Vendor guidelines

[admin]

**draft** pulled from burgmanusa forum as a starting point.

Vendor Guidelines
by billmeek » Tue Sep 21, 2010 19:31 19
While BurgmanUSA welcomes all scooter vendors to the forums, vendors must adhere to the following guidelines.

Vendors include manufacturers, retailers, wholesale, and service providers. For clarification, if you make a profit from repeatedly selling an item or service, you are considered a vendor. You are exempt from these rules if selling a one-off product / service or providing items for not-for-profit (example – facilitating group buys). If you question if you are considered a vendor, contact one of the forum staff for guidance.

First and foremost, BurgmanUSA is a user-to-user forum. End users are welcome to review products on the site, but vendors are restricted from directly commenting on competing vendors, their products, and related items. This does not preclude vendors from making statements about the advantages of their products as they would in normal advertising. Vendors may use the BurgmanUSA forums to provide information and support for their products.

Under no condition should a vendor, their employee, or representative ever use an account to anonymously comment on a competing vendor, product, or service as if they are ‘just a customer’. By the same token, a vendor may not use anonymous means to positively review their own product or service. Vendors are required to disclose their business affiliation within any post relating to a product (or competing product) they sell so that members may be notified that they have a financial interest in the provided information. Vendors who are BurgmanUSA supporters with a permanent status (lifetime or charter member) may use the signature of their profile to provide their business affiliation rather than providing it within the post itself.

The BurgmanUSA forums are not the proper place for vendor-to-vendor discussion or disputes. Nor are the forums the place for informing the general public about disputes. Please keep those conversations via other means or within the legal system.

Vendors may announce new products or services, specials, discounts, etc., within reason. If a manufacturer comes out with a new product, an announcement is acceptable. A retailer may announce a new product line, but not every new product they sell.

Vendors may not repeatedly post advertisements on the forums except where it may be in response to a user query. For example, RAM-Mount makes GPS holders (along with other various device holders) and should not add their link each time a GPS is mentioned on the forum. However, should a user ask how to mount a specific device, a link to their specific product for that GPS would be acceptable. Members (other than vendors) are not under the same restriction.

No vendor may advertise products or services not relating to scooters. Advertising firms or affiliates are also restricted from placing ads on the forum on behalf of another company or product.

[Intech]

Overall those rules look good. Just substitute "FJRiders" for "Burgamanusa" and "motorcycle" for scooter. The only part that I question is the ability to notify other forum members if a vendor is not fair or above the board. I agree that nothing belongs in the public until you have exhausted all reasonable attempts to resolve disputes. I know I would like to know if a vendor has had a lot of problems. It would influence my decision. No vendor-to-vendor dispute information, though. I agree with that.