"Response to Howard Whitehouse" Topic

On another website, it has been brought to my attention that Howard Whitehouse has been criticizing TMP. Since the criticism was made in public, I am responding in public. This is not an attempt to 'stir anything up' – in fact, this should settle the matter once and for all.

Howard, no human being is 'messing' (ahem) with you. Let me explain the process…

1. TMP sent you an invoice on August 2nd.
2. You paid that invoice on August 16th.
3. When your payment was credited to your TMP advertising account, the server automatically generated a receipt. This is the email you are referring to.

Why does the receipt show that you still owe a balance on the account? It is because you paid the amount due as of August 2nd. Since you continued advertising past that point, additional charges accrued.

Nobody is messing with you, Howard. It is simply the amount you owe for services rendered after the last invoice on August 2nd.

What website would have such a disgustingly titled thread?

I'm disappointed Howard would even post on such, and I'm also disappointed the editor would choose to expose it to the membership at large.

I may be terribly outdated, but I still hold civility, respect, and decency in high regard.

Please excuse the break in our usual decorum, but I thought it was in the interest of transparency to display the message without tampering with it in any way.

If this keeps up, I'm going to have to go back to my settings and find out how not to receive TMP Talk.

Bill, you remember the old adage about eavesdroppers seldom hearing good about themselves? It may not be eavesdropping, but I think you can get more pleasure out of painting castings or playing games than you're going to get out of cruising the web trying to find out what's being said about you or TMP.

If Howard won't act like an adult, you're going to have to--and surely you're both old enough? Either swallow the $1.95 USD or not, and send Howard an e-mail explaining why he was billed. No point in both of you behaving like this.

Robert, when public accusations are made against TMP, then TMP must respond to correct the record.

Responding to Howard privately would do nothing to correct the misimpression that he has given to everyone who has read his comments elsewhere.

Also, please do not think that I spend my hours cruising the internet to find things to be offended at. I am quite busy with my work here at TMP. However, the many members of TMP do keep me informed, and if something is significant then TMP will make a measured, accurate response.

I have to agree. If someone accuses you of ripping them off, you need to issue a detailed response that shows it's not true. Unfortunately, fewer people will always read the response than the original accusation.

Failing to respond is taken as an admission of guilt.

Bill, you have chosen to carry on your bizarre and vaguely histrionic attacks on me onto the main boards, where most of the readers won't have seen your continuing (if essentially inept) insults you've been throwing at me in the Lounge over the past few days. I ignored those, and the supporting members generally told you to stop embarrassing yourself.

When I paid the invoice and said that would be that as far as my small company advertising on TMP, your response was, "That's nice but, as you can see on your advertising page, you're a little bit short."

I looked for the advertising page. Did I owe $20 USD? $50 USD? Surely not $100 USD?

No. It was a lousy buck ninety five. A man who has spent a week yelling at me like a raving maniac wants his $1.95 USD.

So I told some of my friends, long term TMPers to a man. "What a jerk!" was the most generous comment. And I shared it on the endless Frother's thread that – mostly profanely, sometimes hilariously – comments on the ongoing trainwreck that TMP has become. And nobody was a bit surprised.

So,when I say, "That, I think, is ishness on a scale so petty as to be monumental," I'm simply stating what the sainted John Cleese once called "the bloody obvious."

Good reply emcKinney. I agree with what was done, but sad to read what Howard did to his own reputation.

When I paid the invoice and said that would be that as far as my small company advertising on TMP, your response was, "That's nice but, as you can see on your advertising page, you're a little bit short."

Yes, I was explaining it to you, since in your email, you suggested that we were continuing to charge you after the cancellation date. Which was not the case, it was simply the normal charge you are responsible for.

Nobody is 'messing' with you, Howard. We are simply answering your questions to the best of our ability.

A lot of bad language. Possibly written when the heart is hotter than the brain??
It would be good for a cooling off and relax.

martin

Bill, just curious, but why do you keep on typing 'messing' like that?

I am not sure it is all helpful to post this sort of thing on the front page.

And now I see Howard has been DH'd for quoting the very words which appear in the screenshot in the OP.

That, really "is ishness on a scale so petty as to be monumental,"

It is always wrong to use the 'C' word.
Did you discuss this first with the other editors or were you truly riled when you responded? Sometimes it's better to reflect first before you reply. You taught me that Bill.

To clarify, it is the policy of Pulp Action Library to not bother to collect monies for its products when payment is short by how many dollars? Is two the limit?

Bill…it seems that you are very cyclical on your own website. People tell you in public and privately that you're going off the deep end and after what seems to be a very prolonged period, you finally ease off and then get back to being almost human, until 3/6 months later you take off again.

This DOES NOT HAPPEN on CSW, ever! Or other places on the web, but it's becoming routine here.

All you had to do is send Howard a little note, explaining that next time the bill came around, you'd slap $2 USD extra on it, because…

But now you DOGHOUSE him for writing back what you wrote???

I took a leap of faith becoming a supporting member again and now I am questioning it.

I suggest you let Howard out of the slammer now and maybe, JUST MAYBE…this might blow over!

If you have enough time to go see what someone else is doing on the infranetz, maybe you could spend it more wisely improving and upgrading TMP instead.

Good Grief!!!!!

Andrew Preziosi +1. 🍺🍺

Bill, just curious, but why do you keep on typing 'messing' like that?

To avoid using the word which has already offended a few of our members.

And now I see Howard has been DH'd for quoting the very words which appear in the screenshot in the OP.

Howard knows the rules.

Did you discuss this first with the other editors or were you truly riled when you responded?

Wasn't riled at all. Composed the message mentally while enjoying a nice dinner out with my wife.

All you had to do is send Howard a little note, explaining that next time the bill came around…

You miss the point. It has nothing to do about the money. It has to do about Howard publicly accusing TMP of harassing him financially. (And the bill won't come around again…)

Bill, with respect, perhaps you should go over to the other site and address Howard's accusations directly there, rather than offending a number of your members with screen grabs containing profanity?

Bill, with respect, perhaps you should go over to the other site and address Howard's accusations directly there, rather than offending a number of your members with screen grabs containing profanity?

The screen grab has been flagged as "adult," so anyone with their adult filter on will not see it.

Going over there to post would only stir the pot. Whenever any of the editors goes over there, they swarm us like ants. It is better to respond here, in a civil environment.

Pettiness all round.

Will you be sending him his $0.05 USD change ? :)

David, it's from an automated receipt. Nobody is being petty to Howard.

Disagree. Petty, and pretty pathetic.

Disagree. Petty, and pretty pathetic.

Can you explain how a computer-generated receipt is petty or pathetic?

This is tawdry. Dirty linen in public.

This is tawdry. Dirty linen in public.

As I said, we need to respond to set the record straight. Nothing more needs to be said.

Howard, nothing I wrote was meant to approve your action, which was vulgar and petty. The appropriate response to an unexpected bill is to query the person who billed you--and I'm not sure I'd do that over a buck ninety-five.

What IS this about maintaining a thread to trash another wargaming site? Don't any of you people have figures to paint or games to play? It makes the hobby look like badly-brought up high school boys.

Andrew, I guess the answer to your question is 'yes'.

Howard has posted on another forum:

OK, Howard, you win. We'll give you the two weeks of advertising for free. You can keep your fish-marinated dollar bills.

It seems to me that if a businessman gives away goods or services he becomes a charity. What is wrong with sending an invoice for a advertisement that had been run on a commercial website? Just because the merchant and the customer are arguing over something else doesn't mean that the merchant has to or should cancel a debt. As noted above, what discount should be mandatory when a merchant and customer are feuding, $2.00 USD; $5.00 USD; $20.00 USD? A complaint had been lodged by a customer in public, it is Bill's obligation to respond in kind. Had Bill not responded the impression would have been unchallenged that TMP was less than fair in its business dealings.

Let's not combine the two things that are going on here, Bill and Mr. Whitehouse have a personal dispute and Bill provided a service that Mr. Whitehouse has publicly complained about. Bill is not the one who made the business dispute public.

Bill is not the one who made the business dispute public.

Bill did…here, which many/most of us knew nothing about and it should have stayed that way.

Not saying that Howard was 100% correct either, but Bill started this thread om TMP instead of trying to handle it in private.

Todd…Yeppers, I sure was!

Bill did…here

After it was already public elsewhere, Andrew.

If either party had responded in this manner and were one of my employees (in the "real" world, not this seemingly bizzaro wargaming business world), they'd both be gone, immediately, out the front door, with the contents of their desk in a box.

You (both) could have handled this differently.

Are we done now gentlemen?

+1 Piquet Rules!!

Watching train wrecks is an American tradition…

Red Jacket: +1

I would know nothing of this particular incident if it had not been posted on my TMP front page. While it is nice to see that the problem is resolved, I'm sorry that the post about that had to come from another member, and not the Editor.
BWW

I'm sorry that the post about that had to come from another member, and not the Editor.

I'm sorry you didn't read my post above.

You (both) could have handled this differently.

Sorry, but I believe in standing up for what is right.

Two comments on this thread. I'll share them in two seperate posts in case the latter of the two gets deleted.

And I shared it on the endless Frother's thread that – mostly profanely, sometimes hilariously – comments on the ongoing trainwreck that TMP has become. And nobody was a bit surprised.

Honestly, I would normally have no opinion about this at all. It seems to be just a disagreement over billing. But in my eyes (and surely in those of a fair number of others) you lost all credibility and raised some serious questions about your good taste, civility, and general morality by posting on the Frothers anti-TMP thread. By posting to that thread and joining in with the rogues gallery of miscreants, sociopaths, and slack jawed lunatics you have associated yourself with what goes on there: cyber-stalking, harassment, trolling, libel, and character assassination amongst other morally reprehensible (and yes, in a few cases illegal) behaviors.

Welcome to the sewer….

Dear Editor,
Don't worry. I will say nothing else about the matter. I will keep my opinions to myself, unless they deal with miniatures.

Forgive the blasphemy, but – A bill of $1.95 USD that could have been paid easily started this?

You Both seem a little unhinged. But you are not alone.

Three Days, Bill, if you feel insulted.

I despise the PC nature of LAF, I find the increasing instability here disturbing, (Can I stifle the editor?) and the other war games website is too distant from my interests to be a regular visit.

Maybe I will go back to painting and playing war games.

"miscreants, sociopaths, and slack jawed lunatics you have associated yourself with what goes on there: cyber-stalking, harassment, trolling, libel, and character assassination amongst other morally reprehensible (and yes, in a few cases illegal) behaviors."

And that would seem to just be a variant on what you accuse Frothers of being. Perhaps if we all stopped abusing each other.

+1 Khusrau, I had nearly clicked the ! on that description.

Worse than my kids ever were. Knock it off and

Heaven forbid you do that Mute!

More TMP drama!

(Can I stifle the editor?)

If there are enough people hitting the 'complain' button on a posting by the Editor in Chief Bill, can he incarcerate himself in the Dawghouse? hmmm.