How do you feel about clients who use reviews...

[z/m(Ret)]

as money?

A poster, whose name should not be stated here, wrote the following:

Take a certain indy who recently worked one day for an agency for $180/hour but now she charges $550/2 hours. I bugged her a couple of times in an email. I told her my offer is $400/2 hours and a review. (I underline for emphasis)

I am not bringing up the issue of asking for discounts but what about using reviews as currency?

How do you feel about that?

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

In short, the sucker's ass should be permanently banned. What are the chances of an honest review?

What about the reverse? A friend of mine told me recently that he was offered, by an indy, a discount in exchange for a review. (Unfortunately, she charges too much, even after the paltry discount offered. Discount declined.)

 

[happygolucky]

I really don't think it is my business to teach ethics, or to tell another person how they should live their lives. I would never use a review board as leverage, to get anything. I do not mentioned anything on the Internet to any of the SP's that I have seen anymore, I believe this was a mistake that I only made once. I think someone who does uses reviews to get anything, is a very selfish person who is very desperate and gets below average SP service because he is a social retard and does not even understand basic SP etiquette.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Ziggy,

The practice has been discussed many times, it is called Bargain Hunting and it is a form of Board Terrorism (also manifested by using negative reviews to extort future discounts). The truth is, a certain agency owner actually invited and encouraged the latter practice until I told the agency owner, directly, to stop doing so. There were many threads about it in the past. I wrote about it and criticized it, and also criticized the agency owner who invited the practice both in direct communications and on the Board. Let's just say that a few people learned their lesson.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

I really don't think it is my business to teach ethics, or to tell another person how they should live their lives.

No, it's not and no, you shouldn't. However, you use this board, I assume, to gather information on whom you might see. If someone is selling reviews, his integrity is compromised and he's cheating YOU, as well as everyone else who comes here looking for honest information.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

Ziggy,

The practice has been discussed many times, it is called Bargain Hunting and it is a form of Board Terrorism. The truth is, a certain agency owner actually invited and encouraged the practice until I told the agency owner, directly, to stop doing so. There were many threads about it in the past. I wrote about it and criticized it, and also criticized the agency owner who invited the practice. Let's just say that a few people learned their lesson.

I know the issue is overkill but, in this particular instance, it's refreshing to rehash old arguments.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

Corollary questions...................

Should a poster who admits to such practice be banned?

Would you give any credibility to a review board where Mods and the Administrator allow such individual to post reviews?

 

[john_eh_mcduff]

Bribe

Seems more like bribery than a discount to me. Defeats the purpose of
the board really. I can't say i'm outraged. I can see both points of view,
we are all motivated by self-interest occasionally.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

In short, the sucker's ass should be permanently banned. What are the chances of an honest review?

Permanent ban doesn't cut it because the reviews (read "shill") are still up and therefore susceptible to mislead members. In my book, board credibility can be restored only if the handle is deleted and, with it, all its reviews.

 

[happygolucky]

No, it's not and no, you shouldn't. However, you use this board, I assume, to gather information on whom you might see. If someone is selling reviews, his integrity is compromised and he's cheating YOU, as well as everyone else who comes here looking for honest information.

You are right.

I guess I am naive in that I believe most of this board to be pretty decent guys. I also believe that the worst reviews & the best reviews about the same SP, are to be ignored. I don't trust everyone to be honest, and in my reviews on Hal's, I have never told the whole truth on how I get better mileage(no, it doesn't involve extra money or any kind of regret of either of us). If I know the reviewer is younger, better than average looking and knows how to treat women in general, I believe when I read his review, that his service will be better than what I would get with the same SP. Yes, that good looking guy is giving a honest review, but it is not always helpful to me, if the SP is a YMMV SP. I also believe that any guy who does not at least brush his teeth before a session will get a much worse session with any SP, and does not understand the he is just wasting his money on GFE SP's. Having said too much already, we all filter all the information that we take in........

 

[Regular Guy]

Sticky?

Should a poster who admits to such practice be banned?

Would you give any credibility to a review board where Mods and the Administrator allow such individual to post reviews?

Banning presupposes he will actually follow through with his brag. Banning is an overt act. He might claim it was just a case of silly bravado. Might be better to open a sticky with a list of all those who "made this stupid brag". How much weight might their reviews carry then. Being posted to this sticky would completely remove any vestige of credibility their future reviews might have. Of course it would still not solve the problem of those who practise but don't preach. I don't know how you could control such reprehensible behaviour.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Permanent ban doesn't cut it because the reviews (read "shill") are still up and therefore susceptible to mislead members. In my book, board credibility can be restored only if the handle is deleted and, with it, all its reviews.

OK, then, not only ban his sorry ass, but delete his handle, all his posts and make it a criminal offense to mention his name in polite company.

 

[Techman]

You can't ban someone for saying he made an offer that was not accepted when there is no proof or admission that such an offer was ever made and accepted at any other time. At most it could make someone question the poster's past reviews, but that's about it. Besides, isn't he already banned here?

 

[z/m(Ret)]

You can't ban someone for saying he made an offer that was not accepted when there is no proof or admission that such an offer was ever made and accepted at any other time. At most it could make someone question the poster's past reviews, but that's about it. Besides, isn't he already banned here?

Don't know many people who ask themselves if a rat is a rat. We treat rats like vermin. What's gonna take to treat shills like shills, especially one who admits being one?

 

[Techman]

How about an SP who admits to receiving and accepting the offer? He admitted making the offer. He didn't say what he would have done if it had been accepted or that the same offer had been accepted in the past.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

How about an SP who admits to receiving and accepting the offer? He admitted making the offer. He didn't say what he would have done if it had been accepted or that the same offer had been accepted in the past.

Fine by me if you see it that way. All I know, is posters have been banned and exposed as shills (and their reviews have been deleted) for less than that.

Keep in mind that the same reviewer recently admitted that his appreciation of the ladies was inflated most of the time.

Mods will handle his case the way they see fit. As far as I'm concerned, this reviewer is a shill, a fraud, and has zero-credibility.

 

[Techman]

I agree that his credibility is now under suspicion. After that post it should be. But then again...the post was on another board and I don't think the mods here have any business making any decisions based on events elsewhere.

 

[korbel]

as money?

A poster, whose name should not be stated here, wrote the following:

Take a certain indy who recently worked one day for an agency for $180/hour but now she charges $550/2 hours. I bugged her a couple of times in an email. I told her my offer is $400/2 hours and a review. (I underline for emphasis)

I am not bringing up the issue of asking for discounts but what about using reviews as currency?

How do you feel about that?

Hello Ziggy,

There are two equally guilty parties here who should are responsible for this act.

Blatant fraud,

Korbel

 

[Mod 8]

We do not moderate MERB based on posts made on another board. If you wish to continue the discusion based on the topic of the thread, fine. But if anyone intends to turn this thread into a witch hunt against a particular poster, it will be closed and suspensions handed out.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

We do not moderate MERB based on posts made on another board. If you wish to continue the discusion based on the topic of the thread, fine. But if anyone intends to turn this thread into a witch hunt against a particular poster, it will be closed and suspensions handed out.

Interestingly, Mod8, I was once banned from and, for a short while, denied access back to merb based solely on a statement I made on the other board. Ask Mod7 to refresh your memory and please explain the double standard.