+ 6 Reviews, Free Gear Promos - ITS ON YOU.
I would just like to touch on something that seems to be getting brought up as of late. I would like to talk about the legitimacy of reviews as well as free gear promos.
There has been a couple free gear promos as of late, not the first time, and likely not the last time that we will see these. These promos cause an absolute frenzy of people scrambling to get karma and god knows what else.
A couple weeks later the promo packs start arriving, the pics section gets really busy and everyone is happy. A period after that comes the reviews and votes. This is where things get iffy, and where I think some people have concerns regarding the free gear promos.
Lets face it, its a fact that several reviews and votes for these promo packs, as well as lots of other non promo packs are BS, posted before even using the product. and are of no value. Perhaps people feel obligated to instantly review and vote as they feel they owe it to the source to do so as they received "100's of dollars" of gear for free, who knows.
Now, these votes and reviews, whether legit or not, will surely help a source climb the ranks, or stay up near the top if that's where they already are,
I know some people see this as a source "buying" their way to the top, yet some people do not.
Are these all reasons to not allow free gear promos? IMO, NOPE.
Although eRoids ranking system is what makes eRoids far apart from the rest. If someone wants to come to a site, blindly choose a source from a list and reading a handful of reviews and ends up getting duped, well, they have no one to blame but themselves.
For those concerned about phony reviews being generated due to free gear promos, here's a simple way to get to the bottom of it.
After you read a review check out the author's profile. By skimming through his pics and posts you will usually be able to put together a timeline which will give you a good idea of if the pack was a freebie or if it was regular purchase. If you dig a little further into their posts, you will likely be able to find out if the person did in fact use the products and give an honest review or if they are full of shit. It's really quite simple.
I personally do not have a problem with free gear promos. eRoids is at the point where those top spots are VERY lucrative. So if a source wants to give a handful of people $10 worth of gear, ahem, I mean a couple hundred dollars worth of gear, then so be it. Its just makes sense for them to do so as long as its not breaking any rules.
Personally I think it speaks volumes for the sources that get near the top without using methods like this but that's just my opinion.
What I am getting at with this rant is you as the member/consumer need to put a little piece of the equation on your shoulders at least. ERoids has already made it pretty f'in easy for us to get what we are looking for. I could care less either way if the free gear promos keep going or if they get banned. Do a little research and investigation and you'll get through some of the smoke a mirrors.
As always this is just my opinion and my 0.02
Whats your take?
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I don't see anything wrong with promos. But
personally I appreciate it when a reviewer clearly states in his review that he is reviewing free gear from a promo.
That way I can give this type of review less credibility when making my purchasing decision-- unless the reviewer is one of the well respected pros.
Likewise.
What source gives out shitty gear for a promo, or even to buy votes? Usually it is good shit, so members are not being dishonest, if they try the stuff and it is good. The problem is when those people stick up for a source when they are selective scamming. So, we need to let the source defend themselves when other members feel like they have been ripped off. I also don't have a problem telling a source to allow me more time, so I can properly sample their free product. Is the pressure that great to get some to write BS reviews? It must, or we wouldn't be talking about it.
RustyhookerA long time, well ranked/respected member here would post up his honest review. If the gear sucked, he'd explain it fully. Post bloods as/if needed. If it was good then same efforts applied. Free or not this dude never wavered. Thats good integrity!
I have 2 here that never steered me wrong, got in on 2 promos from them and what they offered I wanted to try. fair to say the 2 have my business for what they offer and the quality. A few others were subpar and they are no longer here either. So it's definitely buyer beware and to remember these "people" owe you nothing; they are not your best friend because they screw up and then give you extra goodies after you wait a month past due. Business is business and at the end of the day it's all about money.
So for them to give away what costs them 10 dollars plus shipping is not enough for me to go against my morals since there are many others that can easily replace them. My favorite ones are the "1st 50 to pm" and when you know you were one of them and they skip you over, they won't get my business as that has already happened to me 2 times so now I don't bother unless it's something I add to my arsenal and not just because it's free bullshit. A bag of shit is free, do you want to get some just because it is? lol
great point.
Some sources who offer free gear promos to rank up are also selective scammers. I have made the mistake of ordering from one of these individuals in the past and waiting over 3 months to finally receive my goods after complaining on their SI.
I think as long as we stay honest as members here , free gear or not, if it's good it should get a good review, bad it gets a bad review.... Hopefully that will be motivation for sources to keep the gear quality.... If they want to give out free gear that's on them. As long as we do our job things should be just fine.... You can't win posting a good review for a source who sent you free shitty gear.
I will also say that 2 sources here sent free gear at a time that I really could've used the xtra help . When you have a family, they come first so sometimes it's hard to get the money up for everything you need, I know my cycles are very expensive. I will say that these are now gonna be my goto sources for when I need anything bec of the way they helped out with free gear, and I do spend a lot of money over the course of a year.
Its nice to hear those sources are appreciative of your business.
Let the promos live on! it's Buyer beware on all gear from all sources.. We get bunk, under dosed, seized packages and sometime just ripped off on the buy side.. So if legit sources want to prove their legit with freebies or deep discounts to eroid regulars to win our business then so be it... I've participated in plenty of promos and two of the promo sources have earned a ton of repeat business from me because of it... if it wasn't for the promo I wouldn't have given them a shot..
Via La Promos!
Bingo!
Great post.. I do agree, I think the new sources here who want to get their name out and have solid gear should definitely run promos, some guys on here run promos just to get up a few ranks on the top 10 and if they can afford it I guess it is fair game. Some times I see that as kind of snaky but look at what we are dealing with lol. I still like to buy only with stand-up businesses with integrity and I do think some of these promos are incredible, not all free but add-ons, percentages off and so on...
good post! i don't care if the shit is free, the source is gunna get the review and vote they deserve after i use the product. and for christ's sake ill post my review when im fucking ready.
I too have been offered free gear in return for a review from a src that I have never done business with.. I know nothing is free and once you accept "free gear" then you will always have that monkey on your back knowing you owe them .. Pass I will take my free and clear conscious over a couple of hundred bucks worth of gear. Now I have accepted free stuff from src's I've done business with but it's only them throwing in something new in my order for me to try and let them know how it was so they can know weather or not if I thought it was good or not but they never ever have asked me to give them a review in fact they didn't want anyone to know about it. One is a top 10 domestic src and one is no longer here both are honest dudes .. +2 good post
Top post mate, +2. Loads of this goes on IMO, many have been caught during my time here.
Comes down to integrity of the individual. I once reviewed a sources gear that they offered for me to trial. The gear was decent, I reviewed honestly. A month later they asked me to make up BS reviews for them as they had "done me a favour". For the record we were talking about probably $100 worth of gear.
I told them to fk off and reported them to a mod including a copy of all their emails. I don't compromise on integrity.
Good shit! About a year or so ago I was included in one of the freebie promos. Long story short the pack got seized, I informed the source and he asked me to write a review anyways, which I did not. I did mention this in a post back then but did not report it to a mod, which I certainly should have, tuned out I wasn't the only one who was asked to do that either.
"After you read a review check out the author's profile. By skimming through his pics and posts you will usually be able to put together a timeline which will give you a good idea of if the pack was a freebie or if it was regular purchase. If you dig a little further into their posts, you will likely be able to find out if the person did in fact use the products and give an honest review or if they are full of shit. It's really quite simple."
Right there bro...+2