If the reviews are kept to a positive slant, how will the manufacturers ever improve their design and details if they are not told the faults and poor features.
Depends on theproduct.
Reviewing high class stuff such as L/N, Veritas etc, or in the powertool market, Makita, Bosch, DeWalt etc and you have loads of positives to see, with negatives more difficult to spot, and then, as with all reviews, only an opinion. What I like or don't others find different, but my job is to spot these and make comment, good or bad.
I disagree with part of your comment, as an example, the two planers from Charnwood I looked at recently were pretty poor in my opinion. They both do their jobs, so no problem on that front, they are budget models, so meet a specific audience and were marked and reviewed accordingly, but both have switching that as far as I am aware doesn't meet current CE regs, and in the case of the jointer, the guarding is dangerous in certain modes. Both commented on negatively in the review, and both taken into account on the final marking.
This is also where the inherent instruction manual problems come in. Product sourced in the Far East is inevitably bought at a price which includes often poor Chinese interpretations of English, but to have a proper translation done affects the overall cost which is then passed on to the consumer. Brand name manufacturers with their own R&D depts etc may still be out there because labour is cheap, but they build to their own specs and designs, have proper quality control and also produce their own specific documentation, not a generic hash at it.
I think in the case of DevonWoodys Scheppach, the lack of English manual IS poor and needs to be addressed.
but I have this view over the 'close' relationship between magazines and manufacturers.
There has to be a 'relationship' of some sort to get the product for review. We are not'Which?' magazine, we have to rely on manufacturers to let us know what they have new to the market, and for them to supply samples (which are not given as a freebie!) so I spend a lot of time sourcing stuff, and have to speak to people within the industry to do so. Nature of the beast i'm afraid.
'Close relationship'is one thing, being 'bought off' is another. My reviewing is impartial, despite what members of this forum may think, and manufacturers know this. Other reveiwers who have posted here such as Alan Holtham, Keith Smith etc are the same. We do our jobs to the best of our ability, and give advice where needed if we can.
To give a positive review on a poor product would be both misleading and damaging.
Did you notice that all the dowel jigs (Six of the best - pages 88-89) all received six stars, even though there were a few (muted) criticisms?
Apologies for this one. It appears the grids we use for marking were not altered to reflect differing marks.
I won't go into the reasons, but we will try and be more diligent in the next issue.
Cheers
Andy
and Ian (sorry thinking about the script to follow)
