Hi. First off, Sorry to Hallmark007 as I'd originally posted this comment on your thread and it was taking your excellent review off topic. I'm very sorry about that and I was in no way questioning your review as will be clear in this thread as you did not pay for your review filters first.
Skyreat got in touch with me and offered to send me a set of Osmo Action ND filters for a review. After giving them my email address they then used that email to contact me and said I had to pay for the review filters from Amazon then they would refund me after doing a review.
This is massively dishonest and they're using the DJI forum to do it. Here's why it's dishonest.
If they hold people to ransom with the refund only being given after an Amazon review, this basically is forcing a positive review. It's a well known practice among Amazon sellers and YouTubers, I've had a few YouTubers contact me to let me know that they never got their refund because the manufacturer/seller didn't agree with the review. To be clear, these were not Skyreat reviews but the same practice by other sellers.
Plus, Skyreat now have my email address and probably others and as far as I'm concerned this has been coerced.
Seriously, this whole practice is completely dishonest and doesn't give a honest review as the reviewer is immediately under the pressure of doing a positive review so that they get their money back.
BTW. TO BE CLEAR, I'M IN NO WAY SAYING THAT THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH HALLMARK007, IT DOES NOT AS YOUR FILTERS WERE SENT WITHOUT YOU PAYING FOR THEM FIRST AND YOUR REVIEW IS CLEARLY A HONEST ONE.
Anyway. I'll be doing a YouTube video about what SkyReat are doing as it's basically at best a strong arm tactic to ensure a positive review and at worst a scam.
Here's some advice for anyone who is approached by Skyreat or any other manufactorer/seller for a review of their products. Remember, forums are used a lot for finding reviewers.
Do not give out your email, ask for their email. And yes I do get the irony of that one as I was stupid enough to trust that because contact was made via the DJI forum that it was OK. (very stupid)
If they ask you to pay for the product first, don't.
The reason for asking you to pay for a product on Amazon is because they want an Amazon review, which is perfectly fine but ask them to send you the payment first, usually via ...., then use that payment to buy the product. This whole moving money via .... to pay for the review item is perfectly fine, if done for the right reasons, it basically means you can get the product quicker than the manufacturer can send it, usually from China.
You now own the product and you can make your review without any fear that you wont be refunded if the manufacturer/seller doesn't like the review.
There is an obvious scam that can be done here. Either, you pay up font and never receive a refund, basically you've been contacted by a disreputable seller who is only looking to boost sales who had no intention of refunding in the first place. Remeber, most of the emails used by these people aren't Amazon or manufacturer ones, so you have no way of tracking them back or telling if they are genuine. The second potential scam is a reversal of the .... payment from your account.
TO BE VERY CLEAR, I'M NOT SAYING THAT SKYREAT ARE SCAMMING BUT THE WAY THEY ARE GOING ABOUT ASKING FOR PEOPLE TO PAY FOR THE PRODUCT CAN DEFINITELY BE ABUSED, AS I'VE JUST EXPLAINED.
I've now done a number of reviews were I've insisted on the .... transfer first and everything has been fine. I've also had way more offers of reviews that have been retracted because the manufacturer/seller didn't agree with giving me the money up front to pay for their product or they didn't like my terms.
For anyone interested in this whole problem, here's a video I done a year ago discussing the problem of manufacturers/sellers asking you to pay to review their product and then they refund you after you've done the review.
Only thing I can add to this is, over two years ago I went through similar process with Skyreat and was reimbursed before I made a review , so as soon as my order was shipped my credit was in the system.
I do however see how the system could be abused , but I’m not certain this is the case here.
I received the filters from Skyreat through the mail DHL as I have with any Skyreat accessories I have reviewed . And thank you to Dave for pointing this out .
I also respect OP’s right to bring this to your attention .
I don't do reviews as such, but i have been and are involved in product development and subsequent testing of pre-production and production samples mostly of dashcameras.
I always try to get some info and footage out there ( youtube + raw on request ) so people can make informed decisions on weather or not to buy a product, and i will of course also say anything to anyone i find wrong or good with a product.
But when people ask me to review something i must turn them down, if they ask me for opinion on designs or hardware configurations i will help all i can, and if they send me something to just beat the hell out off, then i will do that too.
I would hate if someone called me a influencer, and really with 100 people subscribing to my youtube channels, then i think i am safe from that.
most of my work i do on online forums, i am not on any social media other than youtube, and i never will be.
I much prefer to pay for my stuff, but as a guy on a meager pension and with a few hobbies i play with, then what i can get for free i will take, but not if you ask for a review in return, but other than that i feel if people send me free stuff, they also have the right to request i do something for it,,,,, just not reviewing it in public.
And really there are no thing as free here, customs fees and handling fees do usually mean i pay full price for 1 in 3 cameras in a parcel sent to me for free.
hallmark007 Posted at 6-5 02:13
Only thing I can add to this is, over two years ago I went through similar process with Skyreat and was reimbursed before I made a review , so as soon as my order was shipped my credit was in the system.
I do however see how the system could be abused , but I’m not certain this is the case here.
I received the filters from Skyreat through the mail DHL as I have with any Skyreat accessories I have reviewed . And thank you to Dave for pointing this out .
Hi.
Sorry again for taking your thread OT earlier.
I totally appreciate what you are saying and how this has worked for you but I was asked something completely different and this is what I'm warning other users about.
For you it was as it should be, you were simply sent the item for review. If that had been the case with me then I'd have had no problem what so ever.
As well as you not being asked for money up front, you also didn't have the pressure of having to do an Amazon review as well before a refund and the obvious conflict of interest that this can cause with regard a honest review.
Regardless of if the SkyReat request was genuine or not, when a manufacturer is approaching you for a review, they should not be asking you to pay anything for any reason and if it has to be bought for an Amazon review then the manufacturer should be offering to make a PP transfer immediately for you to buy their product off Amazon.
Don't forget, this is a manufacturer asking YOU to help them sell their products with a review that's classed as marketing and promotion. No reviewer should ever see this situation in any other way. Yes, you may get a free set of filters, which cost the manufacturer nothing as it's a marketing spend that's tax deductible. But the manufacturers get way more out of these arrangements.
At the end of the day, you are helping the manufacturer to sell more of their products.
Plus, how much would a manufacturer spend on a marketing video?
When anyone does a video review there is an intrinsic cost. The time spent to shoot, the time spent editing, the cost of the equipment. All of which far outway the cost of a set of filters.
As a for instance. My day rate for working post audio/video is way more than a set of filters. And that's not for producing a video, just a single post position.
Anyway. The point I'm getting at, is that all this costs money to the reviewer, something that these manufacturers seem to not take on board, and is quite frankly insulting.
Bottom line. As I said earlier on, be careful, and don't have you and what you do be taken advantage of, compromised or undervalued.
Second Officer
Captain
