Sorry to chime in during this heated debate, I purchase a nice amount from amazon and of course I'm always looking to test new products if it's something of value and it's for free or at a discounted price..
I've gotten many free products over the years from many of these Chinese companies, many who reached out to me and some when I signed up for these freebies.
Let me tell you I got a whole boatload filled with garbage.
While then again I got a nice shedfulll of great products.
And to be honest I tried to leave the review in the most honest way possible, by making sure to leave the correct amount of stars if the stars was needed for the product review. I would give it 3-4-5 stars but bash the product in my comments if I felt it was garbage.
Now just because you got a free product it doesn't make it garbage.
While for the past few months I haven't taken any free products from sellers as my few hundred reviews were all deleted as they suspected suspicious reviewing activity.
To be honest I left more reveiws on products i actually purchased to mix in the free products reviews amongst them, but it's seems the free product groups is what sunk the boat.
Tried to reinstate my account to leave reviews and comment on a product and or ask questions, but to no avail wasn't successful.
I can
buy/make anywhere from 500 to 1000 orders a year, and not being able to comment or ask a question is a real PITA.
I guess I did it to myself.
Yes I can use my other amazon accounts.
Same with eBay I use my banned account for selling and new account for buying products.
Though I heard one should Always do that.
Even though your reveiws will be less as you only have the sold items without your purchases.
I hold the correct way to give your items away for a fair reveiw is to sell them at a discounted price and hope the customer will leave a review, but not enforced to be able to get the product for free or at a discount.
Like my favorite company iClever and the like... Still have many products from them and they are great.
Here's a link to what I'm referring to..
https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=69923.0