Two years ago I posted a youtube video to my home page http://www.texasinspectors.net mainly about the ZipLevel Pro 2000 by Technidea. It’s been viewed 3,137 times. Recently I’ve been contacted by the owner of Digital Leveling Systems, Mike East, furious that I mentioned his product in less than perfect light when comparing it to the ZipLevel. Initially, I was reluctant to take the video down as my video was not made with ill intent, it was nothing personal and it was my assessment of one tool against another. Mr East has begun to post negative reviews about my company like this one here on Yelp.
Today, I have three ZipLevel Pro 2000’s and my opinion of Digital Leveling Systems tool remains unchanged. I can’t imagine replacing my ZipLevels with Mike East’s product. It’s just not up to the task, goes out of calibration frequently and requires frequent maintenance. I depend on professional grade tools for professional results. There is no comparison in my mind.
I defer to the membership and message board users here and will either leave the video up or take it down depending on voting results. I’ve posted this in the open section so Mr. East could comment.
My vote depends on what your intended market is for that video. If you are targeting other inspectors and wanting them to know what your evaluation of the two tools is then that’s one thing. If, on the other hand, your intended market for the video is inspection clients then I can’t expect many of them would really care about your tool evaluation. They may care that you use the Zip Level so simply focusing on it and how you use it might be beneficial. I voted, based on my opinion, as to which scenario is more likely.
So what we see here is that blackmail works, regardless of how, it worked. A scumbag vendor posts lies and fake reviews in an attempt to hurt someones business. An absolute shame. Let’s hope he is not an InterNACHI member.
John, a long time NACHI member made an honest review of a product he used/tested and shared the results with others.
Now the vendor of the less favorable product is posting fraudulent and negative reviews against this long time members company, a company he’s never used.
But the product has changed. They released a new model. So the video is unintentionally deceiving members into thinking the model reviewed in the video is the product that ships. Is that fair to members?
JMO