what a waste of time and money (Bike Trader mag)

Bought Bike Trader today
it seems no-one puts their location in their ad, and uses a mobile number
so no regional dialing code either.

so, either I ring all the numbers with the first Q. where are you?
or I throw the rag away. What a waste of time

 

the mag is, but why buy it when it is online with a search by postcode
facility?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/bikes despite the name is Bike Trader

 

Or even http://www.biketrader.co.uk which redirects to the above.

 

(SteveH) wrote in :

I just typed biketrader into the google search bar and clicked the top one

 

Which works as well.

 

Not for me. The last time I put in an ad, I didn't get a single
nibble. The are other venues that are far more effective.

 

We have a local advertisement rag, Tradeit, which asks you for your
location when you place an ad then carefully doesn't print it with the
advert. As most people use mobiles it's equally frustrating.

 

The search facility only lets you specify a radius around a postcode,
though.

This is especially annoying if you've got a list of candidates and you
want to choose 2-3 to visit, because they might be in completely opposite
directions.

If you really want to figure out where something is you either have to
phone or (my technique because I was bored) start plugging in postcodes
from various towns to try and triangulate.

 

Poor diddums. Nasty mean web site not do all your work for you? Awww.

 

Well, it would be nice if it worked in the same way as ebay, which
displays the nearest town.

 

It's *also* a PITA in the way that it (quite rightly) returns all
response with n miles.

Problem (for me) is that n miles in *that* direction will take best part
of a day, whereas n miles *that* way is dead simple.

No idea how that could be fixed though, apart from by using the 'draw an
area' trick that right move are using.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Heh. I just tried with a postcode in Ilfracombe and a 30 miles radius and
it'll happily return search results from Swansea (about 4 hours drive).

 

So what you're saying is that you want the website to use a route planner
facility. I guess there are third-party facilities like this (if I've
thought of it then someone's making money out of it) but I bet they cost.

 

why not pick a postcode in the centre of your preferred area and set the
distance to the radius of the circle with that point at the centre and
your home on the circumference. Theoretically, the maximum distance from
you should be 2r

 

Because my postcode *is* pretty much in the centre. I just need to
exclude a large chunk.
If I move the postcode then I lose a dense area of potential market.
It's not really their fault I live just outside the M25



--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk