*CANCELLED* - [REQUEST] 4 European members to pass-around experience: Wuben TO50R

LED Flashlights – General Info
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EDIT #1 - 1st August 2019 - Conditions changed for SHIPPING
EDIT #2 - 6th August 2019 - Wuben Offer for the involved members
EDIT #3 - 9th August 2019 - Pass-Around Experience Cancelled

Hi BLF,

Wuben wants to make a pass-around experience in Europe. The flashlight to be “passed-around” is the Wuben TO50R.

Please consider this thread as an “invitation/request” for 4 European pass-arrounders”, to join me in this experience!

Below are indicated the “rules/conditions” for this experience. Please read it till the end and post any questions/suggestion you have.

HOW WILL IT WORK? :nerd_face:

  • The pass-around experience will involve 5 BLF members (me included) from EUROPE.

- Each member will have the TO50R for a period of 7 days. It is expected that during / shortly after that 7 days period a review of the TO50R is produced and published. The review can be published on BLF and/or other channels (forums, blogs, sites, video channels, or others). The link for each member’s work/review will then be added in the post #3.

- The 7 days period starts counting from the day the member receives the flashlight, not the shipping day. After that period, the flashlight must be sent to the next member in the list. (This means that - depending on the shipping times - this pass-around experience may take about 1,5 – 2 months to be completed since the day I send it until the day I receive it again in the end.)

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE? :laughing:

  • BLF members from Europe that have an account previous to the day this thread is posted, and preferably that have been regular contributors to BLF.

- The participating members should be from different countries.

- It is preferable that the members do not have or have had a TO50R, currently or before.

- It is indifferent if the members have already reviewed flashlights or not (in BLF or in another channels), as long as they commit to make their review of this flashlight according to the conditions exposed here.

- The interested members should post “I’m IN” and must indicate the Username + Country. A list of the participating members will be posted on post #2. Ex: 1 - MascaratumB – Portugal.

- The list will be elaborated in a “first come, first served”. Exception is to be made if the members declaring interest do not fit the above mentioned criteria!

THE PROCESS :student:

  • Wuben will send me TO50R flashlight. I will pass it to the 2nd member, the 2nd to the 3rd, the 4th to the 5th, and the 5th will send it back to me. According to Wuben’s rules, I will own the flashlight after the pass-around, and I will (co)coordinate this experience.

- The contacts between me and the involved members (for addresses, shipping information or other relevant issues) will be done through Private Message.

- Whenever a member sends and receives the TO50R, that should be indicated, and it will be posted in this thread on post #2, below the participant’s List.

- For the pass-around, members will have to contact each other to get the address of the “following” and to send the flashlight to the next member. (I contact the 2nd, 2nd contacts the 3rd, and so on.)

SHIPPING :email:

  • The shipping fees will be supported by WUBEN. Wuben proposes that members involved in the pass around will send me a photo of the shipping receipt and their PayPal account, I organize all in an unified e-mail, send it to Wuben and they refund the members through PayPal account. Still, in case you are not willing to spend money on this process and then be refunded, please do not declare interest!!

- The flashlight must always be shipped with tracking and each member will have to pass the tracking number/shipping information to the next member (receiver). Also, to be transparent to all involved in the process, it would be nice to have the “sending/receiving” dates information in the pass-around thread. (I will add it to post #2)

- The package must be well protected to prevent accidental damages to the flashlight or accessories during shipment.

- Also, the involved members can define/agree which will be the best carrier to send the flashlight, complying with the other points in this and other sections.

- Other costs, if existing (related to Customs and/or import taxes), will be assured by the receiving member.

MATERIAL CONDITIONS :star:

  • The flashlight and accessories shall not be damaged for review purposes or tests. That implies that the flashlight should not be disassembled (only if the parts come out without damaging it functionally) or be target of any other action that may damage it or prevent it from working correctly.

- During the pass-around experience, in case there is any functional damage or any damage provoked by the members involved, that hinders a review of the flashlight as if it was “brand new”, it will be dealt directly with/by Wuben and the BLF member. Wuben shall then decide what to do in that case.

- If the light has some kind of malfunction on its arrival to me, I will communicate that to Wuben and will also post it here on the thread, so that we all know the flashlight is not in “perfect” conditions. (Probably post #4)

NEW [6 August 2019]

OFFER: :beer:
Wuben will offer a 50% discount to the members involved in the pass-around experience.
I will send them a list with the usernames of the involved people so that they can have the record.
The discount code is to be used in Amazon in any Wuben products, and it can be used within a 1 month period.
The involved members shall contact WubenLight through Private Message and they will provide the specific discount code for the product(s) required.

AFTER THE PASS AROUND >>> GIVEAWAY :partying_face:

  • After the pass around experience, I will own the flashlight.

- However, to “give something back to the community” (apart from the review itself!), I will do a Giveaway of something related to this forum (flashlights, batteries, knives, some amount/coupon/… to use in physical or online stores, or other EDC gear). I may also decide to give the TO50R, but that’s to be decided yet.

- The GAW will be done here on BLF, complying with its rules.

- The GAW will have a specific thread for that.

- It will be organized after I receive the flashlight in the end of the pass-around.

- One rule I know in advance is that the members participating in this pass-around experience will have double chances to win the GAW. The only thing they will have to do is “enter” the GAW so that they get “numbers” for the draw.

- To be decided: prizes, geographical area of the GAW (only Europe or WorldWide).

DISCLAIMER :exclamation: :exclamation: :exclamation:

  • Being the “organizer” of the pass-around experience, I:

a) shall take no other responsibilities than the ones of organizing, communicating with members and Wuben, posting updates and “managing” the thread in what concerns to its development;

b) shall take no monetary responsibilities other than the ones involved in the shipping the flashlight to the 2nd member, and eventually from the 5th member back to me, and those related to my final GAW after the Pass-around experience.

“COORDINATION” :face_with_monocle:

  • This pass-around experience will be “coordinated” by me, in contact with Wuben representative on BLF, Jelina (aka WubenLight).

- I will try not to change the rules/conditions during the P-A Experience, but if it is needed, there will be a warning in the top of the Post #1; the involved members & Wuben will be contacted by PM.

REQUEST :innocent:

  • To the members NOT involved in the pass-around experience, please avoid sending me Private Messages about it. Other subjects non-related to this are, of course, welcome. I’ll try to manage things publically within the thread, and I’ll try to answer as quick as possible. This is a hobby not a full time job :wink:

- Please AVOID rude comments, “fighting”, spamming or other things that do not comply with the BLF Rules . Those will be reported through the official means (buttons and contact with Admin)

- Enjoy, be happy and let’s have fun with this :sunglasses:

THANKS in advance to Wuben, in particular Jelina, and THANKS to all willing to participate in this experience :exclamation: :+1:

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CANCELLED

LISTS OF PARTICIPANTS

UPDATES ON SHIPPING (from member to member)

OTHERS (related to shipping)

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CANCELLED

LINKS for the reviews generated by the Pass-Around Experience:

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CANCELLED

MISCELANEOUS

Information

Issues

Others

5

So if i understand you right.
The participating member has to pay 10-20€ and has to write a review in a 7 day timeframe and in return he gets nothing appart from the option to play arround with the light for 7 days.
Sounds like a not so good deal.
Please correct me if i am wrong.

6

Hum, put in simple words, that would be so!

There was a first idea, that Wuben had but was then abandoned, that this would be a worldwide pass-around experience, and that Wuben would support costs.
I wrote a text with “conditions” for the pass-around (inspired in other texts I saw around) and then received the contact from Wuben again saying that it would be preferable to keep it only in Europe and that members would support the costs.

The period of time was defined by me, but it is negotiable if needed.

I can also reach Wuben again and ask them to pay the shipping expenses seeing that it is/may be a barrier to have participants in this pass-around!

Your points are very valid, yes!

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I think if Wuben will cover the costs you will get the additional persons needed. If not i fear that it will be hard to get people interested. They already spend their time writing the review.
Its like you have to pay to be allowed to work for someone.

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Already sent e-mail to Jelina talking about this issue! You are completely right about that, it may be somehow unpleasant and “bad taste in mouth” to do the review without a “compensation”!

I will wait for Jelina’s reply and as soon as I get it, will post the answer here and, depending on that, rewrite the conditions about shipping !

Thanks for the heads up! The enthusiasm of organizing something can be blinding to other aspects, so thanks for bringing them up! :+1:

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Not being in Europe, or on Europa, it’s not really my bidniss, but…

…this.

(Just have Wuben send 4 people lights to review, no strings attached.)

10

No problem at all.
When you are deeply involved into a project it can be easy to overlook something. But this way it should be much more easy to find people that are interested.

11

Maybe Wuben has bad experience of sending lights to people who take photo’s of the unboxing, adding the text of the manual. Possible with a personal touch like: I have this light now 1 day, and it still smells yummy.
I don’t thinks of myself as a reviewer, so please send me no lights. But I have seen “reviews” that were no more than copied product pages from BG or GB.
Wuben has the right to make such an offer. We have the right to let it pass by.

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Thats why i said make wuben pay for shipping. But do not let the people keep the light.
This way you really only get people that are interested in writing a review.
And not reviews like Henk4U2 mentioned. I also have seen this kind of reviews and it is not a good thing and really not ok!
But if the people are not allowed to keep the light you will most likely not attract this kind of people.
I do not get lights for a reviews anymore. Because i write what i think and not praise the lights even if there are flaws.
I got 2 lights this year to write a review but after they checked my review they asked me to change a lot or to not publish it.
From me you will get an honest review or no review at all. So we agreed on no.

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The deal is just too bad.

Testing the light, taking pictures and writing a proper review (I assume that they want that) costs me at least a full work day, even keeping the light is very poor payment for that. I hope that people who keep writing full reviews (I stopped doing that, I just do short impressions every now and then) do it for the fun of it as well.

But not even getting to keep the light sounds like a bridge too far.

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I'm very glad that people write reviews on BLF, but you couldn't pay me to write a proper review!

15

Sounds like a winning plan for Wuben only. A review provides valuable feedback both to the community and to the supplier/manufacturer.

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I started doing reviews every now and then, but it’s quite time consuming if you want to do it 100%.
Especially runtime graphs, is anyone really interested? Personally i always do a quick math or a wild guess.

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Thanks for your input so far, folks!

This is the first time I’m involved in something like this, so any help is appreciated to try to make this a possible (good) experience!

I’ll answer below to your posts!

Yes, that would be easier! But the proposal Wuben made was to do a pass-around, which seems to be a thing done in some places (even here on BLF) but that doesn’t seem to be seen very often. Maybe they thought it would be a “different approach” to get some reviews!

I do not know the actual reasons (maybe what I pointed above, being a different strategy/approach), but in the end it you are right, we/you have the option/right to let this go.
And…yes, there are many reviews copying the images and even specs from websites (sometimes they are WRONG!) and then adding some personal shots! Maybe Wuben did get this too, IDK!

I don’t know if our suggestions for improvements are really taken into account by the brands, buy having bought lights or free lights, I always say what I think and send that feedback to the brands. Wuben doesn’t seem to be the type of brand that makes those “request” for good reviews, though…
And I am not aware of that, but I believe people reviewing here on BLF don’t get that kind of MFR pressure to change reviews! Amazon and other platforms, yes, but here I am not aware :zipper_mouth_face:

I can only speak for me, but I keep doing reviews from lights I buy and “free” for fun! I like to show what they are and what they do, even when it costs me some nights :smiley: But that is me!
I see the points in what you say djozz and I do agree. As I mentioned above, the idea of making a pass-around was to be different from the “normal” way of sending 1 light to each person. Maybe this is to cut some costs in their “offers”? I don’t know.

And I guess some people would need more than the light and its money value in order to “pay” some reviews we see around, with detail, photos, texts, graphics, videos… that sometimes don’t even get a “Thanks for the review!” :person_facepalming:
Being a hobby, we can agree or not, though, knowing what it implies :zipper_mouth_face:

Eheh, your humour is a good payment RC :wink:

In case the flashlight is bad, it may be a bad thing to the brand, though :stuck_out_tongue: But, as I mentioned, I guess this may be some strategy to cut in some offers and to try a new approach!
Community is the great beneficiary as it can have different perspectives and tests, under different angles. The brand, of course, will get more visibility in the different forum and media channels.

I do like runtime graphs! Not sure if all of them are “real”, but they are getting more and more useful as we seem to be focusing in efficiency nowadays.
But yes, doing reviews and tests is time consuming as hell, and sometimes we don’t even get feedback… :frowning:

QUESTIONS:
If Wuben pays for shipping, would it be better and more interesting to participate on this, even if there was no other reward?

Also, if they were willing to send other lights for free for the members participating in the Pass-around, as a mean to say “Thank you!”, would this be reasonable in any way?

Or, in other words….what would you think it would be a reasonable way to implement this pass-around experience?

NOTE: I am brainstorming, this is not something Wuben proposed!

Please note/understand the text was written by me, based on others I’ve seen. I tried to make it reasonable, but I may have failed. However, the issues about shipping fees are not upon me. And as I mentioned above, I sent an e-mail to Jelina asking about Wuben supporting or not the fees.

FINAL NOTE: In case we don’t get people interested within the already defined modes or in some eventual way negotiated with Wuben, I will eventually end it before it starts. After all, this is a hobby, I get work to do, you got things to do! Hope you do understand :slight_smile:

18

I agree that writing a review of an interesting light that you bought is nice, I did that several times, but in that case I own and have seen the flashlight and that inspired me to tell the world about it, at a moment that suits me, the initiative is all mine. I love to do that for nothing in return.

But this case is different: a company asks me (via you) to review a light. I do not have it in hand so there is a chance that maybe once I have it I find reviewing it not worthwhile. But the most important thing: it is not my own initiative and the deadline has made it an obligation (obligations kills hobbies). So at least that asks for something in return.

19

5 reviews for the price of one.

I think these pass around lights work better for niche lights that are several hundred dollars that way you can try before you buy. This is not that and they probably don’t even require everyone review

20

Just a little perspective…

Even if you review lights on your own, at the end, you still get to keep the light.

What’s being asked here, though, is to get to “borrow” the light for a week, write a review (as thorough or skimpy as you want), and then bear the cost (or maybe not) to ship the light elsewhere, and presumably be responsible for the light. That means time to gather the packing, box it up (even if reusing the same box and materials as you received it), and then hie thyself to your post office, stand on line, fill out the paperwork, etc., and ship it.

And if you “forget” to ship the light, or lose it, or it stops working, then what? Are you responsible for the cost of the light?

So you sign up, “borrow” the light for a week, do the work as far as the review, take the time and endure the aggravation of shipping out the light, bear the responsibility of the light (if I buy a light and get reimbursed, or just get a light for free, if I lose it or it gets stolen, etc., it’s my tough-noogies… but not so with the “pass-around”), and then end up with… nothing.

Hey, if anyone there wants to sign up, B’harni bless ’em.

Keep in mind, though, I’m not telling people not to. Just “pre-explaining” why there might not be very many takers wanting to sign up.