Flash in the Pan

I'm all for the free movement of ideas - when people take responsibility for what they say. Because this blog includes product/service reviews as well as original news stories, there's a good chance that someone (as in a mentioned company or a PR rep) will disagree with me. That's fine and they can even respond to a review if they want. However, that has to be an official response and not someone masquerading as a reader.

A comment on my review of the VacuWare system (storing food sans air) appeared yesterday that, frankly, made me suspicious for the following reasons:

• There were too many exclamation points. Yes, this sounds like a grammarian gone made, but it's a style often used by PR people or vendors - far too much excitement than you typically hear from people who bought a product and liked it. Ok, one, maybe two, but when you get a number of sentences with one and the post ending with, I can't remember, four or five in a row, that smacks of someone trying too hard to sound enthusiastic.
• The comment basically said that the poster not only owned a VacuWare, but also a Food Saver, a competing brand that I had mentioned in my review. I often have multiple products in a category because I review them - companies send them to get me to write my opinion. But how many people are going to buy one vacuum sealing system, put it in a cabinet to not use, and then purchase a different one?
• I also noticed a lack of consistency. On one hand, the person waxed ecstatically about using the VacuWare special containers and the lid for regular jars - and as I menioned in the review, that worked fine. What didn't work were the bags that didn't seal well. (I'll also note here that the PR firm for VacuWare emphasized all the features other than the bags.) The poster said that he or she hadn't even tried the bags, yet claimed the alleged Food Saver was in the also alleged cabinet because it wasn't good at sealing bags. Now this is odd: why would you shelve one unit because of the bag performance and not even try the new one's bags? Furthermore, even the older Food Savers could get a good seal on the bags, though sealing an end could be a little tricky. (That's changed and I'll be reviewing a newer Food Saver soon.)
• Finally, the entire post sounded like it was written by someone used to writing marketing materials.

In short, this smelled of being a phony post send by a PR person or comapny representative who didn't like my discussing the big weak point the product had and who decided to post something some time after the review to try and mitigate it. Now, I could be completely wrong. It might be that someone genuinely likes the product that much and wouldn't even try the one feature on the new purchase that made him or her stop using the old purchase. If so, my apologies to the poster. But I do have a responsibility here and so I've taken that comment off the board and have set things so that only registered users can comment. Registration is free, and someone could set up a dummy account, but I think it's a reasonable compromise. The only other option would be to prevent all comments, which isn't appealing to me. Sorry about any inconvenience to anyone.

Labels: preservation, vacuum, vacuware