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[bubbles]

Hi

Earlier today I posted the details of my website on a forum. I was careful to put it under the For Sale & Wanted section as I hate spamming on forums.

Later I got an email saying

'Thank you for placing your advertisment on the Forum. Amongst the conditions of use you may find that for all non pre-requested advertisments placed there is a standard charge of £450.00.

Our invoice will follow.'

It also gave a link to reply to. When I tried to follow this link I got a message saying I had been banned and it would go no further. When I looked at the forum again, next to the For Sale & Wanted it did say no commercial posts - I did not notice this when I posted, so fair enough although it was an oversight, it would seemingly appear to be a lack of etiquette on my part, and I have been banned because of it and my post removed.

I am bewildered....what exactly am I being charged £450.00 for? Cannot see an ad for my website anywhere. Cannot see any conditions of use.I have found a contact us link on the website and sent a message asking for more information but have not yet had a response

My question is can they do this?

[fisicx]

You are being charged £450 for placing an advert. In the same way that a newspaper will charge you for placing an advert.

£450 seems a little steep but it's there no doubt to prevent the forum from being inundated by people trying to flog replica goods and mobile phones.

As for being banned, that's what happens to people who don't read the rules. It's the same here - we don't know if you are spamming the forums, all we know is you broke the rules. Not much you can do about this except hope the moderators re-consider your membership.

In any case, you were not selling anything - all you were doing was promoting your website. If you want to do that you need to become part of the community, make some posts and you will be allowed to add a signature where you can put the details of your website.

Welcome to this forum however.

[bubbles]

Thanks for your reply fisicx. The thing is I have not placed an advert. My original post has been removed. If the post was still there, or an ad had been created, then I could understand it. Effectively they are trying to charge me £450 for nothing.

[fisicx]

It's an auto-response message. Ignore it.