Sorry I have Been Away. I can no longer sell equip on here!

Say what?? I always thought it was a bit "brassy" for "those few" who were consistently advertising PAP equipment for sale in cpap.com's "free" cpaptalk.com forum. A member occasionally offering their used equipment for sale was one thing ... but this has been entirely different ... and "commercial".

Slinky wrote:Say what?? I always thought it was a bit "brassy" for "those few" who were consistently advertising PAP equipment for sale in cpap.com's "free" cpaptalk.com forum. A member occasionally offering their used equipment for sale was one thing ... but this has been entirely different ... and "commercial".

Wow, I have a completely different take. I thought Papman was good about not making his pitches too commercialized as he asked people to PM him for listings and prices.

Frankly, as one who doesn't have health insurance, I am grateful that people like Papman and Grandpap exist even though I never purchased anything from them. But I would have done so in a heartbeat if they had had things I was interested in.

Frankly, I am sorry Grandpap feels the need to leave the forum as he was one of my favorite members. He treated me with nothing but kindness in PMs and was that way towards people on the forum in my opinion. But I do realize that cpap.com is in a tough situation.

49er

Just how expensive is it to run this web-site? I'm hearing that cpap.com goes to some expense to sponsor the forum. All businesses want to protect their investment and have control over content. They pay, set up the rules and we abide.

MagsterMile wrote:Just how expensive is it to run this web-site? I'm hearing that cpap.com goes to some expense to sponsor the forum. All businesses want to protect their investment and have control over content. They pay, set up the rules and we abide.

Yes, that is what everyone is doing.

49er wrote:

Slinky wrote:Say what?? I always thought it was a bit "brassy" for "those few" who were consistently advertising PAP equipment for sale in cpap.com's "free" cpaptalk.com forum. A member occasionally offering their used equipment for sale was one thing ... but this has been entirely different ... and "commercial".

Wow, I have a completely different take. I thought Papman was good about not making his pitches too commercialized as he asked people to PM him for listings and prices.
Frankly, as one who doesn't have health insurance, I am grateful that people like Papman and Grandpap exist even though I never purchased anything from them. But I would have done so in a heartbeat if they had had things I was interested in.

Frankly, I am sorry Grandpap feels the need to leave the forum as he was one of my favorite members. He treated me with nothing but kindness in PMs and was that way towards people on the forum in my opinion. But I do realize that cpap.com is in a tough situation.

49er

I see it as Slinky does. Whether the pitch is "commercialized" or not, the point is that when those who sell equipment do so on effectively a competitor's site, saying, "Come over here to buy instead," it is not appropriate. I doubt Dell Computer would be happy with a competitor coming to the Dell discussion board and saying "Follow me to better prices on their products."


If a poster had a used piece of equipment to sell, I see that differenty than a vendor doing so. Cpap seems to agree.

MagsterMile wrote:Just how expensive is it to run this web-site? I'm hearing that cpap.com goes to some expense to sponsor the forum. All businesses want to protect their investment and have control over content. They pay, set up the rules and we abide.

There is the server cost that can go from $5 per month to several hundred. Then someone has to monitor it and keep the software up to date. The software that runs this kind of bulletin board is freeware but then there is the spam control..... All of this can be free with adds down the sides. And of course selling your email addresses would also bring in cash to run it.

Well, it doesn't matter what I think since this is cpap.com's site. But again, the issue is that when you don't have health insurance or have poor coverage, it gets expensive buying things at full price. Anyway, I am glad Papman left his email address in case I need to use him in the future.

I do understand everyone's point about competitors coming on sites. But personally, I am glad they did being in the position that I am in.

49er

ughwhatname wrote:

49er wrote:

Slinky wrote:Say what?? I always thought it was a bit "brassy" for "those few" who were consistently advertising PAP equipment for sale in cpap.com's "free" cpaptalk.com forum. A member occasionally offering their used equipment for sale was one thing ... but this has been entirely different ... and "commercial".

Wow, I have a completely different take. I thought Papman was good about not making his pitches too commercialized as he asked people to PM him for listings and prices.
Frankly, as one who doesn't have health insurance, I am grateful that people like Papman and Grandpap exist even though I never purchased anything from them. But I would have done so in a heartbeat if they had had things I was interested in.

Frankly, I am sorry Grandpap feels the need to leave the forum as he was one of my favorite members. He treated me with nothing but kindness in PMs and was that way towards people on the forum in my opinion. But I do realize that cpap.com is in a tough situation.

49er

I see it as Slinky does. Whether the pitch is "commercialized" or not, the point is that when those who sell equipment do so on effectively a competitor's site, saying, "Come over here to buy instead," it is not appropriate. I doubt Dell Computer would be happy with a competitor coming to the Dell discussion board and saying "Follow me to better prices on their products."


If a poster had a used piece of equipment to sell, I see that differenty than a vendor doing so. Cpap seems to agree.

I agree with the concept that this site is for help, not sales.
However, if that help cannot extend to helping the uninsured with affordable treatment,
this is not our fault--or even our hosts; but a flaw in the system and those who control these things.
We can only do what we can, and look for ways around the rest.
Referral to charitable organizations seems to be acceptable, at least for the time being.

chunkyfrog wrote:I agree with the concept that this site is for help, not sales.
However, if that help cannot extend to helping the uninsured with affordable treatment,
this is not our fault--or even our hosts; but a flaw in the system and those who control these things.
We can only do what we can, and look for ways around the rest.
Referral to charitable organizations seems to be acceptable, at least for the time being.

Chunky,

I am not saying that being uninsured is your fault or that of cpap.com. I am simply trying to get everyone to understand my perspective which for some reason, I seem to be failing big time.

I am not asking anyone to feel sorry for me but to simply understand different perspectives. I am not why that is so hard to do.

Good luck in finding charitable organizations for machines and masks. I have seen first hand how that works and I will say no more.

49er

49er wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote:I agree with the concept that this site is for help, not sales.
However, if that help cannot extend to helping the uninsured with affordable treatment,
this is not our fault--or even our hosts; but a flaw in the system and those who control these things.
We can only do what we can, and look for ways around the rest.
Referral to charitable organizations seems to be acceptable, at least for the time being.

Chunky,

I am not saying that being uninsured is your fault or that of cpap.com. I am simply trying to get everyone to understand my perspective which for some reason, I seem to be failing big time.

I am not asking anyone to feel sorry for me but to simply understand different perspectives. I am not why that is so hard to do.Good luck in finding charitable organizations for machines and masks. I have seen first hand how that works and I will say no more.

49er

I don't find your perspective difficult to understand, nor have you been unclear in your writing. I just don't happen to agree with it, not that I don't comprehend it. If we all agreed, discussions here would be very brief!

49er wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote:I agree with the concept that this site is for help, not sales.
However, if that help cannot extend to helping the uninsured with affordable treatment,
this is not our fault--or even our hosts; but a flaw in the system and those who control these things.
We can only do what we can, and look for ways around the rest.
Referral to charitable organizations seems to be acceptable, at least for the time being.

Chunky,

I am not saying that being uninsured is your fault or that of cpap.com. I am simply trying to get everyone to understand my perspective which for some reason, I seem to be failing big time.

I am not asking anyone to feel sorry for me but to simply understand different perspectives. I am not why that is so hard to do.

Good luck in finding charitable organizations for machines and masks. I have seen first hand how that works and I will say no more.

49er

You are not failing. I understand and agree with your point. I would bet that most do and we're just not posting because your point is obviously correct and the few that disagree get upset enough to post about it.

I suspect the relatively small time sellers on this forum and cpap.com aren't generally competing for the same customer. cpap.com isn't going to sell to people without prescriptions and people with prescriptions and insurance to cover the purchase probably aren't going to be looking for used machines from internet forums which their insurance won't reimburse them for.

As others have pointed out, it is entirely possible that cpap.com is getting pressure from any number of sources wanting them to discourage private sales on this forum. Not only may one of the big manufacturers be threatening to cut off their distributor arrangement, their insurance company may fear liability if someone were to sue after making a private purchase of controlled equipment on this site. I assume cpap.com needs some form of license to sell prescription items. What if the licensing agency is threatening to revoke their license if they continue to facilitate sales on this forum without verifying valid prescriptions. We tend to disassociate cpap.com from responsibility for the activity on this forum, but the equipment manufacturers, licensing agencies, and insurance companies may not see it that way.

I do computer work for a living and I have some hosting accounts... it wouldn't be difficult to set up a private shopping site where sellers from this forum could log in and update a list their current items, prices, and contact info. Users could PM a link to the site to anyone who asks about used equipment, buying and selling could continue among the users of the forum, and cpap.com wouldn't have public sales threads for anyone to see and complain about. Given that the software is available as free open-source and the traffic would be small, the cost of me doing it would be practically nothing except for the time. If any of you sellers are interested in pursuing that option, send me a PM and we can discuss it further.

djhall that actually sounds like a good idea but wouldn't a thread on this forum be considered as solicitation as well? I posted a small list of what I had in a thread but never listed the prices. I can say I am a little interested on your idea. PM me and we can talk.

papman857 wrote:djhall that actually sounds like a good idea but wouldn't a thread on this forum be considered as solicitation as well? I posted a small list of what I had in a thread but never listed the prices. I can say I am a little interested on your idea. PM me and we can talk.

Yes. I think it would have to be done similarly to the way Encore software is handled. Whenever the topic comes up someone always posts, "Check your PM." or "PM for info on that." Everyone knows it is available, but the info isn't posted publicly to avoid problems for or with the forum admins. Once someone receives the link to the site they could just go there anytime to see what is available without posting or PMing or anything like that, and could PM the link to new users who don't already have it.

49er I totally agree with you, because I more or less have to buy all my own gear - not having insurance because we have a public health system here in NZ. Unfortunately, as much as I appreciate our NZ health system, it is very often just a bare bones care system with lots of restrictions and long waits involved. So all the gear I am presently using I have had to buy online, and I buy mostly through US sites, because to buy from this part of the world costs 2 - 3 times what it is available for in the US. This is why even we, here on the other side of the world, (and I understand many other countries throughout the world find it the same) really appreciate the availability of CPAP gear - even through members as well as online shops - especially when there are savings - because I have spent thousands of dollars (NZ$s) I never really had there to spend in the first place, buying APAPS and trying various masks to get a working set up. It just makes me wonder how many thousands of other OSA suffers out there are missing out because so many hurdles are put in their way.
Having said this I do understand cpap.coms predicament too. I like djHalls approach/thoughts and idea to maybe come to grips with this particular issue.