OfferMe.com.au had some very bumpy ride on OzBargain. It started out quite well — a few highly voted deals over here back in early December. The concept of the site is quite interesting as well, as it bridges buyers and sellers together. However there are quite a few issues with this model, and the biggest complain from our members is — you cannot buy it instantly. My other problem — you do not know whom you are buying from when you put in the request. It's a nice model but it's still in its infancy.
OfferMe.com.au has been posting 1-2 deals/week here over the last couple of weeks, and the later deals often get more negative votes than positive ones. So they have been temporarily banned again and again (temp bans have 5 days limit, when there are more negative votes than positive votes on your deals). Until they posted their last deal on WoW Wrath Of The Lich King Expansion Pack. +7/-9 votes. And now I am putting OfferMe.com.au into permanent ban on OzBargain.
Not because they are offering bad deals. In WoW's case, yes there are better price out there. I have not banned them before because I believe it's a model yet to be mature and still requires some testing. I am banning them because of ghost accounts/sock puppeting (which now has a permanent warning in the posting page so no excuse for missing it).
Deal was posted on 6 Jan 2009 at 10:47am. Within 23 minutes, +6 votes have been made on that deal — 5 of them from the same IP and the other one from a different IP but using the same computer as two of the other 5. 4 more positive votes have been made afterwards — all by 1st day users. Different people, but have very similar profile (which I won't reveal our methodology here).
This is a clear violation of our T&C.
All the best OfferMe.com.au — you guys have an interesting product. But sorry you are not welcomed on OzBargain.
Kudos scotty for keeping ozbargain an honest place. Thank you! Good riddance you sock puppeters