One of the main reasons I look at electronic products online before I purchase something is to see what other people have been saying on the product. You can get a glimpse of whats good or bad about it. But can these peoples opinions be trusted?
I have run into many products that looked good on paper, but have been turned away by bad review of the product easily breaking, short battery life, runs slow, and many other reasons. On the other hand, I have purchased products that other people complained about, and not run into any issues that they had mentioned.
I often see "fan-boy"ing over products, where they praise one brand, and trash other brands. they hate the other product so much, that they'll go on man retail store websites, and write multiple bad things and give it a rating of 1 out of 5 stars. At the same time, they praise the brand they prefer to be being perfect in every way, and a 5 out of 5 stars.
On the other hand, many people write their experience with the product, showing both its good side and bad and saying that they liked it or not. Some people do it so much, that the website honors it with a "top contributor" tag on the review for being trustworthy time and time again.
There are also all kinds of people in between. people who write good review on a very bad product to trick you into buying it, and honest people just putting in their 2 cents. Can they all be trusted?
In my opinion, they shouldn't make or break purchases. if you're seriously interested in the product, take a look at what they say. what they say about their experience may not be the same as yours.
When I read consumer reviews of music on Amazon.com, the vast majority are 5 star reviews, as generally only fans of the musician will bother to say anything about it. 4 star reviews are less common, while 3 stars is rare, 2 stars is very rare, and 1 star is fairly common due to trolls and negative people. I never trust a 1-star review, but I do consider the 5 star reviews. Is this unfair?
ReplyDeleteI generally can tell if the person had a bad experience versus they really think the product is flawed. I can also tell if someone is just blindly touting the benefits of a product or honestly giving it a 5-star review.
I also wonder about companies who hire people specifically to write reviews to either praise their product, or trash competitor's similar product. Heck, companies or individuals can even hire people now a'days to "clean up their reputation" online by deleteing negative pages or reviews. With corporate interests interfereing with all of this, I would rely on only face-to-face reviews with trusted friends or experts, and ditch the online reviews all together.
ReplyDelete