I don't believe you. CR doesn't obtain products to test that way. They would have no way of knowing if it was a legitimate sample. Further, your story makes no sense. No company would want to be represented by less than their best, knowing its going to be compared to their competitor's best and the results published for the public in the single most influential public relations outlet for their industry. Such decisions would only be made at very high corporate levels, i.e. vice president, and those people didn't get where they are by being foolish.