Tag Archive for review

Being a reviewer can be annoying

I love my job, I do really.. but sometimes I just don’t understand how companies work…

When you’re a reviewer, you get a lot of cool stuff to keep, then there are some companies who don’t let you keep the stuff…

I’ve gotten to keep things that cost hundreds of dollars, and then I’ve had to send things back that cost as little as $30

I’ll never understand the policies for as long as I do this..

Most all companies tell you upfront that they want the product back, and many companies even make you sign an agreement about how long you have the item for. it’s nice to know up front that you have to return something. Some companies will tell you after you let them know the review is finished that they want it back, that can be annoying, but it’s not too big of a deal…

I just had a company email me almost 4 months later asking for the product back.. never said nothing at the start, never mentioned it after I told them the review was live, nothing at all about returning it until now.. the best part is that they now want me to pay to ship it back to them.. every company I’ve eve3n dealt with has given me a shipping label or provided an account number to ship it back to them..

I won’t mention the company, but it’s a product that I happen to like a lot and have been using and have it set the way I need it to be..

ruined my day…. blah

Being a reviewer…

Being a product reviewer can be an odd and sometimes frustrating thing to be.

I’ve been told that I’ve got one of the greatest jobs in the world, and I’ve been told I’m ‘envied’ by some, it’s odd to hear that really, but whatever, guess I’m just modest..

Actually getting products for review can be fairly difficult, at least the new stuff. The idea of course is to get it first, early, before anyone else.

The new Zune HD comes out tomorrow and of course I hit up my contact to try and get one, but I was turned down. Why? I’m not sure, I got the canned, general response that you get instead of just NO, it basically says they don’t have enough units and you’ll be added to the list, that means you won’t be getting one, plain and simple.

My last Zune review of the Gears of War2 Special Edition 120gb version is still on the first page of Google search results. You can just put ‘Gears of War Zune’ in the search box and it’s there, near the bottom # 10 actually if you count the ads etc. If you knock out the ads it’s number 8. That rank isn’t too bad for a review that I posted almost one year ago, November 12th 2008 to be exact.

In fact a lot of my reviews are in the top ten search results, which is an achievement in itself I would think. Some of them were actually above the company product page for quite a while before dropping below the official page, but still they are there, a year later, in the top ten search results.

Another thing that bugs me, and one I’ve yet to understand is the what qualifies as a loaner product or a product that you can keep. I’ve kept products that sell for upwards of $800, and I’ve had to send back products that sell for $50… There’s no standard there at all when it comes to trying to figure it out.

I also can’t quite understand why a company would request a product be reviewed, and then never mention that it needs to be sent back, only to have the product arrive and find a shipping label inside of it to send it back..

This job is fun though, don’t get me wrong, it’s great, it’s awesome being on the ‘cutting edge’ of new products, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be really. It truly is a whole lot of work, and like anything, you can never please everyone, everyone as in the readers. You’ll also find someone to disagree with you about what you wrote or how you did or didn’t test something, or how you did the pictures or how you did the videos. For the most part though, the good people outweigh the bad, it’s the nature of the internet though, you’re always going to have ‘trolls’, people that just like to insult others and people that have nothing better to do than attack people they are jealous of.

The majority of the insults don’t bother me too much, I laugh them off and maybe I’ll have fun with them, the ones that really piss me off are the ones that accuse me of getting paid by the company for the review. I’ve never, and will never accept payment from a company for a good review. I post or publish my objective views, and of course toss in my thoughts, experiences and feelings as well. If those don’t correspond to someone else’s experiences that’s not my fault, it’s just my experience with it.

It might sound bad, but there’s another thing I do like about it, I appreciate the ‘Thank You’ that I get from people, it does make me feel good, like I am appreciated and that’s all we could ask for really, do the job to the best of your ability and have your work appreciated.

iPhone.. GACK! Things it can’t do that my Tilt can!

OK, the new iPhone is out, but damn I’m already sick of hearing about it…

Go over to Digg and you’ll see several stories about the iPhone or something related to it, and htat’s not just Digg, pretty much everywhere..

I’m sick of hearing about it already, people are acting like it’s this wonderfully amazing thing that’s going to change the world, it’s not going to, it’s a phone for f*cks sake…

Hey I love my phone, an HTC TytnII or ATT Tilt, but I’m not gloating over it.. maybe it’s time I should though… It’s a vastly superior phone even though it’s a year old now

my phone can do pretty much everything the iPhone can and it can do everything the iPhone can’t, all those things that people are complaining about and much more!

Let’s see:

Copy and Paste – Check!

Real GPS -Check!

Turn by Turn GPS navigation – Check!

3 megapixel camera – Check!

Pop/Imap Email – Check!

Don’t have to have itunes account – Check!

Can surf and talk – Check!

Bluetooth Stereo – Check!

Customizable – Check!

Videos – Check!

and I can go on and on about what the Tilt can do that the iPhone can’t.. The Tilt is a far superior phone over all!

iPhone.. Blah, Gack… Go Away you bother me…