Copy of letter to Amsoil

Tom: I've never been confrontational. I have forwarded all of the conversations attached to this thread to my email so I have a permanent record of every post made in this newsgroup on this topic.

Making accusations of being confrontational border on slanderous.

On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:21:55 -0400, Tom J rearranged some electrons to say:

I would not necessarily call spewing the same crap that Spamsoil dealers have been spewing for years, "confrontational". Perhaps Steve will eventually learn that we've heard it all before. The Spamsoil believers will always believe that theirs is a superior product, even if they refuse to provide proof to back up their sometimes ridiculous claims.

But, we again ask Steve to stop promoting his spam on this newsgroup. Maybe Spamsoil will take action, somehow, I doubt it.

Slander is spoken, libel is in print. Either one does not exist when done without damage.

Continuing to spam this newsgroup after being asked not to, on numerous occasions, is in itself, being confrontational.

Personally, I don't care.

I do not believe in Amsoil products, or Lucas Oil products for that matter. (Lucas and Amsoil are competitors in the same market space, if you don't know.)

When a post comes up, my oil is difficult to find at the Ford Dealership, then I see absolutely no problem with Lucas or Amsoil jumping in to say, we have oil for your application. The context here is that the OP specifically asked about a source for an oil product, and Lucas and Amsoil are a source so they can and should reply to such a post.

What I object to is when distributors come on with a completely uninvited sales pitch. That's spam. A sales pitch in response to a direct question is not spam, even if I do not think the product is worth the trip to the store.

I think it is a reasonable debate that aftermarket oil products actually address the issues raised -- can Amsoil be used in Mercon or Mercon V applications? In the case of the recent discussion about the guy that could not find the equivalent to the Ford Spec. printed in the manual, it is not spam when the Amsoil distributor says, I have what you need. His product might be pure s*it for all I know, or pure gold. That is a reasonable debate to have here.

I don't know anything about Amsoil, or Lucas, but I do know that I am predisposed to reject the claims that their oil does any of the magical stuff that is claimed on the bottle. I have no evidence that it does not work, I just do not use it and do not engage in discussion about its relative qualities or the lack thereof.

You guys can paper the walls of the corporate offices with e-mails if you want, but I have to disagree that the practice you are railing against is spam on a newsgroup. You are railing against commercial posts on a newsgroup, but in my humble opinion, the commercial post is valid given the nature of the question that it is trying to address.

Jeff, if everyone was like you and didn't care, soon this newsgroup would be nothing but a bunch of commercial ads. I don't think that is what the majority of the people that visits this group wants. BTW, the Motorcraft oil the original poster was railing about is in stock at my local Wal-Mart!

Tom J

You need to read the rest of my post.

There was an open question that allowed the Amsoil distributor to respond. If the Amsoil distributor initiated a post about the stuff he's selling, then I'd agree with the point that he was engaged in a commercial post. But the question was, I need something that I can't find, anybody have an answer for me? I have no problem in that context that for the Amsoil distributor to try and peddle a couple of quarts of his product.

And, I agree, the product the OP was asking about is a common product at any auto parts store.

I agree with both your posts, I don't think it was spam.

I looked at his "contributions" to this group. He is spamming/whoring his product, plain and simple. Actually whoring may be more correct than spamming.

Ditto

I do think it was somebody with an irrational fear we might get usefull information from a manufacturer's rep.

Unless ALL he puts in his messages is the ad then what he's posting is no different then the many many other posts and replies people place that contain anywhere from 1% to 99% useful info. If someone asks if synthetic oil is worth using what difference does it make if someone says "yeah, it's great" and Steve says "Yeah, it's great and if you want to buy what I think is the best I can sell it to you." he's entitled to his opinion. no one has to buy from him. If he started answering EVERY message, no matter what the subject, with "That's an interesting question, sorry I can't help you but if you want to buy SynOil I can sell you some" then I think people would have a valid objection that he's spamming.

I am reminded of Three Stooges episodes where Moe one guy would pipe up with something stupid and Moe would abruptly whap them upside the head and say "Shaddup"!

Now shaddup.

Who are you telling to shut up? If it's me guess where you can shove it.

Not only that , Commercial sales are banned. Except for personal sales. And generally are susposed to be posted at for sale groups. And He doesnt own Amsoil. its not a personal sale. And he doesnt generate sales at any groups anyways. There is no sale. So he is not doing this for business. He clearly is just being a D*****ad asshole. Who is too dense to see you cant make a busines on a side add on for a main business. On a product sold cheaper in parts stores.