Are you swayed by negative reviews for a product?

[wyliec]

For the particular product I'm looking at (which is not important) there were 55% reviews rated 5, the highest rating that can be given, and 19% rated 1, the lowest. There are a total of 51 reviews on Amazon.com. Would you be swayed by the percent, or the fact that there are any negative reviews, which look like they may have some merit?

I've emailed the company (not Amazon) asking about the breakage rate. It's a company whose original product we use a lot of in physical therapy, and never had issue. The new product is an adaptation of the old, and would be cost prohibitive in a hospital setting.

[ThreeWheels]

Yes, I'm swayed.
Not necessarily convinced, but swayed.

[Grandpot]

I read the review closely for legitimate content. You can usually tell when a review is full of positive "Fluff" or if it is very negative because the reviewer just has a grudge because he did something stupid. Once I filter that out, I can be swayed.

[Bob Denman]

We read the reviews, but still would rather speak to someone we know that has used the product. :dontknow:

[ARtraveler]

Nope. I bought my first :ani29: "in spite" of the reviews. The early reviews were not so kind nor were they based on factual information by knowledgeable people. In the nine months between October 2007 and June 2008, I heard a lot of negative things about that new :spyder2:

None of the "bad" things happened to me or my :f_spider:

[DGoebel]

+1 :agree: What Grandpot says. It's amazing how many reviews are not even about the product itself. Reading the reviews, both positive and negative are part of the process.

[blacklightning]

I read the review closely for legitimate content. You can usually tell when a review is full of positive "Fluff" or if it is very negative because the reviewer just has a grudge because he did something stupid. Once I filter that out, I can be swayed.
:agree:I always read the reviews for legitimate content. Sometimes people buy a cheap item, and then get upset because it doesn't perform up to their sky high expectations. If you buy cheap, expect the quality of the product to possibly be sub par. Then there are some people that just can't be satisfied.

[ofdave]

I agree with Grandpot.
Sometimes you can see the reviewer has an agenda other than describing the product.
Other times they dis the product but don't use they product for what it is. (this mesh jacket is not good, it isn't waterproof--hello, did the manufacturer actually say it was waterproof?) (the nails are shiny but bend when I hit them with my sledgehammer? say what?)
I have been swayed but only after reading most of the reviews

[Hawk1966]

For the particular product I'm looking at (which is not important) there were 55% reviews rated 5, the highest rating that can be given, and 19% rated 1, the lowest. There are a total of 51 reviews on Amazon.com. Would you be swayed by the percent, or the fact that there are any negative reviews, which look like they may have some merit?

I've emailed the company (not Amazon) asking about the breakage rate. It's a company whose original product we use a lot of in physical therapy, and never had issue. The new product is an adaptation of the old, and would be cost prohibitive in a hospital setting.

I shop on Amazon a LOT -
On Amazon I always check the overall star rating; If the item is under 4 stars (with some exceptions) I stop right there. Over 4 and I start browsing the lowest star reviews first. It's fairly easy to see who's angry because shipping took too long (irrelevant in a product review) or the package was damaged but not the product (yes, I've seen a 1-star review for a bad outer carton) . Useless reviews are disregarded. Then I just look at a few of the positive reviews and decided. I think relevant negative reviews can be among the most useful as they often detail specific issues with a product while many positive reviews are just fluff cheerleadering posts.

[billybovine]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-hells-angels-business-reviews-1.4608271

[Peteoz]

I shop on Amazon a LOT -
On Amazon I always check the overall star rating; If the item is under 4 stars (with some exceptions) I stop right there. Over 4 and I start browsing the lowest star reviews first.

Ahhhhhhh. But what do you do if it is exactly 4 stars, Hawk? ;) Sorry, couldn’t help myself :ohyea:

Pete

[canamjhb]

My wife always reads reviews and swears by (at) them. I trust my wife. If she reads a review of a motel while we are on a trip, and that review says they have bed bugs, we don't go there.....

[Peteoz]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-hells-angels-business-reviews-1.4608271

Thanks Billy, that doesn’t come as a surprise. Standover tactics take many forms. It’s another tick for reading the best and worst reviews before making a call. Based on the Angels Facebook posts, it wouldn’t take much brainpower to work out what was really happening ;)

Pete

[Peteoz]

My wife always reads reviews and swears by (at) them. I trust my wife. If she reads a review of a motel while we are on a trip, and that review says they have bed bugs, we don't go there.....

I’d have to see more than one review claiming bedbugs before I believed it, Canam. It could be a disgruntled former employee or someone with a grudge. It could be for the wrong motel, which happens a bit. We saw a review of a restaurant recently where the reviewer gave them one star and slammed the bar service and the soggy pizzas, and this particular restaurant has neither a bar nor serves pizzas :shocked:. It was a restaurant with the same name, but on the other side of the country......

Pete

[Hawk1966]

Ahhhhhhh. But what do you do if it is exactly 4 stars, Hawk? ;) Sorry, couldn’t help myself :ohyea:
I'll consider a 4-star item. I've even bought items that were lower (my 3D printer has some deplorable reviews on Amazon) but I knew in advance what I needed to do to mod it into a very good printer.

[Chupaca]

It's gonna depend on the product or service. The survey industry is now paying for reviews and you don't even need to have used the product so I don't take surveys to seriously. Referential at best.... :thumbup:

[Peter Aawen]

:agree: ..... and I'd even go so far as to say that with the growing incidence of 'paid reviews', the Internet ratings aren't really worth squat, especially since it does seems that there's a helluva lot more'n one sucker posting every minute these days! :dontknow: ;)

You should bear in mind that before the Internet, the adage used to be that 'someone who has a bad experience tells 15 others; while those who have a good experience tell just 2!!' :sour:

But now in this Internet & social media age, those who have anything from a mildly upsetting right thru to a full blown bad experience broadcast it to the whole World via social media; while those who have a good experience still tell just 2!! :shocked:

So I look for referrals from people (or Posters) that I know or at least recognise & consider as 'fair assessors'. ;)

[Saluda]

They do influence my opinion of the product and possible purchase. The higher the cost the more I depend on input from known or trusted sources.

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

some times i google a product to see what magazine or other such reviews say or video of product being used.

[Joel The Biker]

I always read the reviews. I am actually more wary of websites that have all excellent reviews on all their products. There is at least one store that sells Spyder accessories that "sorts" through their reviews and only shows the best ones. I dont buy from that store for that reason. And, I know they "sort" their reviews because I gave the one item I bought from them, a less than stellar review and it didn't get published. It was an honest review too. Be wary of these stores!!! I agree with the 4-star rule also. Any less then 4 stars and I move on.

[Fatcycledaddy]

I like to read the reviews, throw out all of the 5 starts, probably people working for the company, then throw out all the 1 stars, people probably working for a competitor, and try to get the truth from all the others.

[nhoj]

I like to read the reviews, throw out all of the 5 starts, probably people working for the company, then throw out all the 1 stars, people probably working for a competitor, and try to get the truth from all the others.

Yup me too. I find 4star and 3star reviews more realistic. Especially on Amazon.