Originally Posted by mouserider
Indeed. I guess you were raised to make use of other people's money.
Where did that come from? I seem to have the notion that many of the members here are "family" or at least friends, and willing to help each other out..
Originally Posted by mouserider
People here who have carfax accounts paid for them in one form or another, or they might be working for a dealership with a commercial account. It isn't free, you're just using what they or their company has paid for.
Yes, they paid for them. So what? If the person doesn't want to run it for the person, this is a forum and they just don't have to post, it's that simple
Originally Posted by mouserider
Carfax runs a pretty good service for the car buying public. While I'm sure they make the bulk of their money from their commercial accounts, its not a reason to not pay for a service that you need and find valuable.
While I agree with you that it is a good service, put it this way. As a consumer, my main goal is to save money. As a business, their main goal is to make money.
Originally Posted by mouserider
Carfax is also good enough to not state you can't use your accounts for your friends as long as it is non-commercial but even then, don't you think that when a service is good and provides you with information that is valuable to you and might be worth far more than the $25, that such a service would be worth supporting?
Sure they might be good people, but if enough people start running carfaxes for other people.. they are either going to implement that into their ToS, raise the cost of reports, or limit the amount of reports you can run. They're a business, as much as they want to help the people they also want to make as much money as they can, whether you believe that or not.
Originally Posted by mouserider
It's like saying it's ok to get a copy of a CD or movie from someone who has already paid for it.
Bad analogy. I think it's more of borrowing a cd or movie then copying it. Now if this person gave the other person their account information, then you could use that analogy.
Originally Posted by mouserider
That said, I wonder if you were one of those who volunteer to contribute to the cost of running this forum?
While I didn't post on the volunteer board donation thread, it has crossed my mind and I wouldn't hesitate to. Even though I don't make as much money as you, I would still donate what I could. I know the administrators/moderators do this out of love for the forum, people, and car. I wouldn't mind helping them out if they needed to. I know bandwidth and servers can be expensive.
Originally Posted by mouserider
Moreover, MiniCooper shouldn't even need to pay for the report, the person who's selling him the car should be as part of the sale.
Although I never have actually bought a car before, Is it really standard practice for the seller to pay for the carfax report? That just seems a little odd, but this is an area I have no experience in and am probably wrong. It just seems like if the buyer wants to know that much about the car, then s/he should either pay for the carfax report or ask someone who gets them for "free" to run it for them, as a friendly gesture.