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Do you trust online reviews? Now that Amazon is suing more than 1,000 people who allegedly offered to write glowing product reviews for cash, you might reasonably be concerned.
Turns out, deceptive reviews are commonplace online—and so are doubts about them. The research organization Mintel found that 57 percent of surveyed consumers are suspicious of companies or products that only have positive online reviews. And 49 percent believe companies probably give incentives for online reviews.
Fortunately, there are a few good techniques that can help you tell truth from fiction.
The article lists several ways to tell the difference. What are yours?
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Everything is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being
that a belch is more satisfying.
-- Ingmar Bergman
(Score: 4, Interesting) by skater on Thursday October 22 2015, @11:53AM
This XKCD [xkcd.com] is an excellent example of why the negative reviews are sometimes the most important.
I have to admit selling a bit of my soul when it comes to reviews. We had a local company replace our front door a couple years ago. They did a great job, the price was fair, and we were happy with how the purchase and installation went. But, then, a few weeks later, they started calling me at work, repeatedly. Hey, do you want to do the sliding glass door? Do you want to replace your siding? Do you need a new roof? Carpeting? Every few weeks. It was out of control, and I snapped at them a few times, and they kept calling. So, I posted an online review saying we were thrilled with the work they did, etc., but not so happy with the hard sell we received afterward. A few days later they contacted me (via email), and told me they'd remove me from the call list (they haven't called me since), and they offered $100 off the next thing we'd have done by them if I'd take out that part of the review.
I thought about it for a few days and decided to do it, because we have some things we do need to do to the house, and saving $100 wouldn't hurt. I saw it as a little compensation for the headache. Of course, if we go to them and they start screwing with us, then the review goes back the way it was originally; there are too many construction companies around here looking for work to screw around. I also had to give them some respect for monitoring the situation online and taking steps to make their customers happier.
And, the part of the review I changed involved telephone calls - even a couple years later, we're still happy with the actual door and the installation, and I'd consider using them again. It's not like I went from "this installation had all kinds of problems" to "it was a great installation!"