Bonanza Removes Rush Announcement Banners

Just a quick not to state that on 1-23-11, Bonanza finally removed those intrusive banners from most pages on the site. That includes removal from each sellers booth.

Too bad they didn't do that before so many of us were censored and treated like unwanted step-children for giving our thoughts on the situation.

Doing the right thing to start with would have prevented many hard feelings.

At least for now, this little change is a step in a better direction.

As for us, we will not be renewing our paid membership even though Bonanza made this change. It's just too little, too late. Their continued disregard for sellers and the impact changes have on sellers is all too obvious in their actions.

Bonanza a finalist for Washington Technology Association's Consumer Product of the Year

From the Bonanza blog:

Bonanza has been named a finalist in the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) Awards for Consumer Product or Service of the year. This is a pretty big deal in the Pacific Northwest and something we’re really excited about!

This year marks the 16th annual Industry Achievement Awards, a ‘signature event celebrating Washington’s technology industry.’ Other finalists include Logos Bible Software and Swype. The awards will be announced on February 24, 2011.

Congratulations to everyone in the Bonanza community. This acknowledgment is for all of you as well for making Bonanza what it is today!

About the Washington Technology Industry Association

The Washington Technology Industry Association, founded in 1984, is one of the largest statewide associations of technology companies, IT departments and individual technology professionals in North America. With more than 1,000 members representing more than 125,000 employees in Washington State, the association is a catalyst for sharing expertise, fostering collaboration, delivering key business services and advancing the value and global impact of technology companies doing business in Washington.

The association’s corporate sponsors are F5 Networks, HTC, Microsoft, Moss Adams LLP, RealNetworks, Regence BlueShield, Vertafore and Wells Fargo Insurance Services.

For more information, go to www.washingtontechnology.org.

Good luck Bonanza!

New Bonanza Social Media Rep. Jeremiah Mattocks Unprofessional & Repulsive Facebook Response

On December 22, 2010, Jeremiah Mattocks wrote about his arrival to and duties at Bonanza.

Here is the Bonanza blog link to his announcement:
http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Introducing_Jeremy

It is fairly well known that Bonanza.com staff has a so-called sense of humor. While humor is great, the timing of and the situation / delivery of this humor should be wisely looked at before applying it.

Jeremiah states in his introduction that he has something to do with a "comedy" website. We have been to that website and do not really see the humor in it. At best, it is a very sad, forced sense of humor.

Here is the link to the "comedy" site:
http://itgetsworser.com/

Anyway, we firmly believe that there is nothing wrong with a little humor so long as it does not reflect badly on the site and/or its sellers. In fact, it is nice to lighten up a bit from time to time BUT what happened to a well established Bonanza member today was just too much to ignore.

Here is the run down of the story as noted by Sofyblu2 (note: her avatar is of one of her dogs) on her Facebook wall (caution - strong & offensive language follows):

This is how a social media rep responds to a friend request????? by Russ Kawecki on Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 12:59pm

How would you feel about this? While doing my usual thing on FB I see the person hired to do the social media duties on Bonanza has also posted on a thread I am on. I think cool! A Bonanza employee! I will request friendship. This is the message I am sent by the social media rep:

Jeremiah Arthur Mattocks 09 January 2011 at 00:05

Subject: friend request?

Dear Russ Kawecki,

Imagine my surprise upon receiving a friend request from you, as you appear to be an animal; it was my understanding that animals other than Homo sapiens sapiens lacked the cognitive faculties social media requires. Either I have been grossly mistaken, or you are an unusually intelligent canine. A canine lives with me—he eats cat shit from the litter box. With your exceptional intelligence, I wonder, do you eat cat shit from the litter box when the opportunity is presented?

I do hope you’re the type of beast who accepts constructive criticism with grace. Please don’t think me rude for saying so, but we humans usually use Facebook for befriending people we know in person. I can’t remember meeting a genius dog, and I think that’s something I would remember. I understand why you might be seeking friendship outside of your peers, given your anomalous IQ, but I thought you might like to know.

Cheers,
Jeremy – a human

This is the very person hired to be our social media rep. Sweet huh?? Would one not think if they were hired for that type of position that they may have people sending friend requests and to have the god given brains to see if perhaps the requester was a part of the site you work on?

To say I am beyond offended is putting it mildly. If he said this crap to me who else that are buyers and sellers has he responded to in this manner?

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=180531435300228&comments

What kind of business person would represent Bonanza in this manner? What must potential sellers and buyers think if they are greeted with this sort of response? What must blog and media writers think in the same situation? What about potential investors - they may be wanting to learn more about Bonanza when they contact you? Do you also send them the same type of foul mouthed nasty message simply because you don't know them?

Jeremiah! You should know that it is hard to say who is behind those avatars. If you are such a social media guru, you should already know this! Seriously, you need to take lessons from Facebook for Dummies because what you did was not only unprofessional and not funny but it also makes you appear to be a real jerk. You most certainly did not appear to be a good representative for Bonanza or their sellers.

What you said was NOT funny. It was STUPID! Maybe you ought to be checking your "anomalous IQ." You are not as bright or witty as you think you are. Your comments were absolutely sick!

How many people have you run off from Bonanza with this kind of behavior?

Sellers wonder why there are very few buyers and sales on Bonanza, well, I think we found at least one reason in your response to Sofyblu2.

What is funny, this also shows just how out of touch you are with Bonanza, Jeremiah! You see, Sofy has been a Bonanzle/Bonanza member since 08-27-2008 and is on the forums daily. She posts multiple times everyday. If you had any kind of serious connection with Bonanza and its members, you would have known her avatar!

Bonanza needs to fire this joker and get someone in there that knows what they are doing. This jokers club thing will not sustain Bonanza. What it will do is kill the site. No one who is a serious seller or a buyer looking for a site they can trust will use Bonanza if it does not rid itself of the bad humor that is frequently offered up by those with a grade school attitude.

Who is running Bonanza anyway?
Many sellers are trying to make a living at least in part on Bonanza. They need professionals at the helm, not a bunch of clowns. Get some business minded people in there and fire those that have no idea how to interact on a professional level.

UPDATE:

Alex Berg posted to Sofy's FB wall. Here is a copy and paste of the spin. (And yes Alex, it is spin.)

Hi everyone. I understand the frustration and anger, and I am not making light of this, but I want to try to clear the air on a few things.

Jeremy was using his personal Facebook account and was responding to a request from someone who he ...thought was an old friend and was playing along. I assure you that he would not have responded as such if he thought the communication was in any way Bonanza-related. He sent a very heart-felt apology directly to Sofy once he was made aware of the error.

Let me add my own apology here as well. Sofy, I’m sorry you were spoken to in such a fashion. This is not the manner in which we speak to people in the community. If I thought Jeremy was being malicious in any way towards anyone in the Bonanza community please believe me that swift action would be taken.

Did he make a mistake in assuming it was a friend? Yes. Should he have checked who it was first? Yes. Regrettably, he made an honest, and now very public, mistake. I can assure you he has learned a lot from this.

Thank you for your understanding. I hope you'll all give him, and Bonanza, the benefit of the doubt that this was a mistake and not a reflection of how Bonanza treats community members.

Alex Berg
That excuse is so.... oh man, I can't find the words for it. All I can say is most of us did not fall off the turnip truck in the last 30 minutes. "Playing along" with what Alex? Sofy sent a friend request. As far as we understand it, that is not a game but it is a common thing done on FB. Normally, members approve, deny or simply ignore friend requests. They don't usually send rude and offensive responses.

As one of the responders on Sofy's FB wall states:

I only have three things to say about this...

1) Wow, what an interesting coincidence, that he had an 'old friend' named Russ Kawecki!!?

2) Hmmm, if I got a request from my 'old friend' Russ Kawecki, I might have accepted the friend request... at the same time as I was asking him if he ate cat shit and insulting his intelligence.

3) When I felt it necessary to explain to my 'old friend' that FB is normally reserved for friends that I know in person, I might have thunk that my 'old friend' Russ might take it to mean...Since I don't know you, why are you invading my personal FB space?

...okay, four things...

4) Which brings us back around to immature, rude & crude, and not a very good choice for a social media rep.
---

And another poster responds on Sofy's wall:

IMHO the young man is a loose cannon.

The origin of "loose cannon" comes from Victor Hugo's last novel, Quatrevingt-treize (or "Ninety-Three" in English). In it, a sailor was negligent in not securing a cannon on board, causing it to be tos...sed about in a storm. The moral is, even in a storm, it's not something outside of us that is capable of doing the worst damage, but what's INSIDE of us. The novel was published in 1874.

If Jeremy "thought" he was chatting with an old friend (but was not sure), he should not have replied in the manner he did. To hand over such a position to someone this inexperienced is clearly a mistake. Surely his talents could be used more effectively in another position with Bonanza for now, while he studies up on proper communications as a representative for an up and coming venue. The reputation of Bonanza (and each booth owner) is still young and fragile. It needs to be guarded CLOSELY. There is no room for error.

Stepping down off my soap box.
---

The above posters are 100% correct, as far as we are concerned.

It appears that the kid hasn't enough common sense to know when to shut off the so called comedic relief. It was a problem in this instance BUT how many other times has this happened - it was Bonanza related - but we don't know about it, yet?

What does it matter if the person he was speaking to was a Bonanza member, a possible investor or potential Bonanza seller or buyer? It shouldn't matter who he wronged but what should matter is that someone contacted him with a friend request because of his connection to Bonanza and he delivered a horrendous repsonse.

No apology can make this right. The dirty deed, hurt feelings and etc have already been done. (It's like when our kids used to get caught doing something wrong and they would say - sorry - and then go on with life as if nothing happened. BUT it did happen!)

Well, what Alex is sayig is that Bonanza and its sellers will continue to be represented by this childish person. Whatever Bonanza is paying him is far too much and the risk they are taking with the site reputation (thus, the reputation of each and every seller on the site) is extremely high.

What Alex fails to see (probably because he is relatively new to Bonanza) is that most of us have given Bonanza the benefit of the doubt for so long (since mid to late 2008) that we now know when our leg is being pulled. We have seen the spin, time and time again. And guess what? Our legs have been stretched as far as they can go but being dizzy from the spin hasn't blinded us from the truth.

Click here to read another Bonanza sellers blog on this topic.

UPDATE:

Sofy just posted on her wall, the following:

******* MY TURN :) *********************************
First off I would like to say thank you to all our friends that were so supportive to us. That means a tremendous amount that you will never realize.

I believe that this actually opened ...a door to allow Management to see that we need to be treated with TOTAL respect both on and off the site. That our opinions do matter and that as contributors to the site that we do deserve a voice in the very thing that effects our lives..our business. To that I fervently pray and wish that no one leaves. I believe we can make this all work as long as there is some give and take on both sides. And I mean BOTH sides.

Jeremy did send me an apology. However, I quit earlier than usual and did not receive it until a few minutes ago as i dug thru my mail. Alex's response was some 5 hours later than when Jeremy apologized.

As this is my problem..I am willing to accept Jeremy's apology with the agreement that he apologize to the community. However to avoid any further problems I am requesting that it be done so that no comments can be left. It is now time to heal.I have thought long and hard about this.. I do not want him fired. My expectations from Jeremy are that he will learn from this kick in the ass, that being careless is no way to go thru life, that he realize in his youth that he actually is responsible for our livelihoods, his actions directly effect my business. He may not yet have a mortgage nor a family, but perhaps this will allow him to see how how his actions do effect others. And that I expect him to pick up his slack and do the job he was hired to do and to do it beyond the call of duty.

A lot of things have been said and I think a lot of it has just been building up for so long that the dam finally had to burst. We as sellers have felt like we no longer mattered to what many felt like what was home. I want my home back again and I want us all to succeed. Again that is going to take the work of BOTH us and management.
---

I understand forgiveness and all of that but this guy could make or break Bonanza and/or each one of us who sell on Bonanza since he is supposed to be the "social" guy that helps get the site name out there and hopefully, bring buyers to Bonanza. I firmly believe, allowing him to stay at Bonanza will be a huge mistake. (The same goes with all of the others who have committed - not funny capers - that can directly affect our businesses with which we support ourselves and our families.)

While this may have seemed to be an attack on Sofy, it really was more than that. It was an attack on all of Bonanza and its sellers. So, I kind of have a problem with one person telling me and the rest of the site members how to feel about this whole situation (sorry, Sofy). I think all of the sellers have feelings on what happened and all of them have merit. We have every right to call for the kid to be fired as he is also representing us in whatever he posts to and in conjunction with social media. I think his "mistake" proves that he is not mature enough to handle the postion and he lacks very important basic decision making skills. Bonanza needs someone who has REAL experience with social media - not just some kid who plays around with social media and some ridiculous "comedy" website. (By the way, did you see the Christmas cartoon on his site? Bad taste for the social media guru of a selling venue, if you ask me.)

So, I am a bit bugged that anyone thinks that this should be the end of it and that life just simply goes on - because it doesn't. That same thinking did not work for my kids when they lived at home - it certainly is not going to work for this kid in Seattle who has the potential to destroy our business.
--

UPDATE:

Jeremiah posted an apology on Sofy's wall:

Dear Bonanza community,
...
For all the anger, hurt, frustration, and loss of trust I’ve caused, I am very sorry. Your anger with me is expected. But the thing I’m most ashamed of is how I’ve damaged your relationship with Bonanza. Not content to hold me personally responsible for my own private, stupid actions, I’ve seen Bonanza’s name dragged through the mud; I couldn’t feel more terrible about this than I already do.

When Bonanza hired me, they did so not because I was an expert, but because they saw potential. I’ll be the first to say I’m not an expert. I’m learning, I’m human, and I made a big mistake. This is, without a doubt, the biggest and stupidest mistake I’ve made. But that is exactly what it was: a mistake. This was not me being malicious or callous or knowingly disrespecting a Bonanza seller. This was an honest, albeit idiotic, mistake. But I promise you this: I won’t make this mistake again. No matter where I find myself in the future, I’ve learned a valuable lesson that I’ll never forget.

Since my message has already been made public, I owe you all more than just an apology—I owe you an explanation.

I share a weird sense of humor with many of my close friends. Every once in a while, one of them will create a new fictional Facebook account as a joke. I will respond in kind and find myself friends with another fictitious entity. I’ve been Facebook friends with a rag doll, a mannequin, and a pet chinchilla. I’m not asking you to laugh, but I hope you will understand that this was a ridiculous attempt at humor made in the worst possible way at the worst possible time. Unused to representing a company in my private life, I assumed this new friend request came from one of my old friends up to their zany hijinks again.

What I’m trying to say is I made a horrible assumption. Since I assumed the request came from a close friend, it made sense to me to respond as if I were talking to a friend’s pet. It made absolutely no sense to respond to a valued member of our community in that way. To say I am sorry would be an understatement. I am mortified to find out that my message went to a Bonanzler who was trying to connect in earnest. This is not intended to be an excuse at all. I accept full responsibility for the mess I made. This is just an explanation.

What I’ve learned from this is that I represent Bonanza personally as well as professionally. And given that many of you earn your living on Bonanza, I take this lesson very, very seriously. I understand now, more than ever, that I have a duty to the entire community that doesn’t end when the work day is over.

To everyone I hurt with my carelessness: I deeply, truly regret my actions. Your anger and disappointment is completely understandable. I’ve read your messages, I’ve taken them to heart, and I’m ready to start showing you how much I value your role in Bonanza.

I am so sorry. I hope you’ll forgive my carelessness.

Sincerely,

Jeremy
---

Ok, that seems like a very heartfelt apology. Thank you Jeremy!

But the question of his ability to effectively and professionally represent Bonanza and all of its sellers is still unanswered. Is it worth the risk to continue on this course with a social media guru who didn't realize the full realm that social media plays on a selling venue? Is it worth the risk to have someone represent you who has no idea just what their job is and/or how his personal life can cause problems for his business life online?

It's not just this one mistake. It is several mistakes that have happened involving Bonanza reps. This poor kid just got caught up in the strange workings of Bonanza. There have been several blunders by those who represent Bonanza so for many, this mistake was the icing on the cake.

I still say, this should not be allowed to happen and there should be a termination as it appears Bonanza hired someone that they liked personally or liked his sense of humor at an interview rather than someone who had the appropriate credentials to do a job that can make or break not only Bonanza but all of the sellers on Bonanza.

UPDATE:

ColderIce & Pheadra talk about this situation:

John and Pheadra Talk Social Media Mistep at Bonaza by ColderICE

Note: We disagree with CI's initial comments about peoples avatars. No matter what the avatar looks like, no one should be talked to like that. No social rep of a selling venue should say bad things to anyone whether someone uses their own picture or just a simple graphic as their avatar. After all, anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that it is a person typing messages on Facebook and not any animal.

As far as the comments about a social media rep and not knowing enough to separate their personal stuff from their business stuff (a real social media rep would have known this info before they went looking for employment), we wrote the basics on this back in August 2009. For that matter, this same advice is all over the internet. Here's the link:
http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2009/08/online-seller-professionalism.html

And - anyone who has been out in the working world knows that people can and do recognize you due to your work. Sometimes the 2 portions of your life do cross over. This is why many employers have policies about your conduct on and off the job. In most all cases, employers fire those who cross over the line in a manner that can hurt their businesses. This is true in both government and private sector jobs.

And yes, many of us have made mis-steps in our lives but for the most part, they do not hurt anyone but ourselves. There is little room for mis-steps that can hurt all sellers on a selling venue.

And the lynch mob comments: this has nothing to do with a lynch mob. It has to do with holding the selling venue responsible for their choice of such a rep. Ultimately, the selling venue is responsible to all of their sellers when they hire someone to fill a position that is representing everyone. Yes, Jeremy made a huge mistake (that credentialed social media reps would likely not make) but it was Bonanza that hired him so they are the ones who hold the majority of blame. Personally, we don't really care where someone like this works as long as it is far away from our business if they have no idea how to do their job or the seriousness of the responsibilities surrounding the job.

None of this has changed our minds. Get a REAL social media rep or do without one completely. Sellers work too hard to build their reputations to have some green horn come in and ruin it for them with snarky comments. Doesn't Bonanza do background checks on the people they hire? If not, this is proof that they should.

We just checked out the link to the site that Jeremiah claims that he is a "social media specialist." Oh Lord, if this is what got him the job, Bonanza also needs to hire a personnel director to do their hiring because their judgment is clouded with their weird humor. Anyone reading the page can see, this guy is not who you want representing your company. Here is the link (a social media specialist would never have "suck my cocktails" on their site where they are soliciting employment but it is on this site):
http://www.jeremiahmattocks.com/about

Added 01-11-2011 - Link to Colder Ice's article on the above subject:
http://3rdpoblogs.com/colderice/2011/01/10/did-bonanza-com-pick-the-wrong-name-out-of-the-social-media-specialist-hat/

We Will No Longer Post On The Bonanza Forums

Due to an incident on 11-04-10, we have had enough. Seems that Bonanza wants their members to think that they are able to express themselves but that is clearly not the case.

Here is a post from Bonanza forums written by Mark that states, in part:

"Hey everyone,

Each day one of the first things that we do is browse the forums to get a sense of how the community is doing, what is new, how everyone is, etc. The past couple of days we have seen a couple of posters that stated that they were “afraid to post” or “hesitant to discuss sensitive matters” in the forums for fear of being DMV’d (Disemvoweled, suspended, etc, see definitions below). So that everyone in the community is clear, that is not how we roll. We totally want you to talk, discuss, and have constructive conversations and carry on as you always have. The idea that we do not want you to disagree or the be “only cheery” is not true and not realistic. That being said, we are very intent on having one of the most friendliest and empowering communities online, which we are. Does that mean that you cannot disagree with someone? Not even. Bill and I disagree all the time (mostly about Racquetball rules and the best Nachos in Seattle). But when you do disagree (on Bonanza), you need to disagree constructively and in a professional manner. We want to make sure that we are fostering a community that is welcoming to all, buyers and sellers, because lets face it, there is enough dreariness in this world to go around."

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/4/topics/136442

We got disemvoweled and a forum violation on page four in this thread:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/9/topics/138465?page=4

If you don't like clicking on links, you can click on the below screenshot to enlarge it to see the missing vowels:

This is what was written before the disemvoweling:

>>Why does the Rush banner show up in my booth? We hope that Rushes are going to become one of the differentiating features of Bonanza — so we don’t want these to be an event that is buried where it won’t be seen. We will be closely monitoring if and how the Rush announcement affects buying behavior, but given how many buyers visit from search and click away after one page, we figure it can’t be a bad thing to give them a second place to glance at if the original item they came to see didn’t meet their buying criteria.

And of course, any buyer, whether logged in or not, can hide the Rush notification with a single click.<<

If Bonz is going to leave that banner in our booth and take no consideration that we work hard to bring buyers to OUR booth (our time and effort with no help from Bonz to bring them to our booth) then we will NOT be renewing our premiere membership.

Bonz has no right to put that banner in our booth to take our customers out of our booth. We don't want our visitors/buyers seeing that banner in our booth! We can NOT hide that banner from our visitors/buyers by clicking anything.

We don't want that banner in our booth and nothing is going to change our opinion.

To keep taking away our control of our booths and business is wrong on every level.

Bummin' more and more about the so-called upgrades of the site because they are not considering what is best for the sellers but seem to be only concerned about bells, whistles and taking more choices away from the sellers.

I am sorry - I thought the Rush could be a great opportunity for Bonz and the sellers but if the above statement is the case, that means Rushs will only be good for some sellers at the expense of the rest of us sellers.

Here is a screen shot of the post to prove the above is what was written. Please click on the graphic to enlarge it:

After we got the violation email we sent this to support:

Just thought I'd say how childish that was to violate me and DMV me for my opinion on Bonz destroying our businesses with their bells and whistles.

It's ok, I won't post in your stupid forums no more but you can bet my blog will be busy being filled with posts this weekend when I have more time...

And just for the record, I won't DMV Bonz management but don't be surprised if I call out any spin you may post.

I am angry that you are taking our businesses out from under us and you should have expected some of us would speak out.... But of course, you probably did and kept that nasty violation button hot and ready.

Have a great night!
---

Then Mark waits 3 days to respond with:

Mark, Nov 07 23:21 (PST):

Really sorry for any trouble in the forums. We really enjoy having you in the community and sincerely appreciate your support in the forums. We hope that you reconsider your position and that we see you participating soon.

Regards,
Mark
The Bonanza Team
---

Who the heck is he kidding? Why would anyone post just to have him or other Bonz management humiliate them in the forums?

This wasn't the first time they slapped me/us around in the forums but you can bet your bottom dollar that it won't happen again.

Those forums are a joke.
The rules they use are a bigger joke.
Their rule enforcement is not consistent and causes further issues. (If you aren't a favorite with management, you best look out!)

Just simply stated, the post that Mark made that states we shouldn't be hesitant to post in the forums is a bold faced lie! We know all too well - how they "roll," as Mark put it.

Some forum members have not only been told that "Bonanza may not be right for them" (basically a suggestion to leave the site) due to issues they have had in the forums and others have been threatened in private emails. We can promise you, you can not speak freely there.

Things have gotten even worse than ever before since Bonanza got the money from the investors. It seems that any member is now expendable. We are not needed.

If you use Bonanza forums, be aware that you may find trouble lurking for you.

For those that don't know, what we write on our blogs can also get us into trouble with Bonanza management. If they happen to read anything negative about them or the site, sometimes they respond in a manner that is not so kind. Yes friends, Hitler and his cohorts may have been reincarnated so please be careful.

Unprofessional, Irresponsible Post By Bonanza Management In Their "Roundtable Questions"

Management of a venue with forums should lead by example. Whatever the site rules are, management should be the first to follow those rules. Horseplay and/or "testing" (whatever they want to call it) should not be done where potential buyers may see it when they visit the site. The first impression is what buyers remember and when something questionable or unprofessional is seen, buyers will notice. Many will run fast and furious from a site that appears less than business-like.

Bonanza's rules regarding the use of the roundtable question area states, in part:

Bonanza's Roundtable is a place you can get general questions about items answered from the community. Any user can ask a question, and any user can post an answer. Keep in mind when answering that accuracy counts; the community votes for the best answer. If your response gets the most votes, Bonanza's system remembers you as an excellent reference for a particular category of items. As a trusted resource, your response will get priority over others when a similar question arises.

The rest of the info about roundtable questions can be found at:
http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/roundtable?layout=&title=What+are+%27Roundtable+Questions%3F%27

Bonanza also states in their forum rules, in part, the following which believe is to somewhat govern the whole site:

•Other conduct unbecoming a good community member: expressing polictical or religious viewpoints, asking for donations, using foul language, engaging in threads of adult nature (drugs, drinking, etc.), threatening to talk to lawyers or file lawsuits, stalking, booth chat hijacking, starting topics about topics that have been reclassified, unnecessarily assuming the worst in others or Bonanza, spam.

The forum guidelines can be found here:
http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

Bonanza's own, Mark Dorsey posted a roundtable question on December 22, 2010, that should not have ever been posted. It was fairly early in the evening and remaining up to read for several hours, during prime shopping time. This should not have been posted at all - Not by Bonanza members - Not by management - Not by anyone!

We figured that the post and subsequent posts would not last long because someone with some sense was bound to see what was going and complain so we took the following screenshots so we had proof of what was said. Click the below graphics below to enlarge them.


There you have it. Bonanza management talking about drinking as if it was to be expected of Bonanza members and visitors through the holiday season. What was he thinking?

Here are some of the responses to Mark's roundtable question - click on the graphics to enlarge them:






Mark sent an apology and an explanation to at least one person for his irresponsible post to the roundtable. Mark said:

"The roundtable had been stagnant for over a week and I was trying to think of something to post just to test to make sure it was working properly."

While we don't believe that excuse, we have to give him credit for admitting that he made an error in judgment and aplogizing.
---

And if that wasn't enough, 2 days later, someone brought up the above mentioned roundtable question in their own roundtable question. Click the graphics below to enlarge them.


The above new post to the roundtable didn't last too awfully long but it should not have happened and was caused by the unprofessional behavior in the original post.

Forum Guideline Implementation Inconsistencies Create Issues Amongst Bonanza Users

There has not been a time that we can remember that one of the threads which originated from us has ever been allowed to stay in the forums. For whatever reason, they have been sent to drama and deleted shortly after, just simply deleted and now with the new Bonanza management toy, threads that we have started have ended up in purgatory. Bonanza purgatory is where a thread does not get deleted or moved to drama but it is set in limbo where only those that have bookmarked it can find it again. You can still post to it if you can find it but it does not show up on the people page of the forums.

Well, one time we confronted Mark at Bonanza support and here is what he said as to why one thread went to purgatory:

I can understand how you may think that you are being targeted, as I know there have been a couple of posts from you that were taken off of the front page rotation. Let me explain why, that will help so that in the future you can continue to post such topics but word them differently so they do not wind up the same fate.

Using your title as a first example:

"Threatening OBO Message -Is it necessary & in sellers/sites best interest?"

It is a very strongly worded title that may invoke drama, which we try to steer clear of. Instead, try wording it something like this:

"I think we should word the OBO message differently, what do you think?

The second title is more inviting of constructive feedback and is less likely to be cast off of the home page.

If you have a quick look at the description of the OP, you will also see words that are inviting of drama:

"so Bay-like"

"so what!"

"why the threatening message?"

"nasty message."

Your posts are very strong and opinionated. They serve only to fire people up and invite dramatic responses. We are not unreasonable and have always responded to constructive feedback from all. But it needs to be constructive and not delivered so strongly so that it delivers the wrong message to us and also invites dramatic posts from others.

Hope this helps you understand the process. Just in case, here are some links to our guidelines that will also assist:

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/topic_tags?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+topic+tags%3F

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/disemvowel?layout=&title=What+does+it+mean+to+become+%22disemvoweled%3F%22
---
Funny how as adults, we are being told what to write and how to express it. After all, we are not smart enough to get our message across without censorship and or coaching.

We don't know when it happened or why but the thread eventually was completely removed:
http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/127219?page=1

Oh, and here is another thread that we started only to have it land in purgatory without an explanation:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/124288?page=1

When questioned, all Mark said was:

"The post is still live and can be seen by all. Thank you for your support of our community and for the helpful information you are providing.

Regards,
Mark
The Bonanzle Team"

That was so untrue! It was only able to be seen by those who saved the link.

And one time, I got a message from Mark, can't find it right now but I know I have it somewhere, where he stated that the message I was trying to convey in a post I had made is one similar to posts that they have seen posted by others that led to discord, or something like that, so he removed a post that I had made. (The post I had written was not causing any issues but because someone at some other time had posted a "similar" post that caused a stink, mine had to go!)

---

Then when you look at the forum guidelines, they state in part:

•Other conduct unbecoming a good community member: expressing polictical or religious viewpoints, asking for donations, using foul language, engaging in threads of adult nature (drugs, drinking, etc.), threatening to talk to lawyers or file lawsuits, stalking, booth chat hijacking, starting topics about topics that have been reclassified, unnecessarily assuming the worst in others or Bonanza, spam.

http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

There have been posts on this blog where we have talked about how Bonanza management have favorite members on the site and that those members are treated differently than others. That's not saying anything bad about these particular members because management is making the choice to treat those members better than others.

Anyway, with all that I have said above, I can not for the life of me understand why this post is still on the forums! It was started in drama but threads get obliterated there also. So what gives?

Here is the thread: http://www.bonanza.com/forums/10/topics/146141

The thread is bringing up a topic that has been reclassified which is against forum policies;

And the thread is talking about religion which is agaist forum policies.

Besides that, people have been a bit snippy in that thread and yet it remains.

Why the favortism? Who knows but it is clearly obvious on Bonanza, no one can ever convince me otherwise.

What else is funny about this, since this drama thread has started, the prayer request threads have popped up quite a bit and no one is doing anything to enforce the forum policies. Funny how that works!

What I don't get is Bonanza is a selling venue. These kinds of threads offering support or whatever can be done on any of tons of sites that are available on the internet for that sole purpose. There are private emails, Bonz emails (Bmail,) there is a chatbox in each sellers booth and there are QT's. So why does this kind of thing show up in a selling venues forums?

Some say get rid of Christmas, Easter and etc if they enforce the religious policy. That would be silly because while many people associate those holidays with religion, many others do not. In all honesty, those titles are so commercial that the true name of the holidays and meanings of them have been lost for the most part.

But back to the message of this post, it does matter who you are on Bonanza when it comes to posting in the forums.

Bonanza.com Blatantly Diverts Traffic Away From Sellers Booths

Without any consideration for sellers feelings, Bonanza placed a huge banner on their booth to the sites new Bonanza Rush's, effectively creating a diversion to potential buyers who may visit a particular sellers booth.

At first, the banner in each individual booth was as big as the banner on the home page. Click the graphic to enlarge the screenshot:

Many sellers complained on the Bonanza blog and in one instance, where we asked to have the banner removed from our booth, we were told they would look into. Once again, to enlarge the screenshots below, click on each of them.


Then a short while later, Bonanza founder, Bill Harding wrote the following post:

When I saw what Bill wrote, which was completely contrary to the message Alex wrote on the blog, I was miffed.

The reasoning for these ridiculous banners in our booth is not as stated but we believe it is because they are not going to advertise the rushes BUT they are going to suck off sellers efforts at promoting their booth to draw buyers into their booths. Rather than advertising outside of Facebook, Twitter and emails (which go to a great number of people that are already Bonz members and know about the Rushs,) they are forcing sellers to do the work for them indirectly.

Bill's post was a page before I got disemvoweled on the same thread:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/9/topics/138465?page=3

At some point, Bonanza did finally reduce the size of the leaching banner but it is still in every sellers booth, just waiting for one of the buyers that that seller worked so hard to draw in to click on that thing and be pulled away from that sellers listings.

Seems to me that Bonanza is forgetting that many sellers left eBay because they were being told how to run their businesses and their choices of how or what was going on with their stores and/or listings were being taken away.

Just how long does Bonanza think they can continue on this course of - do what we want / to hell with the sellers and their thoughts and feelings - before they start leaving Bonz for places that value and respect them?

PayPal Gets Free Advertising On Bonanza Sellers Listings

Crazy at it may seem, sellers at Bonanza were forced to give up prime real estate on their product listings without an ounce of choice in the matter.

Bonanza decided on their own without any consideration to how their sellers may feel about adding a badge on their listings to simply add a badge but even worse, there is a link to learn more about using Paypal on Bonanza.

Here is what it looks like. You can click the graphic to enlarge the screenshot we took:

Here is the link to the learn more part of the PayPal banner - http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/offers/pp_buyer_protection?layout=false&title=Paypal+Buyer+Protection

In the infomation provided at the above link, Bonanza is USING PayPal's buyer protection in an attempt to instill buyer trust BUT they are diverting trust from all Bonanza sellers, especially those who do not accept PayPal with the following statement:

Purchases made with PayPal as the payment method. Purchases made through Google Checkout or with a money order or other payment method won't be covered.

Nothing like using the sellers listings to promote PayPal for free and then throw a large majority of sellers (some who have paid Bonanza memberships) under the bus.

If Bonanza was truly interested in buyer trust, they would market the Bonanza name broadly - TV, radio, newspaper, magazines and etc so that buyers know that it is not interested in being a fly by night site.

Instead, they are running on the coat tails of PayPal's buyer protection program.

Why doesn't Bonanza do the same thing with Google Checkout? They too have a buyer protection program. Why make one payment service sound so much better over the other when they both provid excellent buyer protection? It can be found here: http://checkout.google.com/support/?hl=en

It makes us think that they are getting some kind of kickback for advertising PayPal. We can't think of any reason Bonanza would give up such a highly visible space on sellers listings and risk angering sellers doing so without something inticing them to do so.

Here is what Bonanza sellers had to say about the PayPal badge:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/140746

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/140753

At some point along the way, Bonanza made that huge badge an option and sellers were eventually able to turn the thing off.

Use Caution Buying Jewelry On Bonanza.com

We feel a bit bad about not posting this sooner, especially since the Christmas shopping season is over but we hope it will still help those who buy or intend to buy jewelry on Bonanza.com.

As we wrote in a September 2010 post - http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2010/09/everything-that-glitters-gold-is-it.html - there are issues on Bonanza with sellers misrepresenting their jewelry products as being gold when they are gold plate or other lesser valued jewelry.

We reported to Bonanza management about a seller. They must have gotten ahold of the seller and said something because the listing titles were changed a bit but for the worse. Seems the titles were shortened up to look even more like the items are really karated gold.

So, we reported the situation and demanded something be done, pointed out the issues and etc.

We got this note back from support:

Mark, Sep 23 10:49 (PDT):

We have addressed this. Additionally, this seller has 100% feedback and has always shown a willingness to do the right thing. So while we can understand your concerns, we would encourage you to let Bonanza handle the situation as we have always done.

Thanks,
Mark
The Bonanza Team
---

The buyer that contacted me about the seller in question also got a less than helpful response from support that was shared with us. It states (we took the buyers name out):

Hello,
I did check out her listings, her past practices, and sales. I also did some research on the gold-layering process, and she appears to be following the letter of the law when describing her jewelry. I know that you didn't get what you thought you were buying, but I don't believe that the seller was intentionally deceptive about the items. However, I'm glad to hear that everything worked out for you with the refund.

Tom
The Bonanza Team
---

Okay, so we have allowed Bonanza to handle the situation but guess what? They haven't done a thing about the situation. The seller is still listing gold plated (so-called layered gold according to the seller) as if it is karated gold and on top of that, making comments about other sellers not being honest when they say their karated gold is solid karated gold.

Bonanza management is allowing sellers to list improperly and against the FTC rules, guidelines and laws that all jewelry sellers must follow. They know it, we have sent them the FTC information. There is no excuse for this to be happening except for the fact that Bonanza makes money each time there is a sale. I am sure that they are counting on buyers of this cheap jewelry will not notice in time to get their money back thus, Bonanza gets their cut even if the buyer got ripped off.

Before buying jewelry on Bonanza:
Know the product you intend to buy.
If you don't know the product well, research it with Google search.
Ask tons of questions.
Try to buy from sellers you know.
Make your purchase with a credit card so you have solid recourse if you get taken.

Here are some screenshots of the deception - click them to enlarge them so they are easier to read.

The insult to other gold jewelry sellers.

Untrue titles stating the items are karated gold.





Clearly deceptive listings!





This seller requires buyers of items that are not as described to return the item back to them on the buyers dime. I suppose to divert returns but a buyer should never have to pay postage to return an item that was sold deceptively.

Now remember, these are just examples of some of the deceptive listings by this seller. They have many more listings than are reported here.

Allowing this seller to list like this is unbelievable. Not only is it deceptive to buyers but it is unfair to sellers of true karated gold. After all, their prices can never be as low as those offered by this seller so this seller will likely get the sale before an ethical seller who lists their products properly.
---
The other night, 12-30-10, we were snooping around Bonanza and saw someone Tweet (a paid tweeting service on the site) for a seller who had an 18K gold ring for sale. For whatever reason, we clicked on the link to open the listing only to find it was not 18K but it was 18K gold plated! So, this paid Tweeting service is spreading the deceptive listing all over Twitter BUT they don't even realize they are doing anything wrong.

To make matters worse, this same item turned up on a handpicked list that was on Bonanza's home page. We took a screenshot with the mouseover pop up showing how the ring was listed as 18K. Click the below screenshot to enlarge it.

The seller of this item must know very little about jewelry as an 18K gold ring would not be listed as "fashion jewelry" by a reputable jeweler.
---

The sad part is, most sellers know that many buyers see a title, a picture they like and then make a purchase. Many do not completely read the listing so this kind of marketing is very effective.

Until this changes, please use caution purchasing jewelry on Bonanza.

With all of that said, you can find all of what the FTC says about jewelry and the proper way to mark and market it here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.shtm

The FTC also offers the following info about buying gold jewelry here:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro02.shtm

Not So Nice Hand Picked List On Bonanza's Home Page

The other night 12-31-10, I was snooping around and went to Bonanza's home page. I rarely, if ever, go there so imagine my surprise when I saw the following handpicked list inhabiting this prime real estate.

It is called, Find Your Woody Here.

Please click the below graphic to enlarge it.
It all seems innocent enough until you see the note about what the item in the right, lower corner says when you mouse over it. At first it appears to simply say My Woody with a picture but when you mouse over it, it says - My Woody Got Me A Lei. If you decide to click on the image instead of simply mouse over it and get the large version of the picture in the listing.

I don't know about you but I don't think that item should be on the home page of any selling venue that considers themselves to be family friendly. What must buyers think when they see that? Sure, some will think it is funny but many will not.

Just the term "woody" is bad enough since it means something sexual to some.

And to think that Bonanza management is responsible for picking the lists that hit the home page just blows me away! What were they thinking?! Don't they know that something like that on the home page may reflect badly on all sellers of the site?!Where was their common sense in choosing this HPL?

Bonanza Touts A Review That May Be Unintentionally Deceptive

On Bonanza's blog, they wrote and article dated Dec. 3, 2010 about a review they received by 'The Budget Fashionista'. You can see the blog post at http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Bags_Bonanza_Reviewed

While the author may have had good intentions, they obviously did not know about all of the fake bags that were reported to Bonanza management by members of The Purse Forum. They also must not have known about the mess with a Bonanza seller selling the same person to about 9 or 10 different buyers from The Purse Forum just a couple of weeks before the review was written.

Here is a link to a thread in The Purse Forum about the issue - http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/warning-bonanza-glitch-641492.html

If you are going to buy bags on Bonanza, know the product you are considering and if you are unsure, run the listing info past the members at The Purse Forum to see what their take is on the item, don't just make the purchase and find out later that you have been taken.

Yes, there are fakes on all sites but not all sites are as green at detecting them.

Since Bonanza upset the owners and members of The Purse Forum, it is even more difficult now for them to know which bags are fake as they counted on TPF to tell them which items were fake and needed to be removed.

Sales Up Across The Board For Ecommerce Businesses Except For Bonanza

All over the internet there are reports quoted by Comscore.com stating that online holiday sales rose 13% through December 26, reaching $30.81 billion.

Click the below link to read a complete AuctionBytes report on the topic:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y10/m12/i30/s04

All you have to do is Google for the information and thousands of reports say that this holdiay season was quite the success.

So why on Bonanza.com are there few sellers stating that sales were good or better than last year?

Here are some links on the topic from Bonanza forums:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/4/topics/144497

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/143797

We think that Bonanza changing their name at the end of September 2010 played a role in the lack of sales but more than that, the lack of advertising is probably the culprit.

Bonanza did absolutely no advertising but on Facebook, Twitter and their site newsletter BUT that advertising was far too late to help get the site name out there to help anyone this holiday shopping season.

Here is just one of the links from the Bonanza forum that show how their sellers felt about the late or lack of advertising:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/142810

Here is the late Bonanza newsletter which was emailed out 12-06-2010. By this time, most buyers had gotten much of their shopping done.

http://bonanza.cmail5.com/T/ViewEmail/r/A1A6ACEB85FF1638/57ED3B42B82DBC56D9767B6002735221

Also on December 06, 2010 - Bonanza was bragging on their site blog that they were mentioned in Lucky magazine. Well, since the mention was written in a way to draw more sellers to Bonanza, we question what there really was to brag about since what Bonanza needs is a stream of buyers, not sellers. This is not to mention that the magazine did not hit newsstands until AFTER the holiday shopping season.

Here's the link: http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Bonanza_in_Lucky_Magazine

What's really a sad note is that at least one top seller on Bonanza has been a seller of a Tweeting service to promote sellers booths instead of sellers with a physical product for sale (see the below graphic.) That says a lot about the lack of sales on the site!

Unless Bonanza gets serious about helping their sellers draw buyers to the site, it's hard to believe that things will be getting any better for sellers. From what Bonanza has said up to this point, paid advertising of any real value is not in their near future plans. Until Bonanza is a name that is recognized by shoppers, we believe that sales will continue to be dismal for most sellers.

It's not just the lack of holiday sales, all year long sellers scream about the lack of sales on Bonanza. Sellers can only do so much to draw buyers in - it is time for Bonanza to step up to the plate.

Did You Get Permission To Do That?

When a site wishes to integrate with another site, there are usually talks between the sites and permissions to be granted before such an activity takes place.

Seems that there has been an issue of not asking permission to ask ThePurseForum's members for their log in information - including their TPF password at Bags.Bonanza.com.

ThePurseForum put up a banner across their forum, below their header but above where you can read the threads for those Bonanza users who also use ThePurseForum. Bonanza is the parent company of Bags.Bonanza.com. Below is a copy of the banner (click it to enlarge it.)

Vlad & Megs of ThePurseForum acted quickly when they found Bags.Bonanza.com presenting its users with an option on their profile page to verify their PurseForum membership by providing Bonanza with their PurseForum username and password.

According to Vlad's original post, "This function on Bags.Bonanza.com is not authorized, sanctioned or supported by the PurseForum, its parent company and its owners."

Read more here: http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/attn-bonanza-users-635298.html

Below is a graphic of the link that users were seeing and the form where users would input their information.

Click the graphic to enlarge.They also advised their members about internet security in general.

Vlad & Megs are looking out for their members and the integrity of their site.
--

Bill Harding, the founder of Bonanza, posted this into ThePurseForum alert thread in post 64 of the thread:

"Hey all,

So exciting to see our name in lights, if not under the exact circumstances I would have chosen! :)

Given the tremendous overlap between TPF users and Bonanza users, we had hoped that increased integration between the sites could provide a win-win where we sent new traffic and new registrations to TPF, and our TPF users could get to re-meet each other on our site.

That said, we certainly understand if Vlad would rather not incorporate such functionality at this time, so we've taken down the site linker until such time that we are told Vlad is cool with it coming back into existence (if ever).

For the record, we never save users' password or sensitive information on our system longer than absolutely necessary. Like our imports from other sites, we have safeguards in place to ensure that all personal information is encrypted while we have it, and purged from our servers as soon as we have verified an established identity.

Our plan is to continue to build the most functionality and widest inventory of bags available online, at prices far lower for sellers than other marketplaces. We have already personally reached out to the big V&M to offer to discuss whether this functionality would be beneficial to our sites' mutual users. And we plan to continue to have a presence on tPf to the extent we're able.

Bill Harding
CEO
Bonanza.com"
--
Then, in response to some PurseForum members questions in post 75, he responded with:

"@AuntFlo: As pointed out by some others, tPf is not the first site that we let our users link their accounts to; generally speaking, we think that being able to connect accounts between the different sites you use is a useful idea for our mutual users. And we had hoped the traffic we hope to drive to tPf through the feature would make it a win-win. But again, we're fine taking the feature down, it certainly isn't a major aspect of the overall site, just a nicety we had hoped would make for a better experience.

@MissMollie: The tracking number showing up is an issue we only heard about recently; we will be looking into it today and it will likely be fixed by tomorrow.

@iluv: It's probably fairly clear at this point, but our primary rationale was user convenience. And the fact that we had already built out similar functionality to link with other sites meant that we already had the technology to temporarily store user info in a secure fashion. But we certainly don't want to step on toes for sites that aren't comfortable with such features, which is why we've taken it down.

Bill Harding
CEO
Bonanza"
--

It has always been a PurseForum rule that users can not have more than one user ID. Also, about a year ago, ThePurseForum decided not to allow company representatives to utilize their forums as means to interact with their customers. So, they "Sofa King Banned" Bill, Mark and Tom (of Bonanza) from using their site any longer.

While they were at it, they closed the Bonanzle/Bonanza thread where Bonanza staff would interact with their users. Bonanza was using information from the thread to detect conterfeit handbags and other designer items listed on Bonanza and their new handbag site.

Here is the link to that thread:

http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/bonanzle-fakes-421522.html

Now the question is, what kind of damage to Bonanza and their handbag site was caused by management simply doing what they wanted and not asking for the proper permissions first?

While we do not believe that Bonanza had any mailicious intentions, we applaud ThePurseForum staff for acting swiftly to protect their site and members.