</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Pro Stock John:
<strong> Anyone dealing with 'Ty Watkins' who has been emailing folks directly is dealing with him at their own risk. He is not a sponsor and his prices are below what Diablo authorizes so I am concerned about his motives. We take zero responsibility for anyone who deals with him.

ADMIN </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">So because he's offering a price below what your "sponsors" are offering, all of a sudden, he's a bad guy?

You guys are hilarious. I've lurked on this board for awhile now, just taking in what I read. These recent vendor-war threads are crazy... I can't believe how unprofessional some of you guys are!

Someone starts a thread asking for a GP on a product, and *suggests* Vendor-A. Vendor-B comes on and says he can do it too. A Vendor-C jumps on and bashes Vendor-B, then Vendor-A replies and says it's ok, he doesn't mind, then Vendor-C complains that Vendor-B's prices are too low and attempts to rat out Vendor-B to the manufacturer. The manufacturer says it's ok, so Vendor-C whines some more and gets "authorization" to lower their prices, now below Vendor-B's prices (that were originally "too low".)

Meanwhile, Vendor-D comes around the backside, and undercuts everybody. ADMIN steps in because the people that send him money every month are upset, and tries to make Vendor-D out to be like some scam artist or something.

What is this? Grade school???? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[bang head]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_banghead.gif" />

 

PS - I moved this out of the GP thread itself because comments/etc don't necessarily belong there

 

The price offered by 'Ty' is not authorized by Diablo, that is my understanding.

 

It's been my experience in working retail that while you can't ADVERTISE below a certain price (meaning, you can't post lower prices on a web page, paper flyer, etc...) it's still your decision to be able to SELL them at a lower price.

Ty didn't advertise the price publicly on a web board, web page, or publicly period. He has the product, he is selling it, he contacted each individual privately and told them his price.

 

Nick from Diablo emailed me directly, and I will tell you that nobody can sell the device for less than it's advertised for in our GP section, AND Nick ask Ty in the same email to cease and desist. I was saying all along that Ty's price was too good to be true and now the manufacturer has gotten involved. I'm sure whomever Ty was going through on this is either not a current dealer or is a current dealer and is not happy with how he has marketed an offer.

 

Actually LifsCuz,

Tyler isn't a "bad" guy, he just thinks he is doing our members a favor by undercutting our paying sponsors. He sees it as LS1Tech "ripping off its members" by not allowing him to post his pricing on our site without being a sponsor. What this really causes is our sponsors to get pissed off because they pay for exclusive rights to advertise here. Our sponsors pay the bills to keep this site running and upgraded, and this keeps it a free site for the members. There is nothing keeping his non-sponsor from becoming a sponsor. Our rates are dirt cheap. Try $90-125 per month. Thats childs play for a performance shop.

Also, our faithful members that Ty emailed are the ones that forwarded the secret emails he sent to them. They also copied the management at Diablosport, as well as the authorized Diablo dealers on this site. LS1Tech did not make those contacts, our loyal members did! Why? Because they understand the poor ethics involved here. Its pretty shady to email people that reply to a legitimate sponsor's sale ad and try to steal that business. Especially on a privately owned site, where the sponsors pay to advertise. If this happened with every single product ever sold, sponsors make nothing. They stop funding the site. The site goes under.

Our loyal members understand this. They also see the problem with emails like Tyler's. This isn't the first time it has happened with a member, and certainly won't be the last I'm sure.

There is a distinct difference between trying to "help" members save money, and being sneaky and trying to undercut the providers that keep this site around for you.

-Tony

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by LifsCuz:
<strong>Ty didn't advertise the price publicly on a web board, web page, or publicly period. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The price was posted on this board but, has been taken down. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" /> In fact I still know of one place on here that it is still listed.

It's pretty simple. There are certain rules for this board concerning Non Sponsor advertising. It's not allowed.

Now, what Ty is doing is not illegal or anything. PSJ is just trying to protect the members of this board that have been contacted by Ty from being potentially scammed by a company PSJ has no recourse with.(Please notice the word potentially) <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

Just my $.02 <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

John

Edit - Ahh, Tony's reply pretty much says it all, I was typing mine up when he posted it.

 

LifsCuz, any reason your IP address tracks to Schaumburg, Illinois (Motorola?) and you have California listed in your profile?

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" />

Hidden identity?

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Nine Ball:
<strong> LifsCuz, any reason your IP address tracks to Schaumburg, Illinois (Motorola?) and you have California listed in your profile?

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" />

Hidden identity? </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">if it's resolving back to Motorola then the most likely reason (without getting into specifics) it shows Schaumburg is because the proxy server is here (Schaumburg). There's probably a good chance that I'm showing the same IP, or at least on the same subnet in my posts <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

 

horist, your IP is the same. Is there a motorola branch in San Jose, or is this guy just a troll that registered specifically to gripe with a hidden identity?

Or is it you? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Nine Ball:
<strong> horist, your IP is the same. Is there a motorola branch in San Jose, or is this guy just a troll that registered specifically to gripe with a hidden identity?

Or is it you? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" /> </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tony, you can't trace IP's that way when a whole company goes through a firewall/proxy etc. Some ISP use NAT to cheaply serve customers even though they give up internal security. There's nothing fishy about that IP trace. Just some info.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Nine Ball:
<strong> horist, your IP is the same. Is there a motorola branch in San Jose, or is this guy just a troll that registered specifically to gripe with a hidden identity?

Or is it you? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" /> </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">lol, not me <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" /> There are a few telecommunications locations in san jose, but they use the same proxy server I use here in Schaumburg (corp headquarters).

 

Thank you horist. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

I'm not so much trying to defend Ty. I see the point, the sponsors PAY to advertise here, they should have rights to advertise. If I were a sponsor, I would be upset too.

But at the same time, I just find it silly how up in arms everyone got over it... and how childish some of the other vendors behave whenever another vendor has a better price listed.

I guess my ideas behind retail businesses still haven't advanced far enough to include web boards. My ideas on web boards are that they are a "fun" or community-type thing. When the owners start getting upset over cash flow, for a web board, it's a little ridiculous. I understand that a busy web board can run at or over $1,000/mo... but I count 52 sponsors on the right. 52 x $125 = $6,250 and 52 x $90 = $4,680. So they see between $4,680 and $6,250 a month in income. I *know* this board can't cost THAT much to operate.

But I'm straying. I'm not trying to knock the board... it's a GREAT board, with great resources. I mainly just find humor in business representatives asking like a bunch of first graders.

 

Why are my actions still being questioned?

We have a guy who telling folks about a GP for that product that is $65 cheaper than what the manufacturer wants any of their distributors to sell it for... Naturally when it's too good to be true I investigate.

9 times out of 10 our advertisers have the best prices. Our advertisers are also some of the biggest and most trustworthy performance companies on the entire internet. In many cases they are w/d with the manufacturers and we are seeing great prices. With proliferation of companies competing for your business, we are living in an age when the performance companies are making very small net profits on some items.

In this case I have the actual manufacturer stating that the price that Ty is touting is not authorized by them... Need I say more? Not authorized = not a safe proposition IMHO.