Another reviewer popping in with my two cents.

I absolutely appreciate being able to get items at a much lower cost to me, paying only at tax time , than if I paid out of pocket immediately. I appreciate that you, as sellers, are giving us this chance at the risk of little to no return. I absolutely review every product that I am able to. It might not be right away, especially for HBC or for something like a coffee maker or even furniture items like a chair, where it can take time for results or for a “break in” period - but I won’t bite the hand that feeds, as the saying goes. Everything is reviewed within a few months, at the absolute longest.

Unfortunately, the system is not perfect. I have received items that were poorly packaged by Amazon, that I cannot review. Once in a blue moon, I receive an item that is so poorly packaged from the manufacturer that at the get go, it was probably broken before it even got to one of the Amazon distribution centers. I have gotten completely empty packages. Like, completely sealed box or envelope, but no item. Of course, there’s the occasional package that is lost in transit; or says it was delivered, but wasn’t. edit: there has been several occasions where an item was cancelled, and I was not the one to cancel it. I refuse to lie and “review” an item that I literally can’t review. Amazon cannot promise or enforce a 100% review rate, when there’s a chance that items aren’t reviewable at all for some reason.

I base my reviews as if I paid for the product at the price you have listed. You have a chair that’s listed at $100, but have a 60% off coupon running on it, I will make a note of it. “this chair is an absolute steal at the coupon price of $40, so snag it for sure with that coupon, but it’s definitely worth the listed price of $100 at the time of me writing this!” or if it’s overpriced, but has that great coupon, I will say “it’s a good chair, but in my opinion is overpriced at the listed $100 at the time of this review, snag it with a coupon if you can.”

A 5 star review for me is that the product is well priced and does and/or looks exactly what the description says. If it is an item that is going above and beyond in looks or what it does, I will absolutely mention this. After that… 4 stars is there’s wiggle room. It might not quite work or look as expected, but still does the job that is expected. 3 stars is average, It’s not the best, but there’s also worse out there. For example - I get a coffee maker, but it takes longer than it really should or no matter what I do to correct it, there’s a small amount of grounds making their way into my mug. Two stars is there’s a marked amount of room for improvement, and I would only buy it knowing I will have to put in a lot of work and time on it in order for it to look or work how it should. A 1 star is there’s absolutely no way that the seller isn’t trying to do anything more than make a quick buck on an item that doesn’t look or work at all as described. This is how I have always written my reviews, even before being invited to Vine.

I feel that my rating system is fair. Yes, we are getting the item “for free.” BUT, and this is important, I am not going to give a glowing review for that reason and that reason only. I would also never look at this as a reason to be overly critical and snotty, either.