Review crusher has been a failure.
21. Aug, 2008 
2 Comments
Today is a bit of a rant and with good reason I feel. The purpose of this rant is not necessarily to show any disrespect to anyone or any organisation but it is a good reminder to those product makers and shakers out there of how a product Launch SHOULD NOT BE DONE
I recently purchased a Licence for the much advertised and much Hyped Review Crusher program developed for Mike Filsame. I purchased the script and was willing to pay the hefty price of almost $1300 for the privilege.
I paid over my money got my e-mail with the log in details and eager as hell dashed (electronically speaking) straight to the download page.
I retrieved my license key and watched the now obligatory video on how to upload the script to my server at the site I had registered for this. I then uploaded the files in the way shown in that video. I followed the instructions to the letter.
I then launched my site and expected this all singing all dancing wondrous website complete with 50 ready to go reviews already loaded.
The designated log in page where my customers and readers were to log in and register was useless and the reviews disappeared off the screen as soon as I selected one to read. Certainly not the ready to go site I had paid for just the day before.
I was not a happy bunny. However in the spirit of the online world I went and visited the online forum associated with the program to see if others were having the same difficulties. Apparently they were and in large numbers. What was bizarre was that some sites worked in some detail and others worked perfectly. Mine however like so many others just failed – period
One of the moderators quick as a flash offered his services as an expert installer and began charging $15 to install the script for anyone interested. Business for him was brisk. Now i am not shy on the technical side and I can do most things now for myself, but time was short and deadlines were looming. So I immediately signed him up and waited for the confirmation e-mail to arrive telling me he had completed his work.
Meanwhile I began advising my large customer base of the imminent launch of my new list building site that was actually a great fit in my niche of list building websites. I expected the script to be done quick as a flash and the site up and working in no time.
Unfortunately I was vastly over confident in the script itself, the instal process and the gentleman installing the script.
It was almost 10 days later and several e-mails and debate galore in the forum before i was told that my hosting company had problems with the script because it was written for a particular PHP engine known as IonCube. Which my host supported and which I could see loaded in my files manager screen. I even went a purchased more hosting and obtained another Domain name in a vain attempt to overcome the issues. Which turned out to make no difference at all. So I and many others were still without a site that worked and by now we were on version 1.2 of the script.
I was becoming disillusioned with the revolutionary program that promised to be so much more than a review plug-in for wordpress could ever hope to be. IF it worked that is.
Meanwhile I was having to backtrack and apologise to my readers and customers for the delay in the launch. Which is never good for them or for me. After all reputations have been destroyed over trivial matters and this was no trivial matter at all.
The programmers kept making promises to have an upgrade out soon to fix the bugs that were inherent in the system and we the paying customers were ever tolerant.
Until that is, one person sounded the death knell in a post in the forum suggesting we should evaluate our purchase in view of the pathetic 30 day guarantee offered at the launch and the apparent lack of progress to a working site.
I made the decision to make that evaluation and determine the fate of my continuation in this program. I analysed the potential for the program and took some advice from a fellow marketer who has a review site and his business is supported by such reviews. I analysed the current site and the additional cost I had already made in hosting with the recommended hosting company and decided reluctantly to kill the site and seek my refund.
Having gone through this I can say that I will probably never buy from Mike again. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I have since found out that Mike is famous for rushing to market a program that is untested and unproven. This was one step too far for me especially when I don’t expect to crash test a product with such a high purchase price, whilst I am trying to use that program to further develop my business.
If you are a current customer of mine and you were expecting this program at a future date then please accept my utter and complete apology. I hope in some way to be able to make amends for your continued trust in me and to hopefully move on to bigger and better things without Review crusher as a tool in your arsenal.
I am currently working on a new product of my own and as I manage to fill the design concept I will begin selectively advising you of its status and making offers to JV that product. If you receive such an offer from me I strongly advise you to give it your highest consideration. Because from what I have learnt here has been invaluable in that process and I don’t plan to make that mistake in my business.
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I had a similar experience with another of their scripts, it was a mod to butterfly marketing, and while some in the forums got it working I didnt, the menu that was vital as it was the whole basis for the site never showed, they gave me new code to try, and it still didnt show.
As a developer of scripts I know that what works on one machine or browser may not work on another, it seemed like maybe it wasnt ready for the bigtime. But 50-100 customers at $1k a pop is a million dollar business.