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I would be terrible at this. I purchased a set of headphones that sucked and left a 1 star review. The seller contacted me and sent me a new pair. They sucked t

I would be terrible at this. I purchased a set of headphones that sucked and left a 1 star review. The seller contacted me and sent me a new pair. They sucked too. But, the seller asked me to change my review to 5 stars. I refused. They actually sent me 2 more sets, each time encouraging me to change my review to 5 stars. Eventually they gave up (all the headphones had problems so I refused), but I was amazed at the lengths they would go through just to get one person to give them a 5 star review.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
One star is really harsh, don't you think? I guess this is just how people think though, everything is either 5 or 1 star right? Makes one wonder why we even have 5 star systems. Habit I suppose.
- TheHypnotist 7y ago
  That's why I like Steam's thumbs up/down. Stars 2-4 are useless.
  - logfromblammo 7y ago
    Not exactly worthless. I usually assume that 1 and 5 star reviews are by competitors and shills, respectively, and mainly ignore the star value anyway. I read 2-star reviews first, and look for text descriptions of identifiable strengths and weaknesses, and these must be corroborated by other substantial reviews. If anyone, with any star value, says "I wasn't shipped what was advertised/listed", I just close the Amazon tab, and look at other retailers. I don't have time for counterfeiter roulette any more.
  - pizza234 7y ago
    They're not (all) useless. There are a lot of Steam reviews complaining about the lack of a "neutral thumb". In this perspective, a more usable Steam system would have three evaluations, which would be a gross equivalent of 1-, 3- and 5- star Amazon ratings. I agree with the judgment, in fact, several times, positive or negative is pretty much a coin toss. In other words, at least the 3-stars rating has a use.
- HeXetic 7y ago
  I mean if they're really busted what else are you going to give them. "Well, they're broken but they're really stylish so I guess 3 stars for fashion"
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
    One star is the lowest possible rating. It implies that some essential feature of the product does not work at all. Parent did not say the headphones didn't work, just that they "sucked", which I can only take to mean that they did work, just not to parent's satisfaction.
    - pessimizer 7y ago
      > [...] which I can only take to mean that they did work, just not to parent's satisfaction. I think you're succumbing to a moderation fallacy. It's simply not true that things must have some positive aspects to offset their negative aspects, or to use that belief to somehow interpret "sucked" as that they worked well enough to deserve better than the lowest rating (which may have increased after the replacements arrived, all we know is that the rating remained less than 5 stars.) You can't consider having an extreme opinion on something as prima facie evidence of bias without distorting your perception of the world.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      > "One star is the lowest possible rating. It implies that some essential feature of the product does not work at all." Perhaps part of the problem is that there isn't actually any standard for what these stars mean, and what they seem to imply to you is not necessarily what they imply to other people. To me a one-star review means "I regret purchasing this and I believe many other people will too, and consequently I want to minimize the number of other people who buy it." That regret might be the result of some 'essential feature not working' or it might very well not be. A product that works but is very low quality for the price will get a 1-star review from me because I don't want other people to get ripped off.
- noirbot 7y ago
  I mean... if they sound bad enough that I'd never choose to listen to them, then what else should I review it as? "Would literally never listen to these headphones due to awful audio (their whole purpose), but it seemed like it had good build quality and I liked the color. 3/5 stars." I think there's plenty of reasons things shouldn't get 5-stars just for being "good enough", but giving a 1-star to something that literally doesn't work/is defective seems ok?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - jbarberu 7y ago
    This is the scale I tend to use when reviewing stuff: 5 - amazing, can't think of anything to improve product 4 - great product, but has some flaws 3 - good product, happy with purchase but has some downsides 2 - poor product, gets the job done with serious flaws 1 - defective product, would not recommend and will return if possible
- irrational 7y ago
  They didn't have just one problem. They had multiple problems to the extent that they were literally unusable. I rated them as a 1 because 0 was not available. Nobody should ever consider buying those headphones under any circumstances. They had no redeemable qualities.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago

One star is really harsh, don't you think? I guess this is just how people think though, everything is either 5 or 1 star right? Makes one wonder why we even have 5 star systems. Habit I suppose.

TheHypnotist 7y ago
That's why I like Steam's thumbs up/down. Stars 2-4 are useless.
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Not exactly worthless. I usually assume that 1 and 5 star reviews are by competitors and shills, respectively, and mainly ignore the star value anyway. I read 2-star reviews first, and look for text descriptions of identifiable strengths and weaknesses, and these must be corroborated by other substantial reviews. If anyone, with any star value, says "I wasn't shipped what was advertised/listed", I just close the Amazon tab, and look at other retailers. I don't have time for counterfeiter roulette any more.
- pizza234 7y ago
  They're not (all) useless. There are a lot of Steam reviews complaining about the lack of a "neutral thumb". In this perspective, a more usable Steam system would have three evaluations, which would be a gross equivalent of 1-, 3- and 5- star Amazon ratings. I agree with the judgment, in fact, several times, positive or negative is pretty much a coin toss. In other words, at least the 3-stars rating has a use.
HeXetic 7y ago
I mean if they're really busted what else are you going to give them. "Well, they're broken but they're really stylish so I guess 3 stars for fashion"
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  One star is the lowest possible rating. It implies that some essential feature of the product does not work at all. Parent did not say the headphones didn't work, just that they "sucked", which I can only take to mean that they did work, just not to parent's satisfaction.
  - pessimizer 7y ago
    > [...] which I can only take to mean that they did work, just not to parent's satisfaction. I think you're succumbing to a moderation fallacy. It's simply not true that things must have some positive aspects to offset their negative aspects, or to use that belief to somehow interpret "sucked" as that they worked well enough to deserve better than the lowest rating (which may have increased after the replacements arrived, all we know is that the rating remained less than 5 stars.) You can't consider having an extreme opinion on something as prima facie evidence of bias without distorting your perception of the world.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    > "One star is the lowest possible rating. It implies that some essential feature of the product does not work at all." Perhaps part of the problem is that there isn't actually any standard for what these stars mean, and what they seem to imply to you is not necessarily what they imply to other people. To me a one-star review means "I regret purchasing this and I believe many other people will too, and consequently I want to minimize the number of other people who buy it." That regret might be the result of some 'essential feature not working' or it might very well not be. A product that works but is very low quality for the price will get a 1-star review from me because I don't want other people to get ripped off.
noirbot 7y ago
I mean... if they sound bad enough that I'd never choose to listen to them, then what else should I review it as? "Would literally never listen to these headphones due to awful audio (their whole purpose), but it seemed like it had good build quality and I liked the color. 3/5 stars." I think there's plenty of reasons things shouldn't get 5-stars just for being "good enough", but giving a 1-star to something that literally doesn't work/is defective seems ok?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- jbarberu 7y ago
  This is the scale I tend to use when reviewing stuff: 5 - amazing, can't think of anything to improve product 4 - great product, but has some flaws 3 - good product, happy with purchase but has some downsides 2 - poor product, gets the job done with serious flaws 1 - defective product, would not recommend and will return if possible
irrational 7y ago
They didn't have just one problem. They had multiple problems to the extent that they were literally unusable. I rated them as a 1 because 0 was not available. Nobody should ever consider buying those headphones under any circumstances. They had no redeemable qualities.