Martyn Lewis, the man people most want to lead them out of the recession

Sparhawke

MSE_Martin wrote: »

This type of comment is both grossly unfair and untrue.

I have never claimed to be the author of the bank charges campaign - in fact I have always made it very clear that people came to me and asked me to get involved which is true. I have always given credit on that and if you choose to do some research before making spurious allegations you would find that to be true.

Even in the very brief timeline on the subject we write

LATE 05. The first campaigners won bank charges reclaims
JAN 06. They contacted this site and the first MoneySavingExpert.com reclaiming guide was published
MAR 06. The first newspaper column on reclaiming was published

Also in our bank charges reclaiming history guide (which hasn't been updated in a couple of years) it says....




On a very few occassions it has been incorrectly reported that I started the campaign on one or two occassions - but those are journalists who didnt speak to me - and there's little i can do about it.

If ever its said in broadcast I instantly correct it. However it also true that the vast majority of bank charges template letters that were used and consequently the vast majority of people who got money back came from this site.

We have put a huge resource into doing so - not least recently paying for top end QC advice after the loss and co-ordinating work with the other groups on that. This follows the time when we provided the majority of funding for the bank charges fighting fund.

In summary we've worked hard, never overclaimed credit and put our money where our mouth is.

Frankly Im bemused what's happening in this board - there seems to be a nasty sniping nature in response to virtually any blog I write - at times its virtually orchestrated. The problem with most of it is it is based on incorrect fact and false assumption

Moving on from this specific post - a general reminder - on this site I am not an anonymous individual who can't be defamed; and if you are planning to lie or make false allegations then beware they may be challenged.

Martin

I apologise if I seem that I am attacking you directly Martin, I am not or at least never intended to...just the idea that one website will rule them all. And I am not really attacking that idea...just asking the question.

The fact is that I like this site a great deal and recommend it to others but at what point does it become the only website that people can use since every avenue has been shut off, we have all heard the problems that Microsoft keep having for their monopolising of markets...

If you search http://www.competitionsforum.com/ for example you get redirected back to this site...I have not checked every single permutation of every single word and phrase but I am sure it could like that for many others.

It is like a similar topic I started some time back asking if there is a point where zealous money saving regardless of anything else actually does more harm than good when people would rather go to cold, stark supermarkets rather miles away rather than their local shops?

Sparhawke

I cannot find the specific post that says you took on the fight from another website now, which says you didn't give them credit at all...it is somewhere buried in this subforum.

Anyways, consider this a formal apology please?

cootambear

Sparhawke wrote: »

I apologise if I seem that I am attacking you directly Martin, I am not or at least never intended to...just the idea that one website will rule them all. And I am not really attacking that idea...just asking the question.

The fact is that I like this site a great deal and recommend it to others but at what point does it become the only website that people can use since every avenue has been shut off, we have all heard the problems that Microsoft keep having for their monopolising of markets...

If you search http://www.competitionsforum.com/ for example you get redirected back to this site...I have not checked every single permutation of every single word and phrase but I am sure it could like that for many others.

It is like a similar topic I started some time back asking if there is a point where zealous money saving regardless of anything else actually does more harm than good when people would rather go to cold, stark supermarkets rather miles away rather than their local shops?

I`m sorry, but this is just plain silly. Micosoft was done for unfairly dominating the market eg incentivised/forced bundling of its o/s, browser etc. There are hundreds of sites out there that mirror what goes on here eg hot uk deals, voucher code sites, matched betting sites, thrift sites etc. This is the best, more peeps come here than others because its the best, they are not forced to because of lack of competition.

JDPower

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Frankly Im bemused what's happening in this board - there seems to be a nasty sniping nature in response to virtually any blog I write - at times its virtually orchestrated.

You're certainly not the first to notice. Think it's just what becomes of being successful - you get bitter jealous people who feel the need to do the British thing and try to knock you back down again.

I wouldn't let it bother you, the same bunch of 3 or 4 people repeating the same line over and over again will have no effect on public respect for you or the the work you do and if we're lucky they'll just get bored of trying to antagonise people here

whitegoods_engineer

Funny how posts on this thread which do not idolise ML are deleted. Don't know why I am botering to post this as it will be deleted as it is deemed detremental to the messiah!

Tojo_Ralph

...
To be honest, the article, the blog and this thread leave a lot of questions unanswered... such as...

1. Who commissioned the poll?
2. Who were those polled?
3. How many people were polled?
4. What were those polled asked?

Ask the right questions of the right people and the headline could have just as easily read.....
"Nick Griffin, the man people most want to lead them out of the recession"

wildthing01

Sparhawke wrote: »

Who said anything about disrespect?

No one is that wonderful that they are above any kind of criticism, unless you really want to put him on a pedestal?

Lets not forget that this website makes an insane amount of cash and purposely kills off any kind of competition and simply promotes Martin himself ruthlessly.

..

i ask again - what are you doing using the website (which you clearly do a lot,since you have 160 posts), if you disagree with its fundamental philosophy? if it's true that it does make an insane amount of cash (i have no idea if this is true or not, and frankly i don't care), and ruthlessly promotes martin, then you're adding to that by visiting it, so you can hardly complain can you?????????

unless you joined up specifically so you could moan and snipe???? in which case, i'd say you need to get a life....

Sparhawke

The idea behind the website is good, I have never argued against that, I and others...those that didn't get polled for this secret ballot think it is becoming sort of the Frankenstein version of a mission, where it is actually destroying the very thing that can guarantee lower prices for all in many cases.

By being the absolute dominant website of this type in England where no other can hope to survive pretty soon do you really think it will be a good thing when the towns, cities and villages are filled with tescos only simply because they are the ones that are constantly posted about to the exclusion of everything else?

Do you really think Tesco will care about lower prices for all when it is the only one left?

Do you really think stagecoach cared about fair prices for all when they became the dominant coach in England?

I never said I hate Martin or whatever people are trying to twist my words to mean, I just think it is dangerous to put any man on a pedestal, especially as it can get quite high and precarious up there.

This website is fast becoming such that it can literally make or break a company, I am just wondering if that is a good thing.

wildthing01

okay sparhawke - now you sound a lot more reasonable. my original issue was with several posts that were being basically rude about martin - fair enough, give constructive criticism, and give a reasoned argument to support it, but don't just !!!!!.

i have to say though that i still disagree with you. through this site, i have discovered many other sites and companies, inc relatively unknown ones that i would prob not have encountered otherwise, so i don't think only the mse site benefits. in addition, people still have their own judgement (hopefully), so whatever any website promotes or doesn't, people can still make decisions about where to shop etc.

and i don't think people are necessarily putting martin on a pedestal. the results of the poll simply show that people have lost trust in politicians, while martin hasn't (yet!!) done anything to lose people's trust. he clearly states in his blog that he is not an economist and therefore not at all qualified to do anything about the recession. however, for those of us that are keen to save money, he has been a great help.

MSE_Martin

Im going to close this rather ridiculous discussion down.

Two quick points

1. As far as I am aware no posts have been deleted from this discussion - not sure why anyone thinks they have

2. As for the poll itself - I dont know who commissioned it or why - I saw it reported in a national newspaper - no one had contacted me or had we had anything to do with it. If you actually read this blog you will see my point was that bizarrely it'd been reported spelling my name wrong - and that i couldn't think of anything worse than being chancellor.

Im not quite sure what I did to deserve some of the vitriol above but I really can't be bothered with it. To those posters who have nothing better to do than to snipe, it really would be best if you went elsewhere.

Happy New Year to all

Martin