It's hard to get shops to sponsor the site. Shops typically don't like this site because of "what I let go on here." For instance... You walk into a shop and get treated like you're invisible or maybe you go out with a guide who talks down to you all day long or... Maybe you broke a rod and had to beg the company to work with you to satisfy their warranty (the one they created!), Possibly you had a pair of leaky waders from company ABC and company ABC promotes their 100% Lifetime Customer Satisfaction warranty / guarantee or your money back (as long as your satisfaction falls within their strict guidelines!)... Ok, so here is where the problem begins... People come to this site and read that stuff. Shops read it too. Shops think I should cater to them and remove that type of stuff. They feel I owe them something for some reason. I've never walked out of a shop with something for free. A few shops have given me discounts for items but I've also helped those shops in a few ways. One hand washes the other.
So, that's why you don't see any shop ad's, guide ads, retail ad's, on this site. It's not that I don't welcome them, it's that they (in my opinion) have something to fear. Of course there are some shops out there who come by some a-hole customer who just likes to start trouble. In this type of case, I'd surely work with the shop to kill something written by them that wasn't true. If you're a long time reputable user of this site, I'm going to most likely take your word over a shops word.
I believe in customer service. If I walk into a shop and feel as if I'm being ignored, or break a rod and wait 8 months for them to fullfill their obligation which I paid for, guess what - you're going to read about my experience with that company.
I'd love to get free stuff for the site, but not at the cost of having to censor things because some shop or manufacturer doesn't like what someone has to say about them. As long as it's honest, it's fair game. If a shop or rod maker or guide or whomever, gets wind of a post made that tells of an experience they had with them or with one of their products, they are more than welcomed to reply to the post with their side of the story.
I don't feel this site is nearly big enough to wipe out a company or stop people from shopping there. I do know that this site has a history of making customers happy. That makes me happy.
Dennis- I understand the difficulties that my suggestion may pose. I would hope that, if your site serves as a watchdog group for FFers everywhere, then companies and shops and guides would want to demonstrate to you and your members what high quality products/service they provide. Those who shy away from your generous offer of circulating their name on your site should go on a list on the front of the webpage of unccoperative entities.
I would think that the companies/shops/guides with excellent customer service, without regard to the quality of the product, would at least entertain the idea of a "consumer report" on them, especially if we promised to be nice and put in place some quality controls (like, for instance, whoever tests rods needs to be a certified caster by FFF or something like that and qualify his opion by describing his casting style and rod preferences). I'm not saying sell out and advertise, but something similar to the reviews they do on flyanglersonline, or in some magazines where they'll comparea bunch of 8'6" 5 wts for quality value etc. Those who were brave and stood behind their product or service would receive reviews, and we could have a cowards list for those who wouldn't allow the site to review them.
I just don't see why we either have to suckle the power teat of some company and advertise/market for them or not do any reviews at all. I would think those companies that are young upstarts would particularly like a forum where they could have their product reviewed and their name circulated. Maybe if the reviews started with young or small companies who feel they have something to gain, then the bigger companies would become interested.
As for guides, if they won't let you review them, you probably don't want to use them anyway. Any guide who doesn't see the value in a spotlight shone on them has something to hide. Any guide who doesn't want their name circulated on a webpage with this much traffic knows that they don't satisfy customers. So stick'em up on the cowards list.
As for the shops, I'm sure there are plenty staffed with curmudgeons (i know i've been to a few). We already rip them apart as it is, so i think those that would be willing to cooperate (which I would think will be those with younger ownership and putting themselves out there more on the web to begin with) would get positive reivews.
I guess I just see this as an opportunity for this site and also for companies who have faith in their product to gain some recognition. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd like to think that the potential cost of negative feedback is greatly outweighed by the potential benefit that these companies/shops/guides could receive by a serious product review section on this site.
Regan
Of course some of you are savy enough to have changed those settings in your profile already so this doesn't really matter to you.
