A FABULOUS Fairtrader Site Being RUINED By New Management! (ukauctionhelp.co.uk)

Member Name: Akenlatte

Product:	ukauctionhelp.co.uk
Date:	03/09/07 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Members are lovely -but dwindling rapidly due to new manager!

Disadvantages: ''eRay'' That is the only ONE word to sum up handicap/disadvantage of FTS

Fairtraders is sadly now NOT a site to be involved in! It used to be an absolutely fantastic, worthwhile site full of supportive members and great information. It was a credit to the previous owner (Dave).
Don't get me wrong, the MEMBERS are still WONDERFUL people.
The HUGE problem however the self-styled 'Junta' (eRay) who has recently taken over as site manager!! He breaks the Rules of the site (proven) and when he was told he was also Breaking the Law of the land (proven) he banned the member who most respectfully tried to tell him!! Doh!!
He has an apparent disregard for all things honest, decent and reputable -based solely on his atrocious attitude and outlandish dummy-spitting.
He bans members without any warning if they simply stand up and say (VERY POLITELY) that he has been unnecessarily rude or offensive to other members. He has a very snide, offensive manner.
He does stop short of sarcasm though - possibly because this requires intellect and he does not come across as at all intelligent.

The WORSE THING IS, he has a REALLY terrible underhand habit of hiding the TRUTH from members by way of his removing members postings!
- when certain members have written FACTUAL information and asked him to act on it etc - he simply removes the emails from the site - so unless other members happen to be on there the minute the emails are posted no-one gets to actually read the info!!

This way he can totally control what is said and the MAJORITY OF THE MEMBERS REMAIN OBLIVIOUS to any problems that exist!
He does NOT leave the messages there for the members to read and form their own opinions about. He REMOVES TOTALLY RATIONAL, POLITE, NON-OFFENSIVE, RESPECTFULLY PHRASED, LEGALLY ACCURATE member emails as the matters mentioned raise simply too many questions about his running of the site.

He totally ''CONTROLS'' the site and NO member is allowed to make suggestions for it's growth.
He then claims that people are trying to stop him expanding the site - au contraire -
the members are INTELLIGENT people (many of them business/professional people) and so those members DO want Fairtraders to flourish, as it is MORE important and lends MORE CREDENCE to your business to be a member of a LARGE, WELL-KNOWN & RESPECTED organisation than a pathetic two-bit one!!!!

So the main members DO want to pay fees and fund FTS and see it grow - HOWEVER they want it to be AN HONEST, REPUTABLE SITE that they can be PROUD OF!!

eRay's slip-shod handling of supposedly 'professional' memo's, documents and emails does nothing what-so-ever to promote a professional image - the chap doesn't even have the sense to use a spell check let alone an acceptable format or any professional etiquette. He therefore presents FTS as some little group of no-bodies operating from a spare bedroom - which was NOT the image we previously portrayed under eDave.

A classic example of his attitude was this.... when eRay was told that approx 50% of the members would be leaving now that HE was running the site he sent us all out a letter saying 50% were leaving & simply a flippant "Bon Voyage" to them all!
Now I would have thought that ANY decent manager worth his salt (who claims to have bought the site with his own money) would have been most upset at this mass exodus & immediately wanted to analyse why & possibly modify his own behaviour to restore the balance pro-tem until issues could be resolved. Wouldn't you?

eRay has single handedly ruined a really wonderful and worthwhile organisation. I would suggest if you need some support during auctioneering then you pray that the hundreds of former members who have been forced to leave FTS set up an organisation of their own!!

eRay is clearing the membership of FTS quicker than amoebic dysentery clears the system -and in the same repulsive manner!!


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Addendum.
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(After reading "comments" from a specific Dooyoo member - I will add the following details)


The fact that the Fairtrader site is now down to an abysmal 415 members proves my point exactly. The site is now a 'two-bit' site that has been ruined.
As one FTS member pointed out recently - "there's hardly enough of us left for a card school let alone a trading organisation!"

The DY member asks "what exactly is the issue, what's happened? who did it? why?
I thought I'd answered those in the review so I will reiterate for clarification -

The issue is - the site was reviewed by Dooyoo some time ago as being great, free & worthy of 5stars - my review is based on current information to point out the changes made - ie.
- FTS site now dwindled to zilch
- FTS site now about to start charging for membership and is NOT worth paying to join so save your money.
- see above for lengthy explanation of 'what has happened' as not rewriting all of that here.
- I stated the "who" part several times in my review - eRay has done it
- the only point I cannot not answer of the specific DY member is - "why" - only eRay (and a good therapist) can explain why he behaves the way he does - that is not for me to 'speculate' on.


The FTS site is nothing about unnecessary 'Financial Protection' as mentioned by the DY member.

All ebay users probably know that Paypal covers them (supposedly -but NOT always!) - however, anyone who regularly buys on ebay will also know all that the supposed "ebay-help" links and "paypal-protection" procedures are not always straight forward in their dealings & due to automated mailings their supposed "help" often falls way short of the mark!

So FTS WAS about having group support when you were being harrassed by unreasonable ebayers, a quick source of info when you need help in dealing with an issue.
Not having to "re-invent-the-wheel" there is always someone who has had the problems before you and you can learn the short cuts from them or learn the pitfalls of certain processes.
A very valuable instant emailing Neg FB/Bad buyer/ Bad Seller service allows you to read the details & choose to block buyers/sellers from your own site if you buy and sell in a similar items.

It is a fact that ebay - like ALL organisations - is full of conmen, sharks and idiots.
Ebay choose NOT to remove them as long as they pay their fees to ebay.
Buyers cannot trust the ebay FB system 100% as many buyers refuse to leave negative for fear of retaliation.
So some appalling sellers still have great FB ratings!

So FTS was there to prove to any interested parties that the members of FTS did not personally fall into those categories of shark/conmen/unreliable etc & could be checked out by prospective buyers *before* trading.
It also allowed FTS members (by means of FTS automated emailing) to be warned who was a bad buyer/bad seller and we could then personally choose whether to avoid trading with them or not.

Fairtraders WAS a good site and I, along with many other members am now sorry to see it go to this pathetic two-bit-op.

The FTS site does not, as the DY member implied, 'make money off the back of ebay' - it's a choice thing - it was run by voluntary donation only - those of us who contributed did so as we believed it was a worthwhile organisation to be in. I got more value for my voluntary donation to FTS than I ever got from my compulsary & extrotionate fees to Ebay!!!

As for "square-dealers" he mentions - well Square Dealers assoc is heavily tied in with ebay so many distrust it! It is expensive and not for buyers to join who simply wish to be good buyers or pre-warned buyers etc.
It is not an independant organisation & not value for small traders.

I for example am a "buyer" on ebay - however I have sold a few of my books and an unwanted gift etc so I would like to know which sellers I can trust and I would like a sign (FTS logo) in my listings that clearly states people can check me out as being a Fairtrader on the odd occasion that I do choose to sell something.

The DY member wants to know the point of my review -

I thought that was fairly obvious, but apparently not to all so I will clarify -
The point about putting this review on Dooyoo was because FTS is run down to nothing now but eRay wants to make it a "fee-paying site" ... so this was a warning to anyone here on DY, that Fairtraders is now NO LONGER as it was originally portrayed in the 5* review that was previously written on Dooyoo, so I wished to advise DY members to think carefully BEFORE handing over their money & joining FTS.

I was under the impression that that is pretty much what the entire Dooyoo site was here for - supplying information to "potential consumer's" - to allow each of us to make a slightly better informed choice about whether we risk our hard earned money on particular items & services.
Is it not??

The DooYoo member who keeps emailing & writing comments, leaving 'personal remarks' about me & my reviews thinks my personal opinion of the FTS site having been 'fantastic' at one time is "total drivel".
He/she is of course entitled to his personal opinion however, -
I'm totally new to Dooyoo so although unsure how it actually works on here, I was under the impression (from other comments I have read around the site), that it was the "technical" details of reviews that were up for praise or shooting down in flames and not 'personal opinions'.
I was under the impression (perhaps wrongly so) that members were to comment on my factual content, any major gaps/ommissions, the quality of information, quantity of information, accuracy of portrayal for product/service, style of writing, presentation, spelling, grammar, syntax, lexus or any other such issue, but I foolishly didn't realise that my 'personal opinion' was up for hammering down too.
I didn't think it appropriate of me to write this review without including my personal opinion - especially as I have seen that many reviews on dooyoo (one of mine included) have been gently (politely) flagged for being slightly too clinical & devoid of personal detail/opinion in them -having stuck to facts about the product and it's efficacy.

So, I thank the Dooyoo member for the lesson in public humiliation. I have learned to be most careful in future about where and when I air my personal opinion.

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Note added on 11th September -
My sincere thanks to the kind Dooyoo members who informed the site officials about the string of personal comments being left by a specific DY member on several of my reviews.
I was unaware that I could report such matters and have their comments removed.
I really appreciate your help & support in this matter.
I'm pleased to see that as a result of the intervention, his comments have been removed from my reviews & he has stopped emailing me!
Many thanks. Aken x

Summary: Horrendously mis-managed site & now wants to charge people to be insulted & controlled by him!