Reviews on Websites

Hoof_Hearted

I have a bee in my bonnet about some websites just publishing positive reviews, which renders them meaningless. I raised this before with regard to two holiday cottages I stayed in with the same company -- positive review published; mediocre review never saw the light of day.

This time I submitted a review for a printer, saying that the printer is good but the toner cartridges are very expensive (3 stars). It was never published so I emailed to ask the company's review policy. Had an email back the same day, apologising that my review had been in moderation queue limbo and was now on the site (after two weeks or so). Virtually every product reviewed on the site is five stars. If anything negative is supressed, this is not surprising.

Fair play to Amazon -- plenty of negative reviews on there and I think this makes me more inclined to buy from them as 5 stars probably means it is a good product. Proper reviews are probably better for business in the long run.

Chickabiddybex

This is why I only trust independent review sites such as Trustpilot. The retailer doesn't get to pick what goes on there!

MamaMoo_2

I had a similar issue with Asda. Posted a reasonable review (even posted it on here to see if people thought it would violate rules. Nobody thought it did) however as it was 1*, it was rejected.

Hoof_Hearted

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

This is why I only trust independent review sites such as Trustpilot. The retailer doesn't get to pick what goes on there!

I think you are right. However, it is often difficult to find reviews of individual products rather than companies (except on Amazon).

On the whole, I do tend to trust Amazon and Tripadvisor if there are a reasonable number of reviews. I think all companies should be made to publish their policy e.g. "we will publish all reviews that are not abusive, offensive or name individuals".

If products with poor reviews don't sell, then companies won't stock them, which raises the quality of products all round.