Amazon reviews - not as trustworthy as they used to be?

Amazon reviews - not as trustworthy as they used to be?

Author
Discussion

BRISTOL86

Original Poster:

1,097 posts

104 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
I bought something on Amazon a few months ago on the back of overwhelmingly favourable reviews, and it turned out to be a crock of ste. I can't actually remember what the product was, but it was something trivial so I thought nothing of it.

Yesterday I bought some new in-ear headphones, again based on the fact that they had overwhelmingly positive reviews, more so than many more premium brands (I'd never actually heard of this brand).

Well, you can guess the punchline. They're absolute garbage. They're packaged and presented like a premium product but they're by far and away the worst headphones I've ever used. The sound quality is appalling. OK they were only £25 but I'd have felt hard done by having paid £5 for them.

Are companies just 'buying' reviews? I notice a lot of products have reviews that are qualified by 'I must point out I received a free sample of this product.....' then surprise surprise it's a glowing review....

I used to really use the reviews on Amazon to gauge the product quality and have mostly found it very telling, but starting to doubt things now!

All that jazz

7,632 posts

145 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
You're not imagining it, I've noticed same. I'm the sort of person that will spend what feels like hours looking at reviews before I finally commit to buying something which costs about a fiver hehe. I find that starting with the 1 star reviews and working upwards tends to provide one with a better picture with regards the true quality of the item although there's no exact science to it.

essayer

9,011 posts

193 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
I've noticed this too, even on Amazon's own products. A five star review with a couple of words 'Five stars' !

This is for cheap tat from China that would probably burn your house down given half a chance.

-crookedtail-

1,558 posts

189 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
Are you sure they are not fakes, there does seem to be a few when it comes to earphones?

I'm not sure what brand you got, but I would definitely recommend SoundMagic e10s (they may have a newer model now) for around the same money - They're top drawer!!!

GetCarter

29,358 posts

278 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
Have to say: Pay £25 and you'll get £25's worth. Amazon or not.

As for reviews - i never trust them. I do however trust the % happy from the supplier. Much harder to fake.

The Nur

9,168 posts

184 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
Its always almost Chinese produced stuff. As a rule if I see the "I was supplied with this product for free in return for a review" or similar I just take that as a sign to avoid it like the plague.

sebhaque

6,402 posts

180 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
A little tip I was told was to go for the well-worded 3-star reviews. These are usually good at praising the positive aspects of the item, while drawing attention to the negative sides. Balanced review and usually the most honest you can get. Nobody would pay someone to give them 3/5 stars.

Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
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I don't think many on-line reviews are trustworthy.

egroeg

40 posts

107 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
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I'm convinced a lot of reviews on amazon are fake.

Pachydermus

973 posts

111 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
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I've received a 10% discount from a supplier for leaving a review on amazon. I left the review because it was actually a good product that I'd still happily recommend to people but I'm sure there's plenty of people out there willing to leave a good review for crap because they got it cheap.

BRISTOL86

Original Poster:

1,097 posts

104 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
GetCarter said:
Have to say: Pay £25 and you'll get £25's worth. Amazon or not.

As for reviews - i never trust them. I do however trust the % happy from the supplier. Much harder to fake.
I get that £25 isn't going to buy you top of the line, but honestly you should hear these things. £5 and you'd feel like you'd been robbed!

BRISTOL86

Original Poster:

1,097 posts

104 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
-crookedtail- said:
Are you sure they are not fakes, there does seem to be a few when it comes to earphones?

I'm not sure what brand you got, but I would definitely recommend SoundMagic e10s (they may have a newer model now) for around the same money - They're top drawer!!!
Will look into them, thanks!

I had some Logitech Ultimate Ears (can't remember the exact model number) which have finally gone kaput after about 6 years, they were absolutely ace. But about 4x what my budget is now!

Rick101

6,959 posts

149 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
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Everything I've purchased recently from Amazon I've subsequently had numerous emails pestering for positive reviews.

The Nur

9,168 posts

184 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
I've only actually experienced this bought reviews phenomenon once and that was with a third party wireless charger that turned out to charge at a ridiculously slow rate. There were hundreds of positive reviews and I only figured out what was going on afterwards when I looked in to the reviews in more detail. I returned it with no problems which I suppose is the the other side of the coin with Amazon.

Most of the time I just use amazon to buy things that I can't be arsed to go get or it works out cheaper for me not to go and get for myself. Prime is a godsend for this. Certainly helps to go in with eyes wide open though.

Finlandia

7,803 posts

230 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
What earphones are they?
I can recommend Brainwavz and MEE Audio, any model, they will sound much better than their price suggests. The SoundMagic mentioned are also very good.

Probably a bit over budget, but MEE Pinnacle P1 are one of the best earphones I have heard, out of the 100+ I have tried.

eldar

21,614 posts

195 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
sebhaque said:
A little tip I was told was to go for the well-worded 3-star reviews. These are usually good at praising the positive aspects of the item, while drawing attention to the negative sides. Balanced review and usually the most honest you can get. Nobody would pay someone to give them 3/5 stars.
This works for me. Ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews and the truth is usually lurking in the rest.

poing

8,743 posts

199 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
Some of the reviews are from people who are given the product to review for free. It does mention this on the review though and you can filter them. I know someone who is a product tester for one of the cheap brands, she didn't apply or anything she just wrote a review and they asked her if she'd be willing to review stuff they sent her. Cheap rubbish but it's free!

For some of these cheaper items the companies have a clever little policy though. I've left a negative review, a couple of hours later the company contacts me and tells me they have sent a replacement already and would I mind changing the review if the new one is working. It's sneaky because any bad reviews only last a short period of time before being upgraded.

I have discovered this works rather well in my favour though. For example I bought a twin USB charger and it didn't work after 24 hours. Stuck on a negative review. They contacted me as normal but I said it was too late, I don't want a replacement and I'd rather have a refund as I now want a 4 USB charger instead and maybe the twin for the car. I now have all of these chargers, they only cost me the original price. They will bend over backwards, sideways and do the twist if you ask them to. They just want 5 stars at any cost.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Thursday 25th August 2016
quotequote all
Look at the 1 and 2 star reviews. If there aren't any, then read the 3 star ones etc.

The Nur said:
Its always almost Chinese produced stuff. As a rule if I see the "I was supplied with this product for free in return for a review" or similar I just take that as a sign to avoid it like the plague.
Yep.

cirian75

4,245 posts

232 months

Friday 26th August 2016
quotequote all
This looks cheap, and has great reviews, should I buy it? wink

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Veet-Men-Hair-Removal-Cre...

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Friday 26th August 2016
quotequote all
cirian75 said:
This looks cheap, and has great reviews, should I buy it? wink

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Veet-Men-Hair-Removal-Cre...
The problem is that it doesn't have great reviews; it has entertaining reviews. If you genuinely are looking at buying the product because you're an ape, then it's gonna take you ages to sift through the ste (I may be wrong and apart from the two I saw, the other reviews might be genuinely useful).