Amazon Vine Program

In August, Amazon.com rolled out a new program called Vine. I'm not sure how they made their selections, but I have been participating in the program. In August, I read and advanced copy of the book Influencer. You can find my review here, but the link will probably not be valid for very long as the number of reviews and order that they are listed changes. Mine is the one listed "P. Heath (Hurst, TX United States)". If you go here, you can see all of the other customer reviews I have written for Amazon over the years. You will mostly find three kinds of things here: CDs, books, and electronics.

This month I will be reviewing the following products: the latest CD by Augie March, a cordless mouse from Logitech, and a pen tablet for use with PCs and laptops. I should have these around mid-week so my reviews will probably be up on Amazon starting next weekend.

I think this is a really fun program, but you would not believe some of the things that are said on the member section of the Vine program. There was one guy who was going to sue Amazon for what he perceived to be a breach of contract because he wasn't going to get to receive three items for review this month. Other folks were slow on the uptake and didn't make it to the site before the limited supplies ran out. Finally others were making selections and writing reviews before their items even shipped so that they could select additional items. It all reeks of greed and entitlement. People are forgetting that the program participation and the items are free and that the purpose is to have unbiased reviews up on the site prior to or right at product launch. Amazon fully disclosed that the items would be in limited supply. I would have hoped that people would be honored simply by being invited to participate. I guess this is really just a symptom of the larger problems that we face in today's world.

Until next time...
PH