mountain warehouse - not to be trusted?

Yeah, I know. Who is this guy? Yesterday he gushes about their products and now he says they cannot be trusted.

Well, let me explain.

So, I like the products I have and my opinions stand. However, I decided to post an abbreviated version of my review on the Mountain Warehouse website. I searched all over the product page. I searched the home page. I searched the help and FAQ pages. I could not find how to post a review.

So, I fired off an email to them through their form. That was over twenty-four hours ago. I have received responses faster than that from them before. Regardless of whatever turmoil is going on in the UK and on the planet in general; they are open for business. Their site is up. They are selling goods. They should respond promptly. They have not.

After sending my email to them asking how to post a review, I did a little further searching and found this:

Product Reviews & Feedback

Reviews of our products in no way represent the views of Mountain Warehouse. Any suggested uses or benefits outside those recommended by the manufacturer are used at your own risk. Customer reviews are intended to share impartial advice and experiences.

Review must:

Be written in English

Include specific details about your experience with your product

Include the star rating from 1-5 based on your experiences with the product

Include your name

We will not post

Reviews that are deemed to be insufficient or too long

Direct comparisons between Mountain Warehouse and other named companies

Profanities directed at Mountain Warehouse, other companies or reviewers

Reviews not relevant to the product

Content that may be considered offensive, blasphemous or racist

Content that is sexually explicit

Reviews written by other companies

Advertising material

Personal information such as addresses, telephone numbers and URLs

Reviews on price, customer service, delivery or availability

To submit a review you must

Have purchased a product online or in store

Have received an invitation via email if ordered online

Have a valid receipt if purchased in store

Have used the product for its intended purpose

Mountain Warehouse reserves the right to remove or refuse to post any customer review it considers inappropriate.

Mountain Warehouse reserves the right to publish any submitted comments at their sole discretion, and shall be entitled to change, delete or use this content in any other areas of the business.

By submitting your email address you are giving Mountain Warehouse permission to contact you regarding your review and to add you to the mailing list. You can opt out of receiving promotional information at any time by following the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the promotional emails.

Customer Feedback

By submitting the Mountain Warehouse customer survey you are giving permission for Mountain Warehouse to publish your first name and customer service comments online and on promotional information.

Mountain Warehouse have sole discretion over what comments are published and reserve the right to remove comments at any time and for any reason.

The original can be found here: mountainwarehouse.com/ca/help/terms-conditions/



Anyone should be able to to post a review and if it is truly irrelevant or offensive, sure pull it or have a proper review process before posting. But an honest review process.

When I posted about Chapters and the quality of a book that I felt they sold me in a misleading manner, I could post a review of it. They did essentially refuse to post it. So, I called them on it. They got back to me and reinstated my review. In fact, it is still there. Chapters has earned some respect from me for reinstating my review and leaving it up. That is what a reputable business does. Take the good with the bad. You do not remove all the not so smiley and cheery stuff.

Back to Mountain Warehouse. Some of the reviews are not totally positive. However, to have to be given permission to post one's views of products they sold you? Really?!

What I see is they are controlling the opinions of their products on their website. They have just enough "I am not super happy" stuff, but mostly all positive. My review is thorough and honest. I also planned to follow up after even further use.

So, do not trust the reviews on their website. It is like those companies that have gushing, super happy testimonials all over their website and not one "well they could have done this better". They are fake. I am not saying that the Mountain Warehouse reviews are fake, they are just overly controlled and potentially edited. Translation: manipulated, lacking transparency, and deceiving.

I always try to check out, what I hope are, independent reviews by, hopefully, third parties. However, sometimes they only exist on the seller's website. I have investigated products that Bass Pro sells under their home brand and cannot find reviews on independent websites. However, the reviews for their products vary from very happy to extremely pissed off. I trust them more than the ones on Mountain Warehouse's website.


To put it bluntly, I stand behind my opinions of the the Mountain Warehouse products I have reviewed. I have zero faith in the reviews on their own website. As so should you, but that is up to you to decide.

Will I buy anything else from them again? I am not sure at this time. Should you? That is for you to decide. However, even if they do "invite" me to post a review, I will not. I fear that whatever faith people have in my word, will dissipate.

Now, if they change their policies about posting reviews to what is expected in a relatively free part of the world? Yeah, I will probably buy products from them. I may even post reviews. However, they would have to be very clear publicly about their policy change and admit their current policies, which will hopefully become old and defunct policies, were/are wrong and not transparent. They should not have anything to hide or edit.

If I hear from them and it is worth mentioning, I will let you know. Until then, let your sense of right and wrong guide you honestly.

Of course, it is their business and they can run it any way they like, regardless of their customers.

Of course, it is my money and I can spend it any way I like. Just as you can too.

Until then, I think I will take the boy elsewhere for that fleece full-zip jacket we were going to get for him. blbbl