Should this reseller be banned?

[bbright]

I received 2 emails similar to the one below offering incentives for favorable US Depot reviews on this and other sites. I tried to post a complaint on RRs contact page but it keeps failing.

Buyer beware! US Depot will rip you off - I paid extra for a Retail DVD drive and got a scratched, Used, bubble wrapped drive. Then they denied receipt of the RMA even though I had Proof of Delivery - took threat of law suit and postal fraud to clear problem.

Bill

Their email follows:

Free Gift Give Away
We'll ship these gifts to you at NO CHARGES !!!!
How to get them?????
It's easy like 1, 2 and 3.....
1. Go to these sites: Pricewatch.com, Pricegrabber.com and Resellerratings.com
2. If you're happy with our service, leave us a positive feedback on those sites
3. Claim your free software by sending us email to usdepotfreegift@yahoo.com
What kind of gift you will get????
a. Free NTI CD Maker Gold Edition software for 1 (one) feedback
b. Free PowerColor WinDVD software for 2 (two) feedback
c. Free Roxio Video Wave Movie Creator software for 3 (three) feedback
But wait....... that's not all.....
If you give us 2 positive feedback and place a new order. We will give you NORTON SYSTEM WORKS 2003 or Mcafee VirusScan (1 yrs license) for FREE
Term and Condition:
All software are OEM version.
Limit 1 (one) of each per-order. Please allow 1-2 weeks time for delivery time.
Promotions end 05/31/04, VOID when prohibited

[Omega Man]

These are the contents of an e-mail they sent to my Yahoo

Free Gift Give Away
We'll ship these gifts to you at NO CHARGES !!!!
How to get them?????
It's easy like 1, 2 and 3.....
1. Go to these sites: Pricewatch.com, Pricegrabber.com and Resellerratings.com
2. If you're happy with our service, leave us a positive feedback on those sites
3. Claim your free software by sending us email to usdepotfreegift@yahoo.com
What kind of gift you will get????
a. Free NTI CD Maker Gold Edition software for 1 (one) feedback
b. Free PowerColor WinDVD software for 2 (two) feedback
c. Free Roxio Video Wave Movie Creator software for 3 (three) feedback
But wait....... that's not all.....
If you give us 2 positive feedback and place a new order. We will give you NORTON SYSTEM WORKS 2003 or Mcafee VirusScan (1 yrs license) for FREE
Term and Condition:
All software are OEM version.
Limit 1 (one) of each per-order. Please allow 1-2 weeks time for delivery time.
Promotions end 05/31/04, VOID when prohibited

[thall]

Yes
Its OEM software and must come with hardware per the EULAs. Free means not having to buy other stuff or no mention of having to buy hardware with it.


Just my 2 Cents.

[jstaton]

For that matter, such 'promotions' are not allowed by the rules of the sites involved -- specifically not allowed by resellerratings.

[Jawadali]

If they gave a free gift for honest feedback, I think it is ok. However, they say that their free gifts are only for positive feedback, which is wrong.

[dunbar]

They offer different 'gifts' for different ratings? IMO, that is called 'buying votes'.

Banning comes to mind.

EDIT: another though came to mind: If these folks have 'extra' CDs of software that was supposed to be sold with hardware.... they have violated a sales agreement when they did NOT send the CD with the hardware that was sold!!! Would be kinda like a car salesman not telling you that there was a $5000 rebate on a new honda civic, and then they gave away YOUR rebate to someone else for electing the salesman mayor of your town. Just Lovely!

[bombledmonk]

Banning would not be a good solution because then people would not know what they are up to and still could not rate them. A nice red box by their name would be better explaining what they do and to avoid them.

US-Depot has been notified to cease and desist with the statements, as they may pertain to ResellerRatings reviews:

"If you're happy with our service, leave us a positive feedback"
"If you give us 2 positive feedback.."

Such solicitations are in direct violation of our policies and must immediately cease. Any and all reviews found to be a direct result of the above campaign will be removed and all reviews on this company will be investigated.

It is against our policies to allow any merchant to solicit positive reviews in exchange for money or merchandise.

We allow merchants to solicit or offer incentives for reviews as long as they are not requiring only positive reviews, and they're being offered to existing customers who've made actual transactions. Any incentive offered must likewise be honored, whether a positive or negative review has been posted.

In 8 years, no merchant has been removed from ResellerRatings.com, and all merchants are added to our site by users who are merchant customers, and who are solely responsible for the content of their reviews. (Merchants also
submit their own online retail stores to be reviewed.)

ResellerRatings.com is founded on the concept that all merchants will be included in the site and that opting out is not possible. If it were possible, unscrupulous merchants would simply opt out, and the site would not be able to allow all customers to voice their fact-based opinions.

We invite any evidence of a merchant soliciting for only positive reviews, or otherwise misusing or abusing solicitations or offers for reviews, to be forwarded to us for investigation, via the contact http://resellerratings.com/contact.pl or,
lara @ resellerratings.com or staff @ resellerratings.com (delete spaces)

[Omega Man]

Thank you for dealing with these insidious monsters. They violate all of our sensibilities!!

[misdeal 2]

A big Yea! for Lara(&Scott Wainner) for adhering to principle. Perhaps USDepot will get some new marketing folks that are willing to play well with others...lol