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No. If you're reviewing Fry's electronics and they sell you a previously-opened, broken HP computer, it's the review of Fry's that should suffer, not the review

by bgentry 15y ago

No. If you're reviewing Fry's electronics and they sell you a previously-opened, broken HP computer, it's the review of Fry's that should suffer, not the review of that particular HP machine. A review of an album should be confined to your opinions on that album. That being said, most people don't know the difference as I see this kind of thing on Zappos and NewEgg all the time.

ugh 15y ago
I think people do know the difference but reviews offer them a very public way to complain. I don’t think there are easily discoverable and public review sections for the services Amazon and other online retailers provide†. Are there gaps in the selection of products? Are prices appropriate? Is the shipping slow? Is the packaging inappropriate? Are you given inaccurate information about the arrival of you orders? Are songs slow to download? Is the user interface wonky? There is no place for consumers to publicly review online retailers on their own websites. That sucks. It makes product reviews less useful because they are riddled with all that noise that is in no way related to the actual product. It also doesn’t allow consumers to review online retailers in a way that’s accessible to other consumers. This is a failing of the online retailer, not consumers. I think online retailers are quite happy that all the talk about their services is spread around in all the product reviews and not in any central place. They can even delete criticism of their service with the justification that the review in question is off-topic. It’s not even as though this is a hard problem. You would just have to ask the reviewer what he wants to write about (the product or the service). †Amazon’s review guidelines (http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-guidelines http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-gui...), for example, do not even allow users to publicly share information about or criticize Amazon’s service in reviews. You are asked to use the feedback form which is not public. Quote: “What’s not allowed: […] Feedback on the seller, your shipment experience or the packaging (you can do that at www.amazon.com/feedback and www.amazon.com/packaging)”

by bgentry 15y ago

ugh 15y ago

I think people do know the difference but reviews offer them a very public way to complain. I don’t think there are easily discoverable and public review sections for the services Amazon and other online retailers provide†. Are there gaps in the selection of products? Are prices appropriate? Is the shipping slow? Is the packaging inappropriate? Are you given inaccurate information about the arrival of you orders? Are songs slow to download? Is the user interface wonky? There is no place for consumers to publicly review online retailers on their own websites. That sucks. It makes product reviews less useful because they are riddled with all that noise that is in no way related to the actual product. It also doesn’t allow consumers to review online retailers in a way that’s accessible to other consumers. This is a failing of the online retailer, not consumers. I think online retailers are quite happy that all the talk about their services is spread around in all the product reviews and not in any central place. They can even delete criticism of their service with the justification that the review in question is off-topic. It’s not even as though this is a hard problem. You would just have to ask the reviewer what he wants to write about (the product or the service). †Amazon’s review guidelines (http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-guidelines http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-gui...), for example, do not even allow users to publicly share information about or criticize Amazon’s service in reviews. You are asked to use the feedback form which is not public. Quote: “What’s not allowed: […] Feedback on the seller, your shipment experience or the packaging (you can do that at www.amazon.com/feedback and www.amazon.com/packaging)”