Bought Product Reviews FAQ

Below you will find some of the more Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for our site. If you have a question please post a comment and we may add it to the list.

Advertising Policies
(We put this section at the top because these are the most frequently asked questions.)

Q: “I have a product that I would love you to review. How much does a review cost?”

A: Bought Product Reviews does not accept money for reviews. We do not engage in pay per post reviews. The Bought in Bought Product Reviews stands for the fact that unless otherwise stated we have bought the product reviewed. While we are interested in trying new products we will not run a review just because we got something free. We also take as much time as needed to write a review.

Q: Can I advertise on your site?

A: Not at the moment. Bought Product Reviews may in the future contain advertising. If it does any proceeds will go toward improving the reviews via better equipment. Right now we would really like to get a good digital camera that would allow us to do video reviews. Ads will be handled by an outside network like Google Adwords and will have no influence on what gets reviewed.


Reviews

Q: What is your review process?

A: Products go through at least five steps before a review appears on Bought Product Reviews.

1. We buy the product and capture all the advertising claims.
2. We use the product and document how it preformed.
3. We then photograph the actual product(s) we have used.
4. We compare what the initial claims were to how the product actually preformed.
5. We take all the observations and opinions and consolidate them into a review. We also include information on the seller and the product packaging. We then come up with a rating that all the reviewers can agree on. Where differences of opinion occur we list these at the bottom of the review or give a separate score for each reviewer.

Q: Why do you take so long to post reviews? Why do you post follow up reviews?

A: Our team is very busy. When not reviewing products we are working and living our lives. Our staff is passionate about product reviews but at the end of the day this is a hobby not a business venture. Other causes for slowness in the review process are ...

• extensive time using and testing the products
• co-ordination of the observations and time to come up with an agreed upon rating
• product photograph shoots (we still use film rather than a digital camera)
• background checks on the author or manufacturer (if differences arise we investigate them)
• dealing with comment spam and hate mail

Comments

We love to receive feedback on reviews. As much as we have tested things we want to know how your experience went. Keep your post relevant to the product under review and there is a very good chance it will be posted.

Q: “I submitted a comment but you didn't post it. Why?”

A: Comments are moderated but posted in their entirety. Some of the reviewers have in the past fallen victim to comment edits on other sites. Our agreed upon policy for comments is that it's better not to allow a comment that has serious issues than try to edit it. Some of these issues include ...

• affiliates of products trying to white wash negative reviews while adding nothing to the actual review
• posting the same or similar comments that were rejected before
• poor spelling and grammar and a lack of time taken to edit before posting
• consumers on a mission to ruin the rep of sellers, authors and manufacturers
• we investigate all posts and post claims this takes time
• congratulatory posts like this one “Great review. You saved me money and I thank you.” We do forward these to the reviewers involved but never post them. While we love the praise we don't think posts like these really relate to product under review.

Trivia
Q: So what's the real story behind the name of the blog.

A: Back in January of 2005 one of the contributers got tired of typing “Review of ProductName” into search engines and getting sales letters, eBay listings, advertisements and spammy forum posts as the top listing. He said there must be a better way. He decided to create his own site and with a few acquaintances write product reviews of things they had used that people could trust.

Unfortunately he grew busy as business increased and the site was put on indefinite hold. It was not until late December of 2006 while working on writing for a clients website that he remembered the idea. Later while listening to a podcast he heard the hosts joking about the abysmal nature of the average review site. One of them said “their reviews read so much like ads they should call put paid in front of every one of their 'reviews'” we liked the double meaning so it became the title.

Q: Is it true that your experience with a seller cause you to start the site before the June 2007 launch date?

A: Yes. While dealing with the author of a software product marketed to copywriters we felt the need to expose what came down to a complete failure to ship what he advertised and we paid for.

Last update Sat, April 28, 2007

Now that he's giving out free hardware....

Now that James Brausch is giving away free hardware here's hoping he will finally give me a response as to whether he shipped my copy of Glyphius 2007 ordered and paid for on the first of last month but still not here. I don't want your free hardware but would love to get the software I paid for.

March Issue of Profit Well Worth Price

While walking past the International News stand over at the Atrium on Bay a business magazine caught my eye. The headline “inside the fabulous NEW INTERNET” screamed typical business magazine tries to be hip and with it. The “21 ESSENTIAL WEB TOOLS: What every entrepreneur should use” will probably make IT and PR departments worry. But then I looked inside and discovered a darn good issue.

Highlights include...

• A pair of study summaries that tell managers to let sales people talk AND what the academics say your project feedback should be if you want them to succeed.
• Things businesses can learn but probably won't unless they mentioned the Oscars.
  
• Sales management “sins” and some suggestions to get them on the path toward redemption.
• A feel good corp article on GoodLife Fitness that gives you a hint at where they are going next.
• Transparency and why it's not garbage for your business from the trash man, founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK .
  
• Rick Spence claiming to have been part of the problem with past federal government policy planning proposals and now wanting to avoid the sausage. Still his call for HELP makes sense.
  
• A profile on Michael McDerment's baby FreshBooks which has been getting some solid reviews from businesses using it to take some of the tedium out of billing.
• How to get better rates for your corps cell phone fleet (and no it's not just about using number portability to jump ship on March 14th) and stop the bleeding.
• A column from Jeff Dennis who some might think is on Sherlock Holmes' 20% solution.
• Reader questions with 74 year old high school dropout, Member of the Order of Canada and Executive Chairman of the fine menswear company Harry Rosen.
  
• Things every board, business owner and employee need to know about insurance for the working wounded, disability and succession planning to ensure you getting hit by a bus doesn't kill your business.
• Five boxing exercises to get you in fighting shape.
  

Even the darn inserts are by my judgment over 70% useful (a real rarity these days in Canadian publishing). The Scotiabank scenario is real food for thought and the nuggets of cost control and outsourcing tips could keep many a firm from a nasty surprise. Any national firm thinking of exporting should not miss the free Canadian Exporting for Dummies book offer from the Feds or their solid informational insert.

Well worth a multiple of $4.50+Tax but lets not tell Rogers.

Glyphius 2007 So Far A Failure to Deliver

On February 1, 2007 I used Mr. James D. Brausch's order link to purchase Glyphius 2007 during his 24 hour special promotional offer. My payment was sent to and received by the PayPal account “Target Blaster”. Later my Visa statement indicated the payment for my purchase had occurred.

I waited for the software to arrive or any indication via email my order had been shipped, but nothing came. On the night of Wednesday, February 21 at 6:52 pm I sent an email to Mr. Brausch at the email address provided in my PayPal receipt requesting that he please confirm my order was indeed shipped. As of tonight still no response and Glyphius 2007 has not yet arrived.

A reader of this blog suggested that I look at the reseller page for Glyphius 2007. There I found the same Target Blaster PayPal account link. The very same account I dealt with that had the non responsive email address. Could resellers also encounter the same issues I did? Those links are for many times the number of products I ordered. Would they get any better service than I received?

As the days have now become weeks and we are almost into a new month since I purchased Glyphius 2007, I am considering contacting PayPal if not Visa for a charge back refund. Don't get me wrong I still want to get the product I paid for. The thing is with a complete failure to communicate one has to wonder why so far Glyphius 2007 has failed to be delivered.

Still waiting for Glyphius 2007

My order for Glyphius 2007 was placed during James D. Brausch's introductory special on February 1, 2007. As of February 21st I have not received the product that was promised, advertised and paid for. While the hope it will get here soon remains, even people in the UK report getting theirs. Here I am in Toronto, Canada right across the border from the fine state of New York. UPDATE: Kunaki the original manufacturer and fulfiller of the Glyphius 2007 package selling had nothing to do with my orders delay. They kindly took the time to explain that while they may have manufactured the product for Mr. Brausch's special they verified that he did not use them to fulfill my order. They indicated that the shipping and PayPal payment links on Mr. Brausch's page were done by someone else and not Kunaki. A big thanks goes out to them for helping narrow down where this delay is.

Now lots of things can delay a shipment. For instance inclement weather and border security delays added 2-3 days to a book order I received from Pittsburgh. That order went by USPS ground and took seven working days.

Last night I tried to contact Mr. Brausch about the status of my order via the email provided in my PayPal Receipt for my Glyphius 2007 purchase. Over twenty four hours later, there has been no response acknowledging whether he even knows if the software has been shipped. Upon further investigation there appears to be no viable route for customer support queries. This isn't just some attempt to pester him either, it's one of the most common support requests as Mr. Brausch himself noted back in October of 2006 while getting ready to release his customer support software.

I am still anxious to use Glyphius 2007. By almost all accounts I have read (one person complained that the tutorial videos do not work for her under the Firefox but in all fairness the specifications do state Internet Explorer is what's required) it is an excellent piece of software. Still until I receive it and spend time with it I cannot make a review of it.

The author often triumphantly writes about the 2% of the population that deviate from the norm. On February 9th he ranted about a bank teller ignoring his wife when she said they owned their home outright and instead tried to get her to refinance a non existent mortgage. The teller didn't listen to the customer and turned a deaf ear her way. Now it seems James Brausch is doing the same to me and perhaps others.

Just yesterday he chastised the people who among other things sought “a tracking number” [and/or] “to get support for a supported product ...” and used the only visible email address point of contact he provided on his site, against his intended wishes. This email address was recently established and announced for a cruise promoted where one could lunch with Mr. Brausch. He called these off topic emails SPAM of the intentional kind.

Like the bank teller, it seems he cannot recognize that there is a valid and rational desire on the part of his customers. Perhaps that's what happens when you isolate yourself from your critics via turning off your blog comments and raising the barrier so only the elite that publish blogs and can offer trackbacks.

While I hope that this is an isolated incident, only time and the response of the author or lack thereof will tell. I will keep you updated.