Dan's Scans

Sometimes, It's hard to be objective!

by Dan Robinson

 

 

It seems I waffle between Old-Fartism and Thechie. I gleefully embrace the latest and greatest Macinstuff while steadfastly yearning for the Good Old Days when products offered for sale worked as advertised.

 

I enjoy getting new products and writing reviews. But sometimes it's just plain frustrating.

 

A good ferinstance is two items I recently received for review. Both were cutting edge . . . but not TOO cutting edge. And neither of which worked. Both products were name brands, too. The one that didn't work at all was a big name brand. (I'm not naming names here, but if you really want to know, send me an email.)

 

So here I am with item #1. I go to a client's office and explain that I'm going to use a new product and it'll make things ever so much easier and quicker. Twenty minutes later, it's hung.

 

Try again. Same result. Not only that, there is no evidence that anything at all happened in the preceding third of an hour.

 

I've now wasted 40 minutes I can't charge the client for, and I've lost some credibility. I revert to the old fashioned way. Tried and true. I do it by hand. Taking over an hour.

 

This is the fourth item I've received from this company that either didn't work, worked poorly, or was so mundane that it wasn't worth a review.

 

Do you remember the good old days? When things hit the shelves in working order? It's like these people consider me their own private test bench.

 

This time I didn't even call the company's help desk. It went in the trash. They had their chance. No review, either. Should I have written a five-word review? "This. Product. Did. Not. Work."

 

Item #2 was a combination of hardware and software, too. I really need this product and I was really rooting for it to get a fine review. In October, I installed it on my MacPro and SPLAT!

 

Unusable. Seventy percent of the features flat didn't work. What did work, though, was beautiful. November, they published an update. Same splat.

 

Hello help desk! Since then, I've been in touch with their help desk, their PR person, the help desk's boss, and even the author of the freaking app! I've installed it on my MacBook Pro and it works great! But I don't NEED it on my laptop!

 

So what am I going to do? Write a lousy review based on the app's uselessness? Write a good review based on my laptop? Write a mixed review based on all the personal attention I've received from the company's tech support?

 

Typically, a review works like this:

A new item is announced by the company, and they send out notices (In this case to Robert Pritchett, macCompanion's publisher.)

 

If a reviewer expresses an interest in the item, the manufacturer sends them a boxed retail version . . . the same as you'd buy in the store. If it's just software, it's typically downloaded.

 

Then the reviewer spends some time with the product in a real-world test. I have a backpack, several laptop cases and a TON of iPhone stuff that I would never ever use. And boxes and boxes of applications. To give these products a fair shake, we spend quite a few hours with them.

 

To write a review takes several hours more. Sometimes I take pictures and screenshots to add to the manufacturer's promo graphics.

 

Last month I reviewed a laptop case with a plastic window that speeds your way through the inspection line at airports. I carried it around for a couple of days, wrote a positive review, and went back to my old laptop case which fits my style better, since I rarely fly.

 

I maybe spent four hours on the entire review process. If I were to charge a client for those four hours, be very sure the bill would have been at least eight times the retail price of the case.

 

Now, several manufacturers and publishers automatically send me items for review.

 

So sometimes it's a pain. Sometimes I get something I can actually use. But when I get something that simply doesn't work, I get upset.

 

I miss the good old days.

 

Editor's Note: Really, if you want to know what items are DOA (Dead On Arrival) or Just. Don't. Work.ï contact Dan at drobinson@maccompanion.com

 

Just remember, when they don't work, we don't give them press.