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Original poster

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

10 replies

Wondermoomin · 01/05/2025 20:52

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.

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

JoMumsnet · 02/05/2025 08:55

Hi all, this thread was auto-hidden because of the volume of reports about it. We're looking into this as a matter of urgency to understand what’s going on here and will be back to respond as soon as possible. Thanks for raising this, Wondermoonin.

MNHQ

JoMumsnet · 02/05/2025 11:48

Wondermoomin · 02/05/2025 11:38

@MNEditor aren’t you just a random punter like the rest of us but you’ve changed your username to MNEditor? Posts from MN are identifiable by being blue and having a MN logo next to the username in the tagging feature, sooooo…..?

Just confirming that @MNEditor is a genuine MN Editor - it's only MNHQ moderators who have the blue usernames.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 16:43

Hi all
Apologies for being late to this, I completely understand your concern. You're right - I don't believe what we did here is up to scratch. In future we will be crystal clear about whether a quote relates to a specific product or to a broader category we're recommending.

To clarity a few things:

  • We weren’t paid to promote this product.
  • You can’t buy your way into a Mumsnet recommendation — ever.
  • Sometimes we earn commission on sales via links, but our email picks are always based on organic reviews from the Mumsnet community.
  • This wasn’t AI-generated. It was a human mistake, not a machine one.
  • When we do work with brands, we always label that content clearly as "created for" or "supported by an advertiser".

@Wondermoomin we're really sorry for quoting you out of context - that shouldn't have happened, we should have been clearer that this was a category endorsement not a product specific recommendation. Thank you for holding us to high standards. We care deeply about maintaining trust and I promise we'll do better. But I was to assure you this was a cock-up, not a conspiracy.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 16:54

Wondermoomin · 02/05/2025 16:47

I appreciate your comment, and I would love to be assured, but how do you explain that this wasn’t actually just a human mistake? There have been so many examples uncovered, that’s it’s clear to me that it’s standard practice.

Edited
Show quote history

Hi Wondermoomin — we recommend thousands of products each year, and in 99% of cases, the quote is directly related to the specific product we're featuring. Occasionally, though, we use a more general quote about the benefits of a type of product rather than a specific brand — as in your example — and in those instances, we absolutely need to be clearer about what’s happening every single time. And I promise we will.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 17:00

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Sometimes links are posted on site and we don't have any affiliate relationship (so we don't earn a commission) and sometimes we do.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 17:08

Philthefridge · 02/05/2025 16:54

I'm utterly confused now @JustineMumsnet. Why do you do this as a company? You're choosing random products, like a pop-up gazebo, out of nowhere, hunting through the site's history to find a quote about that brand of gazebo, then picking a generic quote about a gazebo, and then recommending that product? That's just bizarre.

If you've had a thread and loads of recommendations for the same product came out of it, then that makes total sense and, like many people, I'd always assumed that was what the emails were doing (plus affiliate link, but fair enough). But this whole thing makes no sense at all as you describe.

Show quote history

No they're not random choices but the comments aren't always that helpful or quotable - so the team will very occasionally try to get a quote that explains why eg a gazebo might be a great category product to own (like they're easy to fold and store or put up etc) And to reiterate this occurs on a tiny fraction of our recommended products. But I agree that we need to be clear when this does occur.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 17:20

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Technically there are a number of examples of times when we don't earn commission - Amazon, for instance, has a 24 hour cookie window, so if someone clinks a link and adds something to their basket but doesn't buy it for 24 hours then we don't earn commission. And if we promote a brand via editorial content (always labelled 'in partnership with' etc) then we typically don't earn a commission.

I'm not trying to suggest we're not generally trying to earn an affiliate commission when we send out product recommendations in newsletters. The point is we don't pick products on that basis. We choose things that Mnetters have said they like and we think others will too.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 17:25

I think what may not be clear is that we don't tend to negotiate commissions on a product by product basis - there are affiliate networks and most online products are covered by them. So we don't really think too hard about commission rates. We really are trying to surface the products or categories that users are liking in any particular week.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 17:27

Agapornis · 02/05/2025 17:25

But you're NOT choosing those specific "things that Mnetters have said they like" - you're choosing different things! It's not like 'this jumper comes in red and blue', it's 'this is a merino jumper and this is a polyester jumper'. They are not like-for-like products.

Edited

That's not the case. We occasionally might focus on a seasonal category - eg it's a heatwave so lets recommend the fans our users have said they like this week, but in general we're surfacing whats been discussed in the previous week.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 02/05/2025 17:29

Wondermoomin · 02/05/2025 17:27

In any particular week? I mean… you’re a bit late to the party, I posted that 8 years ago. I don’t think I’m being difficult here, the explanations are tying things in knots.

Show quote history

As said occasionally we'll choose a seasonal category and look for a quote that explains in a generic way why that product is useful. I agree that 8 years old is a bit too old though, and I'm quite surprised we used your quote - so that's something else we'll look at.

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