On-line reviews

[Rogar]

There was an interesting feature on public radio about how some of Amazon's top product reviewers are somewhat professional reviewers who have become so proficient that companies actually send them free stuff provided they review them on Amazon. I purchase a fair amount of good from Amazon since I hate shopping and they have so many things. I use the product reviews and at some point decided that I should take the time to review a few products that were either especially good or bad in order to help others to make a better purchasing decision. I suppose reality is that my reviews are overshadowed by the professional reviews or shills that are connected somehow to the product.

Recently I was overly impressed with a lunch at a local eatery and spoke to the owner. He said that he would really appreciate a review on Yelp, which I had never used. Once I checked it out, it looked like it would be pretty useful to screen local businesses for a lot of things, like maybe even car repairs.

Anyone else delve into or do product reviews? It seems like a good tool to me and I've tried to do a little payback by writing up a few of my own. I am such a Luddite that I've not figured out the little thumbs up icons that seem to somehow be related to social media.

[creaker]

I do often look at the rating numbers on Amazon - and then usually look at lowest reviews for common problems with the product. Same for Yelp, but I look at wider range of reviews. I find it useful and they do influence what I might buy or where I may go do business.

I've done a few Yelp reviews for local businesses, lucky for me they were all positive ones.

[razz]

To my surprise, I was emailed by Amazon asking me to consider doing a review on a recent purchase. I will at some point because the review would be positive

[iris lilies]

I've written book reviews for Amazon that had 0 reviews or that were written by friends.

Funny that you should mention product reviews: Last year at this time I bought a ring from a chain jewelry store in a mall. I love this ring so much and recently I took the time to register an online account with this chain for the sole purpose of giving the ring a good review! I watch online how it fluctuates in price, and every time I see the store's photos I cringe because they are bad. The terrible photo does not do this ring justice! So it's funny that several other people wrote exactly the same idea and included their own photos with their review to show off this ring.

You would think I'm a jewelry person from this experience, but I am not. I just am impressed with the design of this ring and how it works so well with my engagement ring, and the price was decent.

I usually leave a review on Trip Advisor. Recently I left a 5 star review (5 star scale) for the B & B Inn I stayed in. It was a nice little place and fit my needs perfectly, and it had few reviews, two off them unjustified. So I thought I'd bump up my review a bit to get them a better average.

[SteveinMN]

I rely very extensively on on-line reviews. I've written a few myself, both positive and negative. I really believe in that feedback of the masses.

However, one must apply a very critical eye to those reviews. I've seen instances in which one very angry person has registered on multiple sites to trumpet his/her bad experience with a product. You can tell because the particulars (and sometimes even the wording) are incredibly similar from site to site. I also tend to discount people who write reviews before they've had any time to live with the product. I just saw a review of a book (not on Amazon) by someone who hadn't even read it yet. And, hey, it's great that you really like the tires you've put 500 miles on, but talk to me after 5,000 miles. Reviewers who are patently less- or un-qualified or who range far afield in their reviews rate a o.0 from me, too ("My hubby and I don't get out much, but this is the best food in Statesville!" "I rated this product one star because Acme Co. shipped me a broken one.").

It's like anything else: somewhere in the continuum of opinions lies what really is.

[ToomuchStuff]

I remember Dlink getting busted for paying for reviews a couple years back. Now, there is legal requirements to state a link if one is given products or paid to review things (doesn't help with past reviews and won't keep some from doing it anyway)
I still look at the reviews of Amazon to see if there is common issues that I should look for (there is a return time for a reason), or if it is something I doubt I will use (some products features we don't all use). Forums are no different though. Bad reviews and those by people connected, tend to be the loudest.

I am more of a negative reviewer. I tend to post only reviews stating of some problem that might effect others, like it did me. For instance, my last review, the site cut and pasted the description from the wrong thing, in its ad. So the item I ordered, didn't have what was advertised (and was returned, but the ad still remains incorrect). I also see a lot of ads for items that are not even sold yet. That is just annoying and will skew future reviews.

[Blackdog Lin]

Amazon and Zappos always send me an email asking for feedback on every single purchase I make with either of them. I am always happy to oblige, whether good or bad, because I always read and digest the reviews posted, and use those reviews to help me make decisions on my purchases. I truly appreciate people leaving their reviews - and feel I'm able to take the necessary ones with a grain of salt.

The only times I don't leave reviews is when their systems just make it too much of a hassle. Sometimes it's a link, password, link link link kinda thing and I'm too lazy to go through the whole process.

[Gardenarian]

I do appreciate the reviews, but they are sometimes skewed. On Amazon I'll see a book that has a bunch of reviews and it hasn't been published yet. Sure, people hand out galleys to their friends and their friends give "honest" reviews.

Sometimes a product will have a lousy review because something went wrong with the delivery, or the person didn't read the description (no, the $5 cell phone case does NOT come with iPhone included.)

I write reviews sometimes, but mostly for things I really like. I think most people are this way; if they don't like something (a book) they're not going to take the time to analyze it - they just want to read something else. So there are a ton of 5 star reviews on Amazon.

The system is useful, but flawed.

[puglogic]

I do read reviews (with a grain of salt) and I leave them if an experience has been particularly good or bad. I think it's a certain personality type that tends to want to share their opinion and influence others....I'm sort of in the middle.

I do read and post on Yelp a lot, but I'm very careful to read the reviews and judge whether I think they're credible. "My friends and I showed up at 6:30p on a weekend at (insert hot spot here) and they made us wait 30 minutes for a table!!!" Waaaaah, cry me a river.

[ljevtich]

I do reviews on Yelp and Amazon (occasionally) and use Yelp to figure out where to go or do when I am in a new city. Sometimes I cross check a review with one from Trip Advisor.

[jp1]

I tend to do like creaker. If there are a fair number of reviews for a product I'm considering purchasing I'll trust the overall rating to be reasonably accurate and then I'll look at the 1's and 2's to see why they didn't like it. Sometimes it'll be because of a feature that I don't need/care about so I'll go ahead and buy, but sometimes they'll point out disappointment in an area that really matters to me, or overall low product quality/faultiness so I'll continue shopping around for a (hopefully) better product.

I almost never post reviews of my own, the exception being ebay since on there it's the seller i'm reviewing more than the product (which I haven't used in quite a while). Since ebay sellers are presumably mostly individuals I figure it's good for me to post a review even if it's just "good transaction, fast shipping, product was exactly as described, would buy from this seller again"

[gimmethesimplelife]

There was an interesting feature on public radio about how some of Amazon's top product reviewers are somewhat professional reviewers who have become so proficient that companies actually send them free stuff provided they review them on Amazon. I purchase a fair amount of good from Amazon since I hate shopping and they have so many things. I use the product reviews and at some point decided that I should take the time to review a few products that were either especially good or bad in order to help others to make a better purchasing decision. I suppose reality is that my reviews are overshadowed by the professional reviews or shills that are connected somehow to the product.

Recently I was overly impressed with a lunch at a local eatery and spoke to the owner. He said that he would really appreciate a review on Yelp, which I had never used. Once I checked it out, it looked like it would be pretty useful to screen local businesses for a lot of things, like maybe even car repairs.

Anyone else delve into or do product reviews? It seems like a good tool to me and I've tried to do a little payback by writing up a few of my own. I am such a Luddite that I've not figured out the little thumbs up icons that seem to somehow be related to social media.This may be a little off the subject
(?) but l am a member at a website where I get free things - or coupons for free things - sent to me. Over time you build up your score based on a scale of one to ten with them and have some patience and then you get sent the good stuff to review and keep. I'm at 8.5 now so I'm hoping for the best. I love doing this though! Last month I received coupons for $22 dollars of free househould cleaning products for free. All for doing reviews - which don't have to be positive and facebooking and tweeting a little bit about them. I've gotten other freebies too but I won't go into a long list.

As far as other online reviews go, such as with say tripadvisor.com, I look for a pattern of complaints or a pattern of good responses. I tend to believe on these sites what the majority say - as long as there are many more positive reviews than negative or vice versa. Something else I take into account with these reviews is that coming from my background, my expectations are often lower than many other people's. I do think online review sites can help when looking to buy something new but like most anything else, it's probably best to take then with a grain of salt. Rob

[SteveinMN]

The date(s) of the review make a little difference, too. We had a door-to-door-bingo contractor ring the door the other day; my general policy is to never hire someone from a bingo like that, but I wasn't the person answering the door. Looking at their Web site showed not one testimonial from customers later than 2010. Not a good sign.

Similarly, for restaurants and other service providers, I'll put a little more weight behind more recent reviews to try to see if there's a trend that requires consideration.

[Gregg]

I pay no attention to reviews for entertainment items like books or movies. The chances that someone else has exactly the same warp to their subjectivity seems unlikely. Durable goods, OTOH, I follow creaker's example and read the low score comments to look for trending problems. I also check out Yelp for restaurant notes, but that is more for entertainment value. Our market is so small that if you see more than 4 or 5 positive yelps you just assume the owner's whole family jumped on board. More than 4 or 5 negative yelps means the competition's whole family did.

[peggy]

I like to read the reviews at allrecipes.com Exceedingly helpful. Although I have developed a fair number of recipes myself, mostly gluten free, I shy away from recipes that have few or no reviews. The thing is, these are just 'you and I' posting those recipes and people have varied tastes as well as proof reading skills.:~)
If a recipe looks interesting to me, I will print it out them read the reviews to get the consensus on how to tweek it a bit here and there. Usually by the time 20 or more people have reviewed it, they all pretty much agree on the tweeks. I am an active recipe/baking recipe designer, and I know what I'm doing, but I'm a lazy recipe 'tester'. If it's not my recipe, I let others test it out. LOL

[jp1]

On epicurious I like reading the reviews because they often contain suggestions of how to improve/modify the recipe. Some people get upset by that and make comments like "so and so didn't follow the recipe at all. I don't understand how they can review something they didn't make." I just laugh and think "yes, but what so and so made sounds infinitely better than the original recipe so that is what I'll make." Apparently I'm not the only person who takes that attitude since the site actually lets you check off reviews you like and will then print the reviews below the recipe so that you can follow the advice for adjustments that sounded good.

[SteveinMN]

I'm fine with people "improving" recipes with suggestions, though I wonder how far one can depart and still recommend the recipe. What I find strange are the people who substitute water for chicken broth, use carrots instead of cauliflower, and cut down on -- or leave out -- key flavoring agents, and then complain that the recipe wasn't tasty.

[Gregg]

Ya just have to take them all with a grain of salt, so to speak.