Is there a way to submit a free advert still?

[RevoHJC]

Or is PH ££ only now? ://// ffs.

[Switch]

Yes. If you've been a member long enough, which it doesn't look like you have.

ETA: It's free for members pre Jan 01 2009

[RevoHJC]

This is really st.

[hornetrider]

RevoHJC said:

This is really st.

Why's that newbie?

[RevoHJC]

PH was always good because it was simple to use and free. Looks like they are straying away from that now. Need to go and try and remember what my original account is now then, which I had pre 09

Just a pain in the arse and a stupid loophole as if everyone has a "premium" advert, what makes it so "premium"? heh.

[Wacky Racer]

RevoHJC said:

This is really st.

Not really.

It's a way of rewarding longer serving members....

Be patient, eveything comes to those who wait....

We were all newbies once........

[RevoHJC]

Wacky Racer said:

Not really.

It's a way of rewarding longer serving members....

Be patient, eveything comes to those who wait....

We were all newbies once........

Well it's just an arbitrary time value that they decided to impose in order to make money from new sign ups. Most people aren't going to wait XX years to post for free, so fair play if they think this is the best business model for them. Whatever, luckily I can use my older account, just all seems really stupid to me to force a "Premium" advert when you can no longer opt out and choose a bog standard free advert?

[Stuart]

The site costs money to run, we charge £9.99 for a month and not the nearly £40 a fortnight charged by AutoTrader and many people say that we get good response. Not such bad value really, is it?

[tjlees]

Stuart said:

The site costs money to run, we charge £9.99 for a month and not the nearly £40 a fortnight charged by AutoTrader and many people say that we get good response. Not such bad value really, is it?

Also never managed to sell a performance vehicle on autotrader having forked out £60+ twice, but two of my vehicles on pistonheads went within a week and one took four weeks. Also bought my last two performance vehicles from pistonheads. I did look at dealers, autotrader and the web but the choice seems to be better here

Parts section seems to work as well since I sold all my spare wheels!

[Synchromesh]

I thought the cut off was going to be "rolling" forward i.e fee ads for those who've been a member for over 2 years, so each month, the cut-off date moves forward a month?

[Stuart]

Synchromesh said:

I thought the cut off was going to be "rolling" forward i.e fee ads for those who've been a member for over 2 years, so each month, the cut-off date moves forward a month?

We've never promised that, only that we would periodically move the date forwards.

[Timbuk2]

I managed to put up a free Ad and I've only been a member since 2011

[LordGrover]

RevoHJC said:

Well it's just an arbitrary time value that they decided to impose in order to make money from new sign ups. Most people aren't going to wait XX years to post for free, so fair play if they think this is the best business model for them. Whatever, luckily I can use my older account, just all seems really stupid to me to force a "Premium" advert when you can no longer opt out and choose a bog standard free advert?

Terms and Conditions said:

By registering, you certify that all information you provide in the registration is accurate. Users may only maintain one active registration. In other words, it's one registration per person. By accepting this agreement, you certify that you have no other registration with PistonHeads.com. You may not register a username that contains any reference to a company or website name.

[10 Pence Short]

Stuart said:

We've never promised that, only that we would periodically move the date forwards.

Please don't take this as personal criticism, but that's not a sensible policy to maintain. Either have a static, one-off cut off date, or automate it to provide the additional service level to customers who've been such for a particular period of time.

People who are only a few months short of the current cut off will understandably feel uncertain and perhaps aggrieved that they ony just don't qualify now and there is no idea when or whether they will in the future. That is not likely to motivate them to stay loyal.

[illmonkey]

Someone wanting something for nothing again.

It costs money to run PH, so why not pay them back to advertise your car!

[tubbystu]

RevoHJC said:

Always the best way to endear yourself to PH management

[Synchromesh]

Stuart said:

Synchromesh said:

I thought the cut off was going to be "rolling" forward i.e fee ads for those who've been a member for over 2 years, so each month, the cut-off date moves forward a month?

We've never promised that, only that we would periodically move the date forwards.

OK, it was a while ago I heard that so not surprised I don't remember it correctly. Can I ask, when was the last time to date was moved forward, and what amount by?

[Stuart]

Synchromesh said:

OK, it was a while ago I heard that so not surprised I don't remember it correctly. Can I ask, when was the last time to date was moved forward, and what amount by?

Last time was last September, and we moved it forwards by 6 months to include all those who joined before 1st January 2009. We will do it again soon, but the issue is that the site has grown so quickly in the last 2-3 years that having a regular programme of moving the date forwards has a much bigger impact on the number of people who are entitled to have a free ad the more recent we get. We want to reward our older members - the people who joined a long time ago and have supported PH for many years. We know that this won't make us popular with some of the newer members but we really don't want to have a "new customers only" and feel that there should be value in having been a member for a long time. We're pretty unapologetic about that.

[Synchromesh]

Stuart said:

Synchromesh said:

OK, it was a while ago I heard that so not surprised I don't remember it correctly. Can I ask, when was the last time to date was moved forward, and what amount by?

Last time was last September, and we moved it forwards by 6 months to include all those who joined before 1st January 2009. We will do it again soon, but the issue is that the site has grown so quickly in the last 2-3 years that having a regular programme of moving the date forwards has a much bigger impact on the number of people who are entitled to have a free ad the more recent we get. We want to reward our older members - the people who joined a long time ago and have supported PH for many years. We know that this won't make us popular with some of the newer members but we really don't want to have a "new customers only" and feel that there should be value in having been a member for a long time. We're pretty unapologetic about that.

I understand your rationale entirely, but how to you distinguish between someone who's been an inactive (i.e. 0 posts) member for 4 years, and someone who's been here 3 years but's made thousands of high quality posts adding intellectual value to the forums, paid to advertise multiple cars with you, browses the forums for up to a few hours each day (thus bringing in substantial advertising revenue over time), attended SSs and generally become a pillar of the PH community? To be clear I'm not referring to myself here - my posts are all drivel for a start...

[Stuart]

I take your point, but there is no useful way of making that distinction and, as you say, quantity is no indicator of quality!

Time served is far from a perfect measure, but it is a measure of loyalty from our customers and our testing suggests that it also brings a certain sort of car to the classifieds - the interesting stuff that we would definitely want to hang on to, basically.