I basically always go to Reddit now for reviews... even if companies are astroturfing their as well, there's usually more honesty in the reviews than whatever is on the vendor's site.
Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
41–50 of 198 posts
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#42I recently bought some sheets. Actually sorting through the sheets on Amazon was a hassle because 90% of the reviews would be obviously fake "best sheets I've ever slept on - 5 stars" and the remaining 10% would be 1-3 star reviews that would be photographs of poor fabric or tears in the arriving product. It is almost impossible to buy quality goods online and I'm afraid that is just going to get worse.
What is also strange is when comparing "different" offerings they sometime turn out to be exactly the same product, just with a slightly different picture/text and a (sometimes substantial) price difference.
For products like iPhone cases it feels like there is one factory in China which produces a few different models, which lead to the 200 offerings you'll see when searching for one at Amazon.
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#43I recently ordered delivery from a highly-rated restaurant on Yelp. In the bag was a $10 off coupon for the next order if I left a 5-star review and sent them a screenshot. I reported it to Yelp, but to my knowledge nothing has changed. This is the state of online ratings and reviews today.
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
and Doordash. how is everything >4? are we really to believe that McDonalds has a rating of 4.6 out of 5? it makes the system completely useless.
This I think stems from a different issue. Doordash has a very easy, one second review they ask from everyone. And I think 99.999% of folks think “oh yeah that was fine, 4 stars” or “it was pretty good, five stars.” Do people get what they expected from that McDonald’s? Was it cheap, fast and nostalgic? 5 stars. The people doing these reviews are not good critics, or critical with any sort of depth. They are the sort…
There is also unevenly distributed cultural knowledge: anything less than five stars starts causing hassle for the driver. I hate this inflation but I also wanna make sure the person who gave me competent service that I would realistically mark as three stars - not bad, not great, job done exactly as specified and I'm perfectly happy with that - is going to get five.
(hassle varies: offered fewer/worse-paying jobs is a good start)
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#45Maybe re-phrase the question - I ONLY trust negative reviews now. The key is to see how many people have negative reviews and then scan them.
Let's say I am interested in a BBQ Grill.
10 reviews about an open box/returned box? I'll probably go to a local CampingWorld and pick it up instead of Amazon and pay the extra $50.
4 people say the grill grate is bent but there are 1200 other reviews that don't seem to have a problem? Low chance I'm going to get the bent grill grate.
Things like that.
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#46I invite people to checkout BestBuy's online shop. Just about every single item has a rating from 4.0 to 4.8 out of 5. I have yet to see a single listing under 4 stars. There are of course, unrated items, but can you honestly believe that virutally every product they carry is nearly perfect? Who actually writes a 5 star review for a no-name brand of tape and cable ties? When everything is perfect, nothing is, and I d…
and Doordash. how is everything >4? are we really to believe that McDonalds has a rating of 4.6 out of 5? it makes the system completely useless.
> are we really to believe that McDonalds has a rating of 4.6 out of 5?
Why shouldn’t it? You know what you are getting with McDonalds. For the price point they sell at, it is pretty good food. They are consistent. And they do a really good job with food safety, probably better than a lot of more highly rated restaurants (when was the last time you heard about an outbreak of a food borne illness at McDonalds)?
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#47I've found that instead of looking for positive reviews I'll first search for negative reviews. Can't really trust the professional reviewers because they have an incentive to bend the truth. But you also can't really trust casual reviewers because it's so easy to game the system. Sometimes I'll look at places like Reddit for product reviews but you can't even really trust that anymore because more and more companies have started to understand the value of viral marketing on social media. So it seems like the only thing you can really trust are the negative reviews.
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#48So, at what point does this become a problem for Amazon (for example)? They _seem_ to not care.
I haven't ordered anything from Amazon in over a year, for various reasons, but the general untrustworthiness is a factor. On the other hand, while the problem is particularly bad for Amazon, it isn't exclusive to them. It has generally become difficult to find reliable information about products. So I tend to stick with stuff I know, and buy direct as much as possible.
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
and Doordash. how is everything >4? are we really to believe that McDonalds has a rating of 4.6 out of 5? it makes the system completely useless.
Isn't this just the logical consequence of the "less than 5 stars means you want them punished " mentality popularised by Uber?
It was popularized at least as far back as eBay (albeit as a positive/neutral/negative scale). "Seller shipped me an empty box but at least there wasn't dynamite in it. A+++++++ seller."
I do think restaurant and product ratings are a bit different. With Uber, eBay, etc., a lot of people recognize that any less than perfect rating can lead to a personal impact on someone even if a small number of people leave a negative.
That said, many will leave good marks on satisfaction surveys because a middling mark may lead to someone reaching out to find out what the problem was and that can just be more hassle than it's worth.
Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago
#50Reviews and rankings are broken across the industries. For products I usually start my journey at NYT Wirecutter https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/ . I was also recently looking for a place at Apartments.com, as I learned all places get 5 star ranking to start, and it’s of course not clear at all in the UX. I think at the moment google maps does pretty good job with rankings.
I trust them a bit less these days. Seems that at least some of their products are pay to play.