Proposal: Removing the Deals Section of EBR Community

[eDean]

I agree with Courts suggestion. The vast majority of the content on this site consists of the best bike reviews and real user experiences. Its great that many manufactures and shops are active on the forum. If the site includes tons of "I bought bike ABC for $X" that really can rub manufactures and sellers the wrong way given how much price protection exists in eBikes right now in the US. - sad but true. If you have ever bumped into this, and I have, it gets ugly fast and you just want to take a shower. Someone posts that they are very happy with a transaction and states who they bought from, we are all savvy enough to look things up ourselves. I recommend dropping the deals section and any emphasis on anything but MSRP. Anything but will only distract from the creation of high quality content and cause relentless conflict in the best place for manufactures, sellers, and customers to congregate. You get who the viable dealers are organically reading though the forms. Plus, Court could save on water.

 

[Berry78]

To keep these threads clean, I would recommend a 1 month limit to the posts. (Automatically delete threads that are older than a month, requiring a repost if the item is still available).

Also, how about the stores don't advertise specific prices at all.. just say they have a sale or promotion, and what brands/models are available. Individuals, on the other hand, should post prices.

 

[pxpaulx]

The reason I will regularly mention where I have received a good deal is the direct result of poor local experience. I purchased a demo bike, msrp of $3k for about 30 percent off after I also traded in my electra townie, a $400 bike on its own that was essentially new. I still thought I got a reasonable deal and what I thought would be good dealer support. That was until I went and talked to the mechanic and learnt he learned how to do all his work from youtube. Why would I want to support that?

I appreciate the openness of the forum as is. You can't talk about buying options unless the buyers know how far their money can go. People won't sink 5k into a commuting alternative they aren't sure about on their first purchase. Their second bike in 3 years might be a different story. It was said earlier in the thread, get as many ebikes out there as possible, this market is too new in the US to stifle with heavy handed restrictions.