Hibiki-an Dishonest Reviews
Recently, I bought some products from Hibiki-an.
I tried to leave a fair review on their website, but after several attempts, none of my reviews showed up.
I have since found out that they only post positive reviews to their website.
Needless to say, this is not reassuring to customers in North America.
Trustworthiness is an important quality in business.
Basically, I tried two different products. I didn’t think that the one that was 4x as expensive was amazing.
I also posted my reviews here.
While I understand how you feel, you’re also a relative newbie and may not be able to appreciate the tea that costs 4x as much. With a site that doesn’t get many reviews, one bad review can totally kill demand for a product that most people think is excellent (but don’t review). You’re dealing with a private business, so what they choose to post is up to them, but on the tea boards you’re free to review away and say whatever you want, which makes these discussion boards very valuable indeed.
Jay, no offense but that is what is called patronising someone.
If someone posts reviews on a website, and they only post positive ones, then it is misleading. Here in North America we might review something for swearing, or sexual content. Not for the person’s opinion though. That is the whole point of asking for reviews.
Secondly, reviews give customers a better idea of what to buy. Perhaps if I read a proper review, I would have selected something else.
I see where you’re coming from. After some thought, I’m glad my hosting doesn’t allow reviews. I’ll let the boards speak for themselves. With vendors with tea reviews on their sites, anyone can post negative reviews as well as positive, including competitors and haters.
On my other site, I deleted the one negative review I received. The buyer didn’t feel the knife was worth it and felt it was uncomfortable in his hands, while the overwhelming response to those knives has been positive (but nobody else posted reviews). If I’d posted it, it would’ve hurt demand for the knife when other (almost identical) knives would’ve had no reviews at all (and hundreds of satisfied customers).
I quite like Hibiki-An, have never had a tea from them I didn’t like and have always had good experience. That being said, I have never tried to review on their site. Your reviews are recent so it is possible it just hasn’t been posted yet. There is no “review policy” posted on their site that I can find to give guidelines. If you are concerned perhaps you can contact them. It is also possible they are choosing not to post your review. Hard to say.
Lala, I have been chatting with them. I got suspicious when I found posts on other sites saying the same thing. I have an email here saying that they do it.
I have removed my reviews of their from this site.
Obviously, as long as they refuse to publih all reviews on their site, I will not continue to do business from them.
From their perspective, losing you as a customer is better for business than publishing your review.
As an aside, the Japanese are NEVER directly critical in public. It goes against their culture, hugely. Criticism would be made in private. I worked for a Japanese company for a few years and when I upset someone, he kept smiling and then went behind my back to complain about me. lol
I’ve never bought tea from them, but I bought a left-handed kyusu that I absolutely love! Shipping was fast and it was perfectly packed. No idea about their teas, though. I don’t really drink Japanese teas, and when I do, they’re from O-Cha.
This is fairly standard practise, even respectable vendors do the same (I’ve had unpublished reviews on canton tea co for example, I usually like their tea but this one was far sub standard. They did get in touch about it though and even replaced the tea, but still no posted review). To be honest I NEVER rely on website reviews, they’re clearly biased information. Why WOULD a vendor post a bad review?! Posting negative reviews isn’t going to increase sales or improve customer satisfaction, rather it’ll likely dissuade other people who would otherwise try the tea for themselves. It just simply doesn’t make any business sense. Also them posting your bad review isn’t going to make you more likely to buy again, you are leaving a bad review after all.
I just come here to see a more objective opinion on teas before I buy them.
As for hibiki-an, yeah imo their tea isnt great, but it’s not bad either. I bought a bunch of different things from them, was generally underwhelmed. I probably won’t buy from them again, but I certainly don’t blame them for not posting negative reviews on their own website!
I once posted a five star review of a tea that was not good enough for a tea company. It was a valerian tea. I gave it five stars because it had helped me sleep at the time. But I was honest about the taste where there were other reviewers who lied outright and said it tasted good. They published those reviews but didn’t publish mine. If you have ever had a tea with valerian it tastes terrible. People drink it for the effect.
Tea with Valerian in it. I’m pretty sure I read a review where someone said it tasted bad. Good thing they were allowed to post that review :)
Maybe some people like the taste of valerian? We had a thread on here earlier this week where someone said kudingcha tasted bad. I think it tastes lovely (my stuff, anyway), but it is supremely bitter and gives me palpitations!
If Kudingcha gives you palpitations try to find the other kind that is caffeine free. Look it up in Wikipedia. There are two varieties. One is caffeine free. Problem is sellers don’t list which type they sell. The one from the holly tree has caffeine and is the one most produced in China.
Allan, the caffeine isn’t the issue, I don’t think, or I wouldn’t be able to drink tea. I can still drink coffee without palps. It’s some other compound in that particular kind of kudingcha. I’d rather just not mess with either kind. There are plenty of other teas and tisanes to drink!
I’d expect it if I was dealing with a Chinese firm.
It’s just sad to see that a Japanese firm has no credibility.
From a Western point of view, it’s totally dishonest. Why would you only put good reviews on your site? Do you think your customers are absolute idiots, and don’t know any better? We can tell the difference.
Also, just because a customer doesn’t rave about a particular product, doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t buy something else.
In fact, I actually did plan on buying something else. Until I found about their practices.
I do blame them. Lying is wrong.
Fifty years ago, Japan was in the exact same position as China, and Japanese goods were considered cheap and inferior. I wonder what the next China will be?
Japan has a stellar reputation now, and China is just starting to develop a reputation for quality. China is expected to be the dominant country in the world in our lifetimes. They already buy more new vehicles than the US every year, which is an astonishing achievement considering China boomed within my lifetime. I’ve seen huge changes north of here, especially in Guangzhou (which I’ve visited regularly over the last fifteen years or so).
Sure, you might be right I haven’t investigated. Your mission then should you choose to accept it is to link me to 3 negative reviews on “western” tea sites. (The one I mentioned that didn’t post my bad review is based in the UK by the way)
Their lucky that I don’t send the lot of tea back.
Aparently they don’t teach ethics in University today.
One of the things I liked about Teavana is that their reviews help you make up your mind what you. And yah, they post reviews that are negative too. Even Walmart does ratings these days.
Oh look, there goes the the thousand dollars of a customers money going out tge door Hibiki. Bye Bye! And they can forget about the Raku ware I was saving for.
Did you see all the auto company CEOs that had to apologise because they lied about car fuel economy tests? In the old days that was a samarai sword to the guts.
Teavana and Walmary also have insanely different markets and customer bases than the vast majority of online, quality tea vendors. Negative reviews hurt these types of businesses far far less.
I’m sorry for disagreeing with you and “wasting your time” by expecting some evidence, clearly your opinion is morally superior to the other opinions that are expressed here.
leave comments about race out of it, it has nothing to do with their Asianness. Those comments make you come across as a self riteous bigot, not the image I imagine you intend on creating.
I did my remove that comment that was posted at 3 in the morning. I grew up in a British section of North America, and there were certain expectations of business that were expected. The first and foremost that it be respectable and honest. Much like the Parliamentary Democracy that the British helped spread across several continents.
It’s no secret that some asian countries take short cuts with respect to human rights. For a long time this impacted their economies as well. Because, they also took shortcuts in quality control and in economic markets as well. On a micro level, you can see a particular shortcut in denying the consumer a chance to expreess their opinion over a product, and to share that information with other consumers. Long term, the more imformation consumers have, the better choices they are able to make. That goes right across society.
Communism created many market problems. One only has to look at the line ups and poor product quality in the Soviet Union, to see what I mean. Before reform, China was like that as well. It still is in certain areas of the economy. If that strikes you as biased, then consider that they created their own problems. There is an expectation that you understand some of the problems with corruption in Asia.
I am NOT saying saying, for example, that the Chinese are inferior. Only that how business is performed affects quality.
As for going around and collecting websites. The short answer is that I don’t have time to. Why not take a look in the next few weeks as you browse? I did provide an example in the form of Teavana. But really, there have been a multitude of websites in different retail sectors that allow customers to post honest reviews in North America.
If you want to reread some of the arguments that I have already presented, they may help.
I do appreciate alrernate views as well, for contrast. I’m sure for example the guy is willing to take this shortcut, because he thinks it is good for his business, as Jay says. However, I also think that it will end up alienating his western clients, as well. Not to mention cutting quality control. I mean think about. Here is the consumer saying to himself, why should I provide feedback when the owner doesn’t even value his customers opinions enough to put them on the website.
One final note here. I am a consumer. I paid for the product. As such, the only concern that I technically have to have is with that product and service. The owner could have 20 different reasons for doing what they. Good for him. It doesn’t HAVE to matter to me. If you see what I am saying. In that sense, an argument may be seen as unnecessary and a waste of a consumers time.
OK so let’s say you’re on an internet dating website, you have some great testimonials from friends saying how lovely and kind you are. Then a disgruntled ex comes along and posts a negative review, potentially scaring off girls who you would get on amazingly with, and who would better appreciate your good qualities.
You have the option to not post it.
Is it a “shortcut” and lying to think, no I’m not going to post that, I want to give myself the best possible chance to find someone who does like me?
In the end, They’re not really reviews on vendor sites, they’re testimonials. A simple marketing tool to get people to try the tea for themselves. They’re not looking for criticism or constructive feedback, they have been in the business for some time and probably know more about it than the average first-time customer (from their perspective anyway).
I hear you, and I agree that in general there is a lot of outright lying in the Chinese tea market, a lot of poor quality tea misrepresented and sold as something other than it is. And yes it’s wrong and in the long run terrible for business. However, the reviews on a respectable website that are selling teas that they genuinely believe in are going to significantly impact the chances of selling their products to people who WILL love the product. By not posting negative publicity they are increasing their chances of being found by customers who do love the product and will buy more.
Marketing is about celebrating a product’s good qualities, vendor websites are an avenue of marketing. I’m not for lying and skullduggery, dodgy business, or misrepresentation, but posting negative reviews from people you disagree with on your own website isn’t going to help you find happy customers.
If you want to buy from a company that posts negative reviews buy from Amazon.
You would be wagering wrong. There is also good tea on Amazon. Simpson and Vail and The Tao of Tea both keep an Amazon store. As to tea from China, an excellent EBay seller now has an Amazon store called I think Goartea. They are Streetshop88 on EBay and I have gotten many good teas from them through their EBay store. There are other good teas available on Amazon too you just have to be careful. If they are selling a pound of puerh for $9.99 it is probably crap but there is definitely good tea as well as bad tea available on Amazon. As to Simpson and Vail, I no longer buy their tea on Amazon preferring to buy from their website but I first bought from them on Amazon. A lot of good sellers use Amazon to drive business to their own websites.
That’s interesting. I didn’t think that would be the case! I’ll have to look into that. Thanks!
The main thing you have to avoid with tea on Amazon is someone selling large quantities of tea for rock bottom prices. Although one seller of reasonably good tea as I recall is I think the Boston Tea Company if my memory serves me. They sell in large quantities only and the tea is reasonably good, not phenomenal mind you. But some sellers will also sell you 2 lbs of tea for $19.99. Mostly they are the ones to avoid at all costs. You just have to be careful about what you buy when you buy tea on Amazon. I do have a subscription of a very good peppermint tea, it is organic and costs me about $15 for a pound, but you cannot buy in smaller quantities. If you can put something on subscription on Amazon you save money. You can order it once on subscription, try it then cancel the subscription. They are very good about letting you cancel subscriptions but it is only some teas you can put on subscription. If you buy five items on subscription you get a 15% discount.
Hey, they have DO matcha on Amazon. We get a lot of theie matcha here. They test for raduation too.
I just wanted to take a sec to thank Steepster for providing a place where we can rate teas freely, without undue influence from Tea companies.
Yah, I got fed up. I deleted the two reviews on this website. I will think about replacing them.
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