I joined the MyCoupons site in November 1999, and this morning, after over 4 years of conscientious contribution to the site, I was banned.
As I indicated in my post earlier this week about MyCoupons’ irresponsible practices, the site has clearly shown its true colors…that is, they are not there to help users, only to make money from users which they intentionally keep ignorant.
As of this writing, I have been given no explanation for why my account was banned. I have a guess, though. 
Most likely they were made aware of my article calling them to task on their knowingly falsely advertising their SixQuestions link — I was banned mere minutes after someone posted a link to my site on theirs in response to the question, “Is there a website that gives information on rewards programs and how they work?” (Note, MC mod Ambrie said, “I don’t know of one.” Which she full well does. Another lie from MC. Am I shocked?)
That is, after all, MC’s modus operandi: keep the membership in the dark. Don’t let them know that they can earn a rebate by shopping through a rewards program instead of through their link. Don’t let them know about other sites that contain helpful information if there’s a chance it’ll divert “business” from their website. Don’t let them know other message forums even EXIST!
Delete references to the competition….don’t let people post, “Remember to go through a rewards program if you take care of this deal!”…delete messages that show they’re not telling the truth about a MC coupon…and when all else fails, delete a user who FOLLOWS THE RULES if they call you on the carpet for your misdeeds.
Sigh…MyCoupons, you’ve come a long way from the ground-breaking, premier website that online shoppers went to first for great deals and helpful information. Tsk, tsk…what a shame.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t think you’re telling the truth. I’ve seen your website posted before there. It’s posted there now. If your site was such competition then it would be removed. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you’re the site owner trying a round about way to get your site attention. If you want advertising so much, why don’t you buy some from all those boards you list? I’ve been to many of them and they all have advertising options. Use them instead of working to sneak in your website. Sneaky is dishonest.
I did not post my url on MC. That is against the rules. I even responded to the person who did and told them that it wasn’t allowed.
I didn’t break ANY of MC’s rules. Not one. I challenge you to find one. Go ahead! Good luck!
So what was the email address comment about then?
If you can’t stand this site so much what do you bother asking people to email you from there? Email you for what? To direct them here is my guess. Sneaking around the rules but still getting your site traffic.
I’ve read posts over there for quite a while. If I had time to post regularly I’d register. My thoughts are if I don’t have time to contribute something I don’t need to register.
I have seen this site posted there before and it is right now. So what’s about all this competition thing? That doesn’t make any sense this place isn’t anything like my coupons or any other board you mentioned.
I think you’re just mad and saying anything.
Wicked
Someone posted that they wanted a site that talked about how to use rewards programs. Ambrie LIED and said she didn’t know of any. I tried to send a PRIVATE message to the poster but she had that option turned off. I said, “I know I’m not supposed to post the url of that site here, but if you’ll email me, I’ll give it to you.” The mod deleted my post because my email address is comparerewards@yahoo.com — and she felt that was an ad. When someone posted my url, I responded to say, “Don’t do that, it’s against the rules.” I WENT OUT OF MY WAY TO FOLLOW THE RULES. After my comparerewards email address was deleted as being an ad, I responded with an alternate address. I don’t feel this had ANYTHING to do with why I was deleted. I didn’t break ONE SINGLE RULE. I think the mods came to my site, saw the negative post I made about them a few days ago, and didn’t want me on their system anymore. It’s very simple. As for whether my site is a competitor of theirs, I don’t think so, either — but I can provide you with emails from MC mods where they stated that my site WAS a competitor of theirs. I don’t sell anything. They do. What I DO do is promote bargains and tell people what rewards program will pay you for buying them. They don’t allow that on their board… they only want you to shop through THEIR link so THEY get paid and you don’t. Hey, that’s how they stay in business, I guess. Keep people in the dark and take advantage of them. Whatever.
I had well over 100 posts to my credit on MC. If I had been advertising my own site all those times, do you think I would’ve been allowed to stay, SINCE 1999??? Think about it.
I have no problems with the users at MC. I think they’re great. I feel sorry for them, though, for being selectively informed and outright LIED TO by MCs mods. I hope that somehow they get the information they’re looking for.
Best wishes — and though you certainly have a right to your opinion, I think the facts speak for themselves in this situation.
Sincerely,
Becky Ford
“I did not post my url on MC. That is against the rules. I even responded to the person who did and told them that it wasn’t allowed.”
hahahaha
What a weird way to spend my day off. I found an old post of yours where you put the url right back to this site. But you did do it. I’ll have to go through more later and see if I can find some more. Of course if posts were edited it would be hard to find more. Interesting.
Wicked
I see now. What this boils the grits down to is interepretation of what you think is advertising. Whoever said in all your posts you were advertising in all of them? You say you went out of your way to follow the rules, but if you posted compare rewards email address you still got the site in there.
If you own compare rewards and you post an email for compare rewards that pretty much seals the deal. It doesn’t take someone with too much smarts to figure out that wasn’t the right thing to do. I’ve seen email addresses removed that had places like cosmetic address or household goods addresses. So yours is different how? Because it’s yours.
You’re saying some mod over there is lying. Do you know this for a fact? Where I come from those are fightin words. What it sounds like to me is you’re mad that some upper person at my coupons didn’t rush to post your site. Do you remember ever website you ever visited? Some gold person posted it. What difference does it make?
All I’m reading here is someone who is sour because they can’t have the rules bent for them. In THIS case your website email address. If the other cosemetic ones (something with Mary k is cosmeticsk right) and household stuff have been removed and those people can’t post ‘em, why should you? I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to accuse someone of lying if you can’t prove it. I don’t think you really know what happened with that six site either on their end. You don’t seem to understand who writes ad copy, but you’re all over my coupons like they screwed you royally and you know all the facts upfront. No credibility. If you don’t like a site so much you have to make up stuff to make yourself look good, how about just not go?
Or better yet why don’t you purchase ads ad those sites you list and get exposure honestly? Support some of those boards like big big and deal of the day.
Don’t know what happened to my name. Last post was mine, sorry about that.
Wicked
Go back and re-read MC’s board, please. What was the date of the message where I posted my url? Because after I was told it was against the rules, I NEVER DID IT AGAIN. (Don’t you think I would’ve been deleted if I did? Hello!?!)
Regarding today’s post, I DIDN’T POST MY URL. I warned the person who did that they were breaking the rules!!! And after Ambrie’s “friendly reminder” that my email address was considered advertising (oh, that’s kinda a stretch, huh? My address isn’t at comparerewards.com, it’s at yahoo.com), I posted a different email address. I complied with the mod’s request. I FOLLOWED THE RULES.
And THEN I was deleted. Why?
Simple! Because the reason I was banned was NOT because of the post in question. They went to my website after that other chick posted the url, they saw the article I wrote that put MC in a negative light, and they decided to cut their losses with me.
Does that bother me? No, not really. I actually am kinda flattered by it. Some huge corporation is intimidated by the opinion of a 36 year old housewife sitting on her couch way down in South Louisiana. Why? BECAUSE I SPEAK THE TRUTH.
I do NOT REGRET trying to answer the question of the original poster who asked, “Is there a website that tells you how rewards programs work?” She asked for information. I tried to follow the rules and get it to her.
Yes, I DO run the website she asked about. If someone else had run the website, I would’ve done the same thing — tried to PM her with the url, and since that didn’t work, left my email address to get it to her. HOW ELSE WOULD I TELL HER THE URL????
Ya know, nevermind. You’re not going to concede that MC did ANYTHING wrong, and I’m not going to concede that I did anything wrong. We see the situation differently. We’re going to have to agree to disagree.
Best regards,
Becky Ford
Yes, I found some old posts that had the url to your site…and they were posted by reford..is that you? I’ll bet it is. So who are you to talk about honesty when you try to break the rules at Mycoupons? You have ads on your site so you were advertising. You are sure not any competition to Mycoupons and I’m sure they could care less about your little personal page. Maybe that’s why they let you slide for 4 years while you advertised and broke the rules? I’ve been a member there for OVER 4 years and made 2,400 posts and never had a problem at all. It’s people like you that break the rules that are always the ones to complain and call others liars. I say thumbs up to Mycoupons for banning you!
Yep, I am reford! I use that same name on lots of deal boards. (Rebecca Ford. Get it?) I’m sure you’ve seen me around. I contribute to many forums, when I’m not scouring trivia answers for my 400 newsletter subscribers or chasing my two young’uns around the house.
PLEASE post the dates of any messages made by me on MC that contained my URL. Please? I already asked someone to do that and they haven’t replied. I did a search myself and didn’t come up with anything. I seem to recall doing it soon after I put my site up, and after MC’s mods told me it was against the rules, I STOPPED. I was a new webmaster and just didn’t know better. I was pretty embarassed about it; I’m a conscientious person — I ran a BBS of my own for years, back in the pre-WWW days — and I didn’t want to cause any trouble. Once I was told it was against the rules, I immediately stopped.
Obviously!! Or I would’ve gotten kicked off a long time ago, don’t you think??? Again…dates please? Was it recently? Was it over a year ago? Have I made posts since then, MANY of them, that made SOME contribution to the forum?
Please explain to me what I did between Ambrie’s “this is a friendly reminder that advertising is not allowed” and when I was banned. What did I do???
Lookit, I’ve got an MBA from LSU. I graduated magna cum laude with my BA in economics. I know exactly what’s going on here. This had nothing to do with my posting “hey, email me at comparerewards@yahoo.com and I’ll give you the url.” That’s not grounds for getting deleted off a forum. Get real.
They deleted me because of my VOCAL opposition (on my OWN website!) to the way they handled the SixQuestions coupon discrepancy and the way they withhold information from their users. I made them look bad. That can’t be good for their bottom line. It was probably the first time they read it, after somebody posted my url.
The truth hurts, I guess.
That just leave me,
Becky Ford
Proud To Be Banned From MyCoupons
It’s not about conceding that coupons did anything wrong. I think you’re just blowing things way out of proportion because you’re ticked and you want to make yourself look better than you are. You knew what you were doing when you posted that email address and you know that it referenced your site. It was just another way to get around the rules and get your site traffic plain and simple.
All your gripes about my coupons other boards follow too. Even the ones you mention. I’m a member at big big and they have the same rules about posting sites just like theirs. Where your big beefy nasty article about them now?
You didn’t post your concerns you flung accusations none of which you can prove. I would have said you did a nice thing by contacting that six place but as uppity as you’ve gotten acting like you uncovered some major conspiracy? Forget it. As someone who wishes to advertise and has one attempt under his belt I find all what you said offensive. You can’t even admit you don’t know how the advertising system works. You sure post like you got a huge handle on things.
I think the 36 year old (totally surprised you’re this old) housewife should consider her motives. Just by complaining about what my coupons does yet having no slandering articles on the other sites doing the same things says a lot. In my book that’s pretty dumb. It’s okay for one site but not for others huh? Do you see ads for Kroger at Piggly Wiggly? Do you see ads for Target at Walmart? No, duh.
Post negative all you want but post fairly. Don’t sit here and assume you know everyone’s motives whether it be moderators owners or whatever and act like it’s pure fact. One thing my Mom taught me is don’t ever accuse someone of lying, stealing or cheating if you can’t prove it. You end up sounding like a tattling 10 yr old. If you don’t like the rules of a site go somewhere else.
Wicked
Man. The more I read the more unimpressed I am.
You don’t know why your banned that much is obvious. You got your site mentioned which is I’ll bet all you wanted. It’s pretty common sense to me that if you own a site you don’t post about it. Period. Asking people to email you is just a back way to get your advertising. They must know what site you own and that you’re a site owner.
My friend has his store. It would be COMMON SENSE to figure that I or he can’t post the store email address asking people to email us!
You know what you’re doing. It’s a damn shame for the rest of the advertisers that follow the rules and actually pay for it (what a concept, huh) and don’t look for sneaky back ways to do things.
Wicked
Hi, Wicked!
Do other deal forums knowingly allow ads to stay on their sites after being informed they’re incorrect? Please let me know which ones so I can blast them, too!
Thanks in advance,
Becky
If I find any I’ll let you know.
But I’d still like to know how it was your notification that single handedly changed the coupon at my coupons. I’d like to be shown that no one did anything it was solely you. I’d like to know what someone from that six place emailed you back with saying that only you notified them. Complete with email headers.
Wicked
Wow, what a little tiff we have here! Children, to your corners!
But is that against the TOS? I don’t see what she did wrong. Let’s look at the facts.
Personally I don’t see why Becky was banned either… other than the fact that she’s a troublemaker.
1) How is posting “comparerewards@yahoo.com” an advertisement? If it were a comparerewards.com address then I could understand.
2) Telling someone to email you for more info is not advertising. It’s the same as a private message. Advertising is something that everyone sees. I suppose you could consider it a way to circumvent their advertising policy but that’s a stretch. I mean you can’t really say that a handful of people sending emails saying “tell me about this site!” is comparable to an ad campaign. That’s a lot of effort just to inform a few people. Besides, I’ve done exactly the same thing before, years ago on Classmates.com. I posted something like “I’m not allowed to post URLs here, but if you email me I’ll give you the address for a great free alumni registry.”
3) I find it extremely strange that Becky’s post with her email address was deleted (and her account locked), yet Goldendog’s post with the URL was allowed to stay. Obviously their policy is that you can’t advertise your own site, but it’s ok for someone else to mention it. Seems fair enough… but then why delete Becky’s post in the first place?
Anyway, my take on this whole thing (and maybe I’m stating the obvious here) is that it was gut reaction by MC in response to Becky’s posts about the SixQuestions link discrepancy. I’m sure if they weren’t already mad over the flaming you gave them yesterday, they probably would have left your post alone. Did you do anything wrong? Technically, no. But you did piss someone off and if they want to ban you from the site, there’s not a thing you can do about it… other than voice your opinion here.
Well, the SixQuestions coupon is back up as a “Sticky”; that coupon has a LOOONG and involved “disclaimer”, and there is nothing to be found when “compare rewards” is searched for (with & without space between words) on MyCoupons. My take: something is going on; don’t depend on just one or two sources for information, but as many sources as possible. Thanks for posting all the links to the various Rewards boards.
I read some of the stuff and pretty much the argument seems to be out of hand.
1) Advertising Issue – Why would comparerewards care to advertise and pay money. She can do it, but will you donate money? As far as I’ve seen this site is trying to help the user get the info he needs. (NonProfit)
2) MyCoupons ban – Yes it is unfair that they ban someone, but then again…they can do whatever they want. It’s their site they are the boss, they can abn every single memebr on the board for no reason about it and technicly you have no reason to complain.
3) comaprerewards@yahoo.com – I dout CompareRewards broke the rules. having your name in email address is nothing wrong, ay if i have my name in my email, am i advertising myself? Thats against the rules right, advertising my own name…Aslong as you didn’t make a special email for this its no big deal. that is the email she uses every day and nothing you can do about it.
4) Who is at fault? – If you bring thing down, Mycoupons is at fault. Their no Advertising rule is a bit too strict, yes advertisement isn’t allowed but we forget what a forum is about. The rules are not made to inconvenience you, but to help you or prevent spamming and inetiquite advertisement. If my coupons wanted to make money off shopping, heck they can do what fatwallet does and give you a % for shopping, this way you use them. Last I rember, mycoupons is a DEAL forum, and a rewards program helps make the deal better.
Last Points…
-A newspaper is NOT a form of advertisement.
-Loosing CompareRewards on Mycoupons no matter what you say, is not harmful to her, but to the members of the boards.
Pardon my spelling..