It would be an awesome addition to the community if there was some way for users to pool funds together to get certain products from certain sellers sent to Janoshik for testing.

For example if I wanted to get Eq from Vendor X tested and I put in $20 and others who happen to have that same product and they also want to have it tested they could put in $1, $5, $10 or $20 until we have enough for the test.

Then we could send it out for testing and post the results for the community and nobody has to foot the full bill for shipping costs and the testing cost so testing would likely be more commonplace.

This would keep vendors on top of their QC so no more Vitamin E mishaps occur and the good sources would get more business. Also, any batches with Vitamin E would be found sooner and we the people wouldn’t have to take the vendors word for which products and batches were effected.

Keeping the users honest as well would be a big hurdle. Who can we trust with the money? Who has time to deal with the shipping? How can we stop the donations once the needed limit is met? Keeping track of the batch numbers as well as the compound and the maker/vendor would also be necessary.

Is this a task that someone like an admin would have time to manage? Would they be willing to manage such an undertaking?

I do believe that by spreading the cost of testing to larger groups of individuals interested and willing to chip in even a small amount of funds would drastically increase consumer confidence as well as increase the quality of products coming across the counter as vendors would also need to up their QC to stop any future Vitamin E mixups as well as help the community and all users quickly identify exactly what products and batches are affected by any Vitamin E mishaps. That’s a win-win for both the vendors, makers, and consumers and also grants a more accurate safety net if such an accident happens an again in the future.

Although the hurdles are high, the payoff seems worth it to me and perhaps an automated system to help keep track of how much funds have been collected for Item X, Batch Y, Vendor/MakerZ could be created and implemented to prevent overpayments for testing that already has sufficient funds by someone that is savvy with computer stuff.

Just daydreaming food for thought. I’ve seen several others suggest such a system and maybe us users can implement it without putting a burden on the admins should they be unable or unwilling to tackle such an endeavor.