Biddingfortravel

Much has been written on US section of this forum on biddingfortravel. They make their money, like many websites, through associated advertising and links. However, my view is that just as I am welcome to browse in retail stores, I am welcome to browse at websites. Browsers who do not purchase should be considered a cost of doing business.

When I receive rude treatment from a business (which biddingfortravel is - no matter how much they try to convince you that they offer advice out of the goodness of their heart - just as Fodors is a business), I vote with my feet. (Or in this case my keyboard). I chose not to do business with the site you mention for just this reason.

I would be upset, too. Without knowing your full history with them, especially the "so much time helping you," it's hard to understand where the admin was coming from.

But as a PL user, I have to say that in posting your winning bid you were adding value to the site for those of us who visit for that type of info without ever bothering the admins for bidding help.

BFT's famous crankiness is just one more thing you have to put up with to get those great PL bargains!

Sheryl, on biddingfortravel, is well known for her crankiness.

Thanks for the responses. After venting here, I sent an email to the coadministrator and received a prompt and heartfelt apology with a promise that the unmentioned-by-name cranky person would be advised that she needs to be more careful in how she phrases her "reminders" to support their site.

My exchanges with the offending cranky person went from bad to worse, but with the male co-administrator, I felt a sympathetic response. He assures me that the "cranky" person is really a very nice person who (implied) has little patience with the public in general.

Probably not a very good job fit.

Maybe she gives the place character.

Anyway, I appreciate those who took the time to read and respond to my posting.

Just so you know, there is another Web site available to help with bidding. It is called Better Bidding, at:

http://www.betterbidding.com

and the tone is MUCH friendlier!!!

Gaj - Thanks for the reminder about betterbidding.com. I came across that site several months ago and then somehow lost it.

I've looked at Biddingfortravel frequently and it has been very helpful. I have never once requested bidding assistance, but do try to find the time to post winning bids. I received a similar e-mail when I posted a winning bid for London:

"May I ask why you refuse to support BiddingForTravel.com since you
never place your bids through the Priceline links at
http://www.amazing-bargains.com/priceline.html yet you have repeatedly acknowledged the incredible value you have received from the information available to you.

It is personally extremely disappointing to me."

I replied that though I had noticed much mention of the "Amazing Bargains Link", but had no idea what it was, the significance of using it, or why it was apparently sent via private e-mail to some but not others. I also pointed out that it was not (and still is not) mentioned anywhere in the "I want to support Biddingfortravel" page.

The reply I received to that was:

"I'll just ignore your posts in the future... Every time you go to Priceline, they'll set a cookie on your computer. It's absolutly no different if you click on the link through Amazing-Bargains.com
but I'm sure you think I'm just making that up. No need to reply. I've spent all the time I'm going to. I'll just chalk it up to oh forget it."

Such as shame that she would discourage folks from posting winning bids?

One would think it would be prudent to encourage people to post their winning bids!

But, all that's quite mild compared to her public remarks to others on that forum!

I used Priceline for the first time this weekend. Got a much better response from betterbidding.com than I did from biddingfortravel (BFT). On BFT, got scolded for not just reading the FAQs (which I did thoroughly), but how I should have memorized EVERY FAQ ON BTF before asking any questions (and I only had one question). Betterbidding was much more accepting, helpful, and understanding that it was my first bid,, etc.. That's where I'll post and go to from now on.

Your experience, books, is very similar to mine. I have emailed this thread in it's entirety to bidding for travel to show that they have done nothing to correct the bad feelings generated by this very rude person. Having read through many posts there, I believe the problem generates from a single rude administrator.

Certainly they are pushing away any desire from clients to use the amazing bargains link. After reading that she still posts unsolicited letters of reprimand to people who peruse and post to the site, I will not use the link in the future.

Thanks for the posts. It reaffirms my position.

Petal: please e-mail me djkbooks@aol.com

Petal, I have an issue w/what you have done here. You originally posted asking if we thought you were wrong for being upset about this message you got. You did not disclose that you were looking for support so you could then email our comments directly to bidding for travel. You never disclosed that you were going to do that, no matter what point you made the decision to do so. Personally, I did not disclose my comments to you to be used in that manner. I voted w/my mouse, and will not post on biddingfortravel again, I will use betterbidding for posting. But I may not want to be shut out of looking at winning/losing bids on BFT. And I certainly do not want to run the risk of somwhow losing my ezboard account over this, as it is used for other purposes, not just BFT. I did not want to risk any backlash problems like that, and so I chose not to complain directly to the BFT admin. Instead I chose my own way of dealing w/this. But now you have forwarded my online name, which is the same as the one I used on BFT. I have a real issue w/you doing that without disclosing it beforehand to us. You should have stuck to your own complaints and dealt w/them the way you wanted, and given us the respect to deal w/our feelings about this in our own way instead of speaking for us and using us for your agenda without notice. I think what you did is manipulative and could end up being harmful to those on the post.

I reread my post. Maybe it wasn't manipulative. Perhaps you just didn't think it through. But I really really wish you would have done so.

Topping for petal, who I suspect has used us for her own gain, and moved on, never to be seen or heard from again. Or will she surprise us and respond and tell us why she did this?

Oh my gosh, EMD and books and everyone else who posted on this thread.

I am so sorry. I honestly didn't mean to upset anyone like this. I apologize profusely for not thinking about others privacy. I am not using ANYONE here intentionally. I didn't post initially with the thought that I would send the thread to BFT to bolster my position with them, which is what I think emd believes. It was when I was assured that Sheryl would be talked to about this heavy handedness, and then reading the message from djkbooks in which she repeated the same "disappointed" letter that I thought her bosses should know she is still behaving that way. I thought wrong, in fact, I was THOUGHTLESS.

If it makes you feel any better, I have not been banned from bidding for travel, even after several very heated emails to Sheryl. I now realize that I should never have jeopardized anyone's privacy like that.

Please accept my heatfelt apologies and I will never do such a thing in the future.

Sorry for not responding to this more quickly. For some reason this thread is not readily apparent to me when I do a search for my name in the Europe threads. I AM here and I appreciate the help and support I've gotten on this board and feel terrible that I've given this impression of me as manipulative, especially to those of who have assisted me in my travel plans.

OK; I was too harsh in my original post, and I apologize for that. You just didn't think about it. Glad you go the message and will be more careful next time. It seems to me that Sheryl IS BFT. Complaining to BFT is like complaining to her about her. But I felt better that another poster on here told me that he/she thought that Sheryl would likely just delete a complaint email without even finishing reading it. So far, no backlash.

Peace to you.

It should be observed that Fodor's Subscriber Agreement (which we all agreed to in return for posting privileges here) claims a compliation copyright on all of the postings. Words posted here are the property of Fodors, at least insofar as use of the entire thread is concerned. So, if Fodor's wanted to print or email the thread, they could, regardless of what you said and of where you think your words could be used.

And that same Agreements states that none of us are permitted to redistribute the thread, so having emailed it to a third part violates one's agreement. Of course, emailing a link to the thread is probably permissible; probably because Fodor's prohibits linking to deep-linked pages and I'm not in the mood to determine whether that's applicable here.

But Fodors permits you to email the threads to anyone, via the email link capability at the bottom of each post. How can they encourage it and prohibit it at the same time.

Thanks for accepting my apology. I have learned. AND..I can certainly understand why you responded the way you did.

I'm actually really embarassed by this whole experience. When I re-read emd's and 'books's complaints about BFT and realized I had SENT them to her, I blushed with mortification

I would have been VERY upset, had someone done that with my posts without my permission, whether it is legal or not.

If it makes anyone feel any better, I sent the thread to her co-administrators private email and not directly to her or to BFT. (still burning with embarassment, here)

Good point, emd. Perhaps it's a question for Fodor's themselves.

Just to show how things have not changed: I asked for assistance, received the appropriate link, clicked on the link, and made my (ultimately successful) bid. Then, today, I received this email: "I'm incredibly disappointed that my time and expertise did not merit your support by bidding through the Amazing-Bargains.com link I sent you. Please let me know why." I explained that I did in fact click on the appropriate link, and then clicked on a PL link (since none was specifically indicated by BFT, I clicked on the most convenient) over 5 times each to make sure the cookies were appropriately activated. Obviously, something did not work right (perhaps bc I use Safari, Apple's browser?), but I don't really think it was my fault here. When asked how much BFT lost out on this transaction, and that I might consider donating that to the site, I received this email: "I cannot disclose our earnings per a confidentiality agreement. Let's just move on."

Now, I am an impatient person, so I have some patience for fellow impatient people (if that makes any sense), but I feel as if the rudeness displayed here was a bit unnecessary.

Just wanted to add this to show Petal and others that things will probably not change at BFT; for those who don't want to be harangued, it's probably not the best place to post or look for assistance, but instead maybe lurking might be in order

Look at it this way. Biddingfortravel.com is a free service. By looking at the past previous winning bids placed on the board you can easily save hundreds of dollars on your vacation. Maybe she did not help you specifically but she has helped hundreds of others who in turn report their winning bids which do help you in the future. The moderators (Sheryl mostly) works on that site all day providing help to others. In order to make the free board a success, she asks you to place the bids through a referred website from which I'm sure she receives a small stipend. To me that is fair since it costs me nothing and I use the information provided on the board.

To me, yes, Sheryl may be cranky sometimes, but to me it is part of the joy of the board. Also, the posters that get the cranky remarks deserve it, many are lazy and want someone else to do the work for them or refuse to read the FAQ's. But no one can deny that biddingfortravel is the best resource for Priceline bidding.

My two cents worth. I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you travelinwifey. I'm one of the persons that Sheryl was incredibly rude with. In fact, she banned me from the board. I did go and read FAQ...2 times as a matter of fact. I read tips, peeves, and everything else I thought would pertain to me posting correctly. I'd hardly call that lazy, and wanting someone else to do the work for me. I kept asking her what I was doing wrong, and she wouldn't reply with a direct answer...she just got more and more hateful. By the time I figured out what I was doing wrong ( I wasn't listing what the hotel was going for, although I had everything else listed she required) I finally told her "Forget it, I don't need help bad enough to be treated the way I was". I then went to betterbidding.com, where the host couldn't have been nicer, and he actually had taken the time to show an example what a perfect post looked like. Amazing. In my opinion Sheryl will hang herself. In the meantime, I'll use a site that will serve me as both informative and helpful.

Well, all I can tell you is my experience. I read the hotel FAQ and understood how to use the board before I started asking questions and assistance. I have posted more than 20 successful priceline bids and in turn I am sure I've helped others. Betterbidding.com stole Sheryl's work and created their own website by taking her information. If you want to support another website that steals information that is up to you. I accept Sheryl's occasional crankiness, it's her board and she can run it however she pleases. She cannot waste her time with people that are not willing to work for themselves. I think that is fair. The board is doing very well and has saved me several thousand dollars over the years. Anyone that saves me that much money deserves my loyalty. I never could have done so without BFT's information.

Sheryl also has a very low tolerence for people that don't use "common sense" or what is explained in black and white. I'm not trying to cheer for Sheryl but when the Bid assistance form asks what the rate is for a hotel directly from their website, that should be an easy question to answer. Free rebidding may be hard for some to understand, you just have to keep reading the explanation until it sinks in. But no one can deny that the board will save you a lot of money. If I were in your situation I would email Sheryl and ask if your "ban" lol has been lifted. She's forgiving but just does not have the time to assist people that "don't get it" right away. Good luck.

I have "common sense" and I use it. Sheryl required "city, date, zone, quality/bid". I took that to mean city, date, zone, quality (here's where I ran into the problem...I thought I was repeating myself...4*/resort etc...and my bid. As close as I can figure, she in all actuality wanted what hotel was going for. Excuse my ignorance. I wouldn't ask Sheryl to be allowed back on her site if my life depended on it. Like I said earlier, I found a much better and more helpful bidding site. You want to stick with her, fine by me. I don't need it.

Your name Sheryl by any chance?

Oy, no need to get so mean about it. I was just trying to give an explanation of why you were "banned" If you like to support a website that steals what other people have worked very hard on that's your choice. If you click my name and see my hundreds of posts you will see I have no relation to the biddingfortravel website but do love Priceline bidding.

Travelinwifey: I agree with you and my name is not Sheryl!

travelinwifey I agree with you, I got the same email that Petal got. I think it is important to support biddingfortravel.com since their costs are high and they serve a valuable purpose. I have saved tons of money from biddingfortravel.com so I think it is the least I can do to use their links.

Here's a response from an outsider on the issue:

It sounds to me like Sheryl's site isn't worth patronizing.

Here's an example travelingwifey:

If you walked into a camera store to buy a camera, and the sales associate was rude to you, but the camera was on sale, would you buy it there? Or maybe you could walk a few blocks down, and find the camera for a comprable price and a nice sales staff selling it. I'd patronize the staff that treats their customers better.

Does it matter which store exists first? No. How many companies copy services or products after another? Do you only by the original in every product?

Bottom line, if BFT can't treat customers with respect, it doesn't matter if they are the pioneer in the business, they will lose many customers. Looks like betterbidding is capitalizing on BFT's poor service.

I've known Sheryl through BFT for a few years and know her to be a nice person. Whether or not you use the board is your choice, but I think it would be more respectable to discuss this issue with her personally rather than talk about her behind her back in an internet chat room.

I just found this while searching to see if I was the only one booted for posting a bid improperly (?!?), but I see I am not the only one who fell victim to her jackboot/brown-shirt nonsense.

I now check for bids on BLT (www.bidlesstravel.com), but there is not much there yet...the lady there is EXTREMELY nice, so I will never support BFT again. Period.

I use BFT to get the information, then I use another site. Love to read the admonishments from Sheryl, then the apologies ("I'm so sorry, I didn't know" "I was in England at the time and didn't have access to your site" "I'll never do it again")

If I were in your situation I would email Sheryl and ask if your "ban" lol has been lifted

I've been banned from bft for no known reason. The one time I did get "help" with bidding, I didn't use the link because I forgot to do so. I immediately wrote and "apologized" for not using the link. I guess that's why I was banned. I've emailed them and written by snail mail, and have had no response. I'm done with them and as far as I'm concerned, I do hope they lose business and fail -- it's simply no way to run a business. Look at it this way....if I get advice at Best Buy and buy a product elsewhere, does Best Buy then refuse to let me in the store?

I read enough there to not bother offering them information only to get admonished because I refuse to use a third party site that I don't know or trust.

And if their costs are high, it's their own fault. I'm not sure about Yulu, but Ning is free- if they want to get rid of the ning in the address and google ads, that's $25 per month, which I guarantee the sites that are advertising would cover.

Look at it from the other side: when a bidder does place a bid through BFT and says so, Sheryl/Cheryl sends a nice thank you note.

I learnt to use Priceline years ago from Fodorites and have also saved thousands of dollars, not just for myself but also for my family and friends.

I do a ton of research on BFT and know exactly what to bid before placing a bid. In all this time, I've asked maybe one question or maybe none.

OTOH, I've seen questions that have been asked by others and they are usually answered in detail - whether by another poster or by Sheryl/Cheryl.

It's very easy to use the AB link, there is a hotel icon at the top of the BFT page and just clicking on it takes one to the AB bid page. There are only four boxes to fill on the AB bid page: city, date in, date out, and number of rooms needed.

Like some others on here, I feel that if BFT has helped me save so much money, the least I can do is to support their site by using the AB link.