A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Author’s Note: This post is continually updated as things happen so please be sure to read to the bottom for the latest updates.

I’ve been accused once of being a bully, and a mean girl, on social media because I dare to stand up for myself and other bloggers. At the risk of facing more accusations like that I’m writing this piece and bringing this situation to light because the further we dug the more it went from “weird” to “predatory”.

In my research on glass sex toys I came across a scare-tactic article from “A Touch of Glass ®“, a UK glass sex toy retailer. Much of their information is correct (the cheap mass-produced China glass items are indeed cheap and can break easily) but they take it a step further, warning folks that shady companies might use “window glass” and insinuating that the glass dildo can shatter to bits while in use. That’s false, and it irks me.  Given that they sell many designs that are commonly found elsewhere in the industry from many companies, I have my doubts – one such design is known best in the reviewing circles as the Bent Graduate from Don Wands. It is replicated by EdenFantasys, SSA Glass, and dozens of no-name glass sellers on Amazon and even Etsy. Every version of that glass dildo that I have tested by polariscope has failed. Yet their company claim leads one to believe that one wouldn’t find a dildo in their shop that doesn’t pass a simple stress test: “To maintain such a venerable high standard, our glass dildo product range specifically excludes the cheap far-eastern imports of dubious origin and questionable quality, flooding the mass market these days.”1

I don’t follow this company on social media but I’ve seen them around and yesterday a photo they posted for #asswednesday, oddly enough, tweaked my Spidey Sense. I did a reverse image search and surely enough….there’s the photo they used but on The Chive, a “bro” site that frequently does round-up posts of selfies from around the ‘net. Then I did a reverse search on the avatar – and found that the unedited version is used on many adult dating sites as a “teaser” image for “some of their members”. This same avatar image is also used for “Jenny Dillar” on Facebook who is listed as the Owner/Partner2 of ‘A Touch of Glass ®‘.  On Twitter recently a new employee was introduced..yet even her headshot is fake. Why even do that? When you read the “About” pages on their website which introduces us to three lovely women (Carol, Jenny and Lauren) is it said that LAUREN is the person controlling the Twitter account….yet Jenny’s picture is used. It’s all very weird and shady, isn’t it? Now it could be that the photos that they are posting on Twitter and Facebook are really this young woman who also submits such photos to Tumblrs which causes them to get picked up and used without credit by these many adult dating sites, porn sites, and The Chive. It could be. I’ll allow that possibility to stand. But it is my opinion that that isn’t the case, that they have plucked these photos from the web and use them as their own. Their tweets and commentary on the posts when they share the photos usually insinuate that they are saying the photo is of them, “Jenny” or “Lauren” or whoever. 

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Even if these photos are real…this is pretty unprofessional. It feels a bit odd that a retail shop would allow their social media manager or even a company partner to flirt, approach others for photos, and share personal risque photos of themselves on a company account. Of course, this might be something they think they need to do to stand out from the crowd of adult retailers. Since the website claims that Lauren is running the Twitter account they also fill us in on how Lauren is a model3.

No stranger to yoinking photos from the ‘net, ‘A Touch of Glass ®‘ is also using a random image of Jennifer Lopez on their homepage. I’ve got a feeling they’re not paying to use her likeness.

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But the real owner of ‘A Touch of Glass ®‘ isn’t hard to find. When I was asking my fellow bloggers if they were as weirded out as I was, David over at The Big Gay Review did a quick web search to find that ESHOPS (UK) owns ‘A Touch of Glass ®‘ and that the owners of ESHOPS are David Mattocks and Janet Mattocks4. As David (Big Gay Review) puts it the “information is from Companies House – it’s from the UK governments business registry – so that is who owns ESHOPS, which in turn runs A Touch of Glass ®.” and this is public knowledge. Updated Info on this: It seems that they stopped doing business as A Touch of Glass last year, and now just operate as EHOPS, which Jessica pointed out to me last night. Neither place seems to show any employees, but I’m not certain one would have to report that in this manner? I’m not 100% that regular employees are shown on this site. Also note that ATOG was registered to: David Mattocks 44 Rectory Avenue Corfe Mullen Wimborne Dorset, his home address. He probably dissolved this when he ran for Town Council or whatever it’s called.

I haven’t had tests run on their glass pieces yet5 but my suspicions are strong that their glass isn’t what they represent it to be. And them using fake photos and creating what I speculate is a fake persona for social media isn’t criminal or anything more than weird, but things make a quick turn into predatory when I am told by no less than four reviewers that they were privately asked to send over explicit video of them using the product, in exchange for being sent the product for review. Luckily the bloggers who revealed this did NOT send this person their explicit video but I fear that others might, or already have. Here is the account of one blog reviewer who would like to remain anon for now, and I’m sharing this with her permission:

I was messaged via Twitter asking if they could send me products… in exchange for a VIDEO for the ‘VIP section’ on their site. I have no idea what or WHERE this ‘VIP area’ is. I said no and avoided them for a while. I have since reviewed for them (quite recently in fact) with no issues, but I know they are still (over a year on) unsolicitedly asking people for videos in exchange for toys and I just think it’s kind of, well… icky.

TouchofGlassTweet

This “VIP Section” is referenced when you view the “About Lauren” page on their site, they say that Lauren is running it. But it sounds like they have been asking this of reviewers for many months now with no VIP section coming to fruition. I don’t take kindly to my troupe being taken advantage of, and that’s what this seems like. It’s my opinion that the UK glass sex toy retailer ‘A Touch of Glass ®‘ selling at theglassdildoshop.com cannot be trusted by reviewers OR customers. A Touch of Glass ® appears to be misrepresenting the identity of the person running their social media networks, causing people to assume they’re speaking with (or sending photos to) a young woman when it fact it could very well be they’re sending them to an older man. When they use this misrepresentation of identity to make other people feel more comfortable about sending them explicit photos, this feels predatory. This feels wrong. It doesn’t feel like a company I could ever recommend you to trust, and that’s why I’ve decided to write this post. I can’t not tell you what I’ve found, so that you can make up your own mind based on that, versus the smoke and mirrors the company has apparently laid out.

I have not approached the company privately, because we are not connected on social media. If the company would be interested in replying and clearing the air here, they are welcome to do so. If my speculations and opinions are wrong, and there is a more honest situation going on here, I’m very willing to publish their story. I would have gone to them first if it were merely about the fake photos but once I found out that they had asked many reviewers to send explicit video (something I have never had ANY company ask me for) I decided that my speculations and opinions, and the information from other reviewers who may comment here and share, warranted public light. You can make up your own mind if you want to do business with this company, whether you are a reviewer or customer. I wouldn’t, and that’s my opinion. The image just below is a screencap of the account runner offering a mere dildo as payment for an explicit video.

TouchofGlasssolicitation

Readers and bloggers, does this information change your level of trust of this company, or any company that might do this? Have you ever seen these actions elsewhere by another company? Have you had any interaction with this company that strikes you as unprofessional, or troublesome? If you’d be willing to share your story but do not want to do so under your blogging identity feel free to use Disqus anonymously and I will make sure it’s published, and your identity won’t be shared by me.

 

UPDATE: Shortly after this post went live the @eroticglass Twitter account was made private. Those who are Twitter friends with the account say that some of the photos I called out above as being fake are now gone. The Jenny Dillar fake Facebook account is gone, however Jenny lives on still (for now) on Google Plus and Linkedin. The actual website for the shop used to list David Mattocks as the site designer and linked to his personal page, but they removed that as well, you can see the image below though that shows it was there. There is also a screencap of a little interview talking about “Carol” and her “friends Jenny and Lauren” starting A Touch of Glass. The entire story seems to be a fabrication. I wouldn’t expect this company to last much longer, as David seems to sell his businesses all the time. The detail someone else commented about below, matching car photos both about being in Colorado on the same day from David’s personal FB account (the post is public, btw, but I obfuscated details just because I’m wary at this point) and the ToG picture is shown, screencapped before they locked their account down. Speaking of Jenny’s G+ account – I can’t see much, but I can see two other photos that, judging by the filename (Jenny250) and their use on her page seems like they’re claiming it’s Jenny…despite that face looking nothing like her profile picture. A reverse image search found it being used by a Mary Thompson from Michigan on a Moms page; later on someone named “Jenny D” used it on a moms group page when the talk turns to “sex toy testers” re: Lovehoney.

TouchofGlassJennyGTouchofGlassJennyLTouchofGlassfooter TouchofGlassStory

TouchofGlassCar1 TouchofGlassCar2JennyMomsTouofGlassJennyG+

Update 2:

Day 2 after the post went live, there are new “closings” and changes. The Google + page for Jenny Dillar no longer has that fake profile photo.  The Twitter account that was made private in the hours after the post went live is now completely gone. The “About Carol/Jenny/Lauren” pages on theglassdildoshop.com site have been taken down, but we have screenshots. Other websites and Twitter accounts also owned by David Mattocks, like “Amelia of Mayfair” are now gone.  Kara found this page which talks about the businesses that David Mattocks runs; judging by this I wouldn’t be surprised if they close down A Touch of Glass and start a new one up in a few months or a year. Below are more screenshots of things now missing, or just more information as it’s found.

Also, David Mattocks has yanked his personal davidmattocks.com site which was pretty much just a page of pompous bullshit, no major loss. He seems to not understand that 1. The cat is out of the bag and 2. Erasing Twitter accounts, web sites, and pages from websites doesn’t erase them from the Internet Archives, doesn’t negate our screencaps, and doesn’t hide the fact that he runs the business and ran with this predatory deception for so long with A Touch of Glass.

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UPDATE 3: I received an email from a very shaken-up UK woman who wanted to remain anonymous, as she no longer is a sex blogger, but she grew to trust the person running the Twitter account. She was talked into sending them video, and she did. She received video too, claiming to be Jenny, but she never viewed it. She was sent nude photos and sent photos in return, until one day when David Mattocks slipped up pretending to be Lauren: “I swapped some photos over DM again just last month but then a couple of weeks ago she messed up, I then realised I had been sending photos to someone who was lifting photos from sites after a photo was sent to me with a message and then the same photo but cropped and the same message was sent again, they obviously didn’t realise that they could delete the photo and message but I would still see it. I saw the Uncropped photo which was from porn hub of a Caity Minx. I felt thoroughly used, disgusted at myself and like a total idiot now I feel more of one. I spent so long tweeting this account in a normal way that I wasn’t suspicious when things were approached in a business way with a bit more of a fun twist shall we say.”

Another blogger tried to email Lauren and has received back an error message that indicates the email account for Lauren has been deleted.

Becks sent me her Moody Blue glass dildo to run my home polariscope test on. While the upcoming glass test post is a bit of ways off, this much I can tell you now: You do NOT want to see rainbows. Rainbows means not annealed. Not annealed means it was made cheap and fast, and most certainly in a China plant. They tried to claim to one person that the glass dildos they source are hand made in Germany. I think not!!! A Touch of Glass / theglassdildoshop.com specifically has warnings all over their site about cheap China glass, with assertions that THEIR products are not. Are we surprised that they’ve outright lied? Customers, you have overpaid.

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Update 4:  Another blogger contacted Jenny, Lauren and Support emails to request their affiliate balance be paid out – emails to Jenny and Lauren bounced, naturally, but the Support email went through. They did not receive any response, but DID receive a payment of the balance of their account. If you are an affiliate of A Touch of Glass and would like to cease your relationship with them, it seems they are honoring requests to pay out and close out accounts – albeit silently. Any attempts at emailing David Mattocks have gone unanswered.

Update 5 / November 8th: It was brought to my attention on Twitter that A Touch of Glass is BACK on Twitter as @PleasureGlass now and is right back to trying to solicit videos this time under the guise of instruction girls to be “information” rather than “pornographic”….but still explicit. Right. ALSO: Within mere hours the Twitter account went from private (but not before blocking all bloggers involved in this post) to deleted.

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  1. from their “About” page: http://www.theglassdildoshop.com/about-us/
  2. whereas in the About Jenny section of their website, Jenny is listed as Commercial Manager and Carol is listed as the person who started the company
  3. From their site, the About Lauren page: “Also – if you hadn’t already guessed it – before corporate life, Lauren was a model. Well, she is drop-dead gorgeous. And go take a look at our Twitter page and guess who’s picture that is. The one on the left. Yep! See what we mean now? Mind you, the stunning shot here is nothing short of eye-watering don’t you think? Lauren is currently busy with setting up our VIP Club that will include restricted member-only access to our exclusive Connoisseur Collection of glass dildos – which we’d rather refer to as ‘dilettos’ – plus a portfolio of photographs and videos which we consider to be far too racy for unrestricted public access. More details coming soon, but if you can’t wait, please contact Lauren for an update.”
  4. Who are no strangers to owning businesses, as was found here: http://www.endole.co.uk/company/04080498/sunbelt-solent-limited
  5. This will happen shortly, I have an item on its way and two other reviewers will be testing from afar – this will be listed in my large post about glass testing that will be live sometime later this month

55 Responses

  1. The Big Gay Review says:

    Obviously there is no official proof, but I have had several bloggers confirm that they were asked to record videos or take pictures of them using the products intimately – that is absolutely not on – and whilst most were smart enough to say no, it scares me to think of the number of naive people that may not have thought about it, and went along with it – with no idea of WHO they have sent their photos/videos too. This reeks of predatory behaviour and they should be ashamed.

    I contacted them on numerous ocassions, asking to review as I noted that not many (if any) male reviewers had talked about their products – it makes so much sense why they ignored me. Each and every time.

    This is all highly suspicious, and has put me off from ever considering purchasing anything from them. If they can lie on social media, what’s to say they aren’t lying about the quality of their product?

  2. gardenlobster says:

    So, they’re soliciting photos/videos either to exploit people for free sex work or for their own jollies? Eww!

  3. Kara_Sutra says:

    Yes, makes total sense as to why your requests were ignored. I’m flabbergasted.

  4. Lunabelle says:

    Some of their tweets tweaked my radar as being…iffy. Honestly, when you asked about the photo issue, they were the company that came to mind first. I believe they had also tweeted about a past intern who used their social media for deceptive and/or inappropriate actions. After reading this, I wonder if someone called them out on the video requests and they needed an excuse.

    Some of the evidence here is circumstantial, but the sheer volume of it is enough to make me want to steer clear. Questionable product claims, stolen photos, solicitation of explicit video…NOPE.

  5. Yes I agree, it’s all very circumstantial, but as you said it’s all together enough to make me go NOPE. The requests for videos also appear to also be recent, as well as from perhaps as far back as a year. No one knows what this VIP area is, if people will be charged for getting that content or what. It’s all very weird. And they locked down their twitter account not too long ago so…..that looks fairly guilty.

  6. Heaven says:

    I am not following them on social media but I have been hearing about them lately. I almost contacted them myself. I am so glad I did not. I have been doing camming for 7 years now and have ran into this situation myself a few times. As soon as I started reading your post I knew already what you were getting at before I went any further. This is so wrong and I am glad you called them out.

  7. Moo says:

    So, full disclosure – I am a TOG affiliate.

    I did notice a shift in their social media style over the last few months, from a “just business” approach to one that was more personal as well as sexual. I personally don’t have any issue with a business taking this style with their SM, especially in the sex toy industry. Businesses often have different trading names than what the brand is, so that’s not a problem either.

    But, I *do* have an issue with working alongside someone (and I consider the sponsor-affiliate relationship a business one) who isn’t open about their persona, actively pretending to be someone they are not. I’m not talking about pseudonyms – many of us, including me, use them. I’m talking about a full on act. If that’s where this has lead to, this concerns me.

    The other worry that I have is that if they have indeed solicited reviewers for what would be considered adult material, I would assume they have not compiled the correct UK paperwork that would be in place for this sort of thing. The delay in the VIP side of their website (which, as an affiliate, am learning for the first time from this post) may be due to the ATVOD laws if this material is considered adult.

    Yes, there are a number of questions that should be fairly easy to clear up if what’s going on is on the up-and-up. I hope TOG take the opportunity to clarify.

  8. So these ATVOD laws….wouldn’t they have to have everything settled in order to even solicit these videos from people? It’s kinda like a restaurant advertising that they carry beer before they’ve been given their liquor license, no? Or some random analogy like that.

    And I agree about the pseudonyms but something here feels well beyond that. Their “About” pages on Carol, Jenny and Lauren make some pretty interesting claims, especially the one about Carol.

  9. Moo says:

    The ATVOD rules are more so with the setting up with the website. There are fees to be paid and loops to jump through before the site can legally go live. Can it be done not following these rules? Yes – but if you get caught, there are problems to deal with.

    The liquor license analogy is a correct one.

  10. F says:

    Images posted on David Mattocks personal Facebook page (Director of A Touch of Glass / Eshops (UK) LTD) and also images posted on Twitter by @Eroticglass (as Lauren /Jenny) show images of the same car on the same day. Further suggesting that the company twitter account is controlled by the 65 year old Company director, David Mattock.

    Now that they have protected their Twitter account, since this post has been published, absolutely leads me to believe that they have something to hide.

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  11. SexyLittleIdeas says:

    This was so fascinating. To play devil’s advocate, maybe – being involved in the sex industry – they have to hide their identities for family or social reasons, like many sex columnists do. Whatever they case, very shady and not at all confidence-inspiring. I’ll have to buy my dilettos from another diletto store!!

  12. Kara_Sutra says:

    Considering that one of them is a member of government, yes that makes sense. Many within the adult community use pseudonyms for privacy or safety reasons, however when someone is requesting and offering payment for nude photos/videos, without disclosing who they are (and possibly pretending to be someone completely different in order to gain trust, and said photos/videos) that’s a big problem.

  13. Yes, obviously I have no problem with using a pseudonym. But there’s no reason to use a photo of a person and pretend to BE that person. I’ve seen many company accounts that use no photos of anybody, they operate the account as a company, not as a person.

  14. Mary Q. Contrary says:

    Additional info: In all the psychic stuff, I almost missed the photo is also used by a new-defunct MySpace page that was cached by a people search site, and also a Facebook Profile for someone who uses another language but doesn’t list her location. Just…weird! No issues with anonymity, but the tale-weaving is so suspicious.

  15. Guest88 says:

    I was approached last month and asked to do a paid video. The vip area was explained to be a “safe” anonymous place that only paying members could access. I said no and i am glad i did! I was offered a link to her video so i could see that it wouldnt give away my identity but i didnt bother viewing. Now i wonder who it would have been in the video!

  16. Kara_Sutra says:

    Did they ask your age, or for proof of your age? Did they offer you continued income based on the videos views, or a shared take on the income derived from the *paid* section of the website? Or was it meant to be a ‘we’ll buy your video with a one time payment and any money we make off that section of the website/your views is ours to keep” type thing?

    Not that any of that even matters now, this whole thing is just way too shady. But, since we haven’t heard anything from them, I’m trying to decipher what the intention *really* was – as in were they/he legitimately buying content, or looking for paid fapping material for personal use…

  17. SexyLittleIdeas says:

    it seems like everyone has their comfort zone, things they WILL do to hide their identity, and things that would make them feel weird. still, this post sounds like something out of sherlock holmes. i hope they reply.

  18. The photos in question here have been added now to the post in the Update section.

  19. PurpleElysium says:

    TOG was one of the first affiliate networks I joined when I started blogging in August. I really liked the idea that they were trying to create ~luxury~ toys and were using all the right buzz-words and concepts: woman-owned, quality materials, the amount of articles (squiffily written, I admit… this line, good Lord, this line: “The more common silicone, plastic, and rubber dildos you see all over the web these days, are purposely designed to be thrown away after a while.”). I liked them, I really did.

    I’m actually really pissed that I never noticed any of this, that I never had a run in or any suspicions about their company or professionalism. I asked for a toy to review, received it without a hitch, have liked it a fair amount, and when I apologized because I was faced with my first mountain of review products, she waved it off and told me to enjoy myself. While I will post the review (because the design is fairly common and variants aren’t difficult to find), I’m definitely going to link this post, however it develops. Although I doubt anything they do is really going to change my mind about taking the banner down.

  20. rosefromfriction says:

    of course he’s a ukip member. here he’d probably be an extreme tea partier, i guess, but ugh. ugh all around at this.

  21. Come Heather says:

    Nice work. I’ve gotten a creepy, predatory, middle-aged pervert male vibe from that Twitter account. They are actually the company I was referring to when I tweeted: “Ew. If you’re selling a sex toy to women, don’t use tacky “you touch my tra-la-la” bad male gaze porn marketing.”

  22. Guest88 says:

    It was a one time payment (i believe it was £2 per minute of video). Nope no asking for age, but i dont know whether they would have if i had said yes. They made it clear that they were buying the video for use on their vip section and that the person selling it couldnt then post it elsewhere on the internet as people would be paying them to view it.

  23. Guest88 says:

    I feel rather silly now. I received some rather racy messages in my DM inbox from “jenny” and tbh i didnt think anything of it, as my twitter page is NSFW. Out of the blue I got the message about video testing, and later one about paid written reviews. Being naive i accepted a product for a written review. The basic conversation was that i would write a user review just for their site (no blogs, no other places and they reserved the right to condense the review since they were paying per word, just so i would ramble on needlessly for extra cash which i understand!)

    I asked that i be able to write under a different name, as i didnt want my real name to be made public, and i was told that was ok. I received the item 2 days later and am currently in the process of writing the review.

    I then received an email with further instructions, such as that my review should be quite “erotic” and not sound too much like a textbook, but at the same time they didnt want it to sound too porny. I was asked to view the site to see other examples.

    Heres the clincher. I was then informed that if i wished to, i could review the whole collection! The only catch? That i use a different name each time i reviewed!

    Now im in a quandry. I havent yet submitted my review but i know i have to. What springs to my mind though, is if they want people to test the entire collection and write user reviews as different people, why not just write them themselves? Ok i know that would be misleading but surely its a similar sort of deception to their current plan but would be cheaper for them.

    I do now wonder that there was some longer term plan to up the ante maybe, and start pushing for photos or videos once they had established a working relationship with the individual. Either way, im out.

  24. Lilith Noir says:

    Never bought anything from them (and now I never will, of course!) but I have looked at their site and thought all the dildos looked oddly familiar. Familiar in the sense of, “I’m sure I saw this back when I used to shop on EF”.

  25. Polly Vincere says:

    Ding ding ding! That’s who it reminded me of too.
    The sex toy manufacturers/retailers should not be acting like this. People got away with it in the 2006-2009 time because bloggers were still naive. Now bloggers have been banded together about 7 years. Things like this will come to light thanks to bloggers working together.
    The whole thing sounds gross and lewd in the I-need-to-shower kind of way.

  26. This tells me that probably NONE of the positive reviews on their website are actually true, they’re just from people who were bought off like this.

    I think they feel that if they give people like you incentive enough to give them positive reviews, it’s less dishonest than them writing the reviews themselves. Plus it can be REALLY hard to write in a voice different than your own.

    I don’t know what to tell you to do. I’d say write the review you feel comfortable with, not something erotic enough for their tastes. Tell them it’s not going to happen. What’s the worst they will do? Ask for the product back? I doubt that.

  27. None of us in these situations are business owners trying to be shady. We’re anonymous bloggers. Big difference.

  28. Gritty Woman says:

    I’ve spoken to a few bloggers over the past few months, who have mentioned being asked for explicit video “reviews” (aka – film yourself using the product). I’ve also heard that the company send unsolicited sexual pictures to bloggers (apparently of the women running the company, although that is now in question I see). The reason for sending these unsolicited pictures is to show the bloggers what the products look like. Yeahhhh okay! I’ve had a few bumps working with this company over the past few years. Nothing major (and no proof) but I started to suspect that they were posting overly positive comments on the reviews I published for their products, also copying and pasting my reviews elsewhere online. They blocked me recently on Twitter as I was involved in a conversation inviting UK bloggers to a blogger meet-up. When this company tried to invite themselves (and we stated that it would be for bloggers only) we got blocked. If all of this stuff is true (regarding the fake pictures), then I wonder who would have turned up to the party! Lol. I am shocked that Big Gay Review got ignored despite numerous requests to review for them. From the information provided in this comments section (and through private messages) it seems like only female bloggers were asked to provide a sexual video. Are there any male bloggers who have been asked this? Anyone? That makes my skin crawl as it is, but then we find out that the company owner could be a member of UKIP. I don’t know much about politics, but I think this party supports rather traditional views (including opposing gay marriage for a time). Now I am just angry. All of these creepy and unprofessional behaviours have left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. I will be following this thread with interest.

  29. Gritty Woman says:

    Also – paying for reviews? Good to know we can’t trust a single review on their website then!

  30. I have to wonder now if others were paid in product to go leave comments on blog reviews such as yours…

  31. And that company you’re thinking of was likely SSA Glass – and now, EF is branding the same dildos as their own, claiming they are the manufacturer, when there is still an obscure part of the product page that says “SSA Glass” as the brand.

  32. Guest88 says:

    I was going to write a 100% honest review, and then see how they edited it. That way I would know if they took out “waffle” as they put it, or if they remove negative points.

    I actually feel quite sick as they sent me a few naughty pics and ask me to send some back. Personally i dont like to do that as im not comfortable (if i was single maybe i might?) and although they werent overly pushy, i got the sense that it was the whole sisterhood vibe, and now i know it might have been an old man i feel really sick. Whos pics were they DMing to me??? And what if i had sent pics back?

    Had it been a DM from a random person i would immediately block, but i was fooled by the tweeter claiming to be the owner, and referring to herself as jenny. I didnt think a real business would use tactics like that.

  33. Gritty Woman says:

    It wouldn’t surprise me. They offered to pay me for my reviews, but I turned the offer down. I assumed they offered as they were a new company (or they seemed to be at the time) and didn’t know any different. I explained about remaining impartial (I feel like you become less impartial if someone is paying you to write the review, but that’s just my opinion) but it looks like they continued to offer money to bloggers anyway.

  34. Kara_Sutra says:

    That’s just shady business. Before even soliciting a sexually explicit video your age should have been asked. Aside from that, based on what you’re saying, they were intending to make (potentially unlimited) money off of a video that you provided without offering any form of continued remuneration. So not cool. *shakes head*

  35. Kara_Sutra says:

    I don’t necessarily have a problem with people paying for the time and effort it takes to write a review – there’s a lot that goes into a reviewing, in my opinion it’s ‘work’ and people deserve to be paid for the jobs they do – However, I have a big problem with people buying opinions and positive reviews (you just have to make sure a company knows they’re not buying you or your voice, that what you write will be honest and unbiased).

    More than that, I can’t condone a company preying on lesser known bloggers who might not know the difference, and could be willing to do it because it’s the opportunity to make some money when they’re struggling to turn a profit. This whole thing is just predatory and makes me feel sick.

  36. velvetsteele says:

    LMAO!!! Tell it girl!!! LOVE YOU!

  37. Beck says:

    Having just posted my Sinful Sunday image this week with their product featured, despite not being asked to do so, I feel the same way. Being as they steal images regularly, I surely hope they haven’t taken my image for their VIP section or for anything else.

  38. Moo says:

    Unfortunately, continued remuneration isn’t something that is common in the adult video production world. That being said – £2 a minute is an obscenely low amount of money for a nude video including penetration with toys.

  39. Guest88 says:

    Im now wondering who is the person in the pics i was sent via DM? Im on an ipad so cant google search. I wonder if “jenny” is a real person who models for them (dont know why for private dm purposes?) or of they are stealing pics from real women without their knowledge. Would be awful if they were sending on photos that unsuspecting women had been sending them and claiming those to be jenny.

  40. Gritty Woman says:

    Urghh! This is such a difficult one! I agree bloggers deserve to be paid for their work, but when it comes to reviews I feel like it muddies the waters. For example, if you mentioned to your readers that you were paid for writing XYZ review (as I guess you would do in compliance with FTC guidelines) would they trust your opinion less? How could the reader distinguish between those who were paid to write a positive review no matter what they thought of the product and those who were paid but remain impartial? Then on the other side of the coin, do readers already feel that we are impartial if we got the toy for free anyway? If someone pays for your review, do they then have rights over how you say things, or more pull over what gets said (despite stating the impartial thing). Would you need to reimburse them if they don’t like the work they paid for? Oh, it’s all too much for my poor brain to work out lol. Definitely curious what you think though!

  41. This is why I’ve yet to take payment for reviews, because I would actually feel bad charging if I didn’t like the product. I feel like my reputation is strong enough that people would believe me if I were paid AND happened to really like the product but not all reviewers could really say the same. If I saw someone who’d been reviewing for years who isn’t afraid of negative reviews getting comped, then I would trust their opinion. But I’ve run into misinformed civilians who think our opinions are tainted if we get affiliate earnings, so it’s hard to say what the general public would think.

  42. Mary Q. Contrary says:

    That’s astroturfing, and it’s illegal in the USA. You can pay for a review, but it must be honest and the fact that money changed hands must be disclosed. I wonder what UK/EU laws are on that?

  43. Mary Q. Contrary says:

    That’s why there are laws about that on the books, at least in the USA. Not sure about the UK. I’m fine being paid for my review, but I’m obligated by law to disclose that fact, just as paid-for tweets are required to be disclosed (that’s why you see “#ad” on some tweets or it’s in the account’s description that they advertise for local businesses or whatever). It would be interesting to see if they are breaking any commerce laws.

  44. WildOrchid says:

    If I had more time I bet I’d find those toys on Alliexpress. The style of the toy photos – exactly like from this “far-eastern” country.
    I highly doubt they are manufacturing anything (asides from bulshit). Just importing, repackaging and overpricing.

  45. Guest88 says:

    I have seen an almost identical version of the toy i have (the only difference visible in photos is the colour) for sale on another sex shop site at half the price. I bet if i look around there will be more similar styles.

  46. Kara_Sutra says:

    If you look at the majority of the ‘reviewing community’, I’m talking widespread – beauty, health & well being, cooking/food, pets, baby/mama blogs, nutrition, etc – many of the those with huge followings are paid by companies for their reviews. For the most part big companies (I’m talking BIG brands) don’t care if it’s positive or negative, they just want to reach a large audience and have exposure (it runs rampant on YouTube). This is where it comes down the to person in control of the reviews, if they have a strong voice, think their time is valuable, and want to maintain the respect of their readers they’ll say something to the effect of ‘if you want to work with me then you have to pay me for my time and effort – any time spent reviewing your product is time I could spend making money elsewhere. However that doesn’t include buying my voice or having any editorial control. This is work and I deserve to be paid for my work’. Some companies may go for it, others might not. At the end of the day if you’re honest that’s what should count.

    Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand how things can be perceived and that taking financial compensation for a review could be viewed as something bad, but at the end of the day the hours one puts into blogging often equal that of a part time job (with no guarantee that you’ll see a penny from it).

    Again, I’m not into bought opinions or giving up control – but I *do* believe people should be paid for their work. Blogging/reviewing is work. If I had a retail site I’d pay for reviews (it might not be a lot, but I’d budget what I could), good or bad, out of principle and respect for those involved (of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but for the most part that’s how I feel).

  47. Andy Ruffledsheets says:

    And their Twitter account is gone. Along with the ‘About’ pages detailing the girls on the site.

    Good work Lilly.

  48. Jillian Boyd says:

    Whoa.

  49. Agreed. I’ve worked with AToG for a very long time and I’ve never personally had a bad experience with them (in fact the Coq-A-Teal is a firm favourite of mine) but in my next review I will be linking to this post. People are entitled to know what’s been going down and can make an informed choice from there.
    I’m absolutely shocked that this has all happened and feel a bit silly for never really noticing or questioning their motives. I suppose I just never felt like I had a reason to doubt the people I was speaking to. Never thought that they would do something like this.

  50. Tzipora says:

    Reading through all of this I would strongly, strongly guess there are multiple ways in which they’ve broken the law and a court case could be made/ lawsuit filed. Jeez, this is nuts and the fact that the owner is in politics just really adds to the ludicrity!

  51. Kara_Sutra says:

    It should also be noted that the former ‘Sex Toy Review Hub’ – a site that was used to collect online reviews from other bloggers via submissions – was also registered to his name (the website closed on October 9th 2015 not long after this post went live, and shortly after he received an email documenting everything that had been discovered).

    While the website is gone, the twitter remains online here: https://twitter.com/SexToyReviewHub.

    This page online shows all of the sites that were registered to his name/email address: https://whoisology.com/name/archive_10/david+mattocks
    (notice sextoyreviewhub.com, davidmattocks.com, ameliaofmayfair.com, ameliaofmayfair.net, weddinglingerieshop.com, thebridallingerieshop.com, theglassdildoshop.net, theglassdildoshop.com, ukipcorfemullen.org & ukipmiddorset.org (where he was been elected Councilor), are all under his name). I’ve taken a screen shot in case they get deleted at some point.

    You’ll also find record of him claiming ‘EShops (UK) Ltd’, along with ‘Touch of Glass Ltd’ as ‘pecuniary interests’, while also listing him as a member of the Corfe Mullen Parish Council (proving it’s all the same guy) via the ‘Dorset For You’ website here: http://dorsetforyou.searchimprove.com/search.aspx?pckid=1443979479&aid=466928&pt=6018936&sw=david+mattocks&x=0&y=0 (it’s the first .Pdf file)

  52. Kara_Sutra says:

    We’ve also got screen shots of the profile pages before it was all removed.

  53. Rebsy Reviews says:

    EWW! Them asking for videos of you and other bloggers while using their toys… THAT’S NOT CREEPY AF AT ALL!!!

  54. Tota la Franca says:

    A user on Twitter named @girlymarya existed for about six months until recently, and they said they were the owner of A Touch of Glass. A flurry of ‘friends’ appeared, including one called @justplainali who was a ‘summer employee’ of the company.

    Turned out @girlymarya was stealing pics from a US Skype camgirl as herself, when this was pointed out she immediately did a mass block then deleted the Twitter account, as did the ‘friends’. Amazingly the @justplainali account still exists as of writing this, with all her pics obviously stolen from a camgirl in the same way.

    Nearly all the people they followed were women, with a usual approach of sending women nude pics and asking for some in return. There is something very sinister about it; I thought this was just an inventive fake ‘man pretending to be a woman’ account until I saw this blog.

  55. Thank you for this info! I’d seen this from another UK blogger while I was at Woodhull but my image searches didn’t show anything: https://twitter.com/jessicasrabbit_/status/762347305110499329