QTH.COM Swap Chat

It's not often that someone gets my goat. But KB8JCY Arnold Howell got mine tonight.

The background: He advertised some capacitors on QTH.com. The ad is as follows:

8pcs of NEW, AMERICAN MADE axial lead caps 270uf at 450volts.. will fit DRAKE L4-B, DRAKE L-7, AND other amps $20.88 each, sold as set only.

Jeff K3DUA sent him a response via the Contact Form on QTH.com:

For your information, your price is way too high. Less than a year ago, I bought a new set of Sprague 200 ufd/450 volt caps from Newark Electronics, and the price was $12.83 each. This is the same value as originally used in my Drake L-7. I just checked and the current price is $14.49. See:
http://www.newark.com/NewarkWebCommerce ... =gensearch

What physical size are your caps? In the L-7 and L-4B there is a definite space issue if the caps are too big.

73,
Jeff, K3DUA

KB8JCY decided to forward the e-mail to AOL marked as "spam". I then got a notification from AOL about the spam complaint! As you may know, if enough people complain about someone being a spammer, they can get on a spam black list. That would be very, very bad news for QTH.com. NEVER has QTH.com been on ANY spam black list, at ANY time. I simply do not tolerate it and I take great pains to make sure that my system is locked down and not able to be abused by spammers.

Anyway, I contacted KB8JCY to let him know that this is not the proper way to handle things:

Mr. Howell.

Please do NOT flag messages you receive via the QTH.com Classifieds as "spam" even if you do not like the response you get.

If enough people like you do this, then QTH.com gets flagged as a spammer. We can't have that.

If you have a problem with any responses you receive via QTH.com, please contact me directly.

73 - Scott KA9FOX

KB8JCY then replied:

well i did not appreciate this guys email and dont want to hear from him again. and i dont have to subscribe to his issues so you may want to inform him NOT to contact me ever again for any reason period

I then replied to him with:

It is your right to not appreciate his e-mail, but it is not my duty to do your dirty work. If you don't like his response tell him so. If you don't want to hear from him again, tell him so. If he continues to bother you, let me know and I will take appropriate action.

Don't report QTH.com as spam. I will not, and cannot, tolerate it. And if we wind up on a black list, then you won't get any responses to your ads at all.... how can the responses get to you, if AOL blocks mail from QTH.com? You see the problem? Please don't do that anymore.

73 - Scott KA9FOX

KB8JCY then replied with the following:

there is a quick fix to this whole issue. cancel my ad. i have survived this long without qth and will continue to do so. and furthermore, until you start paying my aol, dont ever tell me what i can and cannot do on my end the internet, as long as its legal. and on that note i'll report you in the same manner as the last idiot.

My final reply to him was:

The ad has been removed, and you've been blocked from using the classifieds site. I don't like to do this, but if you have no respect for the situation regarding spam black lists, and using it to report items that are not spam, then I have no other option available to me.

And with that, he proceeded to forward my last e-mail to AOL as a spam complaint AND when I cancelled his ad, per his request, he forwarded the cancelled ad confirmation e-mail as spam.

Now AOL has 3 spam complaints against QTH.com. Are any of these e-mails he received classified as spam? No.

Certainly, my time could have been better spent tonight working on the new features I have planned for QTH.com, rather than dealing with the likes of this guy. I don't normally air my dirty laundry like this, but I felt I had to do something.

Am I wrong in feeling this way or to air this issue in this forum? Your comments appreciated.

73 - Scott KA9FOX

I think that you did the right thing Scott. I am glad that you posted this and 'aired it out' with us.

It reminds us that there are morons within the ham community that we must be aware of. I don't want to deal with types like that.

Thanks for the heads up.

I think you did absolutely the right thing although I am afraid I wouldn't have been so polite. I have no tolerance for idiots.

Hard to figure out some folks. This is a great site and considering outside of a polite request for a donation it is also a free site. I have had emails in the past where I expressed interest in certain adds and then they get offended because you decide not to purchase it. Some people simply belong on ebay... period.

Scott:
I think you did exactly the right thing and I certainly agree with KB5PN - you exhibited considerable tolerance in dealing with this - "gentleman"??

I have bought and sold on this site for some time now and have had my share of folks who offered considerably less than an item was worth and have found that the "Delete" key works wonders for those kind of emails. Perhaps Mr. Howell does not have one of those on his keyboard.

I believe that your decision to block him was a wise one and if this causes you any grief with AOL and you need support in the form of letters or email to those folks let us know - I am sure that this community will stand solidly behind you!

Keep up the good work - 99.9 % of us really appreciate this site and what you do for us.

73 Bill K9RWT

SCOTT.
I agree with your thoughts and actions. Today I got burned by another "gentleman" who acted in a similar fashion. My post was in the wrong forum and I'm glad you took it out. I then put it in the right forum, and I hope that the "gentleman" takes it to heart. Now I'm going to shut this darn box off and go play with the real communications stuff.
73 - fred

Scott, you don't have to explain your actions to anyone, you are a great guy, always fair, and all of us should thank you and be happy that you have such a great site and let us use it! Thanks, Adam Farber W4AJF (ex KG4ZCL)

I am just wondering if there is any way to get removed from the spam list. Maybe if the right person at AOL was contacted and the situation explained, the QTH spam complaints could be removed?

Anyway, why this person would do this is beyond me. It's a very immature way to handle a problem.

Charles - KC4GMY

KC4GMY wrote:I am just wondering if there is any way to get removed from the spam list. Maybe if the right person at AOL was contacted and the situation explained, the QTH spam complaints could be removed?

QTH.com didn't get on the AOL spam black list... 3 complaints, from one person, isn't enough to do that. But if a lot of people did this, it certainly could cause us some grief.

I have also written to AOL, letting them know that their user is abusing their spam reporting system, but I haven't even received an acknowledgement of my e-mail (imagine that).

Thanks everyone for your support -- it is greatly appreciated and definitely helped settle me down. He really did 'rattle my cages' last night.

73 - Scott KA9FOX

Scott I would also like to chime in and give you my support. You did a very professional job handling an un-professional jerk.

I much appreciate the use of your site.

73, Tracy KB9VXQ