On April 14, 2007 at 09:58, AHEM said...
Remote Central could have been a great (and free) tool
for attracting new business. Instead, this thread, and
EI's untimely departure has most likely served to alienate
some prospective dealers. For every active participant,
there's probably 4-5 others who read these forums but
don't participate. What is the overall impression that
EI has made as a result of this thread?
I'm not sure I agree with you on this. I've been thinking about this for a while.
Vendors that post publicly here run the risk of having their laundry aired in public. Any cranky CI who had trouble with their product (rightly or wrongly, bad product or bad installation), any CI that didn't get a friendly or timely return call from a rep, or anybody who disagrees with the vendor's marketing policy, who they do or do not distribute to, who they do or do not sell, can beat them up in public here. It has happened countless times in the past five years I've been watching.
So, the vendor gets beat up, and they face the RC Catch 22. Respond, and they get dragged into a public debate with (often) anonymous CI's with triple letter pseudonyms. They can respond reasonably, and get hammered in turn by impolite or just-plain-wrong posters. What is the up side to this?
Or, if they don't respond, they are called out on it, asked why they're silent on the matter; "What's the matter, did I catch you in a lie?"
Frankly, if I were a vendor, I would watch this forum and leave strict instructions to my people; stay out, or face a firing squad.
Stay away from Internet forums unless you have really
thick skin?
Amen, Ahem. I would add to that, stay away from Internet forums altogether, so you can control the dialog with your dealers and dealer prospects.
