Original Message:
Re: Membership requirements for potential renters ($9.99 fee) (by Marty F):
scottm377 wrote:"They can't police EVERY poster here unless they're notified just as no internet site can."There are a number of ways they could provide some assurance. How about a feedback score like eBay, or so many bulletin boards use (something like "JayJay, member since 2001, 270000 posts, 12 positive reviews from renters"). That would at least make people take extra caution if someone had just joined the site and had a zero feedback score.
Without something like that, I would never use this site again. Burn me once, shame on you...
Scott,
The feedback such as on ebay works because the turn around is much quicker. The scammers that hit RedWeek usually are hitting the RedWishes and by the time people discover that there is a problem (which seems to take months) and would have feedback we have already shut down the scammer's account and have done what we can. When we are notified of any problems with anyone from other members we always add notes on their account. If someone is wanting to do business with an individual and wants to know if we have heard of any problems we can definitely provide a yes or no. But again, that doesn't necessarily mean that the person is going honest, it just means that we haven't been notified of anything "yet". The only way to completely protect yourself is to use a Vacation Escrow Company. We have warnings on the RedWishes pages to be cautious of potential scammers. If there was more we could do, we would.
Thanks, Marty