If you are like me, you refer to YouTube videos a lot for information, especially when researching a product or for help on how-to’s. Because I’m in the retail business, I am going to suggest this – if a company or a dealer is doing a video about a product they are going to be biased. And you’re probably thinking, “well, that’s a no brain-er”. The thing is, bias may be positive, but it can also be negative, very negative.

A retailer putting out YouTube videos has to be able to gain something from them. Most of the time it is to improve sales, call attention to product, and provide knowledge about the product to the customer for easy and effective use. But consider this: what if a retailer wanted to use these videos to discourage people from buying a certain product or steer them away from other competition? Not a pleasant thought but, unfortunately, this is a reality.

Let’s say you are researching wood cook stoves. I would encourage you to watch those videos from people who personally own them and glean from their experiences. They have nothing to gain financially and their testimonies will be legit. With that said, their opinion is just that, an opinion, and it will be like Ford vs. Chevy, but at least you can trust that they are being truthful about their experience. They have nothing to gain by not telling their truth about the product.

While you are researching, research the author of the video: are they a private consumer or are they really a dealer/retailer, maybe even disguised as a consumer? And yes, that is out there. That is what is prompting this blog article: a former dealer that has lost dealerships because of unethical business practices that is using YouTube videos (and a lot of them) to discourage people from buying certain stoves. This in turn has hurt the manufacturers, as well as, other dealers of those stoves. The Amish manufacturers will never sue or get into a court battles over this, so the videos stay on the internet even though they have asked for them to be removed.

We have seen so many confused customers because of these videos, so once again, please, do not only research the product but research the author of the video. A retailer/dealer will never put out a negative video about a product they are selling. If they do have a negative video about a product be suspicious of the motive.

The internet is a great source of information but we all have to be wary consumers and check and research everything. That’s why we still believe in an old-fashion phone call. Someone on the other end, with skin on, that can listen to you and what you need, and from experience suggest products that will work best for you. We aren’t going to bad mouth a product we don’t sell. We can also try to steer you straight from any questions or confusion you might have from watching any videos.