[time-nuts] negative mention of products (was: DIY VNA design)

[Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)]

On 22 August 2016 at 23:15, Attila Kinali <attila at kinali.ch> wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Aug 2016 16:16:16 +0100
> "Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)" <drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > That resulted in the manufacturer of the RigExpert contacting Tom, as
> they
> > were unhappy about my comments. (Strangely they never contacted me!) I
> > received a phone call from Jan, the UK distributor about it. Basically
> they
> > did not want to get into a war with other companies like RigExpert. I can
> > see that discussions about VNAs in general could lead to discussions
> > comparing products.
>
> Yes, lots of companies do get very unhappy when they see negative
> mentiones of their product. Quite a few of them also do not get that
> a mailinglist/forum/... is not responsible for what their users write.
> Some even threaten to sue, in case a negative remark is not removed
> IMEDIATELY!!!1!einself
>

Yes. It is interesting to note that one of the reviews by G3GXG on eHam of
the RigExpert AA-600, which is the product I was referring to, says

"I tried sharing my concerns on the RigExpert site but every time I did, my
comments were removed. This is clearly a raw subject for them."

Personally, I write what I think is fair, and if that offends them, let
them try to sue me. But I can understand others not wishing to take the
same view - especially if in the USA. But unfortunately we have a lot of
"no win no fee" lawyers here now in the UK. It is a big "industry". I've
not seen it move to things like technical comments about products, but it
could well happen.

Dave