There may come a time in a reviewer’s life when he/she has to make the difficult decision of whether or not to divorce a company. If the relationship is only beneficial to the company, this is a wise decision. An affiliation with a company should work like a good marriage. There should be good communication, trust in the company and it’s products, and willingness to give. If these aren’t equal in the relationship, a divorce is in order.

Things That Have Made Me Consider Divorce:

• Poor Communication – If you fail to get a response after a few days/weeks/months, you should consider what sort of communication your readers can expect from that company. If they fail to respond to you in an orderly fashion or won’t respond at all without a few reminder emails to provoke them, your readers probably won’t get very good customer service either. Promoting a company with bad communication will only make you look bad for promoting it. And the fact that they won’t email you back in an orderly fashion just shows how important to them you are. If they don’t appreciate you, leave.
• Unsafe Products – I’ve thought many a time a divorce from CalExotics would be a good idea. It was wearing me down constantly writing complaint emails about safety issues with their toys. I dreaded getting another one each month because I was afraid it would be falsely advertised again and have phthalates in it. Still, I’ve stuck it out so I can stay on their case and hopefully put them on the right track. I’m there to make sure they don’t get away with sending products with a lower quality material than was advertised or for sending products that smell like nail polish remover. I’ve had 4 product issues with them so far. Beware and always do the sniff or fire test to make sure your products from them are safe for use.
• Unwilling to Provide Review Products – If a company doesn’t want to provide review products for me, then they’re just not going to get any publicity. It’s as simple as that. I don’t have a ton of money to spread around. If you’re not going to give me free assignments so I can earn my commissions, I’m done with you. I can’t make any money if I don’t publish reviews for you. So, if you’re not going to give me anything more than the first product, don’t expect me to stay with you.
• Lying: Don’t promise me an item for a graphic I made for you, talk me into your affiliate program, suggest that I use lots of text links on my site and then send me cheap crap that I didn’t ask for. And bloody friggin’ tell me that the product I want is out of stock when I ask for it, not after half a dozen emails over the span of a couple months asking where the hell it is! I hate liars…

Yeah… When I get back from this family trip my husband drug me on, there are going to be some divorces.