Herb and Astromart

[skyguy713]

Hello everyone. I was an Astromart member for over three years, dealing with Herb's arbitrary enforcement of his rules with his unique interpretations. Twice he has thrown me off the site for reasons he refused to explain, and recently he classified me as a dealer simply because he can.

Well, now we have a welcome alternative in Astroclassifieds and I'm thrilled. Every day I tell people about the site and most are elated to hear about it.

I would ask that you all do as I am - contact all of your previous A-mart friends and encourage them to leave it permanently and hand their hat at this site. The quicker that we grow the classified listings, the sooner people will realize that there will be no downside in leaving Amart.

We've all heard the horror stories about Herb and jsut last week I spoke to a guy was banned from the site because he mentioned in a forum that he thought that Chinese eyepieces can't compare to Japanese and domestic mad EPs - poof, he was gone.

I'm disabled and still fighting with the SSA over my disability benefits and my only income is what I can generate on the internet. Recently Herb classified me as a dealer (I'm not) and it really put me in a bind. I asked for his understanding about my predicament (two recent surgeries, my ongoing medical expenses, my very expensive monthly medications, and no other sources of income). Herb could care less and essentially kicked while I was down telling me my alternatives were to pay the dealer fees or leave the site.

It's time for us to let him know that his behavior was unacceptable and downright mean, and given that we now have a very viable alternative, we can say goodbye to him and hope that he feels what it's like to deal with people that have no smpathy for him or his soon to come demise of his site.

Please help me spread the word so that Astroclassifieds becomes the standard by which all other astronomy sites will be measured.

I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.

Roger Leafgreen

[BT Technologies]

Hello Roger and welcome aboard Astroclassifieds.com!!

Astroclassifieds is a completely free service for everyone so feel free to post your classified ads here and don't worry, no one will be contacting you with a cup in their hand asking for money.

I hope your find our site useful and please be sure to tell your "astrobuddies" about us here!!

Originally Posted by skyguy713

Hello everyone. I was an Astromart member for over three years, dealing with Herb's arbitrary enforcement of his rules with his unique interpretations. Twice he has thrown me off the site for reasons he refused to explain, and recently he classified me as a dealer simply because he can.

Well, now we have a welcome alternative in Astroclassifieds and I'm thrilled. Every day I tell people about the site and most are elated to hear about it.

I would ask that you all do as I am - contact all of your previous A-mart friends and encourage them to leave it permanently and hand their hat at this site. The quicker that we grow the classified listings, the sooner people will realize that there will be no downside in leaving Amart.

We've all heard the horror stories about Herb and jsut last week I spoke to a guy was banned from the site because he mentioned in a forum that he thought that Chinese eyepieces can't compare to Japanese and domestic mad EPs - poof, he was gone.

I'm disabled and still fighting with the SSA over my disability benefits and my only income is what I can generate on the internet. Recently Herb classified me as a dealer (I'm not) and it really put me in a bind. I asked for his understanding about my predicament (two recent surgeries, my ongoing medical expenses, my very expensive monthly medications, and no other sources of income). Herb could care less and essentially kicked while I was down telling me my alternatives were to pay the dealer fees or leave the site.

It's time for us to let him know that his behavior was unacceptable and downright mean, and given that we now have a very viable alternative, we can say goodbye to him and hope that he feels what it's like to deal with people that have no smpathy for him or his soon to come demise of his site.

Please help me spread the word so that Astroclassifieds becomes the standard by which all other astronomy sites will be measured.

I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.

Roger Leafgreen

[MRieck]

I can guarantee you I have no affinity for Herb, and even quit being a member of their peer review board because I felt it's members were too agressive in labeling some folks as dealers. I just spent the last 10 minutes checking out what you bought and sold, and more importantly, how quickly you flipped them. You are indeed a garage dealer, which I have no trouble with at all...more power to 'ya! Still, it's crystal clear that you were a garage dealer, and that's against the rules at Astromart.

There's not a darn thing wrong with what you do, it's just that you have to do it here, or at CN, or ebay, etc.

Mark

[starbuck]

That guy on AM is a complete ASS. I am suprised that more people don't jump ship there and go to the alternatives that are already in place such as here.

He wanted to start to charge me 100 dollars plus ads over on AM just because I sold 3 scopes in a matter of a couple of weeks. This as he put it classified me as a dealer. What a F'kin joke. All he is about is money and driving out any competition. I will never buy another thing from his company or visit his site again.


John

[markvcostello3]

Hi Roger, Brian, et.al.,

I've seen this subject come up on a Yahoo telescope related forum. I took the opportunity - and do so here - to put in a plug for alternative fora like Cloudy Nights and this one. There some good people here and with a bit of work, AstroClassifieds could become another power house forum.



Best Regards,

Mark Costello

[BT Technologies]

Thanks Mark for your post. CN is an excellent site along with a bunch of Yahoo groups and of course Astroclassifieds.com

It is good for people to have choices on what sites they wish to go to. In addition, they should not fear the threat of being "banned" based upon their beliefs/opinions even if it goes against the sponsors/owners of a site.

[leotyman]

The $5 fee comes up whenever Herb York deems it necessary. He could be having a bad day, he could be needing money, and he could simply be himself and behave like a totalitarian dictator that thinks he's got right to do whatever he wishes. I think this will pass with time, whenever he resumes my suggested hormone replacement therapy (I'm no doctor but it's obvious he needs help)......So to answer your question it's up to his decision, he likes to hide behind his Astromart peer group but these are a mysterious group of sheep's! They do give him validation as they seem to jump whenever he pushes the button..... Maybe that's what Herb needs, a listenng ear, someone that care about him. I'm not good at hugging, maybe others could help.... Again these are just my thoughts, he may have secret formula or ratio.. whenever someone outdoes his ATWB sales he may push the button... who knows!

Regards,

Gilles

[MRieck]

It's likely a frustrating task.

Mark

[starbuck]

You are now witnessing first hand what this "edited" is all about. MONEY
He will respond to you with a one word sentence after you write a paragraph. He could care less about anyone but himself and making as much money as possible. He will ban you from his site without a thought.

Thank god for alternatives in this world such as this site, CN and others.

John

Originally Posted by MRieck

Just wanted to add a bit to provide perspective to my previous post. As Herb often relays, vendors get a fair amount of leeway, which I've witnessed. After what I just experienced, the mention of needing some sort of hormone therapy might be a viable conclusion after all. If not that, then some professional psychiatric treatment. The only time I've ever seen similar conduct is on TV or movies when they exaggerate a character's symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. His apparent inablility to act in a civil manner, even when not provoked, never ceases to disgust.

I just finished placing an ad, which I wanted to add a tiny bit of text to. The site disallowed me from doing so, instead offering up a prompt to renew my sponsorship. The problem is, I still have several days left. The reply I received when asking how I go about editing my current ad? As ususal, rather put his keyboard through the wear and tear induced by addressing issues or at least using complete sentences..."you have to have adds to edit". Class act!

When I was a bit more aggessive and mentioned his comments were of no help, the reply..."once you run out of ads you cannot edit current ads". Very nice. I pay what is without a doubt by far the most expensive advertising rates in astronomy, and this is the crap I get? It's time for the anthropoligists to go back to the drawing board.

Mark

[optwebman]

Roger great email and I too have been kicked off by Herb and I just answer emails of questions people have about astronomy. I have recently come across this site and found it to be more useful and better layed out and I plan to visit this site not only to help on forum questions but to do my used shopping/selling here. By far one of the best sites I seen out there and I have no problems saying good by to Herb and his what they call it, oh well I can't remember so I'm back to AstroClassifieds.