**DISClAIMER** this is just what I have been wanting to vent out off my chest for the longest time since we are usually targeted in all sorts of cyber-bullying and verbal abuse.. Growing up as a child it was always hard, and being a victim of bullying all my life and being racially discriminated was always rough (one of few black race in a more caucasian / asian area..)

Getting attacked online always gives me back those hard feelings I once felt as a kid..



- I am making a post here to share my thoughts on how much this Sub Thread and community has changed and is no longer what it once used to be.. (and that is great vibes, content and connections with one another within this community)

It's now to changed to, fake accounts, competitors making fake accounts to make fake posts, comments or attacks and really more of a cancerous and toxic area to bring down to shame a business trying to do nothing but the best for Cannabis enthusiasts. Aside that, even to the point where they want to eliminate a business by slandering them with false posts and really not providing accurate information anymore.. that new users will stray away from that company leaving that company being put on blast and never really given a fair shot / chance.



I am posting as a member of this community, and not a MOM so I am hoping the mods can keep this post active there is NO ADVERTISING WHATSOEVER but giving thoughts and feedback on what has really be breaking my heart each and everyday..



CheapWeed was founded and introduced in early April of 2018 this year.

We entered in a kind and positive and respect courteous manner by

- Introducing ourself, and being very active in all aspects such as Discord/ CMOMS forum as well as the two Reddit subthreads

- I took the time to get to know the most active community members and try to build any relationship possible as we can all assume, we are in a community where we love weed/cannabis.

- It's was a wild and great ride in the beginning as being new " everyone want's to see what you're all about.

However nobody really fully understands what goes into running a business, as I feel majority have a consumer mindset vs a business mindset and see their standpoints.

There's like an expectation of being " perfect " where you cannot make any error or failure or you will be " shit " on and slandered and get bashed on , and really just get yourself booted out.

There is no real " welcoming " it feels, either you get on their good side or you're basically going to be victimized and bullied and punished until you tap out or die.



We actually made it past that stepping stone, because we strived day in and day out to provide nothing but the best service and product (this is exactly why we got this far) otherwise we would be non existent really.



We definitely changed the landscape of MOM's by being the first MOM to provide mix and match discounts, pretty much 24/7 customer service, fast delivery time, and a wide menu of 50+ strains in BULK.

We created our brand by being generous and genuine, sharing cannabis with Canadian's all over the country.

Some might remember us as the first MOM to really just give away, Free ounces of shatter, Free half pounds, Free quarter pounds, pretty much giving customers / clients within the community free thousands of dollars daily.



The 4/20 promotion itself was another big one, where everyone scored big and got in on great deals!

We weren't perfect, but we only learnt from any mistakes such as, short weights (packaging team), missing product (bigger orders with lots of different selection), PM / mold on product.. but nobody really understands what it takes to run a MOM, and after this post I can assure majority of the readers will really have a " FEEL " of the inside and how hard we really do try to meet everyones expectations.



There is no denying, whatsoever that we have grown big and we are reputable and known in all channels cannabis related.

I truly do want to thank everyone who has spoken with me, supported me, shown me love and has done nothing but provide your unconditional love. With all of you <3 I would not have learnt, corrected and became better each and everyday.

Your feedback and criticism is what made me continuously want to keep striving for success, learning to do the best we possibly can, and provide more than just a shopping experience, and really being unity as one and create a family where we can actually share interesting things of our personal life.. and most importantly trust.



Trust is not something that can be given, but must be earned. I have so much trust in all of my clients that if reality could make this happen and we all lived in the same condo together, that would be the dream!



There is usually 1-2 threads made about CheapWeed every month. One month it can be all mold rot posts, the next month can be "poop shatter", the third month can be "CheapWeed pays for reviews", fourth can be all comments about CheapWeed paying mods, buying to get reviews deleted and this and that. I've really heard it all, and its very unique how all posts in the entire sub-thread with CheapWeed ALWAYS GET DOWNVOTED , any comments downvoted, and any bashing comments upvoted.



You don't see this in any other thread , also have noticed new MOM's who get 7-8 reviews in a row, but nobody ever comments with 10-12 different accounts and says shill , fuck them , scammers, etc



https://imgur.com/a/3PTaLRv <-- we always get accused of 'shilling' or being attacked for 6-12 people at once always, and just get nothing more then rude comments. " fuck them " , " they're trash " all very hurtful comments..

Other MOM's get the same type of review consequence from other happy members in the community.. just makes me scratch my head and really feel upset.



There is no diversity anymore, as nobody get's treated the same.



What fuelled all this anger? or resentment?



Simple. We did exactly what everyone MOM would strive to do. And that is to succeed and continue to grow.

We got instant and rapid exposure from happy clients who referred friends.. and participate.

Being apart of a community, is being there for one another. Means really CARE for them and not just make bullshit conversations to " be friend " them when all you're really thinking is taking their money and making them repeat buy.

I have done so much for anyone I possibly can, by helping out pay bills, accomodate family matters, pay for clients rents,
pay for their student tuition fees, help replace car parts, tires, free medication.. real flowers to female clients who tell me they have a bad day.. I've personally went to the flower shop and shipped them not only cannabis flower but real flowers to brighten their day. ALWAYS give them a hand in a tight spot.



Sometimes I ask for advice as I want to vent and see if I can get any one on one criticism and feedback that way.. I can hear from a consumer and outsider view and take that and really adjust and see if we can even still do any better for our community / clients..



Once we introduced the affiliate program, no mercy was shown..

The community got "annoyed" at affiliate codes, which are essentially to provide the community savings, and some insight on their experience with us. By sharing codes, the community got be interactive with each other.. and build relationships as well.. I set this up so everyone can unite and bond, no different than a Facebook group page.



Inclusiveness is something I truly believe and resonate with, as being bullied my whole life.. I know how it feels to be excluded.



We created our company to provide nothing but the best for our cannabis enthusiasts and try to improve the quality of their life by giving them a great opportunity to be involved.



A lot of our affiliates are successful has earned close to a regular canadians annual salary (based on statistics by Canada).

But don't forget this isn't given, they put in the same effort and time into putting efforts into marketing and advertising.



Reviews will always be factual, and real, and not " paid ". Because you have to remember the ones who buy and review.. are the one's who paid as the affiliates are the referee's .. the reviews are from purchased product.



Affiliate marketing is no different then word of mouth expect there is a commission earned, amazon affiliate program is by far why amazon is the most successful e-commerce company out there.. We get motivated, and learn from the biggest players and vice versa.



Look at all the up and coming businesses, who also have the same business motto and discount pricing structures.



We lead by example, everyone want's to be competitive and successful. You need to truly have passion in what you're doing, and this is a prime example here. The amount of interactions I have a day are over 300, so you can imagine how much time and effort is really being put into the business.



This is ultimately how all the salty/sour users came up-forward in recent months, some who never tried, just joined the hate wagon, because there are " cliches " or groups in this community.

No different then a gang, who only side with one, or none.

Or a politician party, NDP/ BC LIBERALS / GREEN / vice versa.



Any good and honest 1 CW comment, you get that those multiple messages, yet all reviews on our review section of our website are factual true and honest, which is why the majority population will always out-rule the mob.

We are known to be , trustworthy, reliable, taken care of in all circumstances, lowest pricing, best customer service, and ensure you are treated nothing more than family.



And as we kept growing, and the marketing was going under way, we had nothing but full on rapid CheapWeed exposure.. and it just kept growing us from there.



I have truly created so many opportunities and jobs for people around the country it warms my heart and which is why I love waking up each and every morning to get to work.



This is no longer a job to me, it's a lifestyle.



We had so much hate at one point, the discord community wanted to key log my computer.. to read my conversations..

That shattered my heart and I felt so betrayed.. as some members were plotting to do this to me. I felt all trust was broken and an invasion of privacy was breached. I was hurt and damaged and never was the same.

But I was so happy to see love and support from my true friends/ clients who let me be aware of this.

This just goes to show how extreme people can be, and how this no longer became a community of place to share your experience with a MOM and make new friends..

It became like a war, to kill and murder and hurt and try to kill a business.. but for what purpose? Because they're doing a great job making others happy? That was really the hardest thing to digest and I still have trauma and haunts me from the thought of knowing people would want to do this to me..



I once spoke to a member on discord , who wanted some help. I did my best to accomodate and sent a free ounce as you all know that's essentially giving a few hundred of dollars away. Then I offered a job, as I wanted to help the gentleman out as he was very easy going and we got to know each other a bit as well =).

I asked since I knew he was active and liked being apart of the community, to just let me know if there were any comments of Tony / CheapWeed, ( as I was getting busier buying inventory + doing customer service on email side ).

I essentially created a job.. in someones time of need (as it's not easy to just get a job next day and start working and get IMMEDIATE compensation. I had requested to just let me know if anything came up.. WHY? Because Tony wants to be involved in anyway possible.. that way if something is wrong or theres an issue I come across, I can personally take initiative to resolve the issue and make that person happy. I am not the type to wait for someone to complain, I care for every little minor mishap to the point where if you won't speak up.. I will find you and find it and do my best to resolve it as immediate as I can.

But the community saw it as " shady " and tried slandering us on Reddit. Which makes absolute no sense as I was in all the same channels and could've easily searched myself using ctrl + f. I simply wanted to create a position in the business that didn't require being in BC to work and get paid/compensated for their time. The more we can expand and have successful and passionate people handle certain roles, the more our organization and grow.. be innovative and simply continuously strive to provide the best experience possible. Crazy eh?



The vote system has also became so broken, it's so apparent and obvious as well.

It's became manipulation, with fake accounts to bump yourself to the top yet nobody says or does anything about it

Once again CheapWeed get's the short end of the stick. Which is why when people say our reviews is what ruined the community, I disagree. That is what is breaking your community, it's a favour war and nothing transparent.



I would hope to see a change in rules in regards just making posts in general, follow a format, and minimum words that way you know what's real or not. Even then you other companies may still pay for their reviews. Nowadays every business want's to " do what it takes " to get there, so you'll never even really know who is a paid review or not.

Just when a review of one company comes out all at once, you just get a flood of comments of SHILL SHILL SHILL LAMOXD



We even had a conspiracy and a user in this community try so hard to say we are scammers because we are " paying for ads " which is essentially paying for publicity. We didn't offer anything for free, we just had our names , logos, banners in every avenue we possibly could. This channels are free to post and there are no restrictions, just once again we took initiative to earn our name and truly build our brand.

Reviews come from spreading awareness, and that's what our happy clients did.

If we don't spread and share our experience, how does one get known? *** WAIT A MINUTE *** wasn't this what the sub-thread was originally intended and created for?

TO SHARE?

https://imgur.com/a/Vlaz2yX



Even says it there, now it became nothing close to this.



I created a mentor program, because I always have so many people ask how do what I do, or always want to learn more in this field.. so I wanted to get creative as I have done nothing but continue to build businesses by giving love and support and advice and mentorship.

We had a week of hate saying rude and hurtful comments insulting the program and what not, but hey can't make everyone happy.. We have had over 59 students en roll in the program since, and we even have a waitlist now..



One of the other issues is, posts who purposely call out a company with the word " mold or bud rot "

Community agrees it's to let the rest know that this MOM sells " bud rot or mold "

Here's my intake on this, is it a mistake? probably.

Don't think any company would try to purposely or intentionally sell unsafe/ unusable product out as that defeat's the purpose of running a business. When posts like this are made, it is to automatically assume they sell bud rot + mold and only that. THAT'S THAT, no aruging right?



But in reality, yes I do agree it's important to let the community know however the post in a way is selfish af towards the company. I don't speak for myself, but I am speaking on behalf of any MOM which has had a shoutout with that post. *the trend this week XD*



A one order experience, one product usually (minimal) it happens.. its 99.9% almost never intentional. All MOM's purchase their weed from growers.. some may not be as busy as others so they can take the time to inspect all the buds..

However I can bet on this to anyone.. the buds which usually have it are usually the biggest + densest buds..

Us as businesses wouldn't find it necessary to break all the big buds just to find that " ONE OFF BUD WITH MOLD " as that would alter your product and losing its integrity.



Even for us being the biggest and #1 wholesaler in Canada, you can imagine how much cannabis goes in and out of our warehouse.

Our clients know, and see how fast our menu changes and how many strains get taken off a day, and how many get brought back up .



Let's, use 100LBS every 2 days for example, , that's 44,800 grams.

Is it very reasonable or likely anyone can inspect 44,800 grams to do a quality check?

By now I trust my growers whom have over 20+ years in experience in growing, however nobody is perfect.

The amount we encounter mold is RARE. However we do not say it " never " happens.

That's like saying " I hope it never rains ", you just can't control it.

But the community likes to be harsh, and say they only sell mold etc, however they never care to be in the businesses shoes.



I do not think it acceptable, however the amount of diligence is there, as you can imagine how experienced we are by now purchasing our products. Any cannabis connoisseur can vouch and understand exactly what I am talking about



The amount of fake posts of rot and mold are getting out of hand as well, I found no more time to waste trying to respond unless the thread gets out of control, we need to extinguish the flames a bit.



TLDR any chance there is a chance to " shit " or hate " / bring down CheapWeed, the community will take it.

Not because Tony' ripped them off, scammed them? Right?



Why is it that we never had a RIPPED OFF, SCAMMED, post or thread made?

We provide nothing but the most vigorious and top notch service

If there is a flaw in the product, I usually work toward a fair and mutual compromise with the client, and do full credit / refunds .



I file a report/complaint with my grower as well, in hopes he can avoid the mistake on new batches.

This is exactly how you look out for another .. instead I just give them feedback on where I distributed the product out to, and shared what was TRULY honest.

Tbh just hate how sometimes the comments can get so vicious when so much work and pride and joy and love and effort is put in running such a service. Majority of the population just thinks it's cake to buy weed, and sell it on the internet when it really isn't. This became a lifestyle like I mentioned above, can't spend much time with my wife and my daughter who needs lot of medicinal attention.



Because of these shameful attacks and insensitive comments, I am forced to change my way of living and focus and only dedicate my time into this business. As I would hate for a few " haters " or people who just dislike us because of how much POSITIVE impact we have made to the community try to bring me down.



I have proven it time and time again, I am sincere and honest and truly care for the well being of my friends/ family and clients



Thank you for reading.

*WILL EDIT MORE TOMORROW*

Good read... You come off as insightful, empathetic, slightly bitter (with good reason), and genuine. I appreciated the insight into what goes into running a MOM of your size. The internet is like high school all over again except you can't just smack your bully in the mouth.

At your level, there's hardly a need to even put up such a lengthy defence/opinion column. Large product supply companies have quality control problems here and there, its business 101.

Airplanes crash out of the sky for christ sakes; quality control problems are not limited to mail order marijuana.

People expect too much, sometimes. I've seen people complain more about a weed order than a broken plane...

Priorities, maaaaaannnn...

P.S. Just in general defence of some of us consumer reviewers--and I know you weren't bashing all reviewers, just making a comment on the degradation of the community as a whole--I will say, that there are a number of us on here, who seem to put some real pride and effort into reviewing products honestly, with high quality photos, detailed descriptions of customer service experiences, etc. As a consumer, I highly appreciate those individuals, they constantly help me stay informed on whats right for me. After all, I don't give a shit what the MOM is trying to sell me, I wanna know what my buddy (the hypothetical reviewer), whom I trust, thinks of their products and services. Especially given that it is technically an illicit market, so approaching any MOM for the first time is anxiety inducing; the first time I sent a transfer I wasn't sure if I had been duped until I had not only received the weed, but smoked it to make sure it was real.

Shills, and fake account are typically easily flagged out if you actually read the reviews... its like talking to a liar, something just feels off. In those cases, f@$# those guys, they make the rest of us look like assholes.

I review products for two reasons, 1. when I am happy with an order, I like to do what I can to make sure that MOM gets some attention, as I believe good product and service deserve rewarding, like a gratuity at a resturaunt... Perhaps less direct. And secondly, I review so that other consumers, who may have less experience or may simply want to make more informed decisions, have some resources to help them do so. Reviewing, for me, is wholely rooted in strengthening the community.

If I get a few free grams here and there in exchange for an UNBIASED review (because I do no other kind), then that's just the barter system and peer to peer marketing at work.

I see no fault in that, nor do I fault others for it.

Well said

MirkaLane wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 4:29 amJust in general defence of some of us consumer reviewers--and I know you weren't bashing all reviewers, just making a comment on the degradation of the community as a whole--I will say, that there are a number of us on here, who seem to put some real pride and effort into reviewing products honestly, with high quality photos, detailed descriptions of customer service experiences, etc.

[...]

Shills, and fake account are typically easily flagged out if you actually read the reviews... its like talking to a liar, something just feels off. In those cases, f@$# those guys, they make the rest of us look like assholes.

I review products for two reasons, 1. when I am happy with an order, I like to do what I can to make sure that MOM gets some attention, as I believe good product and service deserve rewarding, like a gratuity at a resturaunt... Perhaps less direct. And secondly, I review so that other consumers, who may have less experience or may simply want to make more informed decisions, have some resources to help them do so. Reviewing, for me, is wholely rooted in strengthening the community.

If I get a few free grams here and there in exchange for an UNBIASED review (because I do no other kind), then that's just the barter system and peer to peer marketing at work.

I see no fault in that, nor do I fault others for it.

Yeah, I write reviews of all products I consume, for that very purpose. Good products and services deserve recognition, so I do go out of my way to write positive reviews for stores and products I encounter. I don't actually spend a lot of money, I live a very minimal life and the things I do use I want people to know about so they can make an informed decision.

Anyone who faults us for accepting free product for a review is ignorant of how the whole marketing business works. Businesses pay for advertising. Businesses provide free products to reviewers in exchange for unbiased reviews. Businesses affiliate themselves with people who drive them business. The difference between a good reviewer and a shill is this: a reviewer will say, "I received this in exchange for my review." No one goes, "Oh no, this food columnist in the newspaper got a free meal so they could write their article! Corrupt! Shill!"

Anyway also, hiring an employee? Not shady. The hate you get is just silly to me. Keep doing good in the world. We all need it.

Keep doing what you do Tony. Remember that people are compeled to come to the internet when they have issues but rarely come to express gratitude and joy at something, that's just the nature of social media. For every guy complaining there are probably 100 happy customers who just aren't vocal about it (especially since anyone saying anything good gets called a shill).

Keep doing what you do Tony. Also remember that you don't have to do everything yourself, when companies get big, hiring some peeps to handle public relations can be a huge relief.

xsinx wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 8:21 am Keep doing what you do Tony. Remember that people are compeled to come to the internet when they have issues but rarely come to express gratitude and joy at something, that's just the nature of social media. For every guy complaining there are probably 100 happy customers who just aren't vocal about it (especially since anyone saying anything good gets called a shill).

Keep doing what you do Tony. Also remember that you don't have to do everything yourself, when companies get big, hiring some peeps to handle public relations can be a huge relief.

This ^ you hit the nail right on the head. I’ve been a customer of Tony’s for months with literally zero complaints. But at the same time I’ve never came on here to post reviews of his products because that simply ain’t my thing. Keep up the awesome work Tony!
Fuck the haters, your success proves them wrong.

Keyll wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 6:17 am Anyone who faults us for accepting free product for a review is ignorant of how the whole marketing business works. Businesses pay for advertising. Businesses provide free products to reviewers in exchange for unbiased reviews. Businesses affiliate themselves with people who drive them business. The difference between a good reviewer and a shill is this: a reviewer will say, "I received this in exchange for my review." No one goes, "Oh no, this food columnist in the newspaper got a free meal so they could write their article! Corrupt! Shill!"

Anyway also, hiring an employee? Not shady. The hate you get is just silly to me. Keep doing good in the world. We all need it.

Keep telling yourself that. Accepting free product means that it is cherry picked product and you are a biased commenter/reviewer, plain and simple. It's dishonest to present yourself as a regular customer and leads to more dishonesty. It's a damn shame that this whole 'community' was based on this principle and is absolutely nothing to be proud of. Even the admins here won't admit they receive 'samples' and will probably end up deleting this comment at such a mere mention

xsinx wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 8:21 am Remember that people are compeled to come to the internet when they have issues but rarely come to express gratitude and joy at something, that's just the nature of social media. For every guy complaining there are probably 100 happy customers who just aren't vocal about it (especially since anyone saying anything good gets called a shill).

This says it all right here. I say this (similiar thought) all the time to all of my corporeal friends. It's too easy to be negative, to experience negativity, to give off negative energy. Nobody wants to hear about all of the nice things that happen. Stories about love, friendship, cute animals, etc, it's easy to sluff them off.

If all the people who had positive experiences colaboratively got together and documented everything, I'm willing to bet that would surpass the negative reviews 100 fold. People like to complain about anything; even the most trivial of things. All boils down to attention. Personally I don't like to write reviews because I feel there are many people out there who can do a better job at it, and I'd just rather stay low-key, adding input and thought when warranted.

People need to have some more empathy and sympathy towards one another, but it's so insanely difficult because we're constantly being force fed negativity. I try to do my part by simply being myself and going out of my way to never directly step on anybody's toes or give them a reason to think I'm a dink. The more positive we can harness, the better we become.

Tony, I've never had any problems at all. Mind you, I've only used you twice thus far in my escapades but I've never had any sort of reason to think negatively of you and/or your business; even with my one issue. I'm more empathetic/sympathetic than your typical person though, and having worked in retail before (and am pretty much front-line customer service currently) I can more than understand how customer service is detrimental to a business. You don't have to have the best product in the world for people to love you. You may not want to be in the dumpster product area but I hope my point still comes across. I'm a word-master (or masher) but my words are meant to be positive and not negative. (not insinuating the products are dumpster either, just trying to build a scale. 2 orders is hardly enough to give me an accurate representation of the whole of the quality).

In my own opinion, a good company won't resort to personal attacks, or attacks on the business, slander, etc. You may have AAAA+ product, but if you come across as a twat you better believe I won't support you. I'm only a drop in the piss pool but whatever. That's just a few more dollars that business won't get. My social circle is so tiny too so even if I tried to blast a shitty company to my "friends", it wouldn't work as I have none ]=D

One more thing about advertising. All companies do it. That's how you get your brand out there. You can rely all you want on word of mouth but that can only go so far; regardless of the whole "six degrees of separation" bullshit.

Hope there was some ... useful information .. in my post .. .. ....

Stay safe, stay salad!

NorthernFarmer wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:04 am This ^ you hit the nail right on the head. I’ve been a customer of Tony’s for months with literally zero complaints. But at the same time I’ve never came on here to post reviews of his products because that simply ain’t my thing. Keep up the awesome work Tony!
Fuck the haters, your success proves them wrong.

For me it was the opposite, when I saw all the stellar reviews up for Cheapweed months ago for all their different strains I decided that I could trust the community here so I made an order for 3oz of Kosher Kush. Probably my fault because I went for strains on the cheaper end of the site but the potency was insanely low, had to do 3 vape sessions (With a Solo 2 so thats like 30 minutes straight of just vaping) to get a below average high. I never finished it and still have a bit over 1oz sitting in a jar that hasnt been opened in a couple months.

This is the first time I've ever posted this, and even now I feel like I shouldnt because I really do like what Tony and his business stand for and see no need to pull shit like whats happening on reddit with all the slander and pitchforking. I just chalk it up to the risks of buying budget bud. I'm sure his weeds only gotten better since May but I'm still hesitant to risk another bulk order.

Tony, if youre pushing as much weight as you say and still maintain this level of customer service and approach-ability you gotta be superhuman. Respect for staying civil during all this, though I think this post is as close to a breakdown as one can get. You can only keep doing you. You've got a solid base of hardcore fans who believe in your business and shout its good graces to the world. Most importantly, what youre doing is working. Nobody gets the #1 wholesaler title by being mediocre.

Honestly idk why I'm even posting lol. I think the cyber bullying thing struck a cord with me.

Proof of the Kosher Kush thing (At work so can only show the receipt) Proof

Nice circle jerk


Nothing will ever forgive the crap u sent me.

Tony man dont let the hate get to you. Keep doing what youre doing. Chin up buddy. Peace out

I like what you do Tony. I've always found slander of cheapweed coming off as either fake, misinformed, or ignorant. Haters are always an overly aggressive and vocal minority. Consider the amount of crap you get a measure of your success.

cmom wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:13 am
Keep telling yourself that. Accepting free product means that it is cherry picked product and you are an unbiased commenter/reviewer, plain and simple. It's dishonest to present yourself as a regular customer and leads to more dishonesty.

Your point is lost here pal, firstly, I think you meant to say "biased," and secondly, you clearly have no understanding how marketing works. Offering out a few cherry picked samples for unbiased reviews isn't shilling, its a basic market strategy used everyday. Just because a MOM sends me what they think is primo weed, doesn't mean that's how I will review it, however, BAD PRESS, is still advertizing, so even on the off chance that I review their products poorly, they will still likely garner some business via reviews. I have personally chosen MOMs that got bashed on here just to see if the hype played out. So no, free-samples for a review does not make one biased.. If anything, what makes us biased is that we are potheads and it is weed we are reviewing. You want a truly unbiased review, get a guy new to weed to review it, but do you really want some newb's opinion on weed? Fuck no. You want mine, cause I know wtf I am talking about and I ain't just gonna blow smoke up a MOMS ass over a measly few grams.

MirkaLane wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 4:28 pm

cmom wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:13 am
Keep telling yourself that. Accepting free product means that it is cherry picked product and you are an unbiased commenter/reviewer, plain and simple. It's dishonest to present yourself as a regular customer and leads to more dishonesty.

Your point is lost here pal, firstly, I think you meant to say "biased," and secondly, you clearly have no understanding how marketing works. Offering out a few cherry picked samples for unbiased reviews isn't shilling, its a basic market strategy used everyday.

Quite so. As someone who reviews all products I like, I begin that by saying "I told them I was reviewing and they gave me this for free" so that anyone who is like "welp I can never trust again" can leave. I never present myself as an ordinary customer, I disclose my bias immediately.

This happens in all industries. I have been sent free sex toys to review, people. I've been sent free cat treats to review. I've been sent free granola bars to review. Every industry cherry picks I'm sure and every industry has some bad customer moments where someone got sent a dysfunctional product. I read and consume reviews by people who are "biased" every day to make my decisions about which products I will try. This is not an unusual marketing technique and it happens constantly with services like Amazon...

I also will not blow smoke up someone's ass for a few grams. That might have been $30 of value to me, but I know it's really like, $5 for them. I consider it appropriate for my experience and knowledge of the product. I will also review products I was not asked to review equally harsh. I have totally left complaint reviews on MOM's sites when I got a crappy strain.

People love complaining though, and I love giving quality constructive praise. Just my hobby but I would make it into a job if I could–like if my full time job could be trying out strains and reviewing, or eating at restaurants and writing reviews of them I would take it. I'm fucking passionate about the review industry and I'm unlikely to let one person's negativity alter my behavior. I certainly took constructive criticism for my first review here and then made my next review better for it. Similarly I have saw MOMs take constructive criticism from my reviews and alter their site for it. If that's not valuable customer/business interaction I don't know what is! I've never changed Walmart with only the power of my words.

We all on the same side, yo. We all want good weed.

Keyll wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 6:45 pm Quite so. As someone who reviews all products I like, I begin that by saying "I told them I was reviewing and they gave me this for free" so that anyone who is like "welp I can never trust again" can leave. I never present myself as an ordinary customer, I disclose my bias immediately.

This happens in all industries. I have been sent free sex toys to review, people. I've been sent free cat treats to review. I've been sent free granola bars to review. Every industry cherry picks I'm sure and every industry has some bad customer moments where someone got sent a dysfunctional product. I read and consume reviews by people who are "biased" every day to make my decisions about which products I will try. This is not an unusual marketing technique and it happens constantly with services like Amazon...

I also will not blow smoke up someone's ass for a few grams. That might have been $30 of value to me, but I know it's really like, $5 for them. I consider it appropriate for my experience and knowledge of the product. I will also review products I was not asked to review equally harsh. I have totally left complaint reviews on MOM's sites when I got a crappy strain.

People love complaining though, and I love giving quality constructive praise. Just my hobby but I would make it into a job if I could–like if my full time job could be trying out strains and reviewing, or eating at restaurants and writing reviews of them I would take it. I'm fucking passionate about the review industry and I'm unlikely to let one person's negativity alter my behavior. I certainly took constructive criticism for my first review here and then made my next review better for it. Similarly I have saw MOMs take constructive criticism from my reviews and alter their site for it. If that's not valuable customer/business interaction I don't know what is! I've never changed Walmart with only the power of my words.

We all on the same side, yo. We all want good weed.

Hit the nail on the head.. I second this.

Here's an example of what I consider to be "shady". An article pretending to be about your Endocannabinoid system but at the end is very obviously just a shill for that company that does not disclose it was a paid review. But it is SO obviously an ad. This annoys me because I was interested in learning more about the biological responses of the endocannabinoid system.

If I'm reading a review of a shop, I expect to get some information on the store and their product.

If I'm reading a blog about science things, I don't expect a surprise undisclosed cannabis ad. Way less annoyed if that article had said "this is a sponsored article" at the top, that's all they had to do. Anyway, that's just my opinion on the matter, that disclosing it was sponsored is all you need to do to make it right. Then anyone who doesn't want an ad can just walk away to the next ad-riddled part of the internet.

Sad to see bullying in our communities. Cheapweed is not perfect but they do right for their customers and have proven to be a reliable site to order from.

I don't speak up often as I have an affiliate code so take this as you will.

I have always wondered how some of these Moms operate, such diversity on how the product is marketed, packaged, and shipped. Marijuana growing is such a wide spectrum and every batch and phenotype is different depending on so many factors. I got weed that was packaged by what looks like underachieving high school kids and was amazing weed and professional looking packages with crap weed. This is such a non standardized marketplace that it could a guy with 10lbs in a basement apartment vacuum sealing or a huge facility with 1000lbs and actual employees. It is interesting to imagine the operations management that goes into these businesses big or small.

I think the biggest hurdle any MoM has to get over is showing reliable product and prices. I may not be a huge player in the buying game but the MoMs I stick with are the ones who have consistent quality and trustworthy appraisal of their stock. Two big examples for me are Cheapweed and jjmeds. When I order from them I already know the quality is directly proportional to the price I pay. They must have great reliable growers and a keen sense of the market.

I have been creeping these and Reddit forums about MOMs for the last two years. Made a few reviews, got called a shill for praising the current sites I was having success with(not here but on Reddit). Lately this forum has had a lot of MOM owners/representatives posting and more interaction with the companies, I assume Discord has been like this for years but I havent went on it. This has opened my eyes to the power, be it good or evil, of these communities.

Like everything else in the world the negatives will be focused on more than the positive. The nature of this business means that unlike widgets and gizmobobs; the products are very finicky and complex having many possible hurdles from seed to when it arrives at your door. Your local dealer only had to check his 1lb ziplock for any inconsistencies, when you are looking at 100's of pounds of different strains no wonder a bit of mold passes quality control. It is also a niche market with no regulations that is growing in popularity, competitors will use negative marketing strategies to slander the big boys.

Just want to say thanks to all the MoMs out there who are trying their best to provide good affordable weed to all us Canadian potheads!

I will personally try to review more products for my go to MoMs and my occasional new MoMs to help their image and try to counteract some of that negative press. No promises because I am a lazy stoner lol

Bought lots from you T ,since day 1, still returning ,few issues so be it none that ever required making public since they were addressed in proper time ..

proven to me to be reliable,professional with proper quality controls for a Mom generating such volumes of business

I to am an affiliate so will leave it at that

SIDENOTE ..Never had a dry night since finding Cheapweed.. thanx again T

I don't say much around here or Discord lately (mostly due to a dead laptop and how much I hate typing on a phone), but I have to agree with Tony here for the most part. Right from the start, I didn't feel like CW had a fair shake, and wondered why. I did all the research I could and could really only find that people thought that because Steve had posted a large number of CW strains to r/mompics, he must have been given all this for free. Therefore, the whole process of a Trusted MOM list was corrupted as a position on it could just be bought. As far as I could find, this was all based on a hunch, and exacerbated by the response from Steve. It very, very quickly devolved into a feet-planted, name-calling war. No one was budging on their position, no matter what, and couldn't let it rest. This destroyed the Discord community eventually and split it in two.

Now, to anyone who was in the "Steve is on the take" camp, CW is inextricably attached to their hatred of Steve and has almost become a meme. Whatever floats your boat I guess, people are going to believe what they want to. But... what happens is that new people entering the community can't distinguish this type of talk from genuine "this is a shitty MOM" talk, so they just think that CW must be shitty.

And CW isn't a shitty MOM. Are you going to get something that blows HSP's $260/oz strains out of the water? Definitely not. But for what you pay, you get good weed. And when I say what you pay, I mean based on minimum of 3 oz's. The cheaper strains can be hit or miss, but even a miss is still better than any street weed I've ever had. And of course, the customer service is second-to-none. Tony is the easiest guy to talk to, and will help in any way he can.

My relationship with Tony started when I DM'd Tony to ask for suggestions, and instead, he sent me a free ounce of Pink Kush (this was the early days). It was enough for me to decide to try them out. I've now had over 20 different strains, with very few repeats, and while probably 4-5 were "meh", nothing was complete shit, and many were better than the price suggested. Any issues I've ever had, I just emailed Tony, and was given considerably more compensation than I expected every single time.

At the end of the day, I just think that what you say, write, think about a MOM (or any business really) should be based on real experiences as a customer, and not random internet conspiracy theories. I've never said shit about CW before because I knew people had their minds made up. If I had spoken my mind during the whole time I've been a CW customer, people on Discord would have 100% called me a shill. But I've never written a review for CW or really even commented before now. I don't even have an affiliate code. So, in that alternate universe where people call me a shill, this universe proves them wrong. It's easy to be wrong about shit, much harder to back down when you realize you could be wrong instead of just doubling-down.

Anyway, has this reached wall-of-text length yet? Time to stop I guess. I just felt like I should speak up as I've always been more sympathetic to Tony's side of this than the other, and have just watched it all quietly up until now.

@wackybaccydude you are mistaking CW for CWS (Cannawholesalers) when you mention Steve/MOMpics and the Discord split.

xsinx wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 6:28 pm @wackybaccydude you are mistaking CW for CWS (Cannawholesalers) when you mention Steve/MOMpics and the Discord split.

No, CWS was way later. I'm just talking about when it all started - with the introduction of Cheapweed to the scene. Things calmed down a bit for a few months but it always there after it started.

wackybaccydude wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 7:34 pm No, CWS was way later. I'm just talking about when it all started - with the introduction of Cheapweed to the scene. Things calmed down a bit for a few months but it always there after it started.

Well I was there with CW showed up and none of what you mentioned happened. What you mentioned did happen when CWS showed up, so either your memory is failing, or I'm going absolutely insane. The CWS fiasco happened in mid/late August or so. The Discord split as well and it was because the admins here were a bit slow to react to the outrage (and other things). The huge mold issues for 2 weeks straight were also CWS.

CW did generate a tiny bit of drama when they showed up, but it was nothing like CWS..

Yeah that was everything bubbling over. The final straw. What I'm talking about was in May probably, maybe even April. Like I said, things calmed down a bit after that. But it is where a lot of the anti-cw stuff came from.

So, sorry man, maybe you're going insane . I was there during both and CWS was a continuation/reimergence of what went on earlier in the year.

Great thread Tony! I think most of the companies out there look up to you and how you have created your brand and reached so many people. Everything i have seen has been nothing but positive feedback from you to customers/members of reddit and the discord. Keep doing what you do!

Damn Man. That was one tough read, putting your feelings out there like that. I gotta give to you.
I wouldnt worry to much about it. When it comes to the internet alot of people who have nothing better to do
always have something negative to say about something