Chris - policy re gear/supplier reviews?

[Ian Stark]

Chris (or any mod),

I have had a very unpleasant experience with an online supplier (not a sponsor of DVi, I should add!). Both the product and the service are dreadful.

May I ask what the DVi policy is regarding posting reviews that are not favourable? I feel I should warn potential customers of this outfit before they part with their money, but I don't want it to appear as a sour grapes thing, or to go against DVi policy and get my knuckles rapped!

Can you please advise?

Thanks,

Ian . . .

[Chris Hurd]

Hi Ian,

Sorry about your experience, and thanks for asking, but the answer is no, it's not something I want on DV Info Net. But I encourage you to post it to one of your own web sites though.

The way I work with the dealers who sponsor this site, is that they get exclusivity on DV Info Net. A bad experience with a non-sponsoring dealer is unfortunate, but also irrelevant as far as this site is concerned, because the *only* dealers I recommend giving business to are the ones directly supporting this site.

If it's a bad experience that involves one of our sponsors (thankfully very rare, but it happens), I can usually help to mediate it if I'm contacted offline.

I can't get involved with a non-sponsoring dealer, but if you publish the report yourself and host it on your own blog / site / whatever, rest assured that Google will pick it up and people will find it. Hope this helps,

[Andy Wilkinson]

Ian,

Good call to ask policy on this - it's certainly a tricky area and I see on many other forums where they deal with it very, very badly (i.e. without "smart" moderator intervention).

Many of us/you know of 'good' and 'bad' suppliers and one of the benefits of a forum like this is to share those learnings. Certainly, no one would want this site to be submerged under a plethora of knit-picking complaints/personal rantings about what (whoever) did n't do about (whatever) device etc. etc..... but surely it would make sense for anyone of us to be able to be able to praise or warn of suppliers from our own personal experiences in a (hopefully) subjective way.

Certainly, I've praised suppliers I've had very good dealings with in some of my posts (but fortunately, so far, have had no really bad personal experiences to share).

EDIT: OK Chris, see you responded/our posts crossed.

[Ian Stark]

Fair enough. I thought it was wise and courteous to ask first!

Thanks for the candid response - I fully respect your wishes.

Cheers,

Ian . . .

[Ian Stark]

Chris - for anyone reading this who is curious about the supplier in question, would they be able to PM me via DVi or via one of my websites listed in my sig?

Feel free to rap my knuckles for pushing my luck here!!!!!

Ian . . .

[Chris Hurd]

Ian -- sure they can always contact you via email through DVi or one of your sites.

Ultimately I would like to find one or two highly reputable, completely trustworthy full-line dealers in Canada, Latin America, the British Isles, the European continent and Australasia to come on board here as site sponsors. The "where to buy" question is the single most important question you can ask in this business (it's much more important than "what to buy"), and I'd prefer to cut to the chase and offer those answers right up front by offering up a few hand-picked dealers. I don't want to saturate this site with dealer ads -- in fact, I've lost track of how much money I've turned down from dealers wanting to get on this site -- I just want to present a short list and say, "buy here," and get back to the business of discussing creative techniques for video production.

Coming soon: the "where to buy" text links at the bottom of any thread page (such as this one) will be geo-targeted for your particular location. I can only imagine how annoying it must be for our non-U.S. based readers to see dealer ads from Houston, Los Angeles etc. That'll change in the near future.

[Ian Stark]

Chris, you have our full support. What you have done and continue to do with DVi is outstanding, invaluable and unbeatable value for money (i.e it's free!).

Delighted to see your interest in seeking UK sponsors. If you want details of a particular company you should NOT ask, feel free to PM me or contact me through one of my websites! ;-))

Best,

Ian . . .

[Shaun Roemich]

Chris: Based on the recommendation of Tim Dashwood, I can personally vouch for Hamilton Video and Sound in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. E-mail or PM me for more info. Or just talk to Tim.

[Mike Beckett]

Chris,

Are Videogear.co.uk still a sponsor? They used to have banner ads, but weren't on the sponsors page.

Also, re. the country targeting. I think this is good, but some sponsors are applicable anywhere: e.g. I've bought from VASST, and I could buy a software download from Cineform without too much hassle, and there are probably other examples. It would be good to keep these guys visible for non-US forumers as well.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Nice to hear you're looking for European continent support too, Chris! I would really embrace that. We in Belgium, often have difficulties finding good dealersships with good prices and good services.

[Ian Stark]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

if you publish the report yourself and host it on your own blog / site / whatever, rest assured that Google will pick it up and people will find it.

Thanks for the advice, Chris. I've started that ball rolling and have today created a blog. I did have second thoughts as the company in question are now threatening me with 'unannounced visits to my home'! But you can read all about that elsewhere!

Ian . . .