Apology to Brian
 

Posted is a recent PM to Brian. I wanted to make it public to share my most sincere apologizes to the rest of the BBQ community as well.

___

Brian,

After some careful thought, I have decided to drop the entire issue. It really was never my intent to make anyone upset over a grate. I was simply frustrated and for that I hope you will except my sincere apologizes.

I have posted negative reviews on google and yahoo. They have since been deleted. The BBB complaint will be dropped. I will also remove myself from the BBQ Brethren forum as well.

As far as the order is concerned, you can keep it without worry of reprisal.

For some reason I didn’t concern myself with matrix of the BBQ community. In retrospect, I didn’t consider much of anything other than the absence of my order.

Short of not being able to apologize to you personally, I pray your forgiveness in the most sincere way that I can. If not, I understand.

Greg.

Padawan, do not apologize.....
 

Padawan,

Why are you apologizing to this guy. I ordered a custom mini lang from him a few years ago. I paid $400 dollars up front, he gave me the run around for six months with many many e-mails, promises, phone calls etc...When it arrived it was another host of major problems and a smoker that did not work (could not heat up over 200F even with lump charcoal). Bottom line is Brian still has my smoker, I am out $400 and this guy is a RIP OFF!!!!!!!! He has a bunch of storys and lies about everything....I have an entire inbox of his e-mails to prove it for anyone who cares. I am so irritated with this guy, that I do not want anything from him. At this point, it is not worth the money, just warning you to stay away from doing business with him and wanted to show support for Padawan, I feel for ya....

Why are we shutting down Padawan's complaints. I was ripped off by Brian as well. I would haul him into court if he lived closer. In my opinion, this guy has no integrity whatsoever. I am out $400 and have NOTHING to show for it. I only did business with this guy because of information I received from this web site. It is upsetting to think that I was ripped off because any complaints against this guy in the past were deleted because he is a sponsor of this site.

Thanks for the clarification. Do we give "Brethren Members" the opportunity to repost their concerns without the name calling and flames before their posts are deleted so that the intent of the message is not lost?

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/fo...c&daysprune=-1

If you look at the posting history for this Ventures Forum, you will see that the "concerns" are still there. Only the two most recent threads have modded posts. The posts that were modded contained name calling and flaming. However, everything else is STILL there. If you have a legitimate complaint or concern, you are more than allowed to voice it. I'd even recommend you do so in a new thread so that both of you can resolve it there, in a civil manner. However, complaining about it here on the forum will not accomplish much for your cause. It is still a matter for you to resolve with the business owner. We advised Padawan to take it into PM's because, as you can see from the threads in the history, it got heated, there was name calling, and THAT type of discussion IS NOT ALLOWED ON THE FORUM, by either parties.

Greg,

Let's NOT start the name calling AGAIN. The name calling is what got your last post in this thread removed.

I just want to know, did padawan ever receive the grates?

Intersting post from a moderator

No Brian never made right on anything. I apologized to be rid of him. I have received many emails since then from people who have been cheated by him. I have a trip scheduled in the spring to PA. I can take care of this with the DA then. Others have expressed interest in doing the same.

I never used any type of foul language and only stated the facts. This whole experience has tainted my opinion of this forum (and moderators who have taken up for him) and those who seem to support his criminal behavior.

For those who have been victimized by Brian, I pray for your relief. Regards -Greg.

Gentlemen...

I would like to remind you of some of our rules...

So let's break this down. Calling someone a scumbag or other names regardless of the situation is a clear violation of the first rule in red. Bringing back discussions that were already asked to be taken private is a clear violation of the second rule in red. It doesn't matter what the subject, doing either of these will get the post deleted.


and...





See above. Calling anyone a scumbag or other name will be considered a personal attack and the post will be deleted, no matter what the subject.



and finally...





If you disagree with what any moderator has done take it offline. Period. If you still don't like the answer, take it to Phil (BBQChef33). But realize that before we make any major decision we have already discussed it amongst ourselves and Phil.


Challenging a moderator in public, especially accusing the moderation team of deleting complaints against someone in the Vendor section because they are a "sponsor" of the site, will not be tolerated. Those who are in this section paid to have a separate area of the forum. They are responsible for content in that section UNLESS the brethren rules have been broken (see above).


Finally, accusing the moderators of "taking up" for anyone is ludicrous. Everything that we have done in this regard has been to enforce our rules. The decision to insult or flame someone, bring private conversations out in public and to challenge the moderators in public were done by the folks who submitted those posts. We have enforced our rules fairly in this matter. Just because someone's post was deleted because of rules violations does not indicate any bias on our part and any accusations in that regard are out of line. Posts expressing issues with any of our Ventures subscribers that state the issue without violating any rules have been left alone, just have the responses to those posts by the Ventures member. Where the ventures member violates our rules their posts will be treated accordingly.

ok, we are done with this bull#hit. The point has been made and driven home. HCC has things that need to be ironed out. Im sure everyone gets it at this point. But, now you smeared our administrative staff, and members who have had positive experiences with HCC and posted as such.

Padawan6510, YOU now have crossed MY line when you question our moderators. I let it slide the last time, but you have used up the buy. There is zero tolerance now. We let your repeated offenses slide for the sake of you and HCC working things out. I am not going to go back to the deleted posts and re-post the original posts that contained the flames.

You have questioned the integrity of this forum, its members and our moderators. We have gone above and beyond to allow people to voice their opinions on this topic, TO THE POINT OF REOPENING A CLOSED FORUM. This forum was shutdown when the subscription expired. YOU posted your original complaint in the wrong forum. Did we delete it? NO... we moved it to the proper place, THIS HCC vendor forum and REOPENED IT TO ALLOW YOU TO HAVE CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE. REOPENED FOR YOU to hash out your issues. The only time any of your posts were modertated, was when they were no longer civil and/or factual and tuned to angry name calling, threats, accusations and assumptions, and at that, ONLY ONE was removed. Keep in mind. Other responses from HCC were ALSO moderated when they turned ugly. We did not protect or show bias in any way shape or form. MYSELF AND THE MODERATORS upheld the established rules of this forum AS A WHOLE in the most objective and professional manner possible.

Padawan6510, you arrived here on 7/11/11, your first post was 7/22/11 when you purchased your grate.
Then comes the issues with HCC on 9/22, nearly 2 months to the day of your first post. Then, for several days, we did everything we can to allow the free flow of information. We refereed your exchange with Brian and stepped in ONLY when forum rules were broken. Specifically a heated exchange from both YOU and HCC, and the posts from each of you were removed. HCC edited his to be more civil, you left yours at that. The moderator team babysat your discussion to ensure it remained civil and we even let some shots taken at us slide, giving you the benefit of the doubt, and blamed it on the heat of the discussion. For this, you accuse us of bias. Instead of utilizing a constructive dialogue to iron out issues, you have offered nothing to this forum except bad karma, drama and work for the moderators, and now, you question our integrity and intentions.

Heres a perspective for everyone to digest. Guess how many posts you have OUTSIDE of the HCC Vendor forum...do you know what you have offered this forum in the form of information sharing, comaradirie, etc based on actions/post count?..

You have..

ONE.

ONE post, and even at that, it was of ZERO significance, merely an OT comment. All of you activity has been in the HCC forum.. complaining.

Since from your perspective, your view of this forum, its mod team and its members have been tainted, and from our perspective, you have offered nothing but bad karma causing more issues and work for us than all other issues this year combined, I suggest you find another forum. Your point has been made here, and your issues with HCC will remain in the archives. But I see no reason for you to remain in a place where you have lost confidence in its components.

I apologize to our general membership for having to see this transpire.. At this point, its over.


One other thing in general.

Just to ensure everyone is clear on something. This area, the vendors section, as clearly stated here, is in no way endorsements of the products, but a paid area where we allow members to discuss their product. Believe me, the $125 a year this forum generates is not enough for the moderators to risk our reputation.