Review & Evaluation Sample Policies
The following page is intended for manufacturers and companies interested in sending review and evaluation product samples for potential inclusion in review or other GamersNexus content, as well as individual viewers who wish to send items to GamersNexus. Although some of these policies do not apply to the public, we host them publicly out of an abundance of transparency.
Going forward, these policies will be in GN staff email signatures so that manufacturers have an opportunity to review the policies prior to engaging in sampling.
We believe that clear, open communication eliminates the possibility for differing understandings as to what is the “norm” or expected, especially with cross-cultural manufacturer/press relations being complicated, as some regions differ from our approach. Rather than rely on assumptions, we are publishing our policies publicly. Manufacturers are asked to read and understand these stances when working with GamersNexus on review samples.
Types of Products
Before Sending Products: Policies
Prototypes & Loaners
This category rarely applies. GamersNexus purchases many of the units tested in reviews or receives retail units from manufacturers. We have only worked on two prototypes in the past few years (from the date of this policy’s posting) and a similar count of loaners. For prototypes and loaners, these:
Receipt must be agreed upon prior to the products being sent. It must be agreed upon in advance that it is a Prototype or Loaner. So as to prevent manufacturers from misrepresenting the product status to protect itself from a critical review, this cannot be retroactively changed from a retail unit to a “prototype.”
The deadlines for returning the products must be agreed upon in advance. If a deadline is not agreed upon in advance, GamersNexus will retain the prototype for a minimum of 180 days after receipt, after which if not requested to be returned, it will become the property of GamersNexus, to dispose of or donate as it chooses. If GamersNexus wishes to return a product and does not receive a reply to communication attempts, GamersNexus may send the product to the most recent address provided by the sender, including the return address that was on the original shipment.
GamersNexus is not responsible for loss during transit (either when shipped to GamersNexus or from GamersNexus). If shipping insurance is desired, please request it when requesting the item back
If communication from GamersNexus regarding the return of the product is not received within 10 business days of the deadline, the Sender agrees that it is their responsibility to send a reminder email to the email address following with the defined subject, and allow GamersNexus 10 business days from the date of this email to initiate the return shipment: team at gamersnexus dot net; Subject: Product Return Deadline Approaching - Update Needed
Companies: General
Companies are under no obligation to send Samples to GamersNexus.
Companies may, at their sole discretion, require payment to be made for Samples (which is simply purchasing the product); however, this requirement to purchase the Samples must be disclosed prior to shipping the Samples to GamersNexus, as GamersNexus reserves the right to decline the purchase at its sole discretion and choose not to receive the products.
Products which are sold to GamersNexus may be disclosed as “Purchased by GamersNexus” in the video; Samples which are provided without payment may be disclosed as “Sent by manufacturer” in the video.
Companies that do choose to send Samples to GamersNexus do so of their own free will and understand, recognize, and agree that GamersNexus does not owe anything to the Company for the receipt of that Sample, and that GamersNexus is under no obligation to create content or publish anything related to that Sample.
Company Bribes & “Favors”
Companies will not receive any special consideration or treatment in exchange for providing Samples. Whether an item is sold or given to GamersNexus will in no way influence the result of the testing or potential coverage. GamersNexus purchases many items that it covers and does not require items to be provided at no cost, as long as both parties agree in advance.
There is no quid pro quo. Any attempts at purchasing favor from GamersNexus, including with Samples, suspected foul play, or crossing of ethical boundaries, may be publicly reported on.
The sample will be considered by GamersNexus to have no monetary value.
Company Public Disclosures
The receipt of the sample, the findings from testing, and any other details of the interaction between the Company and GamersNexus, may be disclosed to the public.
Safety
If the sample is found to have safety faults and hazards, such as electrical or fire hazards, GamersNexus may initiate failure analysis investigations and, if deemed appropriate and at its sole discretion, initiate contact with Government safety agencies (such as the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission).
If the Sample is requested by those agencies for investigation into consumer safety, GN may send it to the agency.
Depending on the situation, GN may choose not to inform the manufacturer of ongoing safety investigations into its products.
Unsolicited Products
Any products which arrive without request or without prior communication will become the property of GamersNexus and may be disposed of. Please email us and follow standard procedures prior to sending review units. Any relevant embargoes should be communicated at that time.
Process
To initiate the process of gauging interest for a review sample, please email Steve or the team with an explanation of the product. If you do not have existing contact with GamersNexus, use team at gamersnexus dot net.
Please include the following information:
Product Name: [enter here]
Is this a Retail Sample? [yes/no]
If no, what stage is this sample from? [enter here or simply “retail”]
Release Date: [enter here]
Product Price: [enter here]
Does your company wish to collect payment from GamersNexus for this sample? [yes/no]
Is this sample EXACTLY as it will come off the line? [yes/no]
If no, what is different? [enter here]
Coverage
Coverage is not guaranteed.
Sending a product does not create an obligation to produce coverage. If GamersNexus requested the product, it is doing so with the intent of producing coverage. Sometimes, this does not materialize for time or technical reasons.
After Sending Products
Communication Expectations
GamersNexus may choose to communicate with the sender if it needs clarification on the products received or has any questions; however, the GamersNexus team is extremely busy and is under no obligation to provide updates on the progress or results of any potential coverage or testing. Companies will not receive ongoing communication after a product is sent. GamersNexus is under no obligation to provide a “heads-up” as to the status or leanings of the review.
Companies send products with acknowledgement that the review will be independent. Companies understand that review scripts will never be shared in advance, as this is a breach of trust. Any companies requesting advance preview of product review scripts will be banned from future communication with GamersNexus and noted publicly as such.
Ownership
[Loaners] These products are the property of the Viewer who sent them to GamersNexus. GamersNexus will make best efforts to protect the product received and return it to the Viewer in the same condition in which it was received. In the event of damage that occurs to the Loaner product under the care of GamersNexus, GamersNexus will provide the viewer with the option of receiving either the damaged Loaner product or a payment equal to the current retail value of the product. For products that the Viewer believes to be worth more than the current retail value, we ask that the items please not be sent to us. Do not send anything to the GamersNexus team without first receiving permission from GamersNexus.
[Prototypes] These products are the property of the Company who sent them to GamersNexus. Prototypes will require a separate contract to be signed between Company and GamersNexus. Any items which are sent without such a contract will be considered Samples by all other definitions on this page.
[Samples, Donations, and Purchases] Upon receipt of any items under these definitions as sent to GamersNexus, it will immediately become the property of GamersNexus, for GamersNexus to do with whatever it chooses, including, but not limited to, the testing, usage, and potential destruction in the course of testing (such as with a destructive tear-down).
After We’re Done with Products
Return
Applies to: Prototypes and Loaners
Only Prototypes and Loaners will be returned according to the agreed upon deadlines.
Company Inspection
Applies to: Samples
After a review is published regarding Samples, the Company who sent it has seven (7) days to optionally contact GamersNexus if they wish to inspect the Samples for the purposes of improving the product or benefiting consumers. If GamersNexus and Company agree to do so, GamersNexus will make the Samples available and coordinate with the Company, at the Company’s sole expense, for the Company to send representatives to GamersNexus’ offices to inspect the Samples in person, and GamersNexus will make its own Test Engineers available to answer questions and provide additional explanations as needed. GamersNexus may not, and typically does not, return items critically reviewed, especially with defects such as silicon-level defects, as it must retain these for further investigation and to prevent cover-ups by manufacturers.
GamersNexus may decline to meet if it feels there is a hostile or ulterior motive to the requested visit or if the request falls outside of the contact window.
Storage
Applies to: Samples, Donations, and Purchases
GamersNexus may retain and store products for future testing or other purposes, such as for regression testing, revisits, and comparative benchmarks against competing products.
Removal
Applies to: Samples, Donations, and Purchases
If the product has become obsolete or loses any future usefulness in content, including investigations and regression testing, GamersNexus may choose to remove it in any of the following ways.
Recycling
Recycling or repurposing, including by local e-waste charities, such as the Kramden Institute, for use in future computers for the less fortunate or for reclamation of materials into base parts.
Donating
Donations such as gifting to local High School computer engineering & technology educational programs for use in classroom environments educationally or as incentives for students performing well, at the discretion of the teacher receiving the donation.
Employee / Contractor Use
Made available to GamersNexus employees or contractors either by sale or gift.
Sale for Charity
GamersNexus will not sell Samples or Donations it owns to the general public unless the proceeds of that sale are directly donated to a charitable organization, such as an autographed test unit.
Prototypes, if not requested back, will not be sold under any circumstance and may be either destroyed or donated to educational and e-waste programs.
Why Are Review Samples Not Returned?
Prototypes, although rarely accepted for review, are always returned if agreed upon in advance, as we view these as critical to development of a product and they may be unique.
GamersNexus does not return Samples, including those which are Mass Production (“MP”), Public Relations (“PR”), Retail, or Pre-Production samples. These Samples are not unique and inherently have no special value to the manufacturer. Companies are provided with these policies in advance of sending products so they are made aware that they will not be returned.
In the event GamersNexus encounters product-level defects, samples must be retained for future investigation and to prevent coverups. As detailed above, under the conditions described above, manufacturers may be offered the opportunity to visit GN offices to inspect the failure, but may not receive the item back.
Unfortunately, it has been our experience -- and the industry has taught us -- that companies often cover-up major product defects or faults. Retrieving affected samples is one way to do this.
Real examples of why we retain non-loaner/non-prototype review Sample units (these have happened):
A manufacturer silently makes revisions to a product, such as by swapping SSD NAND to a lower-performing model. Sending the original drive back would mean we are unable to perform first-party confirmation of the NAND swap
If a CPU review sample fails to POST, we may request another review sample. We will retain the failing unit in the event it becomes clear this failure is a widespread, consumer-facing issue. If it does, retaining the unit allows us to conduct an independent investigation of the failure at a later date, such as by sending it to a failure analysis lab. Returning the CPU on first sight of defect, realistically, would mean that we lose the ability to ever further investigate. In the past, companies have never spoken of defects again once returned
If a wireless headset charging power cable begins smoking and catches fire, returning the unit to help the manufacturer investigate the failure, unfortunately, led to the issue “disappearing” and never being spoken of again. The manufacturer did not reveal the defect, and we lost our ability to protect consumers by investigating for catastrophic design or manufacturing faults (this also happened and was our first lesson in sample retention). We learned from this and deployed these policies
If a liquid cooler would later exhibit gunking, corrosion, or other catastrophic failures pursuant to longevity/age or prolonged use, returning the sample means we have to “start from 0” by acquiring another unit, perhaps a year later, and waiting another year for that defect to potentially arise. This buys a manufacturer time to cover-up a defect (this has happened)
Experience in the industry has, unfortunately, taught us that we must retain units (particularly those which are defective) for future regression testing or investigation. Regression testing is as simple as re-evaluating the unit against its competition at a later date. Investigative testing is attempting to work with labs to root-cause major or potentially catastrophic failures.
Under very specific conditions, GamersNexus may elect to return a product to “help” a manufacturer investigate its faults; however, it is our firm belief that we serve as a final defense between the manufacturer and consumer. Typically, we will instead perform these investigations so that the results are publicly documented, rather than hidden.
It is not about the “value” of the product, but about our ability to investigate future or current defects. These include future defects which arise in consumer reports that may not be discovered until later in the lifecycle (see above examples).
As above, a manufacturer is always afforded the right to simply sell the item to GamersNexus if it does not agree to this.
Manufacturers are provided with this page prior to sending Samples.