This is odd. I have come to trust 100% oudamberlove’s comments, and his experience with wood and incense speaks for itself. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with the consistent level-headed approach to sampling and sharing impressions.
So I accept the 30% bunk and glue observation as accurate. Oudamberlove does not drop bombs for no reason and knows his shit better than anyone else here BY FAR (LOOK at his post history and lack of conflict of interest here as a non-vendor. No endless self-promotion, no bragging about superior products. Just an amateur with lots of experience.
Given the strong reassurance that the wood was inspected piece by piece by the vendor, and making the assumption that they are speaking truthfully, I have to conclude that the middle man who sold the chips to oudamberlove tampered with them.
It is hard and risky to write honest reviews about less than wonderful experiences here, with the strong vendor presence.
While I agree with your assessment of
@Oudamberlove and his honesty, please don't slur the reputation of this forum and make insinuations that because there are vendors on here, somehow the management is bias towards them. In what way is it "hard and risky to write honest reviews" on this forum? Those words are a direct two-fingers up at my integrity and the integrity of the non-vendor admins and moderators who spend their time helping run this forum fairly for
all members. Being a customer does not make you or anyone else a paragon of virtue and if folks want to see what a real vendor run and censored forum looks like, they know exactly where to go.
Let me give you some food for thought:
1. The number of reviews by vendors on the main section censored/deleted/moved by admin since the inception of Ouddict in 2016 = 30+
2. The number of reviews by members on the main section censored/deleted/moved by admin since the inception of Ouddict in 2016 = 1 (and that was for a non-forum vendor who complained - AmeenAroma, back in 2017)
If anything, this forum gives our vendors a pretty hard time and zero favours and its a thankless task for the admin when we hear baseless accusations like this. If we were biased, the
first thing I would have done is to remove that review and any like it.
You forget that I am personally involved with Al Hashimi, but did not take that review down so less of the "all vendors are bad" message please. I think you forget that the Western Artisanal Oud market would not exist if it was not for vendors. We have a Resident Artisan space precisely so that vendors can market away on their and members are aware that these are commercial spaces. There is no room for commercial marketing on the main boards and where vendors have - very infrequently - overstepped the mark, I have taken action. Yes I even took action against some enthusiastic posts from Al Hashimi in our early days when I received a complaint that product reviews were appearing in the main section.
With some members on here, I detect a moral superiority complex because they are customers and think its open house to slander and disparage the very people who
subsidise their Oud oil purchases. Yes I say subsidise because most vendors here have full time careers and can afford to sell oils and woods at stupidly low prices - its just that people think this is now their birthright and somehow the norm. It definitely is not.
As for
@Oudamberlove's review, Al Hashimi's wood speaks for itself and has received nothing but praise from every customer we have sold to. I think it would have been fair for
@Oudamberlove to have approached Al Hashimi for comment
especially as this was a second-hand purchase. Every single piece is checked before it is sold so its beyond me how something like this would have happened.
@Oudamberlove, I recommend that you contact
@AbasFrag and let him investigate. Please also provide the details of the person who sold you this.