David Jacob's reviews, annotated with warnings from real shoppers [Amazon]
]]>You're going to love this...I can't prove it, but I believe that Amazon.com used employess to wash out complaints over the arrival of the Kindle II. Kindle I purchasers who had JUST bought the Kindle I as a result of the Oprah Winfrey push, I am included in that group, expressed their opinions on Amazon.com's Kindle Reader forum and were immediately surrounded by pirhanas and drowned out. Literally 20 posts at a time attacking 1 poster expressing his opinion is a little bit 'fishy,' don't you think? It was systematic and patterned, so probably provable, so at that point I said enough, and have not bought a single thing at Amazon.com since...
]]>@shefarted: Adamantium Schills?
]]>@I_am_Awesome: Wow. You missed the part where none of the positive reviews got hit, and it's just as likely that they're flawed too you know.
]]>@stacye: I noticed that the other day when shopping for a new TV. Such a turn-off. Well that, and Target's descriptions are lacking. I wanted to know what sort of inputs the sets they sold had, and I couldn't find that information anywhere in the item description. Just a bunch of nonsense I couldn't care less about. :(
]]>however they do not appear on the actual product page and you cannot view any of the comments (we) left.
]]>That being said, the reviews there do seem to be legit, even if the potential for shenanigans is high.
]]>I was looking at the reviews for a book of patterns the bad reviews were for the next book in the series. The content of each book isn't the same; it's an entirely different set of patterns.
]]>We had a product that sold about 60-80 copies a month on Amazon. It was a tutorial CD that used Flash so you had to put it in your Mac or PC. It was a computer training CD which is a pretty competitive business. We had about 9 mostly positive reviews. All of a sudden we got one nasty review that said "this program won't play. the company made a piece of crap. it's garbage." Turns out the guy was trying to play this CD in his DVD player. Our sales immediately dropped to less than 20 a month. This 1-star review by a guy that didn't bother to read the packaging, manual, or disc cost us about $20,000 in sales. Amazon wouldn't edit it. The guy wouldn't change it. So now you know why companies shill their products. AT least now a company can respond to the comments.
]]>What really confuses me is when someone leaves a 1-star review and then says "This product is great!"
]]>I'm amazed Consumerist failed to mention the "Prime" example of a a bullshitreviewer: Harriet Klausner
This ***** claims to be an ex librarian who can speed read - an average of 6 full novels each day for the past 11 years or so...including 60 on one day, and books that weren't even released!
Actually, her Amazon profile says that she speed-reads 2 books a day, yet her daily reviews for the past 11 years are 4 more/day than that....so apparently she fails at math.
Every single review reads like ad-copy and is a 5 star review..
I love the part about how on author purposefully named a character after her, and she didn't even mention that in her review!
Here's her scamazon profile:
Here are some other ones I've come across:
]]>Amazon should implement a review system much like Newegg.com where reviews from people, who actually purchased the product, are specially marked as such.
That way, consumers could make the desicion to place a higher value on reviews coming from those verified as purchasing the product. It also means that fake reviewers would have to purchase the product through their own account, to have a higher value. This additional cost would make fake reviews more expensive for the company, and more difficult to carry out.
]]>i haven't been back there regularly for at least 2 years (still stop by every once in a great while), primarily b/c their reviews became overwhelmed by interested parties. even the editors' reviews started showing extreme slant towards specific products & would leave out important details if it took away from a particular product's sellability.
]]>Reading the anti-David Jacobs review comments on those products was pretty damn entertaining!
]]>Thanks for the tip!
]]>@ironchef:
Even axgrinders can be right once in a while.
Ignoring their whine, look at the underlying complaint. For example, is the processing time to the order 3 days rather than the claimed same day? I have no problem buying from a company who takes 3 days to process an order, but whiners may never be happy with 3 day processing time and will make a stink about the slow service.
]]>@cmdrsass:
Absolutely. Especially when the pattern of smoke indicates a roaring forest fire over the horizon.
]]>@ElizabethD: I'm just shocked to see Sierra in your list.
I guess I always think of it as a local store and forget that they're a national website and catalogue. Just had some massive layoffs themselves, which was too bad.
Don't know why I insist on shopping at REI instead.
]]>*****
]]>I love Amazon, love their auto-ship program, and I leave authentic reviews. But again, the reviews are of no consequence when you can easily reutrn any product.
]]>I've only ever used amazon for books, so I don't think I'd get too uptight over a fake review. I can totally understand it with more expensive items though.
]]>Jackman, carving it out with adamantium skills.
]]>Be a consumer. Approach the reviews like you would any product literature.
Suspicious review indications -
-5 *
-short
-mentions a product feature
-mentions some personal experience
-ONLY REVIEW THAT PERSON HAS EVER POSTED
-lots of these
Suggestion -
-start reading reviews at 1* first
-look for repetition of negatives
-check the person's other reviews
-pay special attention to 3* and 4* reviews
-look for some degree of thought process
Oops! The best ones are for a different album:
"Looking For - Best of David Hasselhoff."
Over 1,000 wicked reviews.
The song, "Hot Shot City" was particularly good.
]]>Unless that's a huge trend, IMO it really shouldn't get much consideration -- almost every product will have a few that turn up defective or break in shipping. But if someone says they got 4 in a row with some defect, of course that's different.
Yeah it seems that the folks who rate themselves as having the highest tech level actually seem to actually have a flimsy understanding of things.
]]>@BuddyHinton: I haven't read it yet, but I just know it's going to be great!! 5 stars!!! A++++!!!
]]>You will die.
]]>I would like to get a Dr. House scoring system, where might I purchase one?
]]>I wonder how long it will take before some clever company starts using fake accounts and reviews to start discrediting their competition by making it look like they were the ones writing positive reviews...
]]>Travel (hotel) reviews are especially prone to outliers (the extremely pleased and the extremely displeased) and seeming plants, so I like it best when I find one that has over 50 reviews and can glean a big picture.
As for this Amazon reviewer? My god, he's not even a good plant! If I were faking reviews I'd try for better ones.
]]>@I_have_something_to_say: A gold star on your paper!!!
]]>Also, the entire review needed more exclamation marks.
]]>> HUGH overhead scoring
Hugh? Overhead? Which Hugh? Downs, Grant, Laurie? Can you imagine Dr. House, hanging from the ceiling somewhere, yelling out the score?
Whoo, no thanks, that's just scary.
]]>Since then I've gotten pretty good at spotting fake reviews. On retail sites like amazon a sure give away is the listing of product features in a review. Typically reviewers are more concerned with performance, reliability and overall value. The fake reviews tend to be a lot of "it has this and that and this OMG!!! I want to buy 7"
]]>Awesome!
]]>I love the irony that his one great review causes several negative reviews. Not much return on investment there, David!
]]>The whole review system is borked and in serious need of overhaul. More and better pictures would be nice, too.
]]>Isn't posting a one-star review to counter some shill's "review" of a product almost as bad as being the shill? Shouldn't these people be flagging the shill's review instead?
]]>David Jacob says:
"True I had a interest in Gamenamics Products.....they are quality items that I would recommend to EVERYONE !!"
...ROFLMAO!!!
]]>When I need a review I always try to hit up message boards specifically dedicated to what I'm looking to buy. I'm constantly reading musical equipment reviews on Harmony Central.
]]>I try to look for a common trend among many reviews, if there are many reviews describing a particular problem with an item, then I tend to believe that is true. The same goes for a good product with good reviews. You need to have a significant amount of reviews to determine this though, maybe 50-100 reviews. Its hard to determine if a product is good through a single review or a small pool of 10 reviews.
]]>I look for uniformly good reviews on a product at amazon.
If a product isn't up to snuff, SOMEONE will have posted a negative review.
I have actually done some reviewing for amazon's Vine program, where they send you free samples of stuff to review, and I must say, the amount of logrolling on display would clog the mighty Mississippi!
I was amused, for example, to see that my very negative review of a very dumb marketing book was marked with two "not helpful" comments. Would it surprise a consumerist reader to hear that NO positive reviews received "not helpful" comments?
]]>I always just scan over the reviews to see if the tone is positive or negative, and to look for any issues people might be having with a product. I never use them to choose what to buy.
]]>o.0
That's a scary thought. Never thought of that one. You must have a devious mind. Nonetheless, it's true. The internet is a tricky beast.
]]>You can usually spot the fakes due to how they are worded. Instead of the usual statements, the fakes are carefully constructed and sound like the come from a commercial.
]]>I rely on Amazon reviews when deciding on certain types of photographic equipment, but I only take heed when there are MANY reveiws, and I can tell when someone is bullshitting in a camera review, because their claims are usually outrageous (at least compared to other reviews both on Amazon and on other websites like BHPHOTOVIDEO.COM)
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