Guest Comment: Beware dodgy online product reviews
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I agree with the comments about holiday reviews.
You can sometimes tell if they're not genuine (especially Indian Ocean/Far East) by the content of the review (phrases/words used
etc).
I do tend to take note of how many reviews AND how many forum posts a reviewer has done.
I also read the whole of the review - I read one review of a hotel in Goa that we were considering and one guy had given it 2/10.
On reading the review, the only thing he said about the hotel itself was that the staff were friendly and kept the room clean.
However, it soon became obvious that he'd hated every minute of his holiday in Candolim:
the red dust, the taxi drivers, the beach sellers, the food, the beggars, the airport.....
When I do a review, I do try to be objective rather than subjective and don't expect to pay peanuts for a package holiday to a 2 or 3 * hotel in Goa and then moan abouit the lack of chandeliers in Reception, bell boys in posh uniforms and 24 hour room service.0 -
EVen genuine reviews can be pretty unhelpful. Some of the tripadvisor reviews are ridiculous, such as the ones which complain about the weather as if the hotel could do anything about that.
Most pointless are Amazon reviews in which people say they haven't actually used the product yet, but give it 5 stars because it 'looks nice'!0 -
Surely you have to use some sensible judgement when reading reviews taking a good sample of positive and negative postings to make up your own mind on a product purchase.
I do however take issue with the following example in the original article:
"Even products that haven't been released yet have reviews. ..."
Amazon has a programme which specifically garners reviews of products not yet available for sale and to which I belong. Therefore, they have reviews available for when the product is released and to encourage advance sales before publication/release. So, the fact something has not yet been released does not always mean the reviews are fake.
And while I don't do reviews for money there are many MSE SAHMs who use these sites to up their income and a lot of threads on this forum can be found recommending this if you have the time and inclination. MSE are you arguing with your own advice and forumites?!?!?
All the best,
SpigsMortgage Free October 2013 :T0 -
Try looking at reviews for Utility Warehouse, any positive reviews will be written by one of their "Independent" distributors...Missing Tesco R&R since Feb '07 :A & now a "Tesco veteran" apparently!
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Bit harsh to single out torchwood. I mean its been on tv so they are reviewing how good the tv show was, which is essentially what the dvd will be. Same with movies, people understand they are reviewing the movie even if the dvd is not out for several months. Its a bit confused but essentially makes sense.0
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Also in reverse some people write bad hotel/B&B reviews because they have disagreed with the Manager not becuse they are objective. Best to read ALL reviews and take an overall opinion.0
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Exactly an intelligent synopsis.I agree with the comments about holiday reviews.
You can sometimes tell if they're not genuine (especially Indian Ocean/Far East) by the content of the review (phrases/words used
etc).
I do tend to take note of how many reviews AND how many forum posts a reviewer has done.
I also read the whole of the review - I read one review of a hotel in Goa that we were considering and one guy had given it 2/10.
On reading the review, the only thing he said about the hotel itself was that the staff were friendly and kept the room clean.
However, it soon became obvious that he'd hated every minute of his holiday in Candolim:
the red dust, the taxi drivers, the beach sellers, the food, the beggars, the airport.....
When I do a review, I do try to be objective rather than subjective and don't expect to pay peanuts for a package holiday to a 2 or 3 * hotel in Goa and then moan abouit the lack of chandeliers in Reception, bell boys in posh uniforms and 24 hour room service.0 -
I do laugh when I seen the complaints on trip advisor about no english breakfast, I know they are the same people who then go and sit in an english pub and watch eastenders.
As it is I read reviews for a camcorder, as it is its a HD camcorder using the AVCHD format to which I already owned one, one review rants on about how it takes hours to transfer to his computer and then hours to put on an external drive as his computer hard drive isn't big enough but the files won't play from the external hard drive as its not fast enough and he can't convert them to DVD.
As it is I now own said camcorder (Bought from CEX), If I fill a 16GB SD card (2 hours footage) it takes a a few minutes to copy to my PC and from there I can watch instantly or burn to DVD/Blu-ray easily or even sync many cameras and do a multi camera edit.
The short of it is he was using an old useless PC and didn't have a clue. what he was doing (not a good mix when dealing with HD footage).Have my first business premises (+4th business) 01/11/2017
Quit day job to run 3 businesses 08/02/2017
Started third business 25/06/2016
Son born 13/09/2015
Started a second business 03/08/2013
Officially the owner of my own business since 13/01/20120 -
It should be pointed out that it is illegal for a business owner to post a review pretending to be a customer under the Unfair Commmercial Practices Act. Depending upon the seriousness Trading Standards may be interested.0
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A friend has recently come back from a backpacking trip around India, in quite a few locations he was offered free accommodation in return for trashing a competitor on review sites.0
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