MN have used my quote to promote a product I’ve never bought 🤔

[Wondermoomin]

AIBU to expect MN recommendations, where they quote a poster/member, to be genuine?

I like being able to rely on recommendations in MN swears by and other emails. I excitedly opened an email with the subject “Big bargains for our most loyal Mumsnetters” wondering what MN could make me buy this time (I should probably get other hobbies).

Imagine my surprise to see my own username quoted there with a recommendation! Imagine my further surprise when I realised it was a post I wrote almost 8 years ago, and it was being used directly under a specific product to give the impression I was recommending it - and I’ve never even owned that particular thing mine was more expensive.

I don’t like posts being misrepresented as a recommendation for a specific product. It makes me question the credibility of other MN recommendations.

Hoping I’ll manage to attach screenshots.

PS my gazebo broke but I’ve replaced it. Still not with the brand I supposedly recommended according to the MN email.

Splitting hairs. I think you need to read the legal fine print. Again I haven't looked but at the end of the each email I imagine there's a disclaimer saying they may earn revenue from some/all of the links.

Look what you've done, I'm awake now.

Finding this all quite shocking, including the replies. It will definitely change my use of the site.

They have PA responses down to a fine art.

@TrainGame I can’t work out if you’ve misunderstood the whole thread or just not bothered to read it or you’re looking for an argument.

We’re not idiots. We don’t need lessons in the MN business model. We understand they make money, and how. The issue is the misleading and dishonest advertising or recommendations. Did you miss the whole gist of it that I didn’t review it this product and even MN agrees they weren’t clear enough? So now the issue moves on to them saying it’s a one-off mistake whereas what people are finding would suggest otherwise.

Using false reviews/recommendations for the wrong product is not a legitimate part of any business model.

what a fucking disgusting sentiment

im embarrassed to be part of this community reading all this bullshit, and you should be ashamed

Yikes, no wonder the few products I've bought through that type of MN recommendation over the years has turned out to be shite. I thought I was just unlucky.

Thanks for flagging this, OP.

I'm disappointed. Not about the affiliate links - like other posters, I'm not naive about how the business works - but about MN knowingly lying about who said what about what.

Frankly I don't believe the explanation that this was a one-off human error, given other examples have been quickly uncovered.

Or released a large but obviously mangy squirrel on behalf of MN.

I don't blame her she has far more important fish to fry. "Bloody gazebos - they wouldn't let it lie - I don't know why I bother ! Anyway Mustique is looking fab let's book Princess Margaret's villa - again ! "

Hi @Wondermoomin
i didn’t put a link but just googled Asa and went on their page and filled in their complaint form. It didn’t take long and I got an email confirmation. I screenshotted the original email and then linked to this thread. I hope they take this seriously as you have clearly uncovered a wider problem that mumsnet does not care about!

I’m not in the UK.

Cab you clarify if “halo” commission applies to affiliated links in the UK- as in, indirect qualifying purchases?

Eg, if I click on a MN affiliated ad for, say, a £10 cushion on Amazon, but also add several other products to the same basket (we’ll say £100 total), and checkout within 24hrs, MN will get the commission on the £100 sale (assuming all items I’ve purchased are eligible, which most are).

She could at least have replied to my questions. Rude.

ASA standards are not related to the size of a company.
But perhaps some of that £2.3 million profit in 2023 could be used to invest in an improved 'Mumsnet Swears By' programme. ASA sanctions and fines can really eat into profits and reputation.

Source https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03951486/filing-history

Just received my MN Daily Trending email, guess which thread is noticeable by it's absence 😂

What?

It’s a nuance of the conversation. I’m one of the people that has commented on that aspect, and I think it’s pretty clear that I’m not condoning the misrepresentation of a quote. But the conversation, like most conversations, does have other levels to it.

There are soooo many. There is no way that it is just 1% of recommendations that this happens.

I think I've looked at 5 maybe 6 emails tops. Believe me or not I've not spent all day with a microscope to find them. I've had a busy day running around after the kids but even just now... ten minutes and I've found two more in the SAME email.

Neither of these posters mention the promoted brand in their "recommendation". (Image here is a poster that just uses essential oils and not a brand as "any essential oil will work".

I work in marketing, I know exactly how commission works, I know exactly how affiliate linking works. No problem with it at all, it's a legitimate channel.

What I don't agree with is deception, and that's what this is.

Generic recommendation, not for Hangsun

This is a great one. Recommendation for Russel Hobbs heater but StarDolphins is reviewing a bargain she got for £8.50.

I could keep going but have things to do. All I will say is from my limited search, this is rife.

Also in some way it's theft of a review for another product. Its funny how StarDolphins link to the product she is reviewing is not featured.

That is so naughty! It’s clearly not a 1% occurrence 😬