Why is TWF accepting advertising from a company that sells fakes?

There is a banner advertisement for Link China currently running on TWF home page.

They are selling fakes. See link below.

http://www.linkchina.com/for-sale/1...-headphone-for-mp3--ipod--cd-/1001404735.html

Does anybody check these sites before they accept advertising from them?

They will probably get banned now because as it states in t&c's they do not accept selling of counterfeits on the marketplace

Dan

Isn't linkchina just like dhgate or tradetang? If so they should be banned straight away

yeah, it's a B2B platform so they're only a middle man...

Not sure it changes anything though, we should wait for Anthony to come in on this one!

I also await a reply on this, certain members on here with paid advertising sell copied goods such as tvc-mall. They sell PS Jailbreaks and branded apple products yet still they are allowed to advertise on here. I wanted to sell the PS Jailbreaks on here but Anthony advised that he had banned the selling of the Jailbreaks due to copyright issues.

I completely understood and advised I would not sell them on here but he said i must remove from my own website www.saigondropshipping.com as my site is advertised via TWF. I explained i wanted to make things work on the forum and removed the items from my website also but queried why others were selling copied goods with Anthony.

As requested they were removed as i appreciate Anthonys advice and knowledge and I want to make a genuine go on the marketplace here but why are other long term advertisers allowed to sell the same goods?????

Why are some advertisers allowed to sell counterfeit products - nobody should be allowed to and any rules and regulations should be applied across the advertising board.

I have queried this before with Anthony and still await a response, i think everyone will agree that when rules are in place for paid advertisers they should apply to everyone who is paying for services here, it is bad business to allow some to sell counterfeit/copied products?

Nice to see other community members wondering the same, awaiting eagerly a response to our queries from the mods. I am sure all members who pay advertising on here will agree that I am not just being difficult here, that any rules should be applied to each and every one of us.

I will watch this thread now. To see what the outcome is.

if they are selling fakes, should not be able to make the advertisement on TWF. But the problem maybe because of the advertisement company, like google, the PPC advertisement, they had not checked the information carefully, and the people can success making fakes information on TWF site.

yes its a few weeks ago since i opened this thread i would be interested to hear Anthonys response?

Just to add, I believe WSDeal is also an advertiser here - I could be wrong but I recall seeing a banner for them.. http://www.wsdeal.com/GC193S/Mini_J..._USB_Solution_for_Playing_PS3_Games_Silver.ws

Yes but the point here is that they are advertising on TWF and Anthony has made it clear to me that no website affiliated with TWF can sell copied/counterfeit items etc as TWF has to work within the laws of England. By advertising an outside business website on TWF, Anthony has told me he can not be linked to anything that is illegal with the UK laws or UK custom regulations and can not be seen to allow the sale/promotion of these products via his site and that includes having that website listed/promoted via TWF.

The issue is why some customers who pay advertising are allowed to do this and others are not.

Nobody should be allowed to advertise copied/goods especially us Community Advertisers and we should have to all follow the same rules on here. By allowing some companies to do so on here and then telling others that they can not does not show a fairly run forum/business to me or fair business practices.

The mods are all very quiet on this subject, does anyone have a link to the advertising terms and conditions?

I am sure Anthony will get to the thread in due course. Until then kindly refrain from jumping to conclusions.

Thanks

He's had 20 days already to respond already and don't tell me he hasn't seen it as he has responded to other threads in this group since then.

I fail to see how anyone jumping to conclusions, this is an open debate and as customers to this forum we should be allowed to question and express our opinion.

The OP raised an issue that I have also raised before but had no reply to. As a paying advertiser it is only fair for this to be justified.

By seeing advertisers on here doing exactly what we are told is against advertising rules is not jumping to conclusions, it is only fair that paid advertisers be provided with an explanation.

The fact that there is a banner less than 2 inches to the right of your post from an advertiser for a site advertising copied goods 'WSDEAL' allows me as a paid advertiser to question something, i really dont think that is too much to ask from a professional business forum.

Apologies for my delayed reply, I quite honestly did not notice this thread when it was first posted by ADC, but made a note of following it up once I saw some of the more recent replies today.

In response to the underlying questions over whether we accept advertising from those that sell counterfeits -- Quite clearly, it is not in our interest to support that particular trade and the very notion undermines everything that we stand for as a community platform. We strive to ensure that any products of that nature do not end up on our marketplace directly, or are in-directly advertised through our other promotional services. This has always been the policy and we work hard to maintain that aspect of our service as any respectable venue in this particular market would endeavour to do (because plenty don't, I might add).

In respect of LinkChina, I accept the comments that have been made and quite agree, there are products on their website that we cannot endorse on the basis of them being counterfeit and highly illegal for any prospective buyers here in the UK and elsewhere to import. I can say with certainty that at the point of campaign inception, we did not come across counterfeit products that are seemingly in abundance as can be observed today. They are a third party platform with their own advertisers. It was clearly a grave error on our part to entrust this particular client to honour our agreement and further regrettable that it should be brought to light by one of our own members. This causes irreparable damage to our reputation, something that we greatly care about. I would confirm publicly that we have deactivated their campaign, no further advertisements will be shown, and I will be writing to them tomorrow for their comments on this issue.

In regards to WSDeal, we have only recently been made aware of the new mini jailbreak plug type product (at least to me it is new, as I have not seen this particular product before a week or two ago when we banned it from being sold here). I do understand it has some similarities to other products on the market already and made a point of questioning the product within hours of it appearing in our marketplace. We acted swiftly and banned it from being advertised here. The member who has highlighted in this thread the product present on their website should be commended for bringing this to our attention, thank you. I would confirm that we have suspended this advertiser’s account and I will write to them personally tomorrow about this matter. I can firmly say that unless I am satisfied that the products they are offering both on our platform and through their website are legitimate (and it stays that way), the suspension on their account will not be released. We clearly cannot take such breaches lightly or afford to scold our own reputation in the process of in-action.

In a more general sense, let us kindly remember that there is a human element involved here and that as such, errors or lapses in observation are unfortunately par for the course. We would never knowingly accept advertising from anyone that was actively selling counterfeit goods. Daily we sift through such enquiries and requests and do not hesitate in declining applications from those obviously involved in counterfeits. What is somewhat out of our control and indeed active observation is when an active advertiser, who may have passed all of our verifications in the first instance, decides to stock a product that is of a questionable nature. This too is a regular occurrence and is obviously easier to track through our own platform but not so much through an advertisers own website.

I would love to say that we have the man power to actively research over 500 client websites, plus the many hundred stock offers submitted to our marketplace on a daily basis to ensure that any instances of questionable products are immediately acted upon. Realistically, that is not possible and as such, we have to look for patterns, consider trading history, reputation and often, localities and individual product sectors in order to make judgement calls. Often, you will find that there is an inherent correlation between those that get involved with counterfeit goods from those that do not.

The community is an integral part of this observation process, tips and notifications make up a large part of our observations. It's a case of accepting that 60,000 individual eyes are better than just a handful whose roles span a number of verticals. A website the site of ours has a responsibility to its audience and indeed brand holders to take such matters seriously and we shoulder that with great persistence.

As members and indeed advertisers, it is quite acceptable that you be allowed to share your opinions, hence why this section has always existed. What I will say is that the feedback you share with us all should be constructive and helpful toward a common goal that hopefully as members we equally share.

Thank you & good evening.

Thanks for clearing it up.

Thanks for your explanation, appreciated. Hopefully in the future the community can help spot these bad products.

Perhaps as a suggestion to ensure illegal products are not sold on here, the moderators or Anthony could add a section where we the community members, report those advertisers that are selling illegal products can be named and shamed and subsequently removed from here

1. TVC-Mall - selling PS Jailbreaks and various fake Apple products

Anthony is beween a rock and a hard place here. He has set up the T&C's of the site and enforced them with Saigon Apparel but we all know that things work differently in China and what we call fake, they cal OEM,

He would have to ban Global Sources, Alibaba, and pretty much every other Chinese advertiser on the site.

Unfortunately with the stance taken against Saigon Apparel -- telling him he has to remove the PS3 Break from his site, as well as not advertising it here, I don't see how other 'larger advertisers' can be allowed to stay too.

Personally I think the best stance would have been to stop the products being linked here but not forcing the issue of removal from external sites. You cannot be expected to control all the content of all the sites that link to you.

Dean, I have to correct you on that particular point as that was not exactly the stance that we took in this instance or in fact any others like this. We are not in a position to force anyone to remove products, content, or otherwise from their own websites and we would not use our time to make such demands. We don't wish to tell anyone how to run their business, they must accept that responsibility along with the risks associated with trading in questionable goods. The only real control that we have is over our own platform and how those that use it for promotional purposes interact with it.

I did not instruct saigonapparel to remove anything from their website, that was their call after I openly said that we would have an issue with them using our platform as a springboard to sell the jailbreak products. This was after the advertiser agreed not to promote the products here (because we have restricted the sale of them), but that he would consider his options through other means. After I advised him that selling these products would likely land him and his buyers in trouble at some point, it was then that he agreed it was perhaps not the best product line for him to be offering, here or indeed elsewhere. Our T&Cs are without complication on the issue of third party websites and linking, but we have to consider the impacts that any apparent endorsement may spell.

On the other issues, I have this morning taken preventative measures against the advertiser, tvcmall, and will have the same conversation with them as I will the others that we have already taken action on.

I believe that what has needed to be said has now been said and we will move on from this hopefully with the full support of members and advertisers alike. We have a report post feature, email support and moderators including myself that can be contacted directly with reports or concerns that should be brought to our attention.

We hope that we can count on your continued support.