I notice that only 'good' posts are allowed on the forum, a couple of negative posts have been deleted by the moderator. Surely it is best interests of the forum members to hear the good and the bad experiences with the various businesses.

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johnl

Best way to find out (wait to be corrected from a pm) about a business, is ask members to pm you if it's negative in any way.

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SPO41 Mk2 Cooper S very original
1993 R32 Nissan Skyline GTR

I believe it should be open so people know who they are dealing with and can make up there mind if they want to use them nothing worse than losing money if business x is a complete waste of time bugger waiting for a pm if its already to late

+1.
I learnt the hard way and was burnt by a local so called 'expert'.
I lost a lot of $$ and the customer service was non existent and I was laughed at when the issue was not fixed. I researched further the issue and found the fix performed was very dodgy and not safe.

I now drive past them and use interstate/overseas resources and tell anyone I can not to shop there.

I'm happy to publicly say Thankyou to those that help.

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Justin

I have asked this question as well, there are complete threads full of people saying how happy they are with certain suppliers but no negative posts are allowed.
Surely if you aren't allowed to post negatives then positive threads shouldn't be allowed in the name of fairness?

Was going to start the same thread Lockwood. I have had 2 posts removed by moderators now. The first because it could have been a he said she said type argument, not really my goods were never received. The second was simply agreeing with someone, possibly Lockwood, about the poor service received from this retailer.
I admit though it's a hard area to police. One hand we are warning others of poor service and the other possible deformation of character lawsuits being thrown around.

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TOO MANY MINIS AND NOT ENOUGH TIME

Like most others on here I buy stuff, so it would be helpful to know who the 'dodgy' businesses are. I know of a couple of Mini businesses I wouldn't deal with based on personal experience. Of course there's lots of other individuals and businesses providing related services, like tyres, batteries, wheel alignments, body work, etc. Most of these presumably give good service, some perhaps not so good.

M-JAY is correct in suggesting "...possible deformation of character lawsuits being thrown around".

This topic has been discussed often and can continue to be from my viewpoint. It's a sign of a healthy forum when anyone can ask such questions. The forum is it membership. All reasonable suggestion for change considered.

Here's a cut and paste from one of the more recent Moderator posts.

A positive or neutral comment about a business is fine, so long as you are being honest in what you say. One of the problems with posting negative comments on a forum like this is the business in question does not have an opportunity to respond if they are not a registered user. There's often two sides to every story, so the posters description of what happened may not be the same as what the business sees. The moderators of this forum are not willing to host information that could be used against them in a law suit. As a result we prefer to be "squeaky clean" and avoid any derogatory posts.

The forum rules are here - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24057

Clause 4 is the one that applies to this discussion.

4. Objectionable comments about a business or company, whether it be true or not, are not allowed.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

I wonder how much of a problem the legal aspect is when there are so many forums available (e.g. productreview.com.au) on the internet for people to submit their opinions regarding goods and services. Many businesses actively encourage you to provide your opinion of their service, for example you are free to say whatever you wish on a company's Facebook page. Provided your opinion is honest and what you genuinely believe there are no grounds for dispute. I guess if this forum is not happy supporting this then I imagine it would be easy to start a Facebook page for these issues to be openly discussed? People would find both negative and positive comments useful. As others have said they have wasted time and money which could have been avoided if they could simply ask others what they thought of the particular business they will be giving their hard earned money. I don't believe businesses should be more protected than the customers.

Yes, we have been around this tree many many times.

One thing we have as an anonymous forum user is the possibility to say whatever we damn well choose on an open forum using an anonymous pseudonym , and then go away and have a nice nights sleep without worrying about the ramifications. Its a cheap shot usually and easily done when someone feels they have been slighted. The power is in the hands of the consumer to defame a business on what is usually a perceptual issue of value.

The business has an owner, an address and a front door. If you feel hard done by, go and visit the owner and have a chat. If that doesn't help, go to consumer affairs, this isn't China, consumer protection rights are well defined and powerful.

At least with Facebook, the poster will have a name that is usually their own. The poster can wax lyrical and be held accountable when they're misrepresenting the problem, or just plain wrong. This actually might be why I don't see these posts in actuality on FB.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

That's right, and we have in the past removed posts where certain customers were being discussed unfavourably by business owners.

As Mick said, your first port of call is always the business themselves, follwoed by your state cunsumer authority.

cheers
michael

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the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page
66 Mini Minor sponsored by http://www.lifeonthehedge.com.au/ The Dog Harness Specialists
It was a pleasure ausmini. I'll miss all you misfits and reprobates

I think what people are trying to say is that they want truthful and honest opinions of businesses in this forum which the forum says you can't have. It seems that people such as lockwood et al are having useful comments of this type removed by the moderator. The argument put forth is that this type of censorship, which is what it is, is there to prevent vindictive or vexatious posts, even though what is removed seems to be harmless or described by the poster as such. Who moderates the moderator? For example how do we know that businesses aren't pressuring moderators into removing unfavourable posts? I am very sure that businesses have discussed these issues with the moderators in great depth.

The forum owner moderates the moderators.

It's not censorship, because we remain free to publish our disparaging reviews elsewhere, for example on our own websites.
This forum is not a public space. A person owns it and generously allows us to use it. When signing up, we all agree to accept the forum rules. It's worth reading them.

It's not appropriate for us to expose the forum owner to legal action just to satisfy our desire to vent frustrations.
Remember too that such action would mean we lose the whole forum.

I''m not talking about venting frustration, I'm talking about truthful and honest opinions of businesses which from the posts of lockwood etc are being removed, or people are inhibited from posting because they feel it will be removed. If you're just posting to tell everyone how much you hate someone then I agree that's inappropriate. But honest opinions are helpful to others especially when there are not many choices available for mini services in Australia. It would also help to raise the standard.

Personally I cant see how it is any different to a food critic reviewing a restaurant or a review of a hotel on booking.com or similar website.

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

Jonnoh - I'm not sure what else can be said to address your apparent concern that hasn't already been said. Since you are an active participant on the forum and are wording your comments about good and bad retailers in a polite and constructive way I'll try once more.



You are referring to the "truthful and honest opinions" of the person posting the comment and not necessarily the facts of the situation. You may blame the non-delivery of an order on the useless business you ordered from so you vent your anger publicly, when the parcel may have been stolen from your doorstep or may still be somewhere in the postal system. I'm aware of businesses that rectify an honest mistake by replacing the wrong item at their expense or providing a full refund, but still they get openly criticised for their error with no mention of what they did to fix things.

Unlike some FB groups and other forums your comments are not reviewed and approved by a moderator before they are posted on here. We rely on the good manners of all to keep things nice. If the forum allowed uncontrolled mud-slinging, whether truthful or not, I don't think it would be a place that I would want to be involved in. As others have said there are many other ways to get your opinions across.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43