PAA General Thoughts?

Since you asked:  a past history of sock puppet reviews, the use of a "mascot", and unoriginal products with cheesy presentation make PAA unappealing to me.   "Douglas Smythe" is the equivalent of Ronald McDonald of the shaving world: see http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrau...b0c894104d

Tom,

That Analogy made me literally LOL....

BadDad  I'm not disagreeing with the fact other companies may review negative reviews and remove them, that hardly makes the practice right.   One only need to look at Maggards to see how a review process should be run, ethically and openly.  This maker even has gone to the length to email individuals leaving a bad review and tell them why they are wrong in their assessment and then not post that review..... for a maker to tell a customer they are "wrong" and "naïve" to me is not only unprofessional, it's downright absurd.  

Andyshaves right with you on price.  If you are going to be priced that much higher on software it better deliver much better or at least better than your competitors and frankly, I don't think this software fits the bill.

I won't ever question this companies passion for wet shaving and they do make some quality products. You all have made some excellent points here both as to the strength of the line of their products and the detriments as well.


Good discussion thus far.  I could care less about past "controversies" and hopefully this thread isn't hijacked into that realm.

Im right with you on removing bad reviews. I think if you are going to have a review process in your site for customers to leave opinions, than those shoukd be left as they are, and not moderated. But it is a very common practuce, which is why publications like Consumer Reports and Yelp exist. Outside and independant review databases would not exist if everyone had an open review system in place. Thats a failing of the market, not the individual comoanies, in my opinion.

What bothers me more than that is the process of specifically giving people free product in exchange for a "professional review". Amazon has a process where professional reviewers are giving products with thw promise to provide a review after rwceilt. These people get a lot of free products from a lot of different places. If they provide positive reviews, they get more free products. It has incentivized positive reviews, and hurts the validity of the review process. Unlike a youtuber getting a single sample to review, these people are actually profiting from the review process.

And I definitely agree that any company should not be proactively disrupting negative review sources witb emails chastising the individual providing the review. Obviously this is something yku are close to. I have never heard of it, but I have no reason not to take your word for it. As long as it is an accurate and respectable review, I think a company would actually benefit by allowing a public display of it. It shows they arent afraid of public input...

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Chris, I so very much agree with you about this.  While I use Amazon I want to say "shame on you" to them for the way they have corrupted their review system.  Some products have nothing but compensated reviews, which to me are invalid (sorry about that NeoXerxes and others who are compensated for reviews but that is how I feel).  Amazon reviews by star rating are now shown by percentages instead of numbers and reviews are listed by "Top" reviews instead of by most recent.  The only way to change that is to go into the reviews and change the setting, and it must be done for each product.  All of these ploys weaken the review system in Amazon, in my opinion, and if PAA is pulling shenanigans like removing negative reviews then that is even worse than what Amazon is doing.  (Please notice my stressing of "if" because I do not know whether or not this is being done.)

As to David's original post, I have never tried a PAA product but based on the very balanced posts I have seen here I would be inclined not to.  The products seem to get mediocre to good reviews, from what I am seeing here.  There are no really bad reviews but no great ones either.  There are so many other artisans who seem to be thought of more highly based on product, price, or both that I don't feel the need to give these a try; I don't think I am missing something extraordinary.

I actually have never used a PAA product- performance notwithstanding, I think PAA does a lot to create additional offerings and awareness around the shaving community, including coordinating/attending regional meet ups. That is always a good think IMHO.

Regarding the reviews, I do hold this sort of thing sacred. If in fact they are cherry picked, which I don't have any idea if this is true, why not take that criticism to heart, leave it in the public domain then create a response to mitigate? That could actually turn into a powerful message, create more alignment with the customer base and result in the end goal: greater sales.

I am sure at some point I will give PAA a try but not sure exactly when as my Must Try list is full and growing!

I've never bought a PAA branded soap but both Petal Pusher Fancies and Synergy 2.0 soaps were excellent. They were in my top 3 favorite soaps I've used.

Since you asked:  a past history of sock puppet reviews, the use of a "mascot", and unoriginal products with cheesy presentation make PAA unappealing to me.   "Douglas Smythe" is the equivalent of Ronald McDonald of the shaving world: see http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrau...b0c894104d

Thank you for the link to the article. I think it very succinctly puts to rest a lot of unreasonable negativity associated with the marketing of PAA. Marketing is, at the end of the day, a form of entertainment. Every manufacturer plays their little games in the marketing world, and this is no different.

Guys, you have a plenty of free time, I like that.
You know, this guy( Hodges) is a member here, but he is not willing to spend a little of his free time to say a few things about himself, his past, his products, answer customers' and wetshavers' questions etc. So, why is he a supported vendor here? Does he support with his behavior the members? You were used to criticize other forums, like TSN and its policies, but all the supported vendors there, are willing to help the members, support them and answer their questions promptly. Meanwhile, some of you continue talking about the HTGAM/ PAA drama, giving credits to this guy actually, because this is what he wants. I am sure he enjoys that, laughing in a corner with some of your comments. He accomplished what he wanted, people talk about him, about his personna.

LMFAO

Guys, you have a plenty of free time, I like that.
You know, this guy( Hodges) is a member here, but he is not willing to spend a little of his free time to say a few things about himself, his past, his products, answer customers' and wetshavers' questions etc. So, why is he a supported vendor here? Does he support with his behavior the members? You were used to criticize other forums, like TSN and its policies, but all the supported vendors there, are willing to help the members, support them and answer their questions promptly. Meanwhile, some of you continue talking about the HTGAM/ PAA drama, giving credits to this guy actually, because this is what he wants. I am sure he enjoys that, laughing in a corner with some of your comments. He accomplished what he wanted, people talk about him, about his personna.

LMFAO

There is some definite truth in this. I'm sure Hodges likes any kind of publicity because he stays relevant.

Find their prices high, products mediocre and scents muddled. Much better out there for the money

Bad for traditional wet shaving Brian.
I have tried numerous versions of HTGAM & PAA soaps and they were awful, not even bringing up price or his dreadful behavior.
This grifter and his sycophant girlfriend really have no reason to be in the business.

NeoXerxes reviews are indeed invalid for being compensated (as Freddie mentioned above) not to mention the private PM he wrote I have stating his intent to discredit Cold River Soap Works on behalf of another artisan.
Again another example of dreadful behavior in the so called "artisan" community.

Find their prices high, products mediocre and scents muddled. Much better out there for the money

not to mention the private PM he wrote I have stating his intent to discredit Cold River Soap Works on behalf of another artisan.
Again another example of dreadful behavior in the so called "artisan" community.

Wowzers..... soap espionage. The world used to be simple.