Folomov Spam Review Message

I once got a message from a member (meanwhile banned), with something like that and replied! Later I perceived what that method was!
Recently, I got another similar message from another member for the review of led bars, and simply ignored!

I must admit though, that I have done a review in similar conditions of a flashlight, but I wanted the light so I didn’t mind that “buy - refund” (win-win) situation! The contact, however, was made by e-mail, not through PM here on the forum.

I was approached on Facebook, not here. Also, the contact was friendly but I was led to believe the review “had” to be a 5 star review… hmm… never answered so don’t know what else happened.

Well, what I think is this….
What if the light is genuinely rubbish, and I left a review stating so - what would be the chances of my full refund……? Nil I’d guess, which makes any review worthless, you’d be misleading everyone to get your money back - it’s basically blackmail dressed up as something else.
I’m obviously not saying this particular one is rubbish, it may be fantastic, but the fact remains how could you ever trust one of the reviews you read? it undermines the whole point of a review.
From what some of you have said it’s against forum rules anyway - quite right too.

Thanks , I did contact admin.

I received a similar message from the same individual, whereupon a 5 star rating review was demanded.
This is not ethical and it should not be considered normal.

I was also asked by another brand/manufacturer via PM to do a review for some lights. The actual communication was immediately continued via e-mail. So far, no 5* feedbacks demanded. I am awaiting further instructions as stock at their warehouse is yet to be replenished before they can send me the items. FWIW, communication until now was very friendly and reputable.

The only reviews to be trusted are those from known reviewers who are honestly critical of the flaws in a product. I don’t even want to look at a review posted on a manufacturer or retailer site, except perhaps for an explanation of how something operates or video evidence of what features it has.

I have seen enough to believe that many reviews (especially of new products) are posted by people who have not used the item in question, perhaps not even seen it. That goes beyond bias to pure fiction.

Thanks to everyone for letting me know. It is indeed a clear violation of the BLF Rules to send advertisements via PM. When this happens, please contact me so I can close the spammer’s account.

Sometimes manufacturers contact me about requesting reviewers, and I sometimes give them permission to contact a few users of their selection via PM. In this case, Folomov did not request permission, and they sent PMs to a TON of users.

And this is the kicker. Folomov is now banned and added to the Hall of Shame.

I got one of those PM’s as well. I told them to never contact me again. That said, I’ll never buy any of their products.

Well there goes any chance of me buying a Folomov product in the near future.
Puts me right off this does, actions like that SHOULD be counterproductive, too many people brush them off and carry on regardless.

According to that review [Review]Folomov EDC C4 (18650, 1200 Lumens, USB rechargeable/Powerbank feature) 3 stars will be too much.
Mike

I got the exact same pm. I told them thanks but no thanks.

These types of “sponsored reviews” are also against the amazon TOS and they can permanently ban you and the seller if they find out.

I’ve had them too.

Whenever I see a review that starts with; “light was provided for free by manufacturer or distributor for review” or something similar, I move on. I’ve never seen one that besides very minor nitpicks, didn’t end in a glowing review.

I’m not saying they don’t exist but I’ve never seen one. If a person buys it with his own money, they are naturally going to be more critical and the reviewer who gets them for free is going to want more free stuff.

Not saying any of you reviewers HERE are dishonest. :slight_smile:

I will probably disagree a little bit on this, speaking for myself!
In each light I get for free from a manufacturer or seller, I will certainly point the negatives in a public review!
Ex: Amutorch AX1! I love this branda and I got 1 AX1 for free from the manufacturer; there were some issues that were presented in the review, and the manufacturer was also contacted about those.
I guess that may have turned into a good thing as people who bought it meanwhile have “flawless” flashlights.

The sentence “light was provided for review” is nothing but a statement of honesty, in the way that someone is saying “I didn’t buy this light”! Only that!
Non-critical reviews (meaning: those that don’t show the goods, the bads and the “to improve” things) can also emerge from lights bought with own money. Are they better than the non-critical reviews of offered flashlights? I would say “NO”, cause they don’t show what is not so-good.

Just my opinion of course!

I know this
because Amazon will delete the free items review
so they do this
refund by PayPal

And I appreciate your opinion MascaratumB!

I didn’t know Amazon was deleting “free” items reviews Neal. That’s where I’ve seen most of the “provided for free and this item is amazing” reviews.

i did that for folomov, the EDC -C4
i expected to like the light and i did for the most part
my review had some negative comments in it, or stuff that i said ‘i don;t like this but maybe you will’
mostly the UI
they did refund it
it is a little over-the-line though, that they refund AFTER the review
they don;t SAY the review has to be good, but you get that idea
thorfire refunds it before you write the review, though they will hound you mercilessly til you get it done

folomov was only interested in amazon reviews so i did not post here, there were other reviews here already

wle

Wellp, that’d be pretty much 100%.

You can always return it to Amazon as “not what advertised” (essentially true, if you’re hoodwinked into buying one), and they’d get zinged because Amazon does not like returns.

Then, if you’re in a particularly spiteful mood, you can trash the light in the review as well. You’d get “paid” from Amazon, not the mfr, so you wouldn’t be out a cent, they’d get zinged, and your only penalty is not getting to keep a crap-light anyway.

Luckily, the light I got was quite nice physically, great thermal path, good quality components, flawless ano, etc., only I hated the UI, and pretty much said so… a lot. :smiling_imp: Yeah, I tossed ’em a 5-star rating, but kinda banged on the UI quite a bit. :smiley:

If I could just lobotomise it to a 1-mode (always-high), I’d be happy.

I got this pm a few weeks ago but just ignored it b/c I already aquired a bunch of lights recently and didn’t feel like writing a review. Never got to the point of receiving their terms.

Sort of a shame to hear all this since it looks like a decent product, even if it really didn’t strike me as a “budget” price point.