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Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

appleinsider.com

11–20 of 124 posts

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#11
post #5

I've found the reviews on a brand's own store page to be next to useless. The whole page is meant to sell me on a product, why would I trust "reviews" that are likely curated? Although, if I do find negative reviews on a retailer's site, it does engender some trust.

> Although, if I do find negative reviews on a retailer's site, it does engender some trust. A marketing friend of mine calls this "verisimilitude."

Hah! It's hilarious, and sad, that this is a concept in marketing.

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#13
post #9

The only thing remotely surprising here is that they lasted this long. It was frankly idiotic of them to have it there in the first place. No one is happy to spend $80 on a replacement MagSafe charger because the previous one frayed, so of course the listing was marred by 1-star reviews. The community Q&A also tends to be garbage. I understand that the average consumer is not going to have the same level of technical…

I understand your point. Still, I think that these reviews were helpful to Apple by collecting the bitching in one central location. It kept the product team on their game. Of course at some point, people stop trusting reviews in general and so maybe it's time to moveon.

I'm pretty sure the product teams have access to Amazon reviews.

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#14
post #8
post #5

I've found the reviews on a brand's own store page to be next to useless. The whole page is meant to sell me on a product, why would I trust "reviews" that are likely curated? Although, if I do find negative reviews on a retailer's site, it does engender some trust.

Many ‘accessory’ products had overwhelmingly negative reviews, because Apple's form-over-function philosophy means that they're genuinely hot garbage. … so they fixed the glitch. ¹ e.g. one I'm familiar with http://web.archive.org/web/20191113224149/https://www.apple....

[deleted]

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#15

The only thing remotely surprising here is that they lasted this long. It was frankly idiotic of them to have it there in the first place. No one is happy to spend $80 on a replacement MagSafe charger because the previous one frayed, so of course the listing was marred by 1-star reviews. The community Q&A also tends to be garbage. I understand that the average consumer is not going to have the same level of technical…

There's definitely been tons of completely legitimate, justified, and useful bad reviews for bad products. Usually those reviews just get deleted. I guess the effort to pay staff to constantly delete Noahic deluge sized floods of legitimate honest and sincere bad reviews from actual purchasers was deemed not worth the effort and the reviewers can be dismissed to a Siberian Gulag for their thoughtcrimes of accurate evaluation. Welcome to Happytown where every product is perfect and there is no dissent.

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#16

I'm not surprised. Most of them were just bitching about Apple, and not reviewing the product. Most of the reviews of the USB-C dongles were just complaining about USB-C, for example. Useless.

> Useless. Isn't it on Apple to assign resources to fix the problem instead of going nuclear on it? Surely, not all reviews are useless? > Most of the reviews of the USB-C dongles were just complaining about USB-C, for example. I've seen this problem with PlayStore too, but Google takes forever to delete the reviews: Even the ones that are unrelated. I wonder why AI isn't employed to weed out or help automate the pro…

> Surely, not all reviews are useless?

What am I going to do with the review? If I need a new Apple charger then I need a new Apple charger. I’m not going to read a review and decide not to buy it am I? It’s useless noise.

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#18

I'm not surprised. Most of them were just bitching about Apple, and not reviewing the product. Most of the reviews of the USB-C dongles were just complaining about USB-C, for example. Useless.

> Useless. Isn't it on Apple to assign resources to fix the problem instead of going nuclear on it? Surely, not all reviews are useless? > Most of the reviews of the USB-C dongles were just complaining about USB-C, for example. I've seen this problem with PlayStore too, but Google takes forever to delete the reviews: Even the ones that are unrelated. I wonder why AI isn't employed to weed out or help automate the pro…

I think it would be very difficult/expensive to build a system that wouldn't be called censorship. (I'm not even sure that would ever be successful, even assuming unlimited talent and budget)

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#19
post #8
post #5

I've found the reviews on a brand's own store page to be next to useless. The whole page is meant to sell me on a product, why would I trust "reviews" that are likely curated? Although, if I do find negative reviews on a retailer's site, it does engender some trust.

Many ‘accessory’ products had overwhelmingly negative reviews, because Apple's form-over-function philosophy means that they're genuinely hot garbage. … so they fixed the glitch. ¹ e.g. one I'm familiar with http://web.archive.org/web/20191113224149/https://www.apple....

Apple may choose form over function, but the power adaptors are a good example of how they still spent more time thinking of function than any competitor.

For the typical "elongated black box" notebook charger, a cumulative sum of exactly zero effort was spent on improving it in either form or function. Meanwhile, Apple had MagSafe (which is nothing but function), the extendable prongs to wrap the cable, or the little clip to fix the cable into place. Both Apple and non-Apple adaptors usually have detachable cables, but for the non-Apple variety it's only purpose was to streamline internal processes to provide country-specific plugs, whereas Apple used the opportunity to allow the adaptor to be used with a long cable or a cable-less plug.

Their adaptors are also smaller and lighter, both Watt-for-Watt and even more so considering competitors often choose overpowered adaptors because they happen to be cheap to procure or they already use it and want to keep their inventory simple. And if you search, you'll find that semi-famous deep dive examine the inside of one of their adaptors, and how they are spending at least twice as much on components to safely isolate the high- and low-voltage sides and provide constant quality at any level of power draw.

But yeah, the cable fraying sucks.

Re: Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Useless. Isn't it on Apple to assign resources to fix the problem instead of going nuclear on it? Surely, not all reviews are useless? > Most of the reviews of the USB-C dongles were just complaining about USB-C, for example. I've seen this problem with PlayStore too, but Google takes forever to delete the reviews: Even the ones that are unrelated. I wonder why AI isn't employed to weed out or help automate the pro…

> Surely, not all reviews are useless? What am I going to do with the review? If I need a new Apple charger then I need a new Apple charger. I’m not going to read a review and decide not to buy it am I? It’s useless noise.

This assumes only one product that meets your needs.
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