Parker's Reef did a review of the GHL Ion director, GHL goes on the attack

[SPS2020]

@ParkersReef did a nice job of replying to GHL on YouTube, in my opinion.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

So, if you're not much of a watcher of Youtube or don't partake in the community you might not have heard of a small channel called Parker's Reef. I love his channel because he posts a ton of videos, but also because he tries pretty hard to do thorough and unbiased reviews of reef hardware. There are a lot of fanboys out there of many manufacturers and his reviews are honest and unsponsored. So I tend to trust what he has to say.

Anyway, he's reviewed dozens of pieces of reefing equipment from all kinds of manufacturers. If a piece of equipment works well he tells you why. While also going over any negative aspects. And if a piece of equipment does not do well, he will tell you why. While also going over the positive aspects of said equipment.

For the ION director video, he grabbed a weeks worth of data in a reasonably controlled fashion and presented the results. They were.....not very good. The ION director was clearly having some issues. It was a brand new production unit, so it would be the same exact situation had you bought one off of the shelf at your local fish store.

GHL found the review and proceeded to accuse him of executing a hit job and said it was to promote other brands and please the "GHL haters".

Here's the video of his results. I guess you can decide for yourself?

Man I’ve always wanted to get into GHL but this is just one of many bad reviews. For those that have one and it works flawlessly, that’s awesome I know your out there. But a lot of reviews are about lack of inventory or technical issues. The company is great about taking care of the tech issues but still, you pay a premium. People are going to leave a negative review if it’s not plug and play out of the box with that kind of price tag.

 

[reef_ranch]

I thought Parker bent over backwards to avoid making any unsubstantiated comments and to make clear YMMV. While he may have had a bad probe, we won't know until GHL supplies him with a new one, assuming he wants to go through the process of setting it up again. The unit is not his so he's likely returned it to whomever let him borrow it.

 

[areefer01]

To All,

Wether you like, dislike, or are undecided about GHL, there is no reason to be so negative on them. Yes this is a big PR fail and should have been handled better, but every company has these fails.

While we all expect our products to work 100% out of the box, there are always some small percentage that make it through QA with an issue. While the YT person had an issue and is free to mention it in the review, it is also incumbent on him to reach out to the company and give them a chance to make it right before releasing the review to the public. There is not a single company in the reef sphere that has been open probably even 6 months or more who has not had some sort of issue.

So let's mark this as a GHL PR fail and a reviewer fail and move on.

Thanks,

TCoach

Or actually call it out for what it is. Scathing reply to content that provided unbiased information? No different than if Bob, Sally, or Tom "could" have experienced had they unboxed and videoed the experience.

The onus is on the manufacture to sell working product unless you or GHL are saying it is still in hardware and software beta. I recall it being GA with limited release due to supply chain / shipping issues. Regardless if you or I agree this product is sold and understood to be working.

And if you want an example of how an established, and respected, reefing company handles these sorts of issues look no further than Ecotech. Vextra pumps. G5 launch. I do not recall ever seeing any scathing or aggressive responses to posts on forums.

Yes, people have bad days. Even on a bad day the only reply should have been something along the lines of 'sorry to hear about your experience. What is the best way to reach out to you so we can understand more about your disiplay and results'. Not go on to say it was a hit piece.

That crossed a line.

 

[blaxsun]

So let's mark this as a GHL PR fail and a reviewer fail and move on.

Sorry, but I’m rating this comment “F” for fail. Clearly you didn’t watch the entire video to claim “reviewer fail”. Parker was more than unbiased in his review. You just can’t put lipstick on a pig.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

. You just can’t put lipstick on a pig.

not unless your doing a remodel eh haha

 

[revhtree]

Reef2Reef is not going to be a platform to blast anyone or any company, sponsor or not. If you have your on personal feedback you are allowed to leave it properly according to the TOS. Threads like these only spiral into an environment that we don’t want here at R2R. I see more and more threads like these here and I’m putting everyone on notice that it’s stopping. At the risk of being called a “sponsor protector” I will say that this thread is closed.

 

[revhtree]

Furthermore if you see threads where flaming is going on please report them.