Tour Participation Rules and Responsibilities
The participant list is organized logistically to minimize shipping costs moving coast to coast with both a West Coast and an East Coast tour if there is a second kit. To begin the tour, I will ship each kit to the first in each list for a 7-day audition. Thereafter participants will be responsible to hand-deliver or ship the demo kit to the next participant in the list. Qualification requirements and participant responsibilities are listed below.
Full Reviewers First Tour
Do you want to move to the front of the line? As these are new models in need of reviews, Burson requested to allow those that promise to do a full review to go first. A full review requires posting in the HeadFi review section or an audiophile review site or both. Those that wish to demo only or do simple impressions still get their chance to audition the CIEMs, but after the reviewers go first.
If you intend on reviewing, please note this in your participation request to be moved to the front of the line.
Participant Qualifications
To be eligible for this
and all other tours for a year, each participant needs to provide five types of contact information to verify identity, contact info, and shipping address:
- State-Issued Photo ID: We need a picture of your driver's license or other qualified ID with photo and that reflects your home/shipping address. Alternative address verification options are available if your ID does not match your current address, just ask for or propose an alternative.
- Phone Bill: We need to verify your phone number and address with a photo of a current phone bill showing your name, phone number, and address which matches your ID.
- Email Address: We will be managing the tours through email which requires an email that you can respond to within 24 hours.
- Employment Verification or Equivalent: We need simplified employment verification such as employer name, address, and phone - or an alternative if not employed as a backup to verify identity. This info will remain private and will not be used except for emergencies.
- Social Media Profile: We need a link to your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram profile or equivalent alternative as additional ID verification.
This information must be emailed to
billb@ClearDiff.com before your name will be added to the participant list. Those with less than two years of Head-Fi membership and under 300 posts may be subject to additional verification. This verification process makes you eligible for all other tours as well as seen in our
announcement thread.
Already Verified: If you have already provided this information to join one of my other tours, you are good for one year prequalifying for my other tours. However, if it has been on file for over a year, you will need to resubmit to remain current.
Qualification Exemptions (thru @BulldogXTRM): If you wish to join the tour, but cannot provide this information - you can contact Mike Brunner (
@BulldogXTRM ) at
bulldogxtrm@gmail.com with options for equivalent verification options that work for you to receive an exception. Please cc
billb@cleardiff.com to keep me in the loop as we work through this exception process. Our goal is to keep you on the tour so we will work with you to make it happen, but we need a way to verify the shipping address and phone number.
Information Security: All personal information will be safeguarded by
@Barra and will be deleted by request after the tour or by withdrawing from the tour. The information is stored on my personal computer is will not be shared with anyone other than Mike Brunner and myself. This information will be used to confirm your shipping address during the tour before shipping as mentioned in the responsibility section below. Retained information is good for a year to join additional tours hosted by
@Barra.
Individual Responsibilities
Participants must understand and agree to these responsibilities listed below as well as take them seriously. Those that do not follow through with the agreed-upon responsibilities can be blacklisted from all future tours. Please do not sign up for the tour if you feel there is any reason that you cannot live up to this commitment.
- Communicate: Those in the tour will be expected to be reasonably available to communicate in tour proceedings. Phone, PMs, and email should be responded to within 24 hours maximum. Failure to do so may negate your eligibility and potentially blacklist you from future tours.
- Protect: Participants are responsible for the value of the kit while in their care and will be expected to reimburse the manufacturer for any losses due to participant negligence. The kits should be handled with care and protected from theft. Each participant is responsible for the kit from signed receipt to signed receipt. While the manufacturer accepts responsibility in the case of shipper losses if you ship signature required, participants are still responsible for managing the shipper loss process to its conclusion until the proceedings are concluded. Providing tracking information and following the rules is critical in determining where your responsibility stops.
- Impressions/Review (Optional): While optional, to keep things interesting on the tour, any impressions or insight that you can post in the thread would be greatly appreciated. Full reviews are even more appreciated.
- Participation Rules: Each participant is expected to follow the rules listed below:
- 1) At Receipt of Tour Kit: We immediately need to know that the tour kit was received in good condition to release the last participant from responsibility.
- Confirm Receipt within 24 Hours: Please post confirmation of tour kit receipt and its condition on the tour thread within 24 hours so each party knows that the transfer is complete and so we can track the progress of the tour.
- PM Next 2 Participants: Please PM @Barra and the next two participants in the participant's list (POST 3) and confirm readiness and to request their address. Please request their full name, mailing address, and phone number for the shipper. I will confirm their address is verified before shipping. The second person provides a backup in case the next participant is unavailable. Priority goes to the tour order as long as they reply within 24 to 48 hours.
- Address Verification: Please wait to ship until I verify the shipping address by responding to the provided address that we are verified and good to go.
- Be Ready to Ship on Day 8: It is also your responsibility to ensure that you have shipped the kit to the next participant on the 8th day, so please be diligent in contacting and communicating with the next participants. Please never send a kit to a participant that has not responded even if you have their address from a prior tour.
- 2) Dealing with Logistics Issues: Most problems should be handled directly between participants as shown below, but I am available if needed more complex issues:
- Communication Issues: If your PM to the next two participants does not receive a response within 24 to 48 hours, please reach out to the next two in the participant list to keep moving through your options. Please keep moving down the list every 24 hours thereafter to ensure you have a response and are able to ship on day 8. If you are at risk for going past day 8, please contact me for assistance.
- Switching Participant Order: You are free to swap places in the tour order yourselves to accommodate schedules. However, you must communicate and get permission from all those affected to ensure it is not creating an issue for someone else and post the switches to the thread for transparency. An alternative for anyone is to have me move you to the bottom of the list if the timing is bad.
- Dropping out of the Tour: If your availability to participate changes, please post a drop request in the tour thread for visibility before your turn to avoid any confusion.
- Complex Issues: If needed, you can always reach me directly at my email me at billb@cleardiff.com to resolve any issues.
- Kit Problems: For lost or broken tour kit items, please reach out to me at billb@cleardiff.com to resolve any issues.
- 3) Ship on Day 8:
- Verified Recipient: It is your responsibility to verify the recipient's readiness and their address with me before shipping. If you sense any issues, please contact me before shipping.
- Verified Address: It is important to make sure that you only mail to the verified address unless the two of you get an exception from me first.
- Signature Required: You must ship signature required (or insured) to avoid the responsibility of shipper mishaps. The manufacturer will assume responsibility if you follow the rules.
- Shipper Confirmation #: You must provide the recipient and me with the confirmation number by PM or email within 24 hours of shipping. This will allow us to follow the progress and for the recipient to plan the receipt of the package since a signature is required.
- 4) Responsibility Ends on Receipt Post: Your responsibility ends when the recipient posts their receipt of the tour kit in good condition on the tour thread. It is important to make sure the recipient makes that post to pass on the responsibility. If the kit is lost by the shipper, we still need your participation as the shipper's customer to manage the package search though you are not responsible for the value assuming you shipped "signature required".
Tour Signup
This is an open tour which we expect to support all requests to participate. To make this possible, we are requiring complete contact info upfront. So, to sign up for this tour you will need to do two things:
- Post: Please post your name, city, and state only – no personal address in the public forum – and then declare that you agree to follow the terms of the tour.
Example Signup Post: From Barra: I live in Anthem, AZ and would like to participate in the tour. I agree to follow the terms of the tour. AS A FULL REVIEWER, PLEASE MOVE ME TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE.
- Email: Please email your complete contact info as detailed below to my personal email - billb@cleardiff.com:
- Head-Fi Name: Please remember to include your Head-Fi alias so that I can match your email to your Head-Fi identity.
- Subject Line Format: (HeadFi Name) - (Your Name) - (Tour Name)
- Contact Verification Info:
- State-Issued Photo ID: We need a picture of your driver's license or other qualified ID with photo and that reflects your home/shipping address. Alternative address verification options are available if ID does not match current address, just ask or propose.
- Phone Bill: We need to verify your phone number and address with a photo of a current phone bill showing your name, phone number, and address which matches your ID.
- Email Address: We will be managing the tours through email which requires an email that you can respond to within 24 hours.
- Employment Verification or Equivalent: We need simplified employment verification such as employer name, address, and phone or alternative if not employed as a backup to verify identity. This info will remain private and will not be used except for emergencies.
- Social Media Profile: We need a link to your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram profile or equivalent alternative as additional ID verification.
Request the signup form through email at billb@cleardiff.com or just provide the data within the email.
That’s it. We reserve the right to turn down the application if we find a cause but hope to accommodate all those US Head-Fi’ers that are interested. If you follow these instructions, you are in.
Signups begin now for the logistically friendly portion and will remain open first come first serve after starting the tour welcoming latecomers. However, we reserve the right to end signups at any time so please don’t hesitate or you may lose out. The tour will start when we have enough participants to create a reasonable list. Have fun!
