I review stuff on YouTube - sometimes it’s just stuff I bought; other times, vendors approach me and send me a free sample to review.
I always tell my viewers that they’re watching a review of an item that was provided to me as a free sample - and the terms I impose on vendors supplying them are:
[ul]
[li]The review content will be my own opinion and perception - as fair and objective as I can make it, and will contain honest discussion of good and (if there are any) poor features of the product - if the product is a good one, this is never a problem.[/li][li]If there is a serious issue with the product, I will contact the vendor and attempt to resolve the problem before publishing a negative review.[/li][li]When I review something that was provided as a free sample, I will disclose this fact to my audience[/li][li]I reserve the right to give away the free review sample to a member of my audience in a competition or channel promotion[/li][li]I will include static links to the product in the video description.[/li][li]I will not do anything that might violate YouTube/Google terms and conditions.[/li][/ul]
So someone contacted me yesterday and asked if I’d like to review a small (sub $50) item of tech - it happens to be something I am interested in, and comparable to another thing I reviewed recently. Rather than just sending me a free sample, the vendor wants me to buy it on their Amazon store, then promises to refund me via PayPal - ostensibly so that I can leave an Amazon review as well as reviewing it on my YouTube channel.
Of course “Buy this and we will refund you secretly” set off all my scam sirens, but actually, if they didn’t follow through on the refund, it wouldn’t be a disaster - it’s a cheap item, and something I wouldn’t mind owning anyway, so tricking me into just buying one would not be a triumph of criminal strategy.
Assuming they’re in earnest - I buy the thing on Amazon; they refund me on PayPal. I don’t think there’s any impact on YouTube/Google t&c - as I will be reviewing a thing that I have in my possession, via a transaction that has nothing to do with YouTube.
But what about the Amazon side? Is this practice explicitly or implicitly forbidden? I’ve seen reviews that disclosed they got it as a free sample, but I don’t know if the mechanism was the same as this.
Haha. Overpayment scam alarm bells ringing now - the vendor is talking about adjusting for paypal fees by sending me more than transaction value.
I’m not worried. My Amazon transaction is a straightforward purchase of an item - which will either be supplied as described, or not, and will either be good value for money, or not. Amazon has mechanisms for any undesired outcomes there.
And if the paypal ‘refund’ comes through with too many zeroes, accompanied by a request to repay the balance, I’ll just sit on it until it disappears.
And if any of that happens, my ‘review’ of the product will actually be an exposure of the scam.
Not sure that is necessary. That page appears to only be talking about the Customer Reviews on Amazon’s website. YouTube reviews would be something completely different.
I doubt they have rules about what you can do on YouTube. I would find it unlikely they could in any way police reviews on another website anyways. How do they know your YouTube account?
I do know that you can do what you do on YouTube. I know plenty of people who do exactly what you say. Generally, they are people who review products normally, and then just occasionally get stuff from other places–usually companies just starting out.
I do believe there is an option to list your video as a paid promotion, which shows up as text on your video. But I’m not sure if free stuff qualifies–especially since they aren’t requiring you to promote it. You could just as easily review it negatively, though they hope their generosity means you won’t, based on some human psychology.
Understood- the vendor here initially approached me to ask me to review their product on my YouTube channel - when I responded, they then added the request that I purchase it on their Amazon store (and be refunded by PayPal), so that I could additionally review it on Amazon, as a customer.
It’s this latter part that looks like it will be the problem. I’ve already done a lot of YouTube reviews of free samples and I feel fairly safe there.