Thread: Vendors and Feedback

This idea comes out of a post from a new member's search for their first razor. I posted something to this effect there, but thought I'd share the idea through appropriate channels for it to be considered.

In the spirit of providing a supportive community to assist and encourage wet and straight shavers might it be appropriate to create space in which members can relate their experience with our various vendors?

Specifically a place in which people have the freedom to post their objective experiences, positive or negative with specific elements of their vendor experience. Such as: Service, Shipping, Performance, Overall Pleased/Disappointed

For instance; "I purchased this razor from SRD two weeks ago. It shipped promptly. I shaved with it without stropping and it was very smooth." or "I knicked my SRD razor on the sink and sent it in for the free 2nd honing. It was there two weeks*, then came back to me and shaves great!" or "I purchased this brush from 'website' and used it for three weeks. It has continued to lose seven or eight hairs every shave. I'm very disappointed"

(I would discourage the inclusion of price, as prices change over the years, and if a person purchased from a given vendor, they already accepted the price for goods or services. Any prospective buyers reading reviews will determine on their own whether current prices are acceptable to them, thereby maintaining our current position of valuation.)

It can be easy to see such a forum/group/subforum devolving into a vendor bash, or vendor love-in (which sometimes occurs already) but with the appropriate introduction I believe it could very well police itself.

Ideally, such a structure would provide an ever growing log of experiences with various vendors, enabling our community members to individually assess the quality of service and products from our various vendors, and allowing us to track any developments along the way (if for instance a vendor's quality or service fades, or improves). Such a forum may also prove beneficial for our vendors as a means of evaluating their services and perception within their niche market.

I realize that there are logistical hurdles involved in establishing a review forum such as this, and that there are also monetary implications (will vendors who pay for advertising stop if they receive poor reviews from the community, etc.), but I cannot address those issues. (Though I believe it could become a selling point for advertising)

Submitted for your consideration,
Jim


(*note: I've never used this service, so the two week figure is an arbitrary time used for example only)

The trouble is that, human nature being what it is, when customers are dissatisfied with a vendor, for whatever reason, how do we know who is telling it like it is ? So that does away with the negative reviews. To be fair to both parties SRP does not get in the middle. Vendor/customer issues need to be settled privately between both the involved parties. We stay out of these things.

In general praise for vendors, whether they are supporters of SRP or not, is allowed in individual forum posts if it is in the context of the thread.

It is the nature of things that people who have a poor experience tend to be more motivated to share that experience than people who've had a positive experience. However, I've found here on SRP that people tend to jump to defend vendors they've had a good experience with.

The problem that was pointed out in the thread that brought on this idea, was that because there is no negative feedback concerning vendors there is no way to really tell if a vendor is a good option or not (more particularly, if a vendor has ceased to be a good option). So the idea is for a place where people can express their specific experience in an un-impassioned way, take it or leave it.

You would undoubtedly have some uninformed or poor reviews; ie a newbie who buys a razor and proclaims how great it is without having really used it, or the same who claims a razor wasn't honed right when they've never shaved before. But if experience holds true, you'll have more people who will then step in to share their positive (or at least better informed) experiences.

Including in the review rules a statement of length of performance might avoid most of the "I just got this and it's great/horrible!" posts. And a forum like this might stem some of the thread creation traffic from new members asking "Is this a good razor/brush/soap/site?" Allowing us to focus more on welcomes and technique trouble shooting. I know at one time this was something many of the old timers were lamenting.

Thanks for your reply Jimmy. I hope this post comes across as explaining the thought and not defending or lobbying the idea. I hope it can be worthwhile, but if not I won't be pouting over it.

Peace,
Jim

Jim, a lot of us would like to see a way to warn new people and veteran shavers alike but unfortunately we can't open the can of worms. It is not a theoretical but a decision based on lessons learned through past experience that put this policy where it is today.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

It is not a theoretical but a decision based on lessons learned through past experience that put this policy where it is today.

I was just coming in the post that exact statement

I'm new here obviously, but I just want to say that as an administrator on a hookah-related forum, I really appreciate SRP's stance on this. Good job guys, and keep up the good work. It's part of why I decided to stick around and sign up.

Originally Posted by BigJim

It is the nature of things that people who have a poor experience tend to be more motivated to share that experience than people who've had a positive experience. However, I've found here on SRP that people tend to jump to defend vendors they've had a good experience with.

The problem that was pointed out in the thread that brought on this idea, was that because there is no negative feedback concerning vendors there is no way to really tell if a vendor is a good option or not (more particularly, if a vendor has ceased to be a good option). So the idea is for a place where people can express their specific experience in an un-impassioned way, take it or leave it.

You would undoubtedly have some uninformed or poor reviews; ie a newbie who buys a razor and proclaims how great it is without having really used it, or the same who claims a razor wasn't honed right when they've never shaved before. But if experience holds true, you'll have more people who will then step in to share their positive (or at least better informed) experiences.

Including in the review rules a statement of length of performance might avoid most of the "I just got this and it's great/horrible!" posts. And a forum like this might stem some of the thread creation traffic from new members asking "Is this a good razor/brush/soap/site?" Allowing us to focus more on welcomes and technique trouble shooting. I know at one time this was something many of the old timers were lamenting.

Thanks for your reply Jimmy. I hope this post comes across as explaining the thought and not defending or lobbying the idea. I hope it can be worthwhile, but if not I won't be pouting over it.

Peace,
Jim

It does appear that we are very complimentary of vendors of traditional wetshaving equipment, but the reason is because those of us who never heard of anything other than the multiblade razors and canned foam available at WalMart and drugstores are unfamiliar with their products and they have to educate us a bit. We find that their items are so much better to use, we're grateful, and have good things to say about them. Prices are generally close, which means that prices reflect actual costs. I have had a conspicuous lack of problems dealing with online shaving vendors. Perhaps the best thing they do is steer clear of offering of some of the poorer quality equipment that could make a shaving experience miserable. Probably this is a somewhat unique situation where high marks industry-wise are deserved.

Members frequently start threads asking an opinion about something they are thinking about buying, and they get lots of helpful feedback.

Rip-offs and deals offered by non-knowledgeable sellers on ebay are frequently discussed.

We have goods and services offered for sale by individual members in the Classifieds, which presents an alternative means of acquiring products. Probably most things I've acquired have been from this avenue. Often a seller will say how a razor shaves or explain why he has decided to sell it, which makes me feel like I get a better feel for it before the sale.

I honestly think through continued participation here that you will acquire the kind of perspective you are suggesting.

How about a vendor's feedback page? You know, based on thumbs up or a star rating. But I guess since this site runs off of banners that might be a bad idea.

Originally Posted by BigJim

In the spirit of providing a supportive community to assist and encourage wet and straight shavers might it be appropriate to create space in which members can relate their experience with our various vendors?

Specifically a place in which people have the freedom to post their objective experiences, positive or negative with specific elements of their vendor experience. Such as: Service, Shipping, Performance, Overall Pleased/Disappointed
used this service, so the two week figure is an arbitrary time used for example only)

Unfortunately this cannot happen on a site such as ours. The main problem is the abundance of dishonest people who have no issues lying behind an anonymous internet identity.

We see it happen all the time as it is, and establishing a vendor feedback platform is simply inviting it to become more rampant. It is not only buyers (real or fake) but also sellers offering incentives for positive reviews. And there are sellers who have been banned from this site, so there is no way for them to present their side of the story.

Now, what you want already exists - there are organizations/websites such as the Better Business Bureau where customers with real identities can provide feedback on businesses.

I think SRP should do things that it is suitable for and stay away from things that are not appropriate (e.g. arbitrate third party dealings).

No need to pile on. Issue's been dropped.