Review Sample Terms
This is what a brand agrees to before sending me cigars. It's public so anyone can see what a sample bought and what it didn't. The short version: it bought nothing. The reasoning is in If a Brand Ever Sends Me Cigars.
Read this before sending anything. If you aren't okay with it, don't send. No hard feelings either way.
The terms
1. The review is not for sale. Sending cigars does not buy a verdict, a tier, a tone, or a promise that the review will be favorable. Nothing does.
2. I say what I want. The review reports the cigar as it was on the night it was smoked. If I love it, I say so. If I hate it, I say so. Nothing is sugarcoated.
3. No pre-read. Nobody at the brand or the company sees the review before it is live on the site. I will not discuss what I liked or didn't like ahead of publication.
4. No veto. The brand does not get to decide whether a cigar is reviewed, and cannot pull, delay, or soften a review it doesn't like.
5. Same standard as a cigar I paid for. A free cigar is judged exactly like one I bought: same four tiers, same street-price rule. Free doesn't make it better. Free doesn't make it worse.
6. Disclosure. The review states that the cigars were sent by the brand, the same way every review here says where the cigar came from.
7. Shop named only for shop exclusives. I don't say where I buy cigars. The one exception is a shop exclusive, where I name the shop because it's the only place a reader can get it. Naming the shop does not change the verdict.
8. No ongoing obligation. I'm not obligated to keep accepting samples, and the brand isn't obligated to keep sending them.
How to agree
Email contact@wouldsmokeagain.com with the brand or company name, your name and title, and what you're sending (line, vitola, quantity), and say you've read this page and are sending on these terms. That email is the sign-off. Then ship whenever you like.
Nobody has done this yet, and I don't expect a line to form. The page exists so the answer is already written if someone asks.
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