I wrote a straightforward review, calmly describing the known problems and giving links where to read about them.
If it had appeared it would have knocked the “five stars” rating down considerably.
When my review hadn’t appeared after a week or so I tried posting the same again.
I hadn’t done any email or PM contacts at all about the light.
I basically said no naive user get should one without understanding the issues.
At some point I ’oogled “cometa” and found that “forum” page for the product.
Someone there had the thread saying he’d tried to post a review, complaining the review was not appearing.
(last time I looked that was still findable by a search, and it includes the same pointers and cautions)
I commented in that forum thread, saying I had the same problem with a bad review not appearing.
Shortly after that, I got mail saying they’d refund the purchase, and they did.
So basically that’s three little squeaks. No angry email, no PMs, no demands.
I’ve not been particularly surprised or upset.
I’m well aware of “quality creep” as an issue.
I care about solving that before people move up from cheap flashlights to building nuclear plants and big buildings.
Seriously.
The US went through this in the 1800s. Nobody else should repeat that grim history. We know better ways. Checklists, QA, QC.
I am very sure there are people trying hard to solve these problems.
I am very sure it’s damned hard to get past the cheap fast profit approach.
The US did that to some extent, very slowly, with a lot of misery and it’s still not done, it takes constant attention to do reliably good work.
As Bradbury said, “I don’t write to predict the future. I write to prevent it.”