Advertising with H&H Rant!

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zoeshiloh

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www.stowmarketanddistrictridingclub.com
You might remember my post earlier in the week where I decided to downsize and sell/loan most of my herd.

Well, today I decided to put some ads in H&H for next week - one of the broodies for loan, and two horses for sale. Filled everything out, posted the ads - total came to £135. Bearing in mind I have advertised with H&H over 10 times in the past and never had a single call from a buyer, yet have had buyers from Horsemart, Horse Deals etc. Why I keep advertising in H&H I don't know! Anyway, back to the point...

One of the horses I advertised is for loan. I have just had a phonecall from H&H to say that rather than pay £20 for an ad (like for horses for sale between £1-£3000) I will have to pay £150 instead, as their 'special offer' does not cover 'for loan' only horses that are being sold. I don't get this - I am not making any money out of loaning my horse, it is costing me money to advertise her, and yet they want to charge me more than if I were making money from her! I had a rant to the person on the phone, told her exactly how much I had spent with H&H and that I had no responses in the past, and she just said "there's nothing I can do, I'll get someone else to call you back". Is it me being unreasonable, or is it odd that H&H are charging £20 to someone that could make up to £3000 and yet they want to charge £150 to someone not making a penny!
 
Yes, thats crazy prices! Really, really ridiculous. If I were you, just to make a point, I would tell them that you now don't want any of them advertised in H&H. Not that big a loss if you say you haven't had much luck advertising with them before.
 
I have to confess I never find any horses suitable to buy in H&H, although if I am in the market to buy I will always look at their classifieds. I think that everything these days are geared up to online advertising, which cost comparably cheaper, and you have more control over the advert and have more space for descriptions and extra photos. I think H&H need to look at re-thinking their whole advertising strategy. I know they have the online version, but I dont find it very user friendly, and you are still limited on what you can write and the photos used. I have used H&H to sell in the past year and had no responses at all, but then I could only afford to advertise for 2 issues.
 
Ditto tasteofchaos. I had success with H&H many years ago selling a horse - but not in more recent years I'm afraid. Instead I have on more recent occaisions advertised with the NFED online - which is a site local to me - but does now get a wider audience. Very successful at a fraction of the price
 
why pay when you can advertise for nothing, free adds, preloved etc. I sold an 'unsound' mare within weeks on freeadds.
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Horse and hound online is also one of the worst for doing a seach for the kind of horse you want. Horesmart is streets ahead imho. I have never advertised with H&H but sold our horsebox on horsemart within two weeks
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The only problem I find with horsemart is it attracts a lot of kids calling about horses they can never afford/are never allowed and dealers trying to haggle to ridiculous prices with you (not that I would sell to a dealer anyway!)

I have two horses on horsemart at the moment and only getting those completely unsuitable calling.

These are the ads - where else should I think of advertising?

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/marketplace/classified/4-details-horses-for-sale_217660.htm
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/marketplace/classified/4-details-horses-for-sale_217662.htm
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/marketplace/classified/4-details-horses-for-sale_217664.htm
 
h&h are pretty useless, i have advertised before paid £250 to get the horse in horses of the week only for them to list him for sale at £1200 not £12000!!! i had a few calls asking why he was so cheap to which i replied he wasnt!!! and they never returned to photo which i had paid to get returned.........................anyway back to the matter in hand
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try horsemart etc cheaper and i think online reaches more buyers than in the magazine??
 
H&H are extortionate. You can hardly fit any info in unless you pay them what the horse is worth in the first place! Last time I had a horse advertised with them, their marketing team found my ad (same ad) a couple of days later on Horse Hunter and called me to see if they could interest me in advertising in H&H! A little extra research would be advised!

Horsemart, Horse Hunter, Horsedeals, Horse Quest...
 
I have bought both my last horses though H&H. However, i look at horse quest on a daily basis.. dont ask me why i have no plans to buy another
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! I like the way it is laid out and people can write as much as they like - and the photos are always a decent size.

I think the is about £40 to advertise with them, might be worth a thought if you dont have any luck with H&H.

Back to the point tho - i totally agree with you that you shouldn't pay more to advertise your horse for loan than for sale
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H&H are always my first and only choice. I have been a loyal reader for many years and have sold Horse through advertising with them many times. I strayed a few months ago to a competitor magazine and got calls from people who quite frankly didn't have the money to spend and where what I consider to be "just dreamers"...a complete waste of my £40..you get what you pay for
 
I really hope the horse for sale adverts in H&H continue as they are my favourite entertainment in the whole magazine. I mean, just how many daft typos and incorrect spellings is it possible to have? I play spot the mistake each week. When I raised this before someone from H&H did respond on my post which did impress me but it was to say that they can't proof read the classified ads. Why on earth not?

I simply wouldn't advertise with them incase they got my ad wrong and have always sold our quality ponies through horsequest. Admittedly they have no search facility BUT they are accurate and reasonably priced.
 
Hi this is Steve from H&H although I think I am super "supersteve" is not me so would not want to take his glory. It has been great reading the feedback on this forum thread and I am glad that we have resolved the issue. We are always looking at ways in which we can improve our advertising offering to our readers so here is the sales pitch: keep an eye out for our unbeatable offers in the the NO1 weekly magazine and website and please feel free to email any feedback to us at h&h_ads@ipcmedia.com
 
i think that's very nice of Steve to respond so quickly and he has obviously listened to what customers want...another reason why H&H have my full support
 
Have to say, never look on H&H for horses as you cannot do a precise search so it's a very long, drawn out process and it seems pics and text are limited.

Horsemart is the most user friendly and the one with more views I think. Think you just have to weedle out the 'silly calls' although yes it is annoying!

Horsedeals is also good as again you can do a precise search rather than just a category or price range type. It's not as good as Horsemart imo as is a bit slow as too much on thesite I think.

Horsequest is ok, although don't think a specific search bit on it, and preferable to Horseselect which is useless!

There's also Horsehunter? We looked on that when looking for horseboxes....
 
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