PlunderHere and AlsoShop: A Web of Privacy Violations, Backstabbing, and Deceit

[sneakymagenta]

WHO in the hell wants ebay any more?

Who in the hell wants to gross $17.95 monthly and be forced to live in a van down by the river because the alternative site they were convinced to join has very few buyers?

Nothing it seems is going to please you guys... unless it looks or acts or squawks like ebay...

Amazon, Ubid, and my website please me because they have plenty of  B-U-Y-E-R-S
Ebay makes me puke but kind of pleases me because it has plenty of  B-U-Y-E-R-S

I have 5 employees who expect a paycheck every week.  I have suppliers who expect to be paid.  I have a landlord who expects to be paid for the warehouse and office space I rent. I have politcians and garbagemen who expect their payoffs. Wasting my time on a site where sellers average $17.95 monthly isn't going to help me meet my payroll or pay expenses. Capiche?

[Mojavelyn]

Xpopper, I have not have anything to do with Bidz or the UK site...  I've been there 2x I think. I may have even signed up... I can't remember. PH by itself has kept me extremely busy.  And frankly.. I don't think I can admin 2 sites.

[Mojavelyn]

Gee Magenta, I don't recall sending you an invitation to join plunderhere.

Let me have your IP addy adn I'll make sure you don't have to come there again.

[bargainbloodhound]

its two different animals.

The two animals being the needs of the full time seller (defined here as anyone whose income is 100% from online sales) and the needs of the part time or hobby seller.  While small auction sites might be a viable alternative for part time sellers, it would be suicidal for most full time sellers to devote substantial resources (defined here as time) to them when there are other channels that provide immediate results and more sales.  Most of us who rely solely on online sales don't have the option/luxury of waiting for a site to grow (i.e. of being "in it for the long haul" like the Popper faithful)...we need results today to pay the bills.  99% of small auction sites can't fulfill the needs (i.e. sales today not "sometime in the future", integration with order management tools, fulfillment solution providers, payment processors etc, etc) of full time sellers. If I want to stay in business I need to devote my resources to the best performing channels and unfortunately the "small ebay alternative" channel has never been one of the best performers for full time sellers.

[sneakymagenta]

Gee Magenta, I don't recall sending you an invitation to join plunderhere.

Let me have your IP addy adn I'll make sure you don't have to come there again.

You're in good company. Ray Wagglepop also can't take criticism and  bans the IPs of anybody who dares to speak the truth about the low volume of sales on his site   What's it like to be Ray's twin?

[valleygirl]

gross $17.95 monthly!

Is that a typo?

I'm so glad I bypassed the whole auction/Ebay thing when I started my business. 

[bargainbloodhound]

gross $17.95 monthly!

Is that a typo?

Not a typo. That number,as low as it is, is actually much better than many other  auction sites that are promoted on OAI forums where the average seller is grossing less than $10 monthly.  In the past 10 years I've yet to see any auction site that self-promotes itself on OAI forums that can provide sellers with any meaningful income.

[xwpopper]

I still haven't seen a reply from Superdeals on any forum regarding why the old Bidz users were transferred onto PH-EU. The question has been brought there from here on another forum, and never responded to. Considering PH is comprised of many, many ex-poppers and ex-Ewaey members, I am sure they would have a vested interest in knowing that the new PH owners used the same practice of transferring unsuspecting members private information from one site to another.

Mo, as much as I respect your statement about not being in the EU loop, was this ever even mentioned in all the months of negotiations, that a name you owned and are forever associated with would be linked to such a blatant privacy infringement? If the members didn't sign up on Plunderhere.eu, then they have no business being on there without their explicit written consent. There goes the reputation of the entire PlunderHere name that you have worked so hard to build in one extremely poor business decision by the new owners, less than a week after the announcement.

[bargainbloodhound]

the same practice of transferring unsuspecting members private information from one site to another.

When our TulipStuff site joined TRUSTe we were required to include a clause in the information sharing section of our privacy policy on possible ownership changes (see below...the text was written by TRUSTe)

In the event Tulips and Bears LLC goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your personally identifiable information will likely be among the assets transferred. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Web site of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

http://www.buysafe.com/We...cxctJlVXANE%2bEHcXw%3d%3d

Both the Bidz.org.uk and PlunderHere.com (as well as the plunderhere.eu site) privacy policies should have contained a clause on ownership changes, and notices should have been emailed or prominently displayed on all 3 sites allowing members to opt out of having their information transferred.  If the privacy policies didn't include a clause on ownership transfers then the users info shouldn't have been transferred to the new owners (and this statement goes double for the UK/EU based Bidz).

[xwpopper]

Unfortunately, Bidz UK didn't have any of that in the privacy policy. Also, in fact, neither does plunderhere.eu, or plunderhere.com. But, Plunderhere does have a clause that they can change it at any time without warning if they make a reasonable attempt to notify users. Even better, when reading the PH-EU privacy policy, you'll notice this statement:
"We log IP's on this site to help us identify problems with our server and to keep our members safe from problems users. No other information is gathered from your visit and your activity at AuctionQuests is not logged or tracked."

AuctionQuests? Hmm... Plagiarism, or just plain forgetfulness by the programmer/writer?

[bargainbloodhound]

I still haven't seen a reply from Superdeals on any forum regarding why the old Bidz users were transferred onto PH-EU. The question has been brought there from here on another forum, and never responded to. Considering PH is comprised of many, many ex-poppers and ex-Ewaey members, I am sure they would have a vested interest in knowing that the new PH owners used the same practice of transferring unsuspecting members private information from one site to another.

Mo, as much as I respect your statement about not being in the EU loop, was this ever even mentioned in all the months of negotiations, that a name you owned and are forever associated with would be linked to such a blatant privacy infringement? If the members didn't sign up on Plunderhere.eu, then they have no business being on there without their explicit written consent. There goes the reputation of the entire PlunderHere name that you have worked so hard to build in one extremely poor business decision by the new owners, less than a week after the announcement.

I reposted your question over on TCH because Mo was logged in over there...she logged out without answering it so it would appear the question is being ignored.

--------

On a different note, we all know that Alexa's ratings are crap because they can be easily manipulated.  Here's a Quantcast manipulation tip from PH's admin:

I always go thru the front page as that get counted on Quantcast and others for the traffic.

PH has Quantcast tags on its RScript pages (auction script) but not on its VBulletin (forum) pages hence the reason for the admin to "go thru the front page" to get counted by Quantcast rather than taking the normal non-manipulative route of going directly to the forum

FYI, the best example of Quantcast visitor count manipulation can be seen by looking at the short lived sharp upward spike in Wagglepop's Quantcast traffic charts just prior to WP's introduction of an advertising system (Flagship Banner) which bases its ad rates on Quantcast visitor counts.

-----

AlsoShop.com is an alternative to ebay auction site where registered users post ads offering merchandise which they possess and wish to sell in an open auction environment

Totally off topic (or is it?): lookee here what I stumbled upon when doing a lookup of PH's old ns1.hostedinflorida.com nameservers, a new RScript auction site called www.alsoshop.com hosted on the same nameservers [link to whois] that plunderhere is being forced to move from. 

Hey, look at that, PH and AlsoSold aren't the only auction sites using those name servers!

domains sharing nameservers
allalexandriamls.com
antiqueswapper.com
auctionmods.net
auctionquests.com
autoquests.com
bladeauctions.com
clearwatercharterboat.net
clearwatercharterboats.com
clearwatercharterboats.net
clearwaterflatsfishing.com
clearwaterflatsfishing.net
dealquests.com
deepsouthhosting.com
electronicsswapper.com
eproentertainment.com
eproflix.com
eprogames.com
eprojewelry.com
eprotoys.com
gun-works.com
hostedinflorida.com
hostedinflorida.net
imagebucket.net
pagerankstats.com
phpprolist.com
phpprolist.net
plunderhere.com
plunderhere.net
probidscripts.com
sportcardswapper.com
sportsfanauctions.com
torrentdigger.com
tutoringbasics.com
tutoringbasics.net
xposur.com

Hey, lookee at this--one of PH's current mods has discovered the site too!  Hey, several other current PH sellers have found it too! What a coinky dinky! How'd they find it?  Who helped them find it? Will PH's new owner wind up with less than he bargained for when he bought PH? Questions, questions, questions!

Mo should be alerted to this covert migration (since I'm sure this is the first news she's heard of it) so she can nip the migration in the bud!!!!! 

Stay tuned boys and girls, fun time in the sleazy world of eBayalternativeland is just getting started...

Edited by Mandy to fix link

[sneakymagenta]

Stay tuned boys and girls, fun time in the sleazy world of eBayalternativeland is just getting started...

Two topics on TT featuring two different slimy boinktard weasels named Ray playing starring roles could lead to confusion amongst the  popcorn eating  viewers and fighting    in the aisles .


popcorn eater #1: Ray is such an asshole.  I can't believe the censorship on his forum!
popcorn eater #2: I've seen Ray boink over other site owners but I've never seen him censor his forums.
popcorn eater #1: I wasn't talking about that Ray doofus!
popcorn eater #2: Who the boink you calling doofus you stupid assmunch?!?!?!

[BellisimaJ.]

Hey, lookee at this--one of PH's current mods has discovered the site too!  Hey, several other current PH sellers

And PSU dorks..........

[mandy]

Bidz.org.uk was an active auction site in 2006 and 2007 but the site's owner Palgold Europe Ltd , which now owns Plunderhere.eu, filed as a dormant company last year.

Accounting Reference Date: 31/03
Last Accounts Made Up To: 31/03/2007  (DORMANT)
Next Accounts Due: 31/01/2009
Last Return Made Up To:
Next Return Due: 26/04/2007 OVERDUE

http://www.companieshouse...uk/WebCHeck/findinfopage/ (note: searching via this link is available from Monday to Saturday 7.00am to 12 Midnight UK Time - even websites need their beauty rest )

The instructions for Inland Revenue's CT41G Dormant Company form state:

We treat a company as dormant if it has not started, and is not about to start, any business activity.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ctsa/ct41g-dci.pdf

One can only surmise by Palgold's dormant filing status that Inland Revenue has issued an edict stating that operating an eBay alternative auction site isn't tantamount to conducting "business activity" - given the minuscule GMV of current and past Palgold owned auction sites I would have to agree with the assessment that no business activity is taking place.

[BellisimaJ.]

I am completely, and thoroughly confused. 

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