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Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

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Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#131

Post by spectramax »

Checkout Tabelog, a Japanese version of Yelp. Anything over 3.5 is phenomenal. 4.0+? Rare. 4.5 is probably the best sushi place in all of Tokyo. Anything over 2.0 is great. 1.5 is manageable and 1 or below is bad.

We in the west just love so much excess. Everything is amazing or everything just sucks. Bimodal distribution and extreme greed. Most things in nature, society, etc are normally distributed and our review system and the people are broken from the most fundamental ways.

Something to learn about this from Japan.

Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#132

Post by everybodyknows »

discardedrefuse wrote: post #103
sharkweek wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to trust Amazon for just about anything I needed to buy, but I'd guess maybe in the last 6-8 years I'll mostly only order something if I recognize the brand name selling me the product. Tried to buy a pair of cheap-ish bluetooth headphones off there a few months ago. Three different pairs and none of them even worked out of the box. Gave up and bought a more expensive pair from a known brand.

You can't trust ANYTHING on Amazon; including name brand. They co-mingle their legit inventory with counterfeit 3rd party inventory. When you order something, even if it's "Sold and Shipped from Amazon", they ship you the closest product. You may very well end up getting the fake 3rd party item.

Also ship damaged, repackaged goods as “new”, e.g. monitor with scratched screen. Solution: Order monitor from Staples, insist employee open box for inspection. Cost an extra $20 over Amazon — bargain!

Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#133

Post by esturk »

spoonjim wrote: post #121
meddlepal wrote: post #41

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.

If you are going to Reddit then they are going to Reddit.

If they're going to Reddit, they'll have to put in a lot more effort than just using bots to post fake reviews.

For some subreddits like r/BuyItForLife, it's not about the number of upvotes. Some people just gravitates toward old fashion goods.

Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#134

Post by Tenoke »

argiope wrote: post #128

In Germany there's Stiftung Warentest [1] which offers reviews without the apparent conflict of interest. They release paid articles with review and comparison all kinds of items. I find their offering a breeze of fresh air compared to the dumpster fire that online reviews have become. [1] https://www.test.de/unternehmen/ (German)

Can't you literally request for any negative review to be removed in Germany as it 'hurts your business' by law? I live here and that's the explanation I've been given when negative reviews disappear .

Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#136

Post by bombcar »

dragontamer wrote: post #102
bombcar wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I look for is bad reviews that indicate to me the problem is PEBKAC - nobody is buying bad reviews, but if the only real complaint is that when someone dropped it on their toes it hurt, then it's probably OK. But more and more I lean toward "if I have to get it from Amazon it needs to be something I'd be happy with being crap".

> nobody is buying bad reviews https://usasocialmediaservices.com/services/buy-negative-fac... Going price of negative reviews (that lean positive to sell the product) is $10 for 5 reviews. A mix of good, medium, and bad reviews "naturally" sells a product. You can literally buy astroturfing for your products these days on the cheap.

Ah snap they’re on to me. :(

Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#137

Post by walshemj »

iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #13
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #2

So, at what point does this become a problem for Amazon (for example)? They _seem_ to not care.

I've stopped using amazon for anything unless either I already know exactly what it will be or if its throwaway and I dont care. Even books now are often something that looks like it was printed on photocopy paper from a word processor. I think amazon is converging to its niche (maybe not a niche if there is ~a trillion in annual revenue at stake) as a Walmart replacement. For instances where quality matters, I think…

Or check out amazon first and go direct to alternate sites in the UK there are sites like Book Depository for books or Weyland Games for 40K gear 4 music for sound cards etc.

Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#138

Post by flanbiscuit »

breckenedge wrote: post #55
briga wrote: post #47

I'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…

And you can’t really trust those either since companies will review competitor’s products negatively. These days I just ask coworkers and friends and family

Yeah the whole system is gamed. This is my process:

- check out the reviews that actually post pictures

- read the 1-stars to see what happened.

- Do a google search for "best X product" to see if product shows up there. Sift through the many many bullshit sites set up to make money from Amazon affiliate links. Sometimes a result sticks out that I feel like I can easily trust, like if I'm looking for hiking equipment and an REI links shows up. Even the NY Times has a whole product review section and has amazon affiliate links: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/

- Look for YouTube video reviews. I know a lot of those are free products provided to YouTubers so I take any positive reviews by them with a grain of salt. I just want to see the product in use.

- Check out Reddit. Also take these with some scrutiny because Reddit has already been infiltrated by marketing companies willing to pay for fake reviews & upvotes

- Check FakeSpot and ReviewMeta to see what they say

- Analysis paralysis sets in. Are the good reviews fake? Are the bad reviews from competitors? Did the websites reviewing the products actually review it or just searched the top 10?

- Walk away for a day or 2

- Go back to the product, and decide to gamble and buy one of the top results in Amazon.

It's so annoying

Re: Almost 40% of U.S. Consumers Trust Online Reviews Less Than They Did 5 Years Ago

#139

Post by argiope »

Tenoke wrote: post #134
argiope wrote: post #128

In Germany there's Stiftung Warentest [1] which offers reviews without the apparent conflict of interest. They release paid articles with review and comparison all kinds of items. I find their offering a breeze of fresh air compared to the dumpster fire that online reviews have become. [1] https://www.test.de/unternehmen/ (German)

Can't you literally request for any negative review to be removed in Germany as it 'hurts your business' by law? I live here and that's the explanation I've been given when negative reviews disappear .

As far as I know, businesses have no right in Germany to remove lawful reviews, even if they are negative [1] and I can confirm to see occasional bad reviews on their articles. In any case I'm rather interested in finding trustful positive reviews to guide my purchases and I value having a neutral agency that offers that.

[1] https://www.anwalt.de/rechtstipps/negative-bewertungen-im-in... (German)

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