The New Members Blog Series is a collection of blogs for new members to help them better understand the element14 roadtest program.
We have made great strides in our review-completion rate since 2016 when I assumed management of the RoadTest Program. Back in 2016, a good number of reviews were not completed. In 2021, sixteen roadtests had 100% complete rate. This is just fantastic. I want to thank every roadtester for participating in completing their reviews.
But what happens if you never publish a review?
In a previous blog, I went through the situations where a roadtester is justified in not getting the review posted by the deadline. These were mainly due to health issues or personal/family emergencies.
If you don't have an emergency, and you still don't complete your review, what happens?
Before we do anything, we contact you multiple times. My assistance usually follows up twice. If need be, I follow up a third time.
If there are some extenuating circumstances, please contact us. Covid has created some of these circumstances. If you communicate with us, and we know what is going on, we can relay it to the sponsor and we can extend your due date.
If after all these things, you still do not post your review, you can return the product to us so we can give it to another applicant. This is only fair and will keep you in good standing with the RoadTest Program. I've had that happen a couple of times. Once I had a student who returned a product to me saying, in effect, that he did not have the skills to test the product even though he thought he did. Another time, the wife of a roadtester returned the product to me and she told me her husband was ill and would not be able to complete the review.
If you simply do not complete your review and don't otherwise communicate with us, you will no longer be able to participate in the RoadTest program until the review is completed or you are released from the obligation by the sponsor. This latter situation has happened once since 2016.
The RoadTest Program depends on the support of our sponsors. They provide the products and pay an administrative fee to participate in the program. All this depends on roadtesters completing their reviews.