Bad Business?

[STeakSauce]

I dont know, maybe its just me, but it seems kind of shady to offer all kinds of rewards for positive reviews of their products. I mean, who isnt going to say "This product rocks" if they have the chance of getting a 200 or 300 dollar piece of merchandise free?

It just seems like if someone was doing their research on which MP3 player to buy, they stop by this website and forum, and what do they see? Several different "promotions" for the person who gives the most and best reviews of their products. As a consumer, I would say, now wait a second, I really cant trust what these guys are saying.

Now, on the other hand. THis is absolutely great for us consumers. Hey, who doesnt want free products? I know I sure do.

I love my Iaudio CW300, but I tell you, had I known that this website offers rewards for good review, I dont know that I would have picked this player. I would have found a manufacturer that doesnt give people incentive for good reviews. I think that once people get their Iaudio's, they will love them. But I think that for people who do research, they may never even give Iaudio's products a try simply because of this policy.

I dont know, maybe Im completely wrong, and Im sure many buyers will never know of this policy until after they have already purchased their units, in which case, Im sure they will love them. But it seems like they could be losing a lot of customers due to this policy.

What do you guys think?

[EEich]

Sounds like they are potentially promoting dishonesty. Unethical?

[NeTo]

I think you are getting the wrong picture here. The situation is not even similar to what you have described above. I have been in this forums since a long time (since the old forums); let me explain you how things go.

First, the promotions held by jetAudio were:

* A jetAudio Plus to the person who had the most post after a week. These post could be of any kind: support, greets, off topic, etc. eXity won this pize (he will surely win it again, he's an awesome mod to have here, no flowers intented, check for yourself.)
* A CW200 and a jetAudio plus to the two person who could bring the most new users to the forum. Darkm won the CW and the me the jetAudio.
* I will skip the third for now; the forth was two iAudios and mod status to the ones that showed the best mod capalities during a whole month (well, it was more than a month :p). NeXitrix won this one :rolleyes:.

As you see, the three promotions above have nothing to do with reviewing things. Not a single one. Specially the forth requiered something totally different to 'being nice with the jetaudio guys', since the goal was to help users (so you can rephrase it to 'be nice with all').

You will notice also that the last contest was meant for one person only, but three have been accepted for their work before and after the promotion. eXity continues posting helping when he can, and making things nice in jetlounge and else. Trinix used to post also about different topics; strangely just when the contest began he dissapeared (hope he is ok). And myself, nah i don't know, i will let others judge.

Now there's the promotion that's causing problems: the reviewer promotion. Two CWs to the winners. Make a guess of who won: two who have been speaking excellent stuff about their CWs since day 0 (long long time ago in a far far away galaxy, ahem...), before any contest began.

Now:

* There have been tons of reviews in both the iAudio's & jetAudio's forums, before and after that promotion. There will still be tons of them coming, i can guarantee you that.
* Read the reviews that participated. They aren't 'flowers only', they are pretty critical, with Pros and Cons clearly stated, with experience and recommendations. One interesting thing was that the reviewers did work to make a review as complete as possible, probably to help Cowon make things better. There wouldn't be an iAudio 4 and a M3 coming if they would have said: CWs rulezzz, gimme the prizes!!!
* The most important There are no promotions being held today. There are no prizes being given, and we're still here
:D.
* Considering the above statement, users who spent their time here, helping, killing time, reviewing, yelling, hating, loving, etc., do it with freedom of speach (if not i would have deleted your post lol). You can say anything you want, good or bad, as long as it isn't just a pointless shoot in the air (those i will delete muahaha)

Sorry for the long speech, but i wanted to leave that topic clear. Anyone would want an iAudio if it comes free, but none of the contest were with random prizes. jetAudio guys took the time of checking each review and vote for the best one (obviously not the iaudio rulezzz one :p); to read each post of the ones who offered for mod. I think things have gone as fair as it can.

You can search in the forums an see that thing are pretty equilibrated. No opinions are censored, all comments are welcomed. The contest are gone, but users of CWs and jetAudio will still come around to share their experiences.

Well, just that... sorry to anyone that fell asleep in the middle of it ...

[NeTo]

Oh! And there's is one I have been waiting for some time (not to participate, just to go wait for the results):

:D A skinning contest!!! :D

Hope one is held soon. Would be nice to see some new skins for jetaudio 5/6.

And just as my super CW review above: gimme me skinzzzzzzz!!! lolz!

PS: For the sake of all forums users, please don't quote my post above. Is darn huge! lol. Now i will go for a nap. :rolleyes:

[eXity]

NeTo, that was one of the best and most informative replies ever produced on this forum!
I could not have said it better and fully agree with him. Anyway, JetAudio never said that they wanted the reviews to get 100 out of 100 points. Hell, they could have been 10 out of 100 points, but you would must be able to justify what you give the iAudio.
The fact is, that the iAudio IS an incredible good product. I love mine to bits and it has been everywhere with me ...
I dunnow what else to say except that, because NeTo already said everything.

[STeakSauce]

Well, as I said in my post, I am sure once everyone gets their Iaudio's, they will love them. They truly are an awesome product. But to someone researching which company they want to go with, they very well may come across that little tidbit about the awards. It just seems to me that someone seeing that very well may not purchase the product. I dont doubt that all of the reviews are the truths, but I really could not see Iaudio giving the free products to a guy who, placed a very well worded review, but states that the product was no good.

I have no problems with the company or products or anything like that, I was just doing a little thinking yesterday.

[NeTo]

That is like thinking on extreme cases, who in the world would give a prize to someone that only says bad stuff? Neither extremely good, nor extremely bad, that is the case.

Read the two wining reviews. They explain the soilid points of iAudio, and then what's worng and missing. They are as good as reviews from sites that dedicate to that. And they are only 2 out of the many iAudio reviews.

The rest of the reviews aren't "awarded" in any way by Cowon. What could be wrong with them?

heh, and don't worry if you think you're causing a problem of some kind. It's nice to have discussion of this kind, in ehm.. a discussion board .;). As long as you don't post a warez link we're all ok lol