4 ms·

When it comes to Amazon reviews you never go by the average you go to scroll down to the actual reviews and read what the one and two star reviews are complaini

When it comes to Amazon reviews you never go by the average you go to scroll down to the actual reviews and read what the one and two star reviews are complaining about and decide if that is acceptable assuming it will happen with your purchase, IMHO.

SilkRoadie 6y ago
Sort reviews by new. It’s amazing how many “5 star” items have an average of 2-3 stars when you look at the latest reviews. I was looking for some L plates for my car. A lot of reviews called them “beautiful”... it is a white square with a letter L that sticks to your car... trying to find one which didn’t fall off or damage the car was far from trivial. Fortunately newer reviews mentioned damage or falling off or does the job which gave some steer. I have been purposefully shopping elsewhere recently. Other sites are usually cheaper and there is less doubt about what is actually going to get received.
- beowulfey 6y ago
  I love that Steam shows an average of recent reviews. I think it’s very telling that Amazon does not.
  - batterylow 6y ago
    I thought the reason Steam had "recent reviews" was to account for patches/updates and so on?
    - dfxm12 6y ago
      Not sure why that wouldn't apply to other products. Product design/packaging/formulas change, as does a seller's customer service...
- tt433 6y ago
  Sorting by new also usually exposes things like hijacked item or seller pages more easily
ianmcgowan 6y ago
I change the sort URL parameter from &s=review-rank to &s=review-count-rank and tend to put more weight against products with thousands of decent reviews; if nothing in the category has hundreds of reviews, that's a sign to look elsewhere. Perhaps false optimism or a flawed heuristic, but seems to work out for certain categories of stuff.
- tchalla 6y ago
  A lot of reviews raise a red flag in my mind. Particularly, for products which are new. I’ve been burnt with counterfeit and low quality products with a large number of reviews.

SilkRoadie 6y ago

Sort reviews by new. It’s amazing how many “5 star” items have an average of 2-3 stars when you look at the latest reviews. I was looking for some L plates for my car. A lot of reviews called them “beautiful”... it is a white square with a letter L that sticks to your car... trying to find one which didn’t fall off or damage the car was far from trivial. Fortunately newer reviews mentioned damage or falling off or does the job which gave some steer. I have been purposefully shopping elsewhere recently. Other sites are usually cheaper and there is less doubt about what is actually going to get received.

beowulfey 6y ago
I love that Steam shows an average of recent reviews. I think it’s very telling that Amazon does not.
- batterylow 6y ago
  I thought the reason Steam had "recent reviews" was to account for patches/updates and so on?
  - dfxm12 6y ago
    Not sure why that wouldn't apply to other products. Product design/packaging/formulas change, as does a seller's customer service...
tt433 6y ago
Sorting by new also usually exposes things like hijacked item or seller pages more easily

ianmcgowan 6y ago

I change the sort URL parameter from &s=review-rank to &s=review-count-rank and tend to put more weight against products with thousands of decent reviews; if nothing in the category has hundreds of reviews, that's a sign to look elsewhere. Perhaps false optimism or a flawed heuristic, but seems to work out for certain categories of stuff.

tchalla 6y ago
A lot of reviews raise a red flag in my mind. Particularly, for products which are new. I’ve been burnt with counterfeit and low quality products with a large number of reviews.