Be careful what you say in forums.

[Swift135]

Take a look at this. http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=294812

[EODGUY]

LOL Wow. I would have a hard time not laughing my ass off in front of that guy.

[Zuzu]

Interesting...Sounded a bit unbelievable..:iono:

[professor]

i agree with joe that it sounds somewhat shady. maybe the guy has seen a few too many movies. it may have happened almost in passing, but the whole interrogation-room coupled with a good cop-bad cop setup and the manila envelope is a bit over the top!

[xa-coupe]

I am not sure it hasn't been dramatised somewhat.. there is a lot of references to Gestapo and the like so the guy is painting a picture that may or may not be accurate.
However, the point is valid. Someone got a speeding ticket one day and went n a newsgroup the next day asking about a big error on the ticket and whether it was invalid because of it. The cop who gave the ticket was a regular on the newsgroup and reissued the ticket correctly. You never know who is watching !

[Kris]

I'd actually laugh my arse off

[EspressoBoy]

I totally follow this. I think the writer has a flair for writing but the story to me sounds true.

Let me give you some examples of mine regarding 1addicts and Dealership.

The day I walk into the Dealership, meet the salesman, in March 2008 I think. Salesman shows me pictures on his PC. Guess what site he used to show me pictures???? 1addicts.com

Later after owning the car for 3 plus weeks and I am waiting in the service area (3rd visit for PDC repair), the Service guy is viewing 1addicts.com!!!!

So, are we paranoid for nothing? I think not. I DO watch what I say so much I was thinking of retiring my name... Or better I wish there was a way to be anonymous here.

Suggestion;

It would be nice to have an Anonymous thread. But with some rules;

We pass the anonymous to a mod, they take out our alias, make sure there is no slander etc, and they post it.

Better yet, have 1 anonymous moderator, that we PM to, they clean/filter out what they want, then post with a check back to us that it is passable.

Anyway that's an idea, wrong area I know...

so I have 2 examples where I know my Dealership views 1addicts.com.

If they read all my posts, then maybe I should share my meds with them! Only if I have a brain disorder would I ever think someone would read 160 plus posts of mine from the dealership!

But... what else do? We all know these cars sell themselves and maintian themselves. Oh and they do spend time going for joyrides and other things just to annoy us.

EspressoBoy & Yoda

PS
Yoda says he has nothing to do with this post. He claims I am going over to the dark side.

[d3syd]

What happened to free speech?

Unfortunately we live in an increasingly litigious world and although the story might be exaggerated, being sued to defamation would not be an impossible scenario......

[VonBeige]

I think you'll find a lot of big public forums get watched and monitored by parties with a vested interest in whatever the forum is about. For instance i used to work at a major airport here in oz and the a few people working in security kept tabs with whats going on in specific plane spotting forums. They wouldn't post of course, instead they would lurk and read up on what was going on the other side of the fence so to speak. Nothing nefarious on the airports behalf, it was a useful tool to the staff to make sure things were going smoothly between the fence.

I dont think its too surprising that a dealer would frequent forums. Though perhaps in that case they should have dealt with it online rather than the office thug treatment.

[VonBeige]

Ohhh heres another pearler thats just unraveled in the last few days

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/07...n-ferrari.html

the young fella on the far right puts a video up of himself drunkenly pissing on a ferrari. The video ends up on ferrarichat,com forum, whos members then take it upon themselves to find him and with which they do with accuracy, and then apparently the fun begins.



Media response
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/A...aspx?e=1108912


and the ferrarichat thread
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthr...=204329&page=1

You cant hide on the internet apparently...

[AussieRacer]

If my dealer is on here - HI!

After having just ordered my third bimmer from them, if I had an issue, doubt I would keep going back.

So in the case of the story linked to above, if the guy wasn't originally happy with the dealer, why was he there (post purchase from somewhere else)????

[Alext]

Similar thing happened to a Lotus parked in central London when a few drunken idiots jumped all over it and filmed it. It then got onto you tube etc. A couple of internet forums like this one banded together (and there are some very smart & influencial people on them) to find the criminals. http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....&in_page_id=34

[xa-coupe]

I believe that dealers and manufacturers SHOULD read these forums. It is extremely valuable marketing research that isn't diluted in any way.
I am on fordforums.com.au and we know Ford watch and that various dealers do as well. It is also a way of putting pressure on both of those parties to do the right thing in some cases. It is also a way for them to see how the car is being received, what issues there are etc etc.
The downside is you have to be careful what you say.

[Zuzu]

Well I know my dealer at Sylvania reads the forums..

He showed me the link with my car posted..

Hi Anthony...reading this thread..:thumbup::biggrin: