Hello Astromart friends,
My Astromart account vanished last week. This has been puzzling; I have not done any of the offenses listed on the Terms Of Use agreement. I had a history of some 10 years of happy exchanges and over a hundred 5 star ratings, now lost. All of the ratings that I left for others have also vanished. I had one current ad (5 inch Maksutov) and lots of archived ads, all gone now.
A telescope that I purchased from outside the USA a couple of months ago has gotten lost. I trust the seller to do the right thing, and he seems to be trying to track its shipment. If this doesn’t happen, I may not be able to warn you with a bad rating about him.
I have averaged about one transaction per month through Astromart, sporadically, more purchases than sales. This seems pretty modest, but still a valuable service, an aid to my hobby and others who make and sell the equipment that I acquire or dispose of. I assumed that the whole system was supported by Anacortes and a few small manufacturers plus some committed enthusiasts. I thought that telling my friends about Anacortes’ effective, generous service was a form of support. I did not mind paying the $12 to get a new account. If they had required an annual fee in that range, or made a clear point about everyone needing to contribute, not just the most active, those who post lots of ads and like to see their names in colored lights, that would have been OK with me. Was I ditched for using a free service once too often? Who knows?
I wrote to Herb York when my attempts to log in failed. He directed me to the Administrator of AstroMart LLC. The only word that I got from there was “We see no account for you If you would like one you will need to sign up for a new account”. Multiple requests to Herb, Administrator, and Support got no further response. Presumably the new account invitation is evidence that I did not break any rules, even unknowingly. I have also asked the Administrator if I could have my old ratings restored to my new account (I know of one user who got this after being dumped). No reply.
At first, I thought that deleting some cookies from my computer (while sorting out a connection problem) might have interfered with signing in, but surely this would not terminate an account. It has not caused problems with any other accounts (ebay, Amazon, etc.). If the mysterious Administrator terminated my account, why? If not, who did? All of these inquiries seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Here is a pertinent line from the ASTROMART TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT... “19.3... If you are honest, sincere and civil with your posts, Astromart expects that you will never have to worry about termination.”
This suggests an original intent to treat users with some respect and fairness. If that cannot be done with existing funding and personnel arrangements, changes should be made. I would rather be charged for a good functional Astromart that have a broken one for free.
Regards,
Phillip Houston
Astromart member since 2000
My Astromart account vanished last week. This has been puzzling; I have not done any of the offenses listed on the Terms Of Use agreement. I had a history of some 10 years of happy exchanges and over a hundred 5 star ratings, now lost. All of the ratings that I left for others have also vanished. I had one current ad (5 inch Maksutov) and lots of archived ads, all gone now.
A telescope that I purchased from outside the USA a couple of months ago has gotten lost. I trust the seller to do the right thing, and he seems to be trying to track its shipment. If this doesn’t happen, I may not be able to warn you with a bad rating about him.
I have averaged about one transaction per month through Astromart, sporadically, more purchases than sales. This seems pretty modest, but still a valuable service, an aid to my hobby and others who make and sell the equipment that I acquire or dispose of. I assumed that the whole system was supported by Anacortes and a few small manufacturers plus some committed enthusiasts. I thought that telling my friends about Anacortes’ effective, generous service was a form of support. I did not mind paying the $12 to get a new account. If they had required an annual fee in that range, or made a clear point about everyone needing to contribute, not just the most active, those who post lots of ads and like to see their names in colored lights, that would have been OK with me. Was I ditched for using a free service once too often? Who knows?
I wrote to Herb York when my attempts to log in failed. He directed me to the Administrator of AstroMart LLC. The only word that I got from there was “We see no account for you If you would like one you will need to sign up for a new account”. Multiple requests to Herb, Administrator, and Support got no further response. Presumably the new account invitation is evidence that I did not break any rules, even unknowingly. I have also asked the Administrator if I could have my old ratings restored to my new account (I know of one user who got this after being dumped). No reply.
At first, I thought that deleting some cookies from my computer (while sorting out a connection problem) might have interfered with signing in, but surely this would not terminate an account. It has not caused problems with any other accounts (ebay, Amazon, etc.). If the mysterious Administrator terminated my account, why? If not, who did? All of these inquiries seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Here is a pertinent line from the ASTROMART TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT... “19.3... If you are honest, sincere and civil with your posts, Astromart expects that you will never have to worry about termination.”
This suggests an original intent to treat users with some respect and fairness. If that cannot be done with existing funding and personnel arrangements, changes should be made. I would rather be charged for a good functional Astromart that have a broken one for free.
Regards,
Phillip Houston
Astromart member since 2000
