Er....someone...anyone ?

Declined? Is that different from revision required?

I had one that required a revision; I was informed by email and an explanation was included in my account under the review I had written. I know it was about four days before I had received a reply once I made the corrections, I imagine she might be a little busy with all of the reviews that get reviewed before being listed on the site.

To make this clear since it is now in the forum, I did send Betty a private email and I will not discuss the reasons for the review being Declined here, as that is her business.

Sometimes email does indeed slip through the cracks. In my case, one of the accounts I am responsible for, the Partner account, has been flooded with hundreds of bounced back emails from the last few email blasts and newsletters. I have to manually move all of those emails to a folder and pretty much dig through for what is not spam or delivery failure notices. I do receive dozens of requests and feedback emails daily and try to answer all of the email quickly. I usually only respond to email during the business week, Monday - Friday, as we generally do not work weekends.

To answer questions about reviews being requested for revision or declined: we have different guidelines and expectations for the Description Review Program. All reviews must be objective in their content and rating. When a review is very subjective or not sufficiently informative, it is sent back to the reviewer. If a reviewer does not use the toy or will not rate the toy because they disliked it so much, we will reassign the toy to another Description Reviewer.

This issue's existence in the forum is simply one of necessity, I was unable to get a response any other way. I will say that I received a rather quick response after making the original post.

The review was declined because the toy and I were not compatible. I rated it as honestly as I could, and was quite "descriptive" regarding the features and experience with the toy itself.

Anyone who would like to read my submitted review, email me.

However, I would like it known that my review met the guidelines for the description review program, however it was not what they were looking for....they wanted one that sang praise for it. I can't write that.

The one subject that I think is owed attention is why I have not been asked to participate in any other description reviews since submitting my negative review? Are we to think our longevity is only determined by whether or not we fudge reviews on the toys we hate, just to stay in the good graces? I have an extraordinarily bad taste in my mouth right now about this....especially after a few emails from other reviewers with similar concerns.

I agree with Carrie Ann totally. For a descriptive review I would think they want a description, not an opinion. I got a product that in my opinion was terrible. I wrote a terrible review for it. If I was writing a descriptive review it would have been the color is pink, etc, etc, not I hate this crap and it is a waste of money.

Hope it all gets worked out for you soon.

This is somewhat off-subject, but not completely.

I would love to see the Description Reviews labeled differently on the actual product page. When a product has more than one review, it's not exactly clear that one is the Description Review, and not just a regular Verified Review.

If it said "Description Review" instead of "Verified Review" then readers could expect a more objective perspective, and take that into consideration.

Just to reiterate the process, as I am pretty sure I wrote this out before in another thread...Rufina assigns and sends the products for Description Review. I have no knowledge of who is assigned or what is assigned. Lately, with the Description Review getting much more attention via the published guidelines, we have had a huge influx of applicants. So not receiving a new toy for Description Review is merely a case of supply and demand. We now have more people to send the products to. I am not aware of these reviews until they are submitted, as I handle the backend of this program.

We don’t doctor the reviews and I would like to see a few examples if anyone thinks this is the case. Please email me them and I will discuss it with my boss. We do ask for objectivity but never for anyone to lie about products. We even stipulate in the guidelines that a poor rating or a mismatch in assignment may result in the toy being reassigned. Often, the decision to actually carry a toy is made from the response we get from our Description Reviewer. We recently chose not to carry several toys that were just not good overall. We take the feedback very seriously - as it is the first "test drive" of the toy for us and often a determining factor.

This program has guidelines that are very clear. It is indeed difficult to be objective when you don't like the product, to review it solely on function and quality. Many people have learned this and expressed this sentiment to me. It's not about sales though, it's about making sure that the person with tastes very different from your own still has an accurate idea of what the product could be like for them. What may not work for you may be perfect for someone else - it would be a shame if that person never knew about their perfect toy because it was poorly represented.

I hope giving you clear and concise answers helps this makes sense to all of you. If you have any questions or examples you'd like to discuss, please email me at: victoria@edenfantasys. com

I try to be as objective as possible with descriptions reviews, even if a toy doesn't suit me. The G-Spot Yoko Yoko is a great example: that toy was not compatible with me, but I could see it being compatible with others, so I gave it 4 stars.

Some toys, however, are just bad, no matter how objective you try to be about it. If I honestly think a toy's bad features outweight its good, and that it really won't do much for the vast majority of EF's shoppers, I'll rate it low in its review.

Actually, I try to rate that way not only in my descriptions reviews, but in my general reviews as well. Just because a toy didn't suit me doesn't necessarily mean it won't suit others, and visa versa.

I am COMPLETELY objective in my reviews. As Epiphora said, personal experiences make objectivity difficult. That being said, I will urge anyone interested in reading my declined review to email me and I will gladly share it. You will see that the review was not declined because of non-compliance with the guidelines, it was declined simply because I described the toy in a less that positive light.

My job (can you call it such) here is NOT to sell a product. That is the job of the persons who receive monetary compensation for their presence here. I am here because I take a personal stake in my playtime and wish to inform the general public about the knowledge I possess. I will not state something in a review that I do not feel is true. I will call a spade a spade. If I am ostracized by the powers that be for it, then whoop de doo.

I am not the only reviewer this has happened to, simply because the description was not "retail worthy"

My BIGGEST concern (see OP) was why the review was declined (i got my answer almost immediately after starting this thread)

I concur with Carrie Ann when she says that no company wants to publish a negative perspective as a description of a product they wish to sell. I wholeheartedly agree. However, the "declining" of my review was neither explained, elaborated on, or even addressed after I asked for an explanation. I find that to be immensely disrespectful. A little suspicious as well.

I am truly concerned about whether or not a lot of the reviews are subject to editorial intervention that includes persuasion to up ratings or remove text that could be considered negative. That is something I do not subscribe to, and will not tolerate, not with my work.

I do not wish to put anyone on "blast" but I am more than willing to share the two emails I received tonight regarding this thread and the review in question and you can formulate your own opinion.

Umm. Wow. What did I miss this time?

OK, Betty, I want to see the review and any emails you want to share with me. You already have my email.

I'm also going to take Ephidora up on her challenge. I received a toy and I sort of went "Huh? Not my style." (A email about what it was went completely unanswered so, it's also been ignored.) Nothing like a personal mismatch to show that objective reviews can be written. (It will also be a personal challenge for me...)

On second thought. Betty, if you have a real issue with the review actually being objective and want second opinions- then post the review text on the forum.

Epiphora's point is that when you are writing about a totally subjective experience (like a sex toy), it can sometimes be difficult to be objective. She did not say it was impossible, she did not issue a challenge. She merely noted that sometimes it's hard. And there's nothing remotely unreasonable or controversial about that point. (And, it should be noted, objectivity = / = "selling".) One of the challenges of description reviews would seem to be the objectivity, as illustrated by the fact that we keep talking about it.

Anyway, I think Miss KissThis' idea about having description reviews somehow marked differently than regular reviews is a pretty good idea, since it's basically replacing the product description tab anyway.