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Originally Posted by HubbleMart";p="
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You're right, sorry for presuming it was deleted. All I remember is making an effort to put it in this thread, so I dont know what I did... Well, since it should be in the context of this thread (and I cant move posts), I have recopied it here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HubbleMart";p="
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Well I followed the discussion off and on, and I think I have commented on the idea here or there, and I am for it. But I just think there's too much talking about it ("its a great idea", "its a great idea but..."), which I didnt want to keep adding to, and not enough action. I say, get it GOING already, refine it LATER. This idea has been bounced around way too long, in my ever so humble opinion. We all know, there are way too many people getting ripped off by hacked players BY THE HOUR. Perhaps hundreds since this idea started. I would love to be able to sit here all day warning every one of them that they are about to get ripped off, but I dont have the time, I'm not sure they'd all listen to me, and eBay wouldn't allow me anyway. What I suppose I could do, if possible, is write a small guide for eBayers explaining what the certification program means to them, with the appropriate keywords for searching. The logo could link to the guide to help inform them. You just need to achieve the basics to make it happen:
* It, like all logos, must fall within Big Brother (eBay's) regulations on logo/certifications.
* You must implement a means to prevent abuse from those who are not officially part of the cert. program. I recall someone suggesting a "smart logo" (dynamic) that would authorize that seller as part of the program. A dumber way to do it is simply have a text disclaimer around the logo that links to a list of approved sellers, with a warning to the buyer that they must manually check that list to confirm the cert is authorized. (I would also write some tips about how to avoid getting ripped off, such as a link to toolhaus to analyze the pattern of negs/neutrals, to see what the seller's biggest complaints are). Any confirmed complaints of hacked players against a cert. seller would take the seller off the cert. list, until such time as they could prove they have good product (lets assume that good sellers CAN get fooled by their distributors!).
* You need to explain to eBayers what the cert. pgm / logo means. A short description should be near the logo, and maybe a link to a guide explaining it in detail.
* ADDING GOOD SELLERS TO THE PROGRAM: Well, I think we already have a whitelist of known good sellers, which is a good place to start. If its necessary that sellers pay for certification, then have them pay a reasonably small amount toward that, and perhaps some would have to be solicited thru email to join the program, especially at first. How to identify good sellers? Well I'm not sure if its necessary to go to all the time, trouble and expense for them to send non hacked players in. What does that prove anyway, that they found a non hacked 4GB+ player for your program? That's not impossible. Their record, it would seem, speaks louder than anything. A quick perusal on toolhaus.org will tell you if they have a pattern of complaints for hacked players. If they dont, they should be eligible for certification. If they develop complaints about hacked players later, they should have their cert. withdrawn, until they can prove they no longer sell such players.
I realize that under this implementation, scumbags like FATBOY5434 and TAMAINC would be okayed, because up to a point they had 100% pos feedback, even though they didn't send squat out to people (they solicited the feedback before people got their players, then they closed shop and left many hanging). So for low feedback score sellers, perhaps a few more stringent rules could apply to them for acceptance. Just dont make it next to impossible and assume for the most part, that people applying for certification are good sellers more than you assume they're bad (unless evidence shows otherwise).
* REMOVING BAD SELLERS TO THE PROGRAM
The information linked to the cert logo (ie. the ebay / mympxplayer guide or around the logo itself) could also inform people that if they have been victims of a hacked player from a certified seller, they should inform mymxplayer to have the seller removed from the list. Also, whoever is in charge of the cert program could perhaps periodically check feedback for sellers on the whitelist.
Unless you're willing to pay buyers for their losses, there can be no 100% GUARANTEE that they will never be able to buy a hacked player from someone on the Cert. list or lose money. That should be explained somewhere, because no 3rd party org. can guarantee how someone else will behave. The cert. is simply a 3rd party opinion that the seller is believed to be selling genuine articles, and that is at least better than poking blindly in the dark and hoping you will land on a good seller who wont make your life miserable. And no, I dont think its going to harm this site if some certified sellers misbehave or simply are dealt bad product, so long as the facts of the program are explained.
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Listen, people are emailing me all the time after reading my guides, asking me who the hell they CAN buy their mp4's from, without fear of getting ripped off, since most of what I say is telling them they are going to get ripped off. So I know that people are crying for this kind of certification program. I would like to expand my WHITELIST but I can no longer edit my own guide (thank you, ePray). This program would address this problem for a lot of buyers, and if its going to fly, it should get sailing already! Especially now that true 4GB and maybe later 8GB units are going to come in and confuse the f**k out of everyone. And its clear from remarks by sellers like HubbleMart that sellers too are being negatively impacted by the bad scam sellers. If anyone can do something substantial to swell this tide of mistrust and victimization with mp4s on ebay and protect buyers, I believe this site can do it. In fact, mympxplayer's cert program could be ebay buyers only hope, because God knows, ePray and Payfiend are NOT on their side!