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Integrity of review publications?

Fellow Audiogoners:

I would like to share an incident with you that occurred last week. Input in any form is very welcome, I am trying to make sure that I'm not over-reacting, and that the nature of this incident is as serious as I
believe it to be.

On December 22, 2003 I saw an item that I was keenly interested in - it was a Mark II version of a piece of equipment that I had been looking for and was being offered at a reasonable price. Knowing that the model
revision has been available for less than half a year, I wondered how it could be offered at such discounted price. I contacted the seller requesting the serial number and received no response. I also contacted two dealers to see if they had any information - possibly there was some sort of introductory "deal" to be had .

In the period of contacting the seller and both of the dealers, the ad had been marked as "sold" - which was not surprising considering the price the piece was being offered at. However, what I found out subsequently from one of the dealers was very surprising, and somewhat troubling.

Most dealers of this particular brand of equipment had not yet had this piece in stock, and were wondering themselves how this gear had "appeared" on the used market so soon. I got the impression that they were a little aggravated. One dealer revealed to me in a subsequent e-mail that they have confirmation this was being sold in rather questionable circumstances, ie. the gear was still owned by the manufacturer, it was
being sold by a reviewer from an on-line publication, and the manufacturer was completely unaware of the sale.

To say that I am shocked by this is a vast understatement! If there is truth to this then - for me anyway - it calls in to question all sorts of issues surrounding the validity and ethics of both review publications, and reviewers themselves. It is one thing to assign a positive review - which in any case is subjective at best - to a piece of equipment merely because a manufacturer is good enough to lend gear on a consistent basis, but it is quite another to be curbsiding equipment that is on loan, is it not?

I guess my real questions/concerns in no particular order are:

1. Is this an unusual occurrance in this industry?

2. Is there some sort of industry regulatory body that presides over matters of this nature? (My guess would be not)?

3. If you were the manager of one of these types of publications how would you/should you react, and/or what measures would you take?

4. As a consumer, how do you feel about this type of activity?

5. If the seller is selling goods that they don't own, nor have permission to sell from the owner, what does that make the seller?

6. Am I right that this is an issue that requires concern, given that most of the transactions on this website require a certain amount of goodwill on the part of all concern to complete properly?

Up to this point, I have had nothing but pleasant and successful transactions through the use of this website. I sincerely hope that this is an isolated incident.

Regards,

Forbes

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Topic - Integrity of review publications? - fcreetlew 06:23:16 01/01/04 (104)
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