New OD Manual arrived and now filed....in the bin

[JanB]

Have received my copy of the OD Manual. What a useless waste of time and money!

If they have nothing better to do, it really does beg the question, why are they in this business.

Rather like sending a manual for a bicycle you have owned for ten years.

Pathetic. Mine has gone straight into the recycling bin in the hope it will be regenerated into something rather more useful.

[Bunny]

Yes, I agree, I thought it was a rather extravagant looking folder and a complete waste of our listing fees. Quite surprising considering their main focus seems to be profits. The whole point is that their model is an internet based site so what do they think we need a paper (cardboard) copy for? I suppose it's easier to read on paper but there seemed to be more effort put into the folder design than the actual content. I've no doubt it will just collect dust.

[Casscat]

I have a friend (a recent friend - I actually met her at the car hire place at Malaga airport and we got chatting). She has had a holiday property not far from me for over 10 years and only advertises on OD, nowhere else. She's not a techie and not a forumite. When I asked her via WhatsApp how things were going with the changes to the site she was unaware of what was going on or what she needed to do to get her listing ship shape. I am confident that she and others of her ilk will find the guide book really helpful. Not everyone is switched on and I think the booklet will be well received by people who are perplexed by the whole thing because it is couched in simple language with clear diagrams. On here we have made it our business to dig deeper and we have shared out findings for the benefit of others, but the vast majority of OD advertisers do not use this resource.

[AngloDutch]

It most be an enormous cost to ship these out to every owner (and manager) across the globe. Why don't they just send a PDF file/email link to everybody, or do they think that no one will dare to click on it, after all the negative OD publicity recently?! OD ask me each time I log in if I want to view this manual, and I click the 'show me never again', yet there it is when I log in again...

[Mr Cellophane]

I am trying to imagine how the 'planning' meeting went:

Planning Genius 1:
"We need to gouge a lot more money out of the mugs that list with us, so we are going to need to make big changes to the layout and procedures."

Planning Genius 2:
"In that case shouldn't we send out a broadcast email to all mugs, warning of the need to correct all their property info. that we scramble, and telling them about all the new and exciting procedural hoops they are going to have to jump through?"

Senior Planning Genius:
"Nah, let's just do it and send 'em a little brochure a couple of weeks later."

[JanB]

Oh, no, do you have insider knowledge, Mr Cellophane....?!

[Sam V]

We might use ours to line the chicken coop.

[JanB]

We might use ours to line the chicken coop.

Good idea! Poor chickens..... Make sure you remove that expensive plastic spiral first. You could use that as a "ping" toy for stress relief when problems arise!

Any other ideas for re-use anyone? I think it is the least we can do. Let's face it, there must be hundreds of thousands of them out there.

I look forward to useful suggestions of what you might do with the manual. Polite ideas only - for example, "put it where the sun don't shine" not accepted!

[Bunny]

I might keep it for winter. It was nice and thick so should put out quite a bit of warmth in the log burner.

[Essar]

I might keep it for winter. It was nice and thick so should put out quite a bit of warmth in the log burner.

I had mine in my bag when I visited the local cafe for breakfast yesterday - it is now firmly wedged under a wombly table leg, stopped the coffe slopping into my saucer everytime I moved.

[JanB]

Essar, I presume you read it from cover to cover, before donating it as a table leveller........

[Mr Cellophane]

I tried swatting a fly with it, but it's too hefty for that - made a right mess!

Log burner fodder sounds like a plan.

[greenbarn]

Wouldn't it be great to see one of these turn up on ebay with a suitable description? Just occasionally some of the offbeat listings on ebay go viral, and can cause considerable embarrassment........

[Bunny]

I'm open to offers for my copy if you are desperate to get your hands on one!