[Update] MSI paying reviewers to remove their bad reviews of their products

[StDragon]

7 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

reminded me of this

https://www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/2940-msi-responds-to-laptop-bloatware-criticism

"If you can't polish a turd, roll it in glitter"

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, Astroflash said:

What's Kingston done?

My experience with them. I had a USB 3.0 flash drive that I got with them. A few months in, it broke. I called to RMA under warranty. And I had to call several times. Why?

Put on hold indefinitely and hang up on me (twice), one of the person I managed to talk to denied that the company was selling any USB flash drive or any data storage of any kind. Another said that Kingston, doesn't provide any warranty to any of its products outside of the US, regardless where it was purchased (this is against the law in Canada). Last call, I manage to escalate to the "manager", only to be told that it broke because of my fault, and that Kingston product never breaks. By the way, I was calm, polite, and nice on all my calls. I only got angry after the "manager" comments on how their products are more perfect than the great gods (exaggeration for comedic effect).

 

Turned out, after looking online, I am not alone with this issue, and affects other drive models. Basically, from my deduction, it seems that because they put 3 tons of glue in the drive (I guess to not open it), it act like an insulator and disconnect the poor solder points. on the board. Following a suggestion I read, I re-solder all of the pins of the memory chip and USB plug, after removing the glue (which was actually easy.. I think they used hot glue, and not an epoxy). it started to work again.

[BigDamn]

I own a MSI laptop and motherboard and have been quite happy with them. However, after having a pathetically bad experience reaching someone in their support team to ask a simple question about a new laptop (MSI Bravo 15), then getting my answer and having it be not what I wanted, and now this I can say I'm done with this brand. Fuck you MSI

[D13H4RD]

Definitely a "WTF" moment and probably comes as a bit of a surprise for anyone who remembers when Hardware Unboxed tested both the early $200-300 MSI X570 boards (Gaming Edge/Pro Carbon) and the RX 5700XT Evoke/Mech. 

 

I'm still iffy on this because we've only got a tweet to follow off of but we'll see how this evolves. If Hardware Unboxed and LMG among with others follow up, then MSI's marketing department has got some fire to put out. 

 

I like my Gaming X Trio card and I still think it is an objectively good graphics card, but if this sort of behavior is concerned, this does make me less likely to consider products from MSI, although the X570 Unify is an objectively good board. 

[D13H4RD]

7 hours ago, emosun said:

I'm sorry but msi was blacklisted for me in 2006..... why was it ever whitelisted for anyone else?

Is Diablotek gonna all the sudden become whitelisted? Is Dynex a good manufacturer now?

I hate how people forget things , it's beyond annoying. Asrock is still on my shit list. Will never forgive them for the absolutely terrible motherboard I bought from them in 07

While I get why, if I held to the same principle, I would not have gotten the TUF X570 simply because I didn't have a good experience with ASUS laptops despite everyone basically agreeing that the TUF X570 is an objectively good motherboard (even though a lot of TUF products lately have been mediocre). 

 

Sour experience with companies makes me less likely to consider their products but it's also important to look at the actual product itself. I'm not a fan of people just choosing products based on branding because even reputable brands have made garbage, is making garbage or is about to make garbage.

 

I don't have brand loyalty or disloyalty. That's why my rig has components from different manufacturers. 

[emosun]

2 minutes ago, D13H4RD said:

That's why my rig has components from different manufacturers. 

see thats where im making the mistake of having a handful of companies blacklisted. as we all know only 5 companies on earth make every computer part. /s

[atxcyclist]

Sad. I bought an MSI motherboard late last year and it has been fine, and probably won't have issues. That said, companies doing this in the 21st century are laughable, as if this type of information won't spread like wildfire on the internet.

 

 

[19_blackie_73]

8 hours ago, emosun said:

yeah well i like products that actually function so I think i'll stick with blacklisting bad companies

Sorry to break it to you, but my board and gpu works just fine as do my monitors even though the laptop didn't.

But do what ever you desire

[D13H4RD]

I have a question though. 

 

Why would they, MSI, ask for AMD to take down the video? Aside from having AMD hardware, in what way is AMD going to do about it? 

 

If the laptop is bad for reasons that's not related to the processor or GPU, that's on MSI, not AMD, much like the ASUS TUF A15. 

[5x5]

Wait, people are surprised that Masai are paying reviewers to avoid negative press where possible? This is standard practice among a lot of OEMs, most are just smart enough to have an NDA in place BEFORE they offer the bribe so legal repercussions repress anyone from speaking out

[emosun]

2 hours ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

Sorry to break it to you, but my board and gpu works just fine

yeah and mine didn't so the score is 1-1

[suicidalfranco]

give me one sec, going to leave some bad reviews on amazon

[Sauron]

11 hours ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

I am personally not a fan of blacklisting complete companies. I once hat a shit laptop from dell in the 2010s, but that doesnt mean I'm not more than happy with my 2 dell monitors. Look at the products you are looking to buy, not what they had 10 or 20 years ago that was shitty. Also don't buy products blind from one company because you had one good product, evaluate each on their own.

Support can change over years too, its not set in stone only because the support was shit in 1999 it still is today or the other way round.

I personally wouldn't know what I would want any different than my msi board and gpu, both run very good and fulfill my needs.

Can you trust any review of a company's products if they're known to act this way?

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, 5x5 said:

Wait, people are surprised that Masai are paying reviewers to avoid negative press where possible? This is standard practice among a lot of OEMs, most are just smart enough to have an NDA in place BEFORE they offer the bribe so legal repercussions repress anyone from speaking out

Pretty sure NDAs don't cover illegal activity... and offering to pay for what is essentially undisclosed advertising is illegal in a lot of places.

[Astroflash]

11 hours ago, Techstorm970 said:

Sounds to me like you hold grudges for too long.  A lot can happen in 15 years.

 

Today's Apple does not look the same as Steve Jobs' Apple from, like, 2010.  Similarly, HP built much more reliable computers in 2010 than they do now.

 

From what I've heard from others, ASRock has turned a corner.  They're a noticeably better brand than they were just 5 years ago.

Sorry, but after recently buying an Asrock Z490 board, the idea that they have turned a corner couldn't be further from the truth.

 

While I was aware of a few Youtuber's throwing Asrock under the bus regarding their Z490 board designs, I took it with a pinch of salt and went ahead and purchased one of their ITX Z490 boards.

As it turns out, even though Asrock claims "unmatched overclocking capabilities" on their website, the board cannot handle even a fairly light OC on the 10600K without current throttling. Most boards usually come with options to increase the power limit in the BIOS, and even though the setting existed for the board in the User manual, it didn't actually exist in the BIOS. Having contacted Asrock support, they said this: "These options were originally planned to be available in BIOS, like for most Z-series motherboards. But with the 10^th Gen CPUs and the power phase design and the size of the Z490M-ITX/ac, selecting different values for these options can cause too much risk for CPU and board. That is why they have been removed for this model."

 

You bet I sent them a snarky email back. Don't take my word for it though, here are some videos.

 

 

 

 

 

[paddy-stone]

I hold grudges. But when it comes to companies and products, nobody is perfect. It's impossible not to have some bad products slip through the QC of a company.

I think it's more to do with how a company handles having bad products, if I get the problems sorted out in a timely manner, and don't mess you about, then I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

If, like this case they appear to, not having an idea what their employees are doing in their name (management), or knowing and not caring, as long as the shit doesn't fall on them... then yeah I'd blacklist them. Because in either case it's a breach of the trust that the buyer has with them.

[RejZoR]

7 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

I hold grudges. But when it comes to companies and products, nobody is perfect. It's impossible not to have some bad products slip through the QC of a company.

I think it's more to do with how a company handles having bad products, if I get the problems sorted out in a timely manner, and don't mess you about, then I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

If, like this case they appear to, not having an idea what their employees are doing in their name (management), or knowing and not caring, as long as the shit doesn't fall on them... then yeah I'd blacklist them. Because in either case it's a breach of the trust that the buyer has with them.

One thing is having bad luck and problems slipping through QA and an other denying the problems and trying to cover them up and punishing reviewers for pointing them out.

And I can't believe how companies can screw up something this basic. All MSI had to do is acknowledge the problems and simply... addressed them.

[D13H4RD]

46 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

And I can't believe how companies can screw up something this basic. All MSI had to do is acknowledge the problems and simply... addressed them.

Funny thing was, that's what they did for the Gaming Pro Carbon/Edge and the Evoke/Mech OC 5700XT when outlets like Hardware Unboxed exposed them.

 

However, the affected channel in this case is muuuuch smaller than HUB. So I have no idea what on earth whoever offered the bribe was thinking. Did they seriously think they could get away with it, especially in a time where word-of-mouth spreads like wildfire, and that even something that happens to a smaller channel would inevitably get picked up by all the big ones?

[D13H4RD]

1 hour ago, Astroflash said:

Snip

That's why I've never considered lower-tier ASRock boards even on "flagship" chipsets. Not because I dislike ASRock as a company but they've never made anything that satisfies my needs and I've heard of more than a couple of issues on them that really make me not want to consider them.

[5x5]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

Pretty sure NDAs don't cover illegal activity... and offering to pay for what is essentially undisclosed advertising is illegal in a lot of places.

Do you think any small content creator or site is willing to go up against MSI or any other legal team? It's a means of control via fear. This is just another case of Masai incompetency at play.

[Sauron]

8 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

Do you think any small content creator or site is willing to go up against MSI or any other legal team? It's a means of control via fear. This is just another case of Masai incompetency at play.

How does the NDA make it any different in this case? MSI did try to go after this guy even though he broke no laws.

[Arika]

4 hours ago, D13H4RD said:

 

Why would they, MSI, ask for AMD to take down the video? Aside from having AMD hardware, in what way is AMD going to do about it? 

which is why I'm skeptical about this whole thing

[5x5]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

How does the NDA make it any different in this case? MSI did try to go after this guy even though he broke no laws.

Because it's a fear tactic. I know some people who get extremely anxious every time some random OEM or company sends them a letter asking them to remove something. Not even a threat. Small creators are mortified by the prospect of legal disputes because they don't have the money or influence to fight any legal battle. Hence why NDAs are applied

[5x5]

Just now, Arika S said:

which is why I'm skeptical about this whole thing

Oh it's true, most certainly. Masai PR teams are incredibly retarded.

[Arika]

2 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

Oh it's true, most certainly. Masai PR teams are incredibly retarded.

You must have an incredible bias to immediately believe this situation with 0 proof.