Getting freebies for review (was: RE: Commercial products in FAQs)

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Omer Zak (xlacha1@wizard.weizmann.ac.il)
Wed, 5 Jul 1995 17:59:21 +0300 (WET)


On Wed, 5 Jul 1995, Yisrael Hersch wrote:
[... snipped ...]
> I did experience on difficulty.One product that I recommend (in the
> FAQ, but also frequently by newsgroup posts or email) has a competitor
> that I was interested in learning more about.We're not talking about a
> very expensive package, so I felt that I could reasonably request a full
> package for free from the manufacturer.Well, I was turned down flat.
> The reason - due to the low cost of the product, profit margins don't
> permit sending out free packages.Well, I had (have) a dilemma. I want
> to be fair, the packages are similar in capability and in price.BUT - I
> have experience in only the one, so the one I have experience with gets
> the unqualified recommendation, and the other only gets a mention that it
> is supposed to be close.Fair or unfair? It seems to me that the
> company who refused to send me their product is being pretty stupid.
> They're concerned about profit margin, instead of profit.

This is a delicate point, ethically speaking. Magazines do get often
freebies to review and (favorably) report about them. The competitor
probably spent its promotional budget sending freebies to magazines
serving the field.

The problem is that reviewers might blackmail companies into giving them
freebies, under the threat of bad reviews and/or favoring competitors.
Also, the reviewer won't get product of typical quality (as sold in
shops) but product which may have been carefully tested in order to avoid
shame to the company.

The ethical thing to do is to buy the product using the regular channels
and review it. On the other hand, the budget available to FAQ writers
for such purposes is zero, null and void. Therefore, the FAQ writer
might try to arrange to borrow the item in question and return it after
the review.
--- Omer
(DEAF-L/bit.listserv.deaf-l FAQ maintainer)



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