Recent events have warranted an update to our policies regarding our relationships with manufacturing partners that we promote. The goal of these policies is to ensure that manufacturers know what we expect of them, and for our readers to trust that the information provided they read is both accurate and free from exaggeration.
These changes take effect immediately.
- An update to your product does not guarantee a new review. If we determine that the update isn’t substantial, we reserve the right to keep the original review. We will however update the old review with a notice. We make the final decision on whether a new review is warranted, not the manufacturer.
- It is the MANUFACTURER’S responsibility to provide us with timely information. We can’t do it alone with over 50 products to keep track of and a small team. This is especially important if your device is not a weather station because you are not a core product on the site. If you don’t, it’s on you if the information is outdated.
- We protect our brand. As is standard in affiliate agreements, using The Weather Station Experts brand name or any abbreviation, intentional misspelling, or other variation of our name that may confuse the reader is strictly prohibited.
- Use our contact form to get in touch with us, or email us at info@theweatherstationexperts.com. This happens too often with some companies and PR firms, which think e-mailing a personal e-mail will increase the chances of a response. We can tell you this isn’t the case, and in some cases is seen as spam or may not even make it to us at all. Most journalists delete these emails because in some cases these are our personal e-mail addresses and aren’t for work. Please respect that.
- Devices with continuous “sales” risk removal. We find this practice dishonest. If we include your device, we list the lower price, deduct five points from a review score as a penalty, and make it ineligible for any of our “awards” regardless of the final score. Honesty is important and was one of the reasons TWSE was started in the first place. If you’re doing this, perhaps your product isn’t competitively priced or a match for our readers.
- All interactions with TWSE and Oz Media must be professional. Unprofessional behavior will not be tolerated, no matter what the circumstances. Failure to do so will result in immediate removal. Remember, we are providing space on our site to review your product. We aren’t asking you to not speak up when necessary, but a little common courtesy goes VERY far. We don’t insult or badger manufacturers, even if warranted. It’s not good business. Neither should you.
- Sending a product doesn’t guarantee a review. We are very particular about what and who we promote. Inclusion in our best-of lists is based on the product, not a relationship or compensation rate.
- Manufacturers are expected to represent their products accurately and without exaggeration. If we find this isn’t the case, we will decline to review. This includes “new” or “updated” devices: anyone can slap a number on a product and call it new. We look specifically at functionality.
- Reviews will NOT be altered in any way other than to update. Having your product reviewed is a privilege and not a right. If you disagree with the review, you’re more than welcome to respond publicly in the comments, but we will not remove negative reviews. That’s not a review, that’s a sales pitch. This is a standard policy in most news organizations.
- And finally, if your product has nothing to do with weather or other categories we cover, it won’t be on TWSE. This should be self-evident, but we are seeing an increasing number of pitches with no relation to the weather or any other topic we cover. Please don’t clog our inbox.
Thank you for your interest in TWSE, and your understanding. For our readers, we hope that publicly listing these policies will give you more assurance that what you’re reading is an actual review and not an attempt to sell you something.
We will also periodically review these policies. If a product is removed, we will alert the manufacturer and provide a reason. In most cases, we’ll allow manufacturers to come into compliance. However, more serious infractions may result in removal without the opportunity to fix the issue.
One thing we’ve been proud of over the past three years is the efforts we’ve made to push manufacturers to make changes to their products that benefit the weather community at large. These policies are an extension of that effort.
Unlike tech, where there are hundreds of journalists covering a topic, not many write about weather stations. While it’s rare, this has allowed some manufacturers to be not as forthcoming about product capabilities and so on.
As a review site, you should expect us to call out the “BS” rather than take it at face value. That unfortunately is not something many review sites do. We believe this is the reason why over the past three years, only 5% of products sold have been returned.
We see that as a sign we’re doing something right, and we’ve gained our readers’ trust. As always, we will continue to be transparent about any relationships we have with manufacturers. However, at the same time, we expect manufacturers to be professional, attentive, and honest.
