Alienware Fails To Buy Reviewer, Gets Pissy
Aeropause put up a very telling story about how things work in an industry that gives free hardware and software to its reviewers – for the purpose of reviewing. And manufacturers aren’t afraid to use a little blackmail when a review isn’t positively gleaming, threatening to withhold advertising, future products, you name it. Such was the case when Hexus.net said true and unflattering things about the costly Alienware Area-51 7500.
Alienware’s marketing manager sent this to Hexus.net:
I’m afraid, after the last review, our ability to send you any hardware for review is pretty much gone. When I have one of the executives in the US threatening my job on the telephone, my hands become somewhat tied in the future.
As Aeropause points out, it’s not a surprise that the Alienware reaction was not to examine their own product for fault, excessive cost, etc., but to attempt to bully their way toward good press. They’re far from the first company to do so; heck, hasn’t Sony made a religion out of the practice?
Hexus.net director shot back with a clear response that ought to have shamed Alienware:
...you effectively stated – and the record shows in no uncertain terms – that because HEXUS had published the honest, unfavourable truth about one ‘Alienware’ product, that ‘Alienware’ would not be sending HEXUS any products for future technical editorial evaluations … the only inference which can be made from this is that ‘Alienware’ will only submit products to publications which will write nice things about ‘Alienware’.
That should have done it. Should have. The reply:
That was and remains Alienware’s global marketing strategy from the beginning. We’re hardly alone.
Anyone who isn’t fuming yet might want to read the original article over at Hexus.net, as well as Aeropause’s unusually in-depth reaction to the snafu. Or if you’re sanguine about these things and think they’re a natural evil of our “free market,” don’t bother.
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 31 October 2006
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: alienware, evil, hexus, review
Modern wisdom: Better to be honest than to become a lapdog of the establishment.
Alienware’s official response to this is as follows:
“In response to a recent report concerning Alienware’s system review process, Alienware would like to take the opportunity to clarify that process. As a matter of long standing policy, Alienware makes no distinctions on who receives a system for review. Alienware offers an equal opportunity to all publications for system reviews. In addition to offering review units to publications, Alienware offers reviewers a unique guidance approach that is available at any point during the review process. The objective of this approach is designed to answer any questions on features, hardware, software benchmarking or any other issues during the course of the evaluation. Furthermore, Alienware does not have access to the review until after publication, but during the review process, Alienware strives to ensure that, if the system is to be compared to another brand, the two systems contain similar hardware specifications – creating an “apples to apples” comparison. Though every effort is made to observe these policies and practices, on occasion, it may be difficult to accommodate the requests of certain publications due to supply limitations or other situations beyond Alienware’s control. Alienware has a long standing reputation of excellence in product reviews and we strive to meet those requests when at all possible so that we continue to deliver an unparalleled product reviews experience for our colleagues in the media and, in return, we expect that all media publications exercise fairness and accuracy when reviewing Alienware products.”
Also, please see Alienware’s direct response to Hexus:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7113&page=5&search=alienware
I really think the unfiltered email response is a lot more relevant than the canned CYA lawyerspeak response. There’ll be at least one head rolling over at Aeropause, not because he threatened a site for unfavorably reviewing them, but because he did so in an embarrassingly verifiable way.
...as Aeropause gets added to my list of feeds.
bleah. Substitute “Alienware” and “Hexus” for the two “Aeropauses” above. Guess it’s bedtime.