Thanks for the fair and impartial decision DashCamMan
I was waiting to see what action would be taken before commenting on this thread. I've been a member here since 2013. I turned a hobby into a business after meeting new friends here and forming new business relationships over a long period of time.. I remember being a bit aggressive in my early days once turning retailer, (too spammy) but have since learned the balanced fair way to comment and post in public. (try not to bash products directly yourself, and never post direct links for sale) You have to walk a fine line as a retailer if you want to remain helpful answering questions in a fair way. I think I've finally found the groove after several years of trial and error, the key is to bite your tongue when needed and think twice before posting certain things.
Ok, now on to this unfortunate public retailer vs retailer bashing.
If Drivewatch is going to continue acting like a victim and smearing Pier28 here, reddit and on twitter it's time I educate this community as a whole as well.
It's true Pier28inc is a moderator on
http://reddit.com/r/Dashcam
Pier28inc always remains fair with universal balanced dashcam help giving suggestions as needed, and can play nice with others no problem.
It's not true that Drivewatch is currently banned because of Pier28inc doing anything unwarranted, nor implementing the actual final "permanent" ban 14 days ago. There was a Ban, Unban, and final Ban
The ban was the result of multiple reasons explained below over the course of several months. (mostly SPAM, with enough other history to add up to the perma-ban)
cthuluburger is one of the mods, and he put in place the final permanent ban 14 days ago.
The cthuluburger conversation linked to above (edit: link was removed by moderator) was before cthuluburger was educated on everything below.
I had sent a long detailed message to cthuluburger explaining the reasoning behind the ban. I also let him know I discussed everything with theproftw
(the other mod)
Part of the chat....... (there were 3 points which I'll break down below)
1) drivewatch was being listed, described and branded as Street Guardian.
One day I went to check our Pier28 Amazon listings as I always do, and saw Drivewatch being sold against Street Guardian on our SAME product page we created.
When I complained to Amazon they said we needed to buy one for proof so we did.
As you can see from the photo below it's generic China domestic Matego. (Spytec sells it cheaper) It's not Street Guardian, different package, different firmware, missing menu settings features, different. (CPL doesn't fit, generic thin wire charger, missing settings, KPH only, no memory card, no bitrate selection, no deluxe accessories, etc) If it's the same quality why is there only a short 3 month warranty?
After showing Amazon the proof and trademark, the listing was removed. We then received a nasty phone call from Jan threatening legal action saying he did nothing wrong. It's unethical to ride someone else's coat tails trying to make a quick buck with these tactics. It's also not the best way to make new friends in the dashcam industry.
2) Fake reviews on Amazon are unethical and dishonest.
Look at some of these
non-Verified Amazon drivewatch reviews.
What customer would say "Take care, and benefit from the Drivewatch"? and "Drivewatch redefines all dashcams" sounds pretty corny me.
DARVIN is Drivewatch. (reviewing your own product is unethical/unfair)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2W3V1GX6SL881/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp?ie=UTF8
Around this time there were over 25 fake reviews, but they have since been trimmed down to just a few.
This is the same trick by others:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/are-amazon-reviews-trustworthy.10460/
3) As a seller, Posting direct links to the same seller's Amazon product page is SPAM both on Reddit and on DashCamTalk. (big no no)
Drivewatch posted direct SPAM links to Amazon product at least 38 times over several months. Mods were marking / removing drivewatch posts as SPAM as they were posted for the past several months several times per week. It's fine to talk about products, just don't list direct links to one's own Amazon listings.
Small Example:
More)
Unethical? I'm not the one spamming Reddit with direct links to Amazon products
We're not the ones posting fake reviews on Amazon.
We're not the ones attempting to hijack amazon listings with fake Street Guardian products.
This whole thing is a huge waste of time, but Pier28 isn't going to just sit here and read this.
Now Drivewatch is posting as another Reddit user. (against the ban rules = shadowban)