Dealers -vs- Stallions/Studs on HHO, why the discrepancy?

[SpottedCat]

This is a question which has been bothering me for some time.

HHO has banned all discussion of dealers, due to 'breaches of Ts&Cs' - when in fact mostly what I have seen is people giving their opinion of various dealers they have used in the past.

However, in the 'acceptable use of the breeding board' sticky, point 8 says

Please be aware that this forum consists of users who may have used your stallion, stud or services in the past and provided that their comments are factually accurate and in keeping with the rules of this forum they are entitled to post their opinions of your services.

So why can I not post factually accurate comments on the service provided by a dealer? Seems to me like HHO thinks stud/stallion owners have to just suck it up if someone comments unfavourably on them, but dealers are immune from the effects of bad experiences being communicated on sites like this.

Is it that HHO just think/know dealers will sue and stud/stallion owners won't?

Feels like one rule for dealers, one rule for the rest of the world.....or maybe I am just reading it wrongly?

 

[lannerch]

Agree does not sound at all fair.

Do you get more dodgy dealers than you do studs I wonder, still should be one rule for all.
Agree the dealers ( well the dodgier ones ) must have terrorised h@h with law suites whilst the breeders must have not.
And why should the bullys get their way and the truth be silenced just because they do not like it.

 

[SavingGrace]

I completely agree, people should be permitted to discuss their experiences with specific dealers if they hold accurate information about them! It's when people are posting second/third/fourth hand information that it can get messy/nasty!

 

[BBH]

I really think a rethink is in order re dealers as there is very little way of knowing who's reputable and who's not other than by personal experience.

Its daft really because if you've got nothing to hide you shouldn't be worried about feedback and it may help clean up the rogue dealers. You almost need a kitemark for dealers so that genuine people know who will sell to the customers needs and not their own. This would help promote the sale of horses for the good dealers and hopefully the bad ones will go out of business.

It seem strange that its unacceptable for forums to discuss dealers who've wronged them but acceptable for rogue dealers to continue to do wrong by people.

I know that there's two sides to a story but some cases are black and white ie you lie about a horse's medical problems etc.

Why is no-one brave enough to stand up to these people and start cleaning up his industry.