Support your FSJ vendors

[jeepsr4ever]

Guys like BT and others need your support. For instance instead of going to the parts store for a items one of the vendors can save you money on, please do a search for through the FSJ vendors.

Bulltear.com is one,

Billyrb can I get a salute

[GaWag]

Shameless Plug! Shameless shameless shameless!

Uhhh........Can I get a discount?

I try to buy through our vendors when I can. You guys just don't sell what I need most of the time.

[KYJ10]

Someone get me a good deal on a klune and a weld on coil package? Man that would be sweet.

[billyrb]

MC, here's da shout out! HOOPS O' CHEESE AN' SNOWTIRES! j/k

Steve, you never ask.......most places will give us a discount, which we'd pass on. But, if it's easier to go elsewhere and pay more.....hehehe.

[2nd Day]

Yea, I cant believe yall are so shamelessy plugging people that have regular jobs then get off to make FSJ parts in their spare time for minimum profits....I mean if I were to do an SOA I would get the kit from TT Fabworks, or maybe instead a lift kit from BJs Off Road, or maybe some great performance parts from Bulltear Ind.
But I cant cause I cant say enough about the great shirts I got from the member AMX Factor for the 2004 FSJ Invasion-East Coast hosted by SORA 4x4 located in Eastern NC. I was thinking about going downtown to GA and checking out Performance Off Road Products, but first I need to host my pictures on the SORA message forum hosted by www.tqhosting.com (http://www.tqhosting.com) (owned by a IFSJA member)..

No shame on this board, sheesh!

[Gwamp]

So, how would you all feel if I setup a seperate Jeep vendors forum? And by seperate I mean totally seperate from my own forum but in a similar format. At least it would be a place to get suggestions for products, provide feedback and have links to everyone main sites for product ordering.

What thinkest you all? It would only take me an hour or 2 to set it up and get it on line.

[FSJ Thing]

I'm for it!

[jeepsr4ever]

Go for it Gwamp

[Gwamp]

I will set the basics up tomorrow and tweak it from there. I should be able to keep it free for everybody at least for the time being. I will give the vendors a special "Vendor" title. It probably will have some or all of the following sections:

1) FSJ products for sale

2) FSJ product suggestions

3) complaints/complements

4) misc for sale/wanted

To keep this free the forums will have to be bare bones and that means that you will have to host your own images.

I will post up a link back in here with the operational forum when I get it on-line.

[Gwamp]

Eh, I got bored so here it is:

FSJ Vendor's world (http://gwamp.com//vendor/index.php)

This will give us a skeleton to work with that can be modified easilly as warrented.

Please note that this forum is completely seperate from my other one and the nonsense that goes on there will not be tolerated in this forum for the most part.

[jode]

Looks good Gwamp - I went ahead and signed in as your number one guinea pig. :D

It could be a good resource if it remains active and lots of people post on there.....

[FSJ Thing]

I did too. Looks promising. I've only dealt with two vendors, BJs and RB, but I'll wait until my comments are relavent before I post anything. Thanks Gwamp!

[jeepsr4ever]

Not sure its a good idea now. Without any control what so ever for a vendor this type of forum could hurt a good vendor and also cause alot of time being wasted trying to clean up the mess. Sorry Gwamp...thought at the time it would be a good idea

[Gwamp]

What do you mean by no control? What exactly would you need control of and why? Help me out here. I am open to suggestions for this.

[Tad]

Great idea Bob, Thanks
I regestered, just too busy to post anything at the moment.

[FSJnovice]

Indeed I have registered and look forward to reading about and perusing thru future ads for new jeep products. All new ideas have teething problems, but they can and will be worked out. I like it gwamp we will now have both points of view.

[jeepsr4ever]

Gwamp here is what I mean

1. lets assume a screw up was made and we get a unhappy customer right off the bat. How many posts and reposts would we have there? How much timne would a vendor have to spend kissing a## or trying to smooth something out that may have happened in shipping? (who has time to go to another website to defend their business)

2. Lets say everything goes smoothly with every transaction and someone just doesnt like the name or business. This can cause alot of turmoil and where would the facts be proven?? (anyone could sign up and bash a vendor)

3. ANOTHER WEBSITE! Man I am on about 5 of these sumbiches a day and my a## is getting bigger.

4. Their are alot fo things that Bulltear sells that alot of other FSJ vendors sell and vice versa. How would we stop from competing to the point of making a small group of FSJ fans in charge of pricing?

5. Personally I dont know you Gwamp, I think you would be a fair and honest person like you said setting up this website but whoi wants to take their name and put it in the control of someone they dont know?

6. In theory its a good idea, BUT our company already has a forum and a 100% satisfaction rate.

I like the idea of posting our products for others to see ...that is great and is good on all ends. I just dont like the idea of me wasting my time any more than i already do trying to defend the business from some poster who freely types his or her minds opinion that may or may not be a customer....see what I mean their is no integrity built up...Its a free site that is not affiliated by any business but could cause problems for all businessess. We already have sites like IFSJA.org Pirate4x4.com ...ect and we would hear very easily a problem about a vendor. We have already heard praise and problems here.

I am not saying I am 100% against this but at this time I feel that I dont have the time or energy to support a FSJ enthusiasts vendors forum without any accountability for actions...period

[roadgrime]

perhaps I might make a suggestion here. I know often times I buy things local out of need for speed. However many of my purchases I tend to know about in advance. If the forum was setup in a manner where users could a want add of sorts. For instance bilyrb mentions that alot of vendors will give them discounted prices. I am all for sending my business to bilyrb(bjsoffroad) or jode (buildyour4x4 as they have taken excellent care of me in the past. so if i as a user can post what I am looking for and a vendor can offer me a close or cheaper price i buy from them.
SO now lets say I have a prob with A vendor. Make the rules state that the vendor forum is not the place to B!*CH whine and moan. Make the rules say if you have a prob with a vendor send emails or take it to a different forum. Personally I here too many people griping about vendors here as it is and I know who i will deal with and who I wont. Then one step farther have a group of moderators enforce the rule. delete the post warn the user and then ban users as needed. its a little more work but it allows the vendors actually sell and attract business and not defend their position.
the real world example is a vendor places an add in a magazine or newspaper. people unhappy with the vendor are not allowed to post derogetory information and attach it too the add if they are unhappy they have to find a different medium to express their issues.

I will admit this idea has its prob in that by adding these rules it is no longer a self governing forum but if people are willing to volunteer to manage the few users who will cause probs i think the jeepin community will benifit.

[Gwamp]

So it sounds like you are are afraid of the chance of negative feedback on a transaction at the core of this. There are 2 sides to that issue. One, if you are selling shoddy goods and ripping people off, people need to know about it. This forum here does not allow for that to occur. The other side is for you to defend yourself from an Great Googley MoogleyGreat Googley MoogleyGreat Googley MoogleyGreat Googley MoogleyGreat Googley Moogleyhat who decides to be a pain by spreading around false tales of bad transactions. This is easy enough to do with good record keeping and is how the priate vendor's forum operates. I still fail to see the problem. If you are scared of it then skip it.

Sounds like you want the abilty to censor anyone who might dare to offer a legitamite negative opinion of your goods. Not in my county at least.
Also you would squelch those who would give you the positive feedback you deserve for doing honest business.

You sell the same product as another vendor and he is selling it at a lower price and you cannot compete. Welcome to capitalism! If you cannot deal with a tiny bit of competition then you should not be in business really.

I am about as disinterested of a third party as you are going to find to do this for free. No one who is completely disintrested in FSJ's is going to do this for nothing. All I want to achieve here is a central location for all vendors to put up a quick link with as much or as little info as they want to their respective stores and hopefully get it linked from the main IFSJA site. Most of us who have been around a while already know who is selling what, but there are a tremendous # of new users who have no clue of the full range of pruducts we all have made.

If the feedback section turns into a circus then I will dump it. I will tolerate no BS-either from Great Googley MoogleyGreat Googley MoogleyGreat Googley MoogleyGreat Googley MoogleyGreat Googley Moogleyhat users or shady vendors. I can always make a special place to enshrine those who need it. If this place grows then I will assign someone to take over the various subfoums as needed.

If someone wants to put forth a set of rules and guidelines for this place then we can mold it into something usable and go from there with it. I am open to any suggestions to make this place work.

Also, will someone try to contact Dome and see if we can't get a link?

[jeepsr4ever]

Gwamp I guess I just have concerns. Bulltear already has a forum and if we made shoddy goods you would definately hear about it so thats not the case. I am leary of a place like this and just need some time to think about it, please understand

[Gwamp]

I am not saying you sell crap by any means, but civil fact driven feedback is a good thing for all parties. If it turns into a nightmare of BS, it can get dumped with a mouse click. 99.9 percent of the people here are simple honest folks with the love of FSJ's in common.

I have my own forum as well, but what I do not have a direct place to pimp my FSJ related wares linked from somewhere else beside a sig file or an very quickly disappering post in the for sale section.

Since Dome will not put up a vendor's section for whatever reasons(that's fine, this is his house) we have to do something else. Like I said, I am more than open to suggestions on getting this up, running and working for us all. Concerns are fine, but have a possible solution to the problem you are having as well to go along with it. smile.gif

[Gwamp]

This here is exactly the type of post I am talking about right here. Some poor guy looking for stuff to fix up his rig and has no clue where to go.

newbie looking for stuff (http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=023957)

In my perfect world, he would be directed to the vendor's section of this forum. However that is not to be so he should have a place to go to find what he wants. :D

[jeepsr4ever]

True Gwamp.

I wonder what you think of this though, its our oil pump priming tool that we would compete with you on...personally I didnt plug it here because I like the idea of a little guy selling nice wares and I dont need to put a competeing product out there to hurt anyones sales because I have been there (revolver shackels vs. Bullrings)

http://mpcrescenzo.imgbay.com/Priming.jpg

Its this kind of thing that I really dont want to happen Gwamp. We have a ton of parts we make that we dont even sell online because other here make them or other jeepers make them on a very small scale. I am sensitive to this as I started out in debt hurt from work and most of my parts couldnt be made cheap enough to compete with the big guys.

[Gwamp]

I know that you compete with me on that item. Also I sell mine for much less than you do as I have much less into mine. However, yours is a nicer product. If people want yours then they buy it. If they want mine then then buy that one. I have no vested intrest in it really as the money I get from them is pocket cash.

Bottom line is that market decided and I am not going to get all butthurt if your widget sells better than mine. I have some others widgets that I am going to be putting there as well that are non-fsj related for sale as well.

[Tad]

I'm pretty comfortable with Gwamp/Bob having oversight. Having dealt with him and complained about others on the off topic forum, I know this would be handled fairly.

I'd actually appreciate some feedback, be it positive or negative. I rarely hear back from anyone who purchases my stuff.

I'm up and running there and willing to see how it goes.
Thanks,

[Gwamp]

thanks for the vote of confidince Tad. :D

Also I am looking for a FSJ related logo to replace the stock one. Anything 200 pixels tall by 100 wide and inbetween will work.

I will probably make a post in General Discussion about the forum as well.

[Millerluck]

Cool idea!

I'm in.

Thanks Gwamp.

Larry Miller

[Millerluck]

Oops

Sorry for the dbbl post.

Can't see a way to delete the first one with the bad link.

Why was it telling me that Millerluck user name was taken? I sighned up. I could only get it to post if I left it blank.

Sorry for the ripples.

Larry Miller

[Gwamp]

You are there and an active member under the name Millerluck. I did delete those 2 posts though so go and log in again and repost your message.

[Tad]

Shoot, Larry's stuff is just down right cool.
Wish I knew how to machine stuff.

Larry?
Can you machine, drill and tap ftat top knuckles for us?

[roadgrime]

lol if he can i got a set of flat tops i wouldnt mind havin done
\

[ArmyLongBowTech]

ok , hows about this. its just an option but hey sometimes many ideas come into one

*one forum topic for each vendor in a easily accessable forum section here

*only the vendors or administrators can post/edit in these forums

*the first post will be the link to the products, and other posts to that topic following can be added for specials, new products, or polls to see what new products should be designed or added to inventory *hint hint all you vendors*

*when specials are done, etc a poll, special deal post can be deleted or adjusted as such to show that change

*doing it this way will not kill forum space (excessive posts by any vendors or customers and questions, gripes) since the link to their products will be the first post in that topic and it will not be neccessary to post every product in inventory there

*since im sure that customer service numbers and emails are listed on each vendors site, there will be no need for asking tons of questions here or flaming a vendor publically on a post, possibly causing harm to that vendor for a possible bad reason

* vendors will be able to submit a FAQ on thier products onto the forum through the tech section and people can be directed there if any questions arise

*the reason for the administrators access is so that vendors dont get out of hand (just in case) for any reason on their store threads for any reason (dont ask i just think ahead too much)

this is just my "im new but heres my .02 cents anyway" smile.gif

[ July 12, 2004, 01:58 AM: Message edited by: ArmyLongBowTech ]

[Gwamp]

We would LOVE to have the forum here in this one, but that is not going to happen. However your suggestion of allowing the vendors to be the only ones to post in the product section is a good idea and I will implement that as soon as I have more time. probably tonight.

[Millerluck]

Boy I feel dumb!

Thanks for taking them off Gwamp.

Yeah I should log in first....duhhh.

Flat tops have a bar with 3 holes bolted to the top of the tapped knuckel right?

Don't look to hard. And I do have a mill now. :D

Later

Larry Miller

[ July 13, 2004, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: Millerluck ]

[Tad]

Originally posted by Millerluck:
[Flat tops have a bar with 3 holes bolted to the top of the tapped knuckel right?Yea, and some place in all this archived stuff I saved a print of the hole pattern (I hope), next thing is jigs for the left and right and...
...you could be the hero of the FSJ SOA world smile.gif