How You're Getting Scammed on Thumbtack.com

Thumbtack.com is a pretty crappy site, borderline scam.  Why?

Advertisers/contractors will send fake bids to use up your ad budget so when legitimate leads come in, guess what?  You've already spent your money on fake ones.  It's 2007's click fraud on Google all over again, only 9 years later, and with another web site that is looking to cash in on every small business's inability to see past these digital scams perpetuated by Google and its parent company Alphabet.  Google Capital, incidentally, invested in Thumbtack.com, funny they now show at the top of most organic search results, right?

But what is really discouraging about Thumbtack is the way in which the traffic that was once generated by Craigslist's service section ads, is now going to Thumbtack, by the way of Google and Craigslist's incompetence in relying on automation that has pissed off a lot of their users who now go to other sites to look for service quotes.

As a test, 3 years ago, if you ran ads in a service section on Craigslist, you'd get a few calls a day.  Now, you're lucky if you get one a day or even a week on Craigslist (compounded by their desire to auto-flag almost everyone that posts a new ad).

So what can you do?  How are some fighting back against this injustice?

1) Some are sending spammy links to thumbtack.com for your relevant keywords so Google's automated system kicks in and knocks them down.  This is referred to as "negative SEO", you can use the power of algorithms to work in your favor, and against monopolies which seek to dominate search results with low quality lead services (rather than directories like the yellow pages that democratized contractors).

2) Others are sending emails to Thumbtack complaining about the lack of any review for incoming leads.  SMS verification required, you think?  Right now, any dipshit in India can send you 50 requests for jobs that don't actually exist using programs such as Hide My Ass.  Thumbtack profits off these scammers, while you suffer.  That's bullshit!  Keep complaining, and voice your concerns not just with your emails, but with your wallet.  Don't bid on leads that haven't been verified to be REAL PEOPLE in the city you are servicing.

3) Click on their google ads all day, and all night long.  Use HMA and random agent spoofer on firefox (disable canvas ID and webgl so they can't track you via your browser fingerprint), or instead of HMA, use your phone's hotspot, go in and out of airplane mode for a new IP each time.

Oh, which reminds me, Google is also profiting off click fraud.

File a class action lawsuit against Alphabet for the 35% in income they've probably generated off bogus clicks from proxy services (which they should never have been billing for) and not only will you destroy their stock price if you win (because 35% of google's ad revenue is a lot of money, and a lot of refunds), you will help to take down a corporate monopoly and ensure a wider range of competitors take their place that put your interests ahead of a corporations' profit mongering.

CRAIGSLIST AUTOMATION SOFTWARES REVIEWED

CRAIGSLIST AUTO POSTING SOFTWARE REVIEWED - CLADG VS. ADMISSILE VS CL AUTO RENEW VS CL BOT PRO VS AD CLIMBER **** UPDATED 2016****

CLADG CRAIGSLIST AUTO POSTING SOFTWARE

Our Rating: 0/10 

Advantages:

None.  

Disadvantages:

Overpriced.

The software leaves fingerprints that result in mass deletions, they provided zero support to resolve it.

The software may result in a cease and desist from Craigslist, and possibly a lawsuit, based on what others have told us after having used it themselves.

Horrible, horrible customer service.  Responses are condescending and rude.

They don’t take credit card, only wire transfer or bit coin. So, you have no guarantee if they decide to cheat you. They've been known to keep money, and tell the person that purchased a license to fuck off.

We do not recommend using CLADG, it’s bad news all the way to Belize, which is where we think they’re located (and if you notice Craigslist doesn’t have a section for Belize, it’s probably because of them).

AD MISSILE CL POSTING SOFTWARE

Our Rating: 3.0/10

Advantages:

Like a young Indiana Jones once was told, “you got heart, kid” - this software is promising, if they can navigate the difficult terrain of avoiding lawsuits, getting the software to actually work for the average person, it might be a good candidate for "posting software of the year" award one day.  They need to keep the software out of the hands of spammers though.

Disadvantages:

The demo we tried did not really work. In their defense, it was in beta, and the software shows a lot of promise.

Customer support, while friendly, was unable to resolve the issue.  Given that we’re no idiots when it comes to software, the issue is with their user interface that copies off CLADG but doesn’t solve all the UI issues plaguing CLADG.  We'd be happier with a much simpler system that takes care of all the headaches, rather than adding to them.

They get a 4.0 because it’s in beta and shows promise, but when we test the finished product, if it still doesn’t post an ad reliably and easily, it’s getting removed from the rankings.

UPDATE Feb 29, 2016: 

Still not working, so getting bumped down to a 3.0 as it's 2016 already.  Someone wrote me that they are a "one man" show and they don't use the software, so starting to look more and more like it's a Sean Connery show featuring the old Bond retiring instead of a River Phoenix, or hell, even a Daniel Craig, ready to get shit done.

CL AUTO RENEW 

Our Rating: 1.0/10.0

Advantages:  

Cheap, barebones design.

Works on a limited scale

Disadvantages:

Won't work for most posters, doesn't save much time.

Confusing interface.

Weird installation and setup.

A great deal of misinformation on the site related to posting which can cause issues, such as using HMA, for example.

GEIL & MEHR AUTO POSTER (built off the code from CL BOT PRO)

Our Rating: 9.0/10

Advantages:

It’s cheaper than the others over the long-term as
no monthly fees.

They set everything up for you, unlike the other software programs that leave you stumbling with a confused interface and just causes your ads to be deleted if you do not know what you are doing.

They try, and haven't stopped (which counts for something), craigslist has not crushed them yet.

It actually posts ads.
They update within 24 hours so downtime is never an issue like it was with CLADG back in the day.

Disadvantages:

Does not allow for advanced browser customization needed to avoid auto-flagging related to cookies, browser fingerprinting, and more if using multiple accounts, however, they do set it up to handle 100 postings/renewals a day.


You can also order this software on a monthly plan with no set-up assistance from several sites such as claposter.com and a hundred other affiliate sites.  All of these sites are merely re-selling the original source code from CL BOT PRO.

AD CLIMBER

Our rating: 2/10

This program makes some extraordinary claims, but as the saying goes, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.  Given the weight of the claims made in the video at their web site regarding the efficacy of this program at posting successfully, which shows an account filled with live ads, we thought we'd check it out.  Too good to be true?  Yes, we found, that in fact, it was too good to be true.  The video was either doctored, or used a very old "trusted" account, but more than likely, the majority of those ads would eventually be deleted as everyone knows, and the account placed on hold.  This might work for a day or a week, but it's no way to go about posting long-term (unless your strategy is to get someone else's accounts to use for your own posting, which this software might just be doing due to the fact it asks for your CL account at the very start).

Advantages: 

It posts the ads but does not appear to be fully automated, only allows for one account at this time and posts still need to be email verified at times.

The posting process is fast, the randomization tools appear to work, and if it weren't for the bugs detailed below and the auto-flagging, it might have been a great tool for use in the daily posting wars though it's still far too expensive compared to other tools such as CL BOT PRO.

Disadvantages: 

During our testing, all ads were auto-flagged using a good account and IP.  IP was blocked after the first post.  Only allowed for 3 service ads.  Said it posted a 4th but when we checked, nothing there.

The software was filled with typos and bad grammar, which makes it feel rushed.

The scheduling did not work.  You have to click start each time in order to get an ad posted at least with the windows version.  No way to schedule your campaigns to run automatically at least with the version we tested.

Mac version did not work.  PC version worked.  We did not test the Linux, as we felt no need to, given the fact that the ads posted were auto-flagged.

You can only use one PC, forcing you to use proxies, which will result in your accounts getting blocked and your ads auto-flagged.  No ability to extend it to multiple PCs for local residential IP posting that actually works.

They write that by using Java they avoid cookies, but if you have to verify by email, guess what?  You need a web browser for that, which still involves cookies unless you're in private mode, but privacy experts would tell you, web sites don't need cookies to track you.  You can be tracked via your browser fingerprint, so opening up your browser will still allow them to ID you and put a big red flag next to your browser fingerprint to blacklist anything posted with that fingerprint.

p.s.

if you're trying to avoid a fingerprint, use a mobile phone w/cookies disabled in that case.....mobile phone browsers offer the best protection against browser fingerprinting according to experts, if using a desktop PC, Internet Explorer is considered the browser least likely to give off an identifiable fingerprint (Microsoft as usual has delivered a product so shitty and not fully supported after launch that it even breaks the browser fingerprint technology they didn't develop).

Final verdict: 

Given the fact that Ad Climber asks for your Craigslist account, it's either a phishing scam to get your account, or a product rushed to market where the bugs haven't been worked out.  We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and wait for them to update the software and test it again but until then, there are less expensive, better and proven solutions available.

They should also be charging no more than $9.95 a month or the price of a netflix membership for this software until the bugs are resolved.  People would be less inclined to cancel after seeing auto-flagging and IP blocks after the first few posts if they didn't feel they were getting ripped off with a product rushed to market.

OUR CHOICE:

GEIL AND MEHR AUTO POSTER

While it's not perfect, it's the best of a bunch of poor alternatives when it comes to a craigslist auto-posting software.

It can't post nationwide, but it can post/renew up to 96 ads a day.  They set it up for you, saving you time, and ensuring you get the live ads you need.  When financed, it's only $44 a month, which makes it cheaper than every other software program out there and once paid off, there are no monthly fees.

Do you need help setting up CL automation software? 

Geil and Mehr will set it up for you, unlike the other programs.  Order it on their site as it comes with a 90 day money back guarantee:

https://geilandmehr.com/product/automation-service-for-classifieds/

If you're using CLADG, AD MISSILE, AD CLIMBER or any other software, we can set up your campaigns for you (even though we don't recommend those programs). Our rates are reasonable and we will quote you based on the complexity of your campaigns, but most automation software can be set up for around $300 to $2,000.00 based on the number of ads being posted a day and cities (as more complicated campaigns will require socks5/non-shared IPs from each city).

Check back for updated reviews then on other programs as we continually test them.  Are you offering a new software?  Please email us here so we can review it.

For more details on help with setting up campaigns on automation software, please email robinhoodadpostingservices@gmail.com and put "automation help" in your subject line.

How To Flag Other Ads On Craigslist When They Are Flagging You (WITHOUT ACTUALLY FLAGGING)

Robin of Loxley here, I'd like to tell you a story I once heard from little John.....little John said the best way to flag someone was not by fighting fire with fire, or flags versus flags, but by making the assailant turn to water to put their own fire out.

We personally hate flaggers here, they are the scum of the earth (and people that create programs and bots like craigsflagger, you are also scum that serves scum), so we thought we might share this story for anyone else that has to deal with flaggers that does not want to become one themselves.

Although the individual's name that told us this story one evening by a campfire was not actually Little John, this person was a small business owner and they were being picked on by a bully with a much bigger budget that was trying to prevent everyone else from getting any business, or playing fair, on the classifieds, and Little John (as they will now be called) said they did the below for a David versus Goliath moment.


This is not advice or a guide, just information relayed on how they responded to competitors flagging their ads with a technique that burned down the bully's barn so they had to spend their time fixing up their own farm before attacking others (and according to Little John, they never bullied again after this little trick).

Let us know your thoughts:

Have you tried the below technique against flaggers?  Does it work?  If so, share your answers in the comments.

STEP 1: BE A GOOD ARTIST.

COPY THEIR ADS WORD FOR WORD.

STEP 2:  BE A GREAT ARTIST.

Download the demo of CLADG, apply the crack to get CLADG for free (this is where the second part of Picasso's quote comes in, also worth mentioning, Jobs stole the quote from Picasso).

If you don't want to use CLADG, you can also do it manually or hire someone that doesn't know what they are doing to post the ads for you, there are hundreds if not thousands of them on sites like Freelancer and oDesk claiming they are ad posting experts, and why not use this as an opportunity to let them show off their expertise?

STEP 3: BE GREAT.

Use accounts with deletion histories or created on VPNs or proxies (same thing).  Set up HMA or any shared VPN/proxy, select a server outside the city you're posting in.  Then, post their copied ads using CLADG.

RESULT?

Did the bully's ad content then become blacklisted, and auto-deleted, moving forward?

Little John said it did along with any IP addresses and accounts they used with that content, but we'd rather hear it from you.

BEWARE CLAPOSTER.com

CLAPOSTER.com is currently selling a subscription to CL BOT PRO as if it is their own software.  It is not their software. 

CL BOT PRO does not belong to them and they also have no idea how to even make it work for the people that buy it (as from what we've seen from everyone that has emailed us, every single one of their ads flag under their default settings and they have no idea whatsoever how to get live ads and we've had to refer people to other companies so they don't get ripped off).  More importantly, they're re-selling it to others that then do the same thing.

Do you want a free version of CL BOT PRO?

Email me at this blog or post a comment below, we can provide you with free versions of CL BOT PRO, CLAD GENIUS, and AD ZILLA, fully functional and free with no monthly payments.  You're on your own setting them up.

CL BOT PRO does not belong to CLAPOSTER, and is not owned by anyone.  It is open-source software.  There are two companies that update it and CLAPOSTER is not one of them.

Claposter.com is owned by a some disgusting third world Pakistani who is trying to scam people to pay for an open source software, the guy will go by the name Vlad or Olga but it's really just someone in Pakistan that hates Americans, Canadians and Western Europeans and is trying to rip them off (the guy even had the audacity to email this blog saying he wanted two thousand dollars or he'd write bad things about our posting service and file a fake DMCA takedown against our blog, but um, too bad, we don't give a shit, we let our results speak and won't be extorted by scammers and have already notified Google of this scamming POS).

CLAPOSTER hijacked the original CL BOT PRO and they now try to get people to pay monthly fees.

You do not need to pay a monthly fee either with CLAPOSTER, or any of the other software programs.

Don't believe Robin Hood, then believe the web:

http://www.v7n.com/forums/marketing-forum/382607-craigslist-auto-poster-clap-nightmare-review.html

WHY DO IMAGE ADS GET FLAGGED MORE OFTEN ON CLASSIFIED SITES LIKE CRAIGSLIST?

WHY DO IMAGE ADS GET FLAGGED MORE OFTEN ON CLASSIFIED SITES LIKE CRAIGSLIST?

Good question.  If you are posting the same image in each of your ads and notice those ads tend to be flagged much more than those without images, it might seem that Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji, eBay Classifieds and GumTree are able to identify your PC through the image upload process, right?

Web sites are able to track you online when you are uploading images through a variety of means, such as....

THE DIRECTORY PATH

If you are uploading from C://users/robinhood/myimage.jpg

The web site will know it's you because you are uploading each time from C://users/robinhood

As a result, always upload your images from the C:// itself.

For example, instead of C://users/robinhood/myimage.jpg.

Upload it from: C://myimage.jpg

But, that's not all....always make sure you change your image name each time, and slightly alter the image somewhat using a program like Photoshop to resize it a bit.

Some web sites can use advanced technology to read your images, so avoid putting phone numbers, web URLs, that are blatantly recognizable, instead, make them blurry and look like a part of the background.

Are you a realtor?  Then photoshop a yard sign in front of the house, with your NUMBER on the sign saying CALL ME.

However, web sites can still get you through the metadata, so let's talk about that.

THE IMAGE'S METADATA

If you are also uploading the same photo, but changing the image name and the image itself, that might not be enough as the image metadata might be telling the web site, this is the same photo as this other one named wtf.jpg that was posted using a proxy (spam signal) and an account with 80% of its ads deleted (spam signal).  Guess what?  Now your new IP, your new account, is now SPAMMED too.

How to avoid that penalty?

REMOVE THE METADATA.  Your image will contain with it things like thumbnails and so on, which can tell a web site it's the same photo uploaded from a different IP or ACCOUNT that they might associate with SPAM.

One easy way is using a program such Batch Purifier Lite, you can google it or go to the below site to download (please note, I do not know if the below download is legit, it just came up on Google so sharing it here):

http://www.digitalconfidence.com/downloads.html

One other way that's been recommended is to change it to a .gif image (which removes the metadata) and then change it back.

USE A LOT OF DIFFERENT IMAGES

If you are posting in more than one city, these best practices are recommended:

• Never post the same image once per day.  Have a graphic designer use templates to create one unique image ad per daily posting.
• Never use the same phone number in an image more than three times per day.
• Never use the same company name in different cities, even in the image (this goes for other things like web site URLs).  

ALSO:

• Use local phone numbers in your image that match the city, and are also the same phone number used to verify the account with.  
• Never use a phone number in your ad DIFFERENT than the one used to verify your account.  

Yes, the above might seem complicated, you might be saying, that is just way too expensive and time-consuming to do!  However, there's several options here:

• You can GET CHEAP NUMBERS from a site like LINESPAN.com.
• You can also buy a pre-paid cell phone, and use that if posting a smaller amount, and forward it to your main line.  This option is EXPENSIVE unless you're just posting 10-20 ads a day and the ads BANKROLL YOUR BUSINESS.  In which case, it's a recommended investment because unless Verizon goes belly up, you always know your phone will be ringing.
• You can get an out-of-work graphic design freelancer, or intern-level college student, able to create the templates for you at a fixed price on a site like freelancer.com.
• You can also hire someone from freelancer.com for a fixed price to manage the above and set it up, so you're not spending time doing it.
• You can also hire a service like ours to post the ads for you and take care of all the above (probably the recommended option unless you're low on money and need to go the DIY route, mainly because it's always best to let the experts handle ad posting, and as much as everyone wants to be a professional poster (yeah right!), it's always best to approach posting with a grain of humility.  You are competing against a dozen or so very well-paid developers at Craigslist, that develop the hell out of their shit to make it very hard for you to get live ads, and the best way to beat them isn't too beat them at their own game, it's hiring someone that's spent years learning how to do so so you don't have to spend all that time to learn for yourself (at which point, things will have changed so much, you might be right back where you started).  Just like you wouldn't want to fix a car and let a mechanic do it, same principal applies with ad posting, let a professional fix things for you so you get on your way forward without any ad issues or setbacks to your leads/sales.

Finally, if you are going the DIY route and you find that even though you took all the above steps, but your image ads are still getting flagged while your text ads are not, then the below is recommended (although technically it shouldn't matter):

• Change your PC name.
• Change your mac address using a program like Technitium.
• Change your HD serial ID using a program such as HD serial number changer.
• Or, set up unique virtual machines using vmware to post the ads (you can get a free windows OS using the Windows developer kit for it that will last 90 days) and then rotate the machines.

In most cases though, assuming you cleared the metadata and changed your image names and the file itself, the issues with the flagging will be that you have soft-blocked IPs, accounts, or you're doing something with your cookies or content that Craigslist does not like or associates with spam (as they rely heavily on automated systems to remove most flagged ads).

HOW WILL CRAIGSLIST DIE?

The web is rife with rumors of a "Craigslist Killer".

I'm not talking about a very small minority of the crazy Craigslist users, those looking to rape, maim, scam, murder or otherwise engage in psychotic acts, but rather, we're talking about competing web sites or technologies which will through an act of innovation and creative destruction, render Craigslist obsolete and irrelevant in the near future.

Remember MySpace?  No one envisioned its fall from grace to be as stunning and quick as the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it happened, so could the same thing happen to Craigslist?

The answer is yes.  But what you, dear reader, may want to know is just how Craigslist will die, and when?

Many are predicting that it will happen soon, within the next few years and not be due to the emergence of a web competitor like Backpage but due to a shift in the way people use the web.

As more and more people rely on mobile phones, and apps on the phones, they are turning to applications such as OfferUp, a mobile app that lets you sell things through your smartphone.

It's currently in the top ten of the app store, and just to see how well it works, post an ad on the app for something you want to sell.  You will most likely hear that cash register ring a dozen times, just like you used to hear "you've got mail" with Craigslist a few years to a decade ago when placing an ad.  OfferUp is getting BIG AND BIGGER EACH DAY and over the next year, you will probably hear more and more people talk about using apps on their phones to buy and sell things rather than Craigslist.  Craigslist may very well be the web's classified cemetery that day, a place where people never want to go and reminded of what was and what now....is.

Is OfferUp going to be the "Craigslist killer", the app that eventually becomes so cool, it steals market share away from Craigslist to the point that Craigslist becomes a ghost town?

Maybe, but maybe not.

OfferUp has some problems, they also treat their users like shit.  Post ads they don't like with commercial content and your account will "ghost" every future ad.  Their customer service through Sophie is clueless and won't help you there.  I'll write another post on how to get past that shortly though by using unique IMEIs and using virtualization engines for smart phones for those that want to take advantage of the advertising potential of OfferUp.

However, back to the subject at hand.....like Craigslist, OfferUp doesn't realize people find just as much value from small business ads as they do from their neighbors.  If they didn't, small businesses would not be placing their ads there, or at least trying to place them, and people would not be responding to the ones that make it that then encourages these small businesses to keep trying to place ads so they can keep their phones ringing.

In OfferUp's efforts to appease a small minority of users that don't want small business ads and tend to be more vocal than the silent majority (e.g., meaning they are trolls), mobile apps like OfferUp essentially filter out the vast majority of small business ads most users wouldn't mind seeing as it gives them choices, and choices are why people use the web, because it creates competition with price, quality and customer service, all which result in a win-win for the consumer and end-user.

Will OfferUp displace Craigslist? It's hard to predict whether one web site or mobile app will win out.  I really don't know.  OfferUp has attracted some hefty interest from venture capital though which will allow them to dish out a business model that makes absolutely no sense apart from the fact that it's a cool app, so they at least will be able to handle their server traffic for the next couple years and allow themselves to grow without charging fees that might lower their usage rates quite considerably.  They have a chance to be a real contender.

You can read more about OfferUp's funding round here:

http://recode.net/2015/03/05/investors-are-drooling-over-two-new-craigslist-competitors-one-might-raise-100-million/

However, I really don't think that's how Craigslist's days will end, I don't think it will be a slow death via more innovative competitors (ones that don't rely on law firms to stifle competition).  I sadly believe it's possible Craigslist will die with a BANG that will make headlines across the world.

Since I started this post off with the subject of a "Craigslist killer", I'm predicting the possibility of something very awful but which just sounds like the inevitable the more and more you interact with a few people in this world that are real fucking crazy, I mean, bat-shit crazy, and one which will probably post on Craigslist one day and get flagged, and post again and get flagged, and combine that with Craigslist's attitude towards people that break their rules, which probably accounts for 50% of their loyal user base, and you have a recipe for disaster.

This blog predicts that Craigslist will shut down not because someone is able to do the online classifieds better, quicker and cooler, but because they will eventually piss off one of the small minority of psychos that use the site to the point where they will just waltz in there with a shotgun and blow the place to hell, and Craigslist will never recover from the loss of that as eBay will take over and turn the site to a fee-ringing pile of shit, no better than a slot machine.

Why do I predict this?  

One day I was on the train, and I listened to two people talking about, well, what do you know, posting on Craigslist.  I didn't reveal myself, being Robin Hood, I prefer to stay quiet, listen, be mindful of the world around like Walt Whitman celebrating all of its small treasures and pleasures.....but one of the conversants, this latino guy that looked and talked like a real gangbanger, was talking about how he hated Craigslist because every time he placed an ad, it would get flagged.

He got very upset talking about this.  Visibly upset, like where people moved seats.

As the conversation continued, I learned more (as I myself moved a seat down).  From the sound of it, he had been posting an ad for his disabled father, trying to get jobs painting to help pay for his surgery, and Craigslist was shutting him down.  During this conversation, the guy swore that if his dad died, he would buy a greyhound bus ticket to wherever the hell they were and "fuck the shit" out of Craigslist, making a gun motion with his hand.  The other guy he was talking to laughed (not apparently realizing those people he would "fuck the shit" out of might have families just like him and doing their jobs to protect ALL craigslist users from the pieces of shit scammers that prey on them).

I highly doubt this gangbanger would actually do what he said, like many people, he's probably all talk and completely full of shit.  But it got me thinking....I mean, if I were Craigslist, I would be really, really worried about security.

Craigslist is not some corporation with security, it's a house in the middle of San Francisco (see photo), and more importantly, apart from the "ADT" style of security they offer, most companies don't make it their business to piss off their customer base and completely ignore their concerns where you would definitely want to think about security.

For example, you'll find their Better Business Bureau reviews they have 171 complaints, none advertising how wonderful their experience with the big Craig was:

http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/internet-services/craigslistorg-in-san-francisco-ca-49921/complaints

Consumer Affairs, also, full of so many complaints regarding apathy and poor service:

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/craigslist.html?page=2

The web is absolutely full of thousands and thousands of people disgusted and discouraged by Craigslist.  So what will happen when they piss off one of those psychos?  

The psycho is not going to see Craigslist as some friendly neighbor, he's going to see them as the enemy, the sole source of his life's problems and issues, a monopoly that doesn't give a rat's ass about the small guy trying to get by, a corporation that has the highest return per employee of every company in Silicon Valley ($1,800,000.00 million per employee), and as something that is sick and diseased and he will see himself as the cure, a medieval type of cure that kills itself while killing the patient.

This psycho will be a person that has turned to the dark side, to a life of festering hatred rather love, understanding and patience.  He will not be a Jedi.  Most likely, he or even she will be a lost cause like a bat out of Syria.

I hope I am wrong, and the world can and will be a kinder place where everyone gets along with one another in a spirit of friendship, family and compassion.....because I think Craigslist can do better, a lot better, both to those that use the site and those that post ads on the site to the point where no one would have any reason to get pissed off at Craigslist, only other users that they could easily then just ignore (as you do in normal life when someone annoys you)....and if Craigslist could just try.....try and get past their hubris and just manage to make their site for the good of all by not being so condescending in their spam-prevention efforts, and letting the people that use Craigslist do the spam prevention job for them.....they would make everyone happy by mainly:

1. Eliminating the auto-filtering! 
2. Allowing users to flag down posts they don't like (so that individual user has the option to no longer see posts from that author), not so they become invisible or flagged for everyone else!  
3. If posts/accounts get enough flags, the ad or the account user/email should have a user rating/reviews but not be removed unless it's doing something clearly illegal or unethical, it should be a true community, and a true community that moderates itself, not a dictator making decisions for its community and that might be sweeping up normal users in the process that might need to post more than you'd like simply because your system already auto-deleted their first few postings because they happened to post on an IP address someone else spammed with.  

And while Craigslist can never make everyone happy, they can at least try to make their site FAIR and stop being such stubborn.....ah, what's the word.....turds?

Craig and Jim, people just want to be free.  Let them be.  And let your site grow in the process.  A famous philosopher once wrote that change is always bad unless its change for the better, so change for the better rather than being the stagnant, silent beast....turn from a turd into a bird.....do A/B testing, find what works, what makes the silent majority happy through data, and build, build, build on that, don't let your site die a silent death or piss off some hommie that turns homicidal.

If Craigslist just tried, took even a few hundred thousand annually to work on customer service, and maybe another million to develop and implement a new moderation system that can shut down the ruthless psychos and scammers that would harm others through a real community moderation system that's simple and works, maybe Craigslist then can be a company everyone loves, rather than one everyone loves to trash.

People trash Craigslist because they think you don't care.  So stop.  Enough is enough.  Be the company you ought to be, rather than the company you are.

WALL OF SCAMMERS

This post is to help prevent others from getting scammed from people that have tried to scam us, and abuse our service to receive free ads with no intention of paying for what they ordered, because more than likely, they'll do the same thing to others.

These individuals ordered ads, received live ads, and then charge backed the full amount because they did not like the service due to the fact there was a delay because they provided us with blacklisted content, or we had to make changes to the ads and they did not like it.  A few also provided us with content that was clearly miscategorized and refused to pay for user flagging since they were posting things obviously in the wrong section.

However, one thing all these people have in common is they received live ads, but did not pay for anything, not our time setting them up, not our time posting, nor the live ads or leads they received.

This isn't a case where we didn't do any work, no, they asked us to do work, we did that work, and they cheated us.

In short, they are SCAMMERS.  Should you be googling this, looking to find info out on these people, we do not recommend doing business with them as they will cheat you, or expect you to work for free, in short, they are scumbags.

Did they offer to pay us for the postings they received?  No.

Did they offer to pay us for our time working for them?  No.

Did they offer to pay us for the leads we sent them?  No.

Did they expect all the work we did for free and chargeback effecting our merchant seller reputation?  Yes.

AVOID THESE PEOPLE AT ALL COSTS!

Ryan Davis, Equip Scout: SCAMMER!

• Equipment Scout, LLC
• email: ryan@equipscout.com, helpmesellit@equipscout.com
• phone: 919.440.1602

Equipment Scout, LLC
115 Trappers Run Drive
Goldsboro, NC 27530
United States

Ryan provided us with blacklisted content and had a delay with his ads as a result.  Most of our local posters had their accounts blacklisted due to running his spam content he provided to us without stating he had previously used it and been flagged from trying to be a piece of shit spammer.

He then admitted in an email he had previously used automation that resulted in flagging, and yet, we still troubleshooted his issues, worked day and night, spent hundreds of hours working on his ads between our entire team, and despite the fact that he received over 300 live ad postings, and many leads from those postings, he chargebacked and paid us nothing for work done.  He even went so far as to flag his own postings down that we sent to him live, in order to make his case that he should not have to pay.  He is a low-life scammer, spammer and cheat.  Avoid this condescending trainwreck at all costs unless you want to get ripped off.

• 
  

• CHAD and JINET KINKLE and DSR COMPANY (DSRCOMPANIES.COM) AUTO LEASING: SCAM ALERT!

• Chad and Janet Kinkle
• janetk@dsrcompanies.com

Shipping address

Janet Kinkle
22622 Lambert St
Ste 302
Lake Forest, CA 92630-1669
United States

Chad charge backed the full amount, despite receiving live ads, and indicating he did not feel he had to pay anything because there had been a delay, apparently he felt his "nationwide" ad posting campaign for his company DSR should be running the next day.  They even received leads, but still charge backed the full amount, paying us for nothing for work done.

Do you want to lease a car from DSR?  Good luck, because given the fact they ripped us off, you're more than likely getting a lemon from these pieces of shit scammers.