Banned from BiddingForTravel ?!
 

Hello there,

After reading quite some posts about getting Priceline bidding strategies by using the www.biddingfortravel.com board, I did use it yesterday. And with success.
However, when I was trying to enter the site again today, I got a message that I was banned from this board, and I have absolutely no idea why! They tell me to contact the administrator, but if only I knew how!

Could someone who's registered at this site please help me by contacting an administrator and asking what I did wrong? I believe there's one who answered to my post (look under Hotels-England-London for a recent post by stardust79), but I forgot her name.

Thanks a lot!

It is a glitch on their website not you. I've had it happen to me a couple of times.

Try and re-login in a couple of hours or tomorrow.

Thanks GoTravel! That's quite a relief!

stardust - Did you bid through the link Sheryl sent you in the private mailbox? That gives them an affiliate kickback, and she's pretty touchy about people using her help then not going to priceline through that link. Most businesses who offer free info to draw in potential customers understand that not everyone will use their service, and although this is a bit different (you're not paying, priceline is), I think Sheryl should realize that by trying to <b>force</b> everyone to use her link, rather than just encourage it, she's turning people away.

Actually, I did have the intention to use the link, but then I got distracted and it slipped out of my mind. Wow, how friendly is that to just ban somebody if they forget to use the link! Then I'm very happy that the Fodor's board is definitely more friendly!

I'm ashamed to admit this but for some reason I've never used the link. Sheryl doesn't ban people because of that.

I've seen the above problem posted on the BFT website and it is common.

Sorry, I realize now my post was misleading. I was just speculating that it may have had something to do with it, but I'm glad to hear it doesn't. I've seen her get really snippy with people in the past for not using the link, so was just wondering if she might even ban someone for it, but hopefully not!

Sheryl doesn't like me at all and hasn't banned me. She's yelled at me several times.

Sheryl yells at everyone! :D

I've never used the link either - I can't even find it. Where is it?

If you can't get into the Bidding for Travel website, try betterbidding.com. It is a similar website but friendlier. I don't think the administrator has ever yelled at anyone.

You've got lots of company, stardust. There is a thread (with 111 posts!) on BetterBidding where people tell their stories of being banned by BiddingForTravel (referred to as TOBB, or &quot;That Other Bidding Board&quot;).

Most of them know why, and that it was no accident, although in most cases it was for ridiculously arbitrary reasons that the moderator often made explicit--some of them laughable. You can read the thread here:

http://tinyurl.com/amvcb

There don't seem to be any &quot;rules&quot; that dictate who gets banned--it appears to be highly arbitrary and dependent on the mood the moderator is in that day. At times she is extremely thin-skinned and paranoid and on a hair-trigger to ban folks, at other times she seems to be able to deal with some difference of opinion with relative calm.

You take your chances when you deal with her. I sure wouldn't want her dealing with the public at my hotel.

I used to contribute winning posts and hotel reviews to BiddingForTravel. Never asked for help from the moderator.

The &quot;crime&quot; which led to my own banishment was to suggest an obvious link or directions from the bidding posts to the hotel reviews, to encourage more people to post reviews like I was doing. It seemed to me the reviews were &quot;buried&quot; where many more casual users would never discover them.

The response I got floored and shocked me. There was absolutely no recognition that I was not someone who was asking for her help without having done my &quot;homework.&quot; No realization that perhaps I was due some courtesy or graciousness, not just as a customer of hers, but as a person who had added some value to her site with my winning bid postings and hotel reviews, and was trying to add more value with some friendly, constructive criticism.

Nothing but a tonguelashing that I &quot;had not read the FAQ's first&quot; to find out where the hotel reviews were(!)--a response which missed the whole point of my suggestion. So now I am banned--a favor to me, because it forced me to try BetterBidding.com.

I'm with antlori above. Try BetterBidding.com, and you'll find it not only has a more courteous moderator, less hardsell commercialism, and better advice, but a more knowledgeable clientele which pitches in to help each other. Also more features, such as separate boards for Hotwire, interactive maps locating Priceline hotels in a metro area, a feature which identifies easyclicktravel.com &quot;blind bid&quot; hotels, and so on.

And it's where my winning bids and hotel postings are made now, along with those, I'm sure, of many other BiddingForTravel banning victims who used to add value to that site.

I love the EasyClickTravel reverse lookup feature on the Better Bidding site!

antlori, what and where is the Easy Click Travel reverse lookup on betterbidding?

tyvm
i'2

Sheryl has yelled at me several times, and once it was for not using the link (which I didn't do on purpose). She did erase one of my posts once. The info. on that board is great, but it can definitely be a weird situation with someone that touchy.

iceeu2, to find the feature antlori and I referred to,go to BetterBidding.com and notice the heading Our Exclusive (Free)Tools near the bottom center of your screen. Underneath it, to the right, you will find a link to search EasyClickTravel.com and right below it, highlighted in yellow, another link titled REVERSE EasyClickTravel.

As an example of its use, use the first link to get to EasyClickTravel. A new window will open for it. Enter Las Vegas in the Search by City box and click on the search bar below it. Another new window will open with lots of Las Vegas hotels identified, with prices.

Going down the list, though, you'll find some listings with no hotel name or picture, just called &quot;Off the Record.&quot; These, the box explains, are &quot;distinguished brand name hotels and resorts&quot; whose names cannot be revealed until after purchase, a la Priceline or Hotwire.

The first one of these you will come across on the Las Vegas list is described as being on the strip and available for $48 a night. Click on the underlined &quot;more info&quot; in the box and another window will open up.

Now go up to the top of the screen of this new window and copy the URL in the address box. Go back to the first BetterBidding.com window and click on the REVERSE EasyClickTravel link. A new window will open for that tool which will have a box for you to paste the URL you just copied. Then press CNTRL and click on the Submit URL box and a small window will open in the upper left of your screen informing you, to your possible horror, that BetterBidding believes this &quot;distinguished&quot; hotel is probably Circus Circus!

Thank you all for your posts.

Well, I erased all my cookies and browser history and all and opened the BFT-website again today. I got the general board, and when I logged in, I got the 'you've been banned' sign again. So I guess that's really me who has been banned.

I have checked out betterbidding. It looks nice, the only shame is that all of Europe is just under 'other countries' which makes it perhaps a bit hard to browse for a European like me mostly doing European travels. But I'll definitely use it anyway!

Thanks for the info on BetterBidding.com!

I noticed that to get the EasyClickTravel thing to work I had to go in Tools and enable pop ups (on Fire Fox).

stardust:
They read your ISP number, so that's how they recognize that you've been banned.

I got banned from the GardenWeb forum once by asking for greenhouse information and using a manufacturer's name in the post. They accused me (in the most RUDE way imagineable - made Fodor's look like child's play) of advertising! When I asked them, well how would I get opinions on this particular greenhouse if I didn't use their name, they banned me. I figured their loss - I was the only realy knowledgeable person on their native plants forum.

Anyway, changing your ISP is apparently hard. I think sometimes they change on their own (because of way ISPs loan them out) but if you are on a network it won't change.

Sorry I didn't get back to you, iceeu2, but I was busy yesterday and didn't have time to check the board. But JBC has given you excellent instructions.

Well, I get the message &quot;connection was refused when attempting to contact p070.ezboard.com.&quot; I wonder what's up.

Is the better bidding site as good?