The Wuben Conundrum
Where to Begin? Who is Wuben? What is the Wuben Conundrum? Where do I go from here?
Who is Wuben? Wuben is a major flashlight manufacturer from China. The Wuben brand has been around since 1981, and from an innovative standpoint, they make excellent flashlights for everyday use.
What is the Wuben Conundrum? Well, as a creator/affiliate marketer I have my reservations about working with them. There is a reason why I haven’t reviewed any of their products on any of my channels. And there are a lot of products I’ve reviewed, whereas I was not commissioned/paid/or given product in exchange for services rendered. The key fact here, is I only do HONEST REVIEWS. Meaning, the good point, the bad points, and sometimes the ugly points. Wuben however only wants good reviews. Which is actually against the law in the United States. See this link to the FCC.gov for more information: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/consumer-reviews-testimonials-rule-questions-answers
I also have another issue with Wuben. Back in August of 2024, Wuben mass emailed creators, with a generic email about a business inquiry. Picture attached, but for privacy of all those involved, I marked out the other creator emails, and any links on the page.
That email was not a professional way by any means to attract content creators. I expect a real professional company, to reach out to me as a real person, not just a number on an email list. And my response was pretty rough. Although, 5 of the 7 people that were mass emailed, did respond to me, and I have set them up with other companies to work with, and they are quite happy.
So, now what? I didn’t get a response from about this from Wuben, though I wasn’t really expecting one. However, starting this year, I’ve received about a dozen emails trying to reach out to me from other platforms I’m on, except YouTube. I’ve ignored all but one. The one I didn’t ignore, stated up front that some of their employees do unscrupulous things to get a deal with a creator. Now they won’t apologize for it, but seem to word our correspondence very carefully, and it’s not a mass email.
Where do I go from here? Well, I have agreed to do a sponsored video about the new G5 flashlight, debuts April 8th 2025. They have sent me a light to review, and with less time than usual to test (usual is 2 weeks), I’ve put the light through my testing hell, and there are issues. But that’s to be expected. Now Wuben understands supposedly, that I only do honest reviews. So this may not be a video they like. So this may be the beginning and end of this relationship. It will be interesting to see how many creators thought the new light as amazing, incredible, outstanding, like we’re supposed to, because we are told too, or have an honest review showing the good and the bad, like what I do.
People don’t understand, I’m not in it for the money. If I make a little commission, great, it goes right back into the channel, but this is nothing I can do full time. I do honest reviews to purposely push back the amazing BS people spread about a product. It’s very rare I find no fault in quality or materials, UI functionality, or some other kind of issue. Out of the 400+ videos I’ve made, I believe there are only 4 or 5 products that I absolutely liked. And yes, I do leave affiliate links to products I don’t like, because what doesn’t work for me, may be perfect for you.
I guess we shall see what happens after April 8th.