I believe it would be helpful if a sub-forum was setup for members to request a quote on items they need. Then allow our advertisers to send pm's with the best deals for the members. Something along those lines

Thoughts?

 

It could include a list of advertisers as well? Maybe that list is on here already and I've overlooked it too.

 

I've asked for that list also but it never appeared

 

It could be beneficial in many ways......posters would know who was an approved advertiser or not before asking about a product from a non-approved vendor, and it would be additional advertising for the paying vendors. I try to buy as much as possible thru the DTR store, but there is only so much Lary can stock!

 

LazarSmith's parts are available through Lary (one day he'll have enough down time to publish photos & cart buttons), and he doesn't have to keep items in stock - we drop ship direct to DTR customers.

 

I don't see anything like this ever happening on this forum simply because it is the opposite of what DTR is all about. This is not a vendors forum, it is a place for members to get answers to their questions from other members without Vendors jumping in every post trying to make a sale.

Other forums have stuff like that and the entire forum turns into little more than a vendor mart for products. This forum is not designed to sell products, it is designed to offer free information for members.

This is why you do not see me trying to sell in the forums, I only answer questions posed specifically to me about a product by a member. Your questions should be answered by other members using the products you are interested in and not by some sleazy salesman just wanting to make a buck off of you.

 

What makes you think all salesman are sleazy. I help my customers every day with questions and info. I do not try to trade them out of something or put the screws them every time we talk. I do have to make a living also.
I would like to know if you are against making a profit, or would you like the government to control pricing so everything and everybody are supposedly equal. That works real well if you look at the rest of the world.

 

Lary never said all salesmen are sleazy - only that DTR doesn't allow sleazy salespersons to infect the forums.

Everyone who know Lary knows that he is a red-blooded American capitalist, and many of us also wish that EVERY citizen would have to work for a living as you do.

 

Well writted Lary. All salesman are not sleazy, but the point was the owners of this site do not want to make the website a marketplace. From what I have seen from the vendors on this site they are here more to help with questions not push sales. On other fourms that i'm on when you start a post about which turbo to buy you get a least 3 PM's about people who can sell you turbos. Thats what nice about DTR

 

Just hit me wrong the last part of his sentence. I don't sell diesel performance or anything of the sort but do make my living selling heavy equipment.

 

Ya'll need to chill out. For one, Lary didn't say anything about every salesmen being sleazy. Lary is a salesman himself to a certain extent given that he manages the online store. However, there ARE a lot of sleazy salesmen out there and a lot of them have come here trying to peddle their products under the table by trying to stay under the RADAR. Some of them have openly bashed other vendors etc.

For those of you getting bent out of shape, calm down, take a deep breath and take Lary's post for what it is. He's only trying to make a point.

 

I never said all salesmen where sleazy, I simply said that we are trying to keep the sleazy ones of of the forums. I have seen numerous complaints over the years from members because they were afraid to ask a question in the forums, for fear they would be jumped on by salesmen trying to turn their simple question into a sale.

 

Lary, all points are well taken. Would it be very hard to just add a tab near the DTR store link to an approved vendor link? Maybe something that will link DTR to the vendor's site, and let them know how many hits they get from DTR. That would at least give everyone a compiled list of vendors here on DTR and I'm sure they can track that a DTR member came to their site from a link here and you could get the credit or something. Like you and Xlr8r said, you can sell his products in the DTR store, but that is the first I have heard of that. Just my opinion! Like has been said many times before, this is your site, and this is just a suggestion!

 

The problem with that is that the DTR doesn't "approve" vendors. We remain neutral in that area, and I don't ever want anyone to construe that we support one vendor over the other. It's none of our business and we'd rather keep it that way. Other sites get in bed with vendors and it becomes their personal playground. We'd rather not have that.

The vendors we have already know how many hits they get from the site as they get an automated weekly email on that.

I'm not sure what the tab would accomplish. I wouldn't mind putting up a list of vendors but I can tell you this; we change vendors so often here, it's like a revolving door.

I guess you could say our philosophy is different from other sites. I have nothing against those sites, but it's just not how we want to do things. I'll use the one that has the letters "CF" in it for an example. Those guys have become so ad happy that you can't even navigate the site. On top of that, they sold to a company who's primary revenue stream is ad revenue. That same company offered to buy this site as well but we refused. We did so for two reasons. One, we didn't want any more ads on the site. What we have is enough and helps us stay afloat. Secondly, we didn't want to give away the main part of the site and keep another at the mercy of the new owners. It didn't make sense to us. Having explained all that, the site I speak of has become a vendor playground and it's like walking onto a sales lot. I have been there a couple times and refuse to go there again wondering when I'm going to have to run off another vendor. That way of running a site doesn't make sense to me and it never will.

I know I made this post long but sometimes when we make a decision on something, I find guys whining about it on all the other sites, and then of course it turns into a bashing thread about how we're a bunch of net ****'s. Anyways, I digress....

In the end, for now, we'll keep things the way they are. I hope you understand.

 

Just to reiterate, I understand the "no quote forum" , but when I see members with "approved vendor" under their name, it would be nice to have a link to get to all of them,compiled in once area. I'm sure I could look in the profile and all that as well, but sometimes my memory lapses and I can't remember where I saw them at! LOL . Your site, your rules. Understood.