For bloggers reviews can be a minefield. Once you’ve gotten over the inevitable ‘can I slate this product because it’s actually really bad’ issue (FYI, if it’s bad, I’ll tell you precisely why!) there’s always the matter of how long you should review an item before writing about it. On average this seems to be between two and four weeks, dependent upon the product or service being reviewed. We’ve all heard horror stories about fryers that have blown up a year after a review was written and other products that couldn’t last the distance but what about services, or when it’s not the product that’s the issue but the service of the company providing that product.
Last year I wrote a number of product reviews for a company called Clairabella. I loved the products they sent through, especially the gorgeous rainbow mosaic mirror. I wasn’t the only one; my mum loved it so much that I ordered her one for Christmas.
As expected, the other items in my order came through quickly. However there was a problem with stock of the mirror. I was kept well updated until mid-January and had opted to wait for stock to arrive instead of picking a different model. Towards the end of January I emailed Clairabella to get an update on my order but I received no response. I tried calling their shop on a near-daily basis but the phone always went unanswered. Contact was impossible. So I wrote to them and sent my letter by recorded delivery. Despite having proof of delivery my letter went unanswered. I finally received a refund of the purchase price but only upon sending a further letter before action.
And so the moral of the story is that even when a blogger has written their review, we should never stop reviewing. You may miss out on something very important. And for info, I’ve updated my reviews with reference to this post. It’s only fair to you readers, after all.
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I meant to comment on this the other day but was reading the Tots100 10-at-10 and remembered about it.
Personally, if I’d written a review and something negative happened, I’d write an update (as you have done here, sort of), link in to the original review and edit the original review with a link to the new update at the bottom. Your initial review doesn’t change – those were your feelings at the time. However, you make a really good point when you say “we should never stop reviewing” – and that goes for stuff that hasn’t been given to us as a sample item or as part of “goodie bag” at an event.