling is changed which at the moment only allows me to only sell a very small amount of my products on the forum i will have to come to a business decision on whether its viable to renew my traders subscription and I will also take into account the way i have been treated in having countless threads removed in the past.
Unlike most of the traders on the forum i have been trading as the Z Centre for more than 23 years and i will continue to do so with or without the forum until i decide to retire (many years from now).
If the outcome is that the rules do not change and i decide not to be a trader again on the 300zx.co.uk forum then it will be the members of the forum who will suffer and loose out from this and only a few individuals on the forum who will gain from this.
Do NOT remove this thread. Let the truth be said for the benefit of the forum and its members.
Regards to ALL forum members
Luke Borg.
Owner of the Z Centre
cheers bird checking posts to see how your zed is doing is it alive yet?