Review Sites

[blas87]

Anything from the pay sites like Angie's List, or even more simple ones like makeupalley.com or any site where you can make your own reviews of products or contractors, anything goes.

Do you guys put a lot of stock and trust into other people's reviews? I will admit that I look up reviews for the most simple of things like laundry detergent, makeup, hair products, shoes, even garbage bags. I don't always take every review to be the gospel truth, but I feel it helps me before I buy.

What do you think?

[Andara Bledin]

I've actually been very well served by open reviews of various products.

From Amazon book reviews, to Newegg product reviews, to BroadbandReports service reviews, to appliance reviews found at places like Kohl's, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, or Home Depot.

What I look for is consistency in the comments. I check the percentage of good/bad and then read the bad ones to see if they have legitimate complaints and whether the complaints will apply to my situation or if they're things that won't matter to me.

If you know how to read between the lines and ignore the fans who are cheerleading and discard the HWFO from the haters who can't get over their own ignorance, there can be quite a lot of valuable information to be gleaned from reading reviews.

Most recently, I was shopping for a range. It turns out that the model I was looking at had an error in the listing (broiler in the bottom, not a storage drawer as advertised) which is actually what I wanted. Useful information I might not have known had I not been checking the reviews.

^-.-^

[Gravekeeper]

What I look for is consistency in the comments. I check the percentage of good/bad and then read the bad ones to see if they have legitimate complaints and whether the complaints will apply to my situation or if they're things that won't matter to me.

Yes, I look for trends across several websites to eliminate the troll/fanboy factor. Though I tend to really mainly read reviews for three things: Media ( games, movies, whatever ), big ticket purchases ( major electronics, furniture, computer parts, whatever ) and things I have never purchased before and thus have no experience judging.

I never really bother looking at reviews for small purchases or consumables.

[Andara Bledin]

Most consumables, no.

I actually spent a lot of time checking reviews for various keyboards before I bought the one I'm using now, and that was only a $20 purchase. Time very well spent, considering how much I use this thing.

Sometimes even a small item can have a big impact.

^-.-^

[SongsOfDragons]

For media, I don't listen to reviews. I find them all RAR RAR RAR WORDS ABOUT IT stupid. Only I can tell me whether I like X move, Y book, Z game; not you, you hyperinflated balloon.

The only media reviewer I watch is Yahtzee, and only for entertainment purposes.

^^

For products, I might try Which or a basic internet search. Electronics - well we bought a new TV recently, an el cheapo thing from Sainsburys. It's very good, actually, but we checked its stats on its page and read up a little on the make to see if it likes leaking freon or some nonsense. No, it's okay, it does what we want, it's cheap. Let's get it.

If it's for a personal piece of technology...well ususally I receive those as Xmas/birthday gifts (as an only child my 'rents often have no idea what to get me, and they will pester until I tell them something). I don't really have brand loyalty; I check the stats and what it can do and if it works it will be fine. I stick to Nintendo for gaming as I'm a low-level gamer and Ninty has a lot of small simple games and a pretty good handheld. Music, yes it's an iPod, but that was my dad's idea. XD Still plays music to my ears. Electronic reviewers - I always find the reviews either MUST LOVE IT NOW WORSHIP or KILL IT WITH FIRE AND SALT. No, you're useless.

If it's for a household thing, I ask me mam. :P

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I find them to be really helpful, but you do have to get pretty good at reading between the lines.

I used to write for epinions.com, actually, and I find a lot of useful reviews on there. What I like is with that site is that it's full of regulars and you can build up a collection of reviewers whose opinions you trust. You can also search other reviews by authors, a feature I like because it lets me determine if the person is more likely to be honest and objective or if they're just a chronic complainer who is hard to please.

If someone leaves a negative review among a whole bunch of positives, for instance, I can go and look at their other reviews to see what the tone of them is. By the same token, if something has NOTHING but five star reviews gushing about their product, that's cause for suspicion, too.

Amazon reviews are pretty handy, too. Same thing.

[SongsOfDragons]

I do have a look at the reviews on Amazon on such, but I will always reserve my own judgement for myself. I think the only reviews I will actually, physically ignore, not even glance at them in the paper, are the public movie reviewers, because they (almost, stop overgeneralising dear...) always hate the movies I love and bitch furiously about the best parts IMO, so to avoid my blood pressure blowing off my head like a cork I avoid them.

[Andara Bledin]

Speaking of aggregate sites and entertainment reviews, I've actually found Rotten Tomatoes to be pretty useful.

To be able to see the divide between "reviewers" and "audience" and then check out why those in either camp did or didn't like a particular flick has bee quite useful. Of course, if both sides are holding their noses, then you know it's a stinker.

Take the movie Real Steel, for example. According to critics it's a flop. But according to regular joes it's a good flick. I happen to have a nearby first run theater that only charges $5 on Tuesdays, so I was going to see it anyway, but I'm firmly with the audience. It wasn't great cinema, but it was a solid and entertaining movie.

^-.-^

[bara]

These reviews are really quite accurate when choosing a company to applie lawn chemicals.

I worked at one, and can say that the majority of reviews about the one I was at were surprisingly accurate, extremely negative, but accurate.

[jackfaire]

For me it's about quantifying the review. I will trust a review more if 1) the person either knows me or has a record of similar taste as me. For example if the person says, "if you liked x you will probably like y" then I trust that more than someone just saying they liked something.


If people can cite why they liked the contractor then that helps,

IE.

"I liked that he took his time to explain to me in full detail how it worked and what he was fixing" ah not for me I don't need no chitty chitty chattys

"He screamed something about, 'American components, Russian components, all made in Taiwan!!' and then started bashing it with a wrench now it works." Ah now there is the repairman I want.

[Fire_on_High]

Nice Armageddon quote, Jack :-)

I do for things where there's a hard standard, something like a cpu fan for example...if I'm seeing a large number of reviews they were DOA or lasted a week, that's gonna be a "no thanks". Reviews of "noisy" or something? I'm gonna see what my options are, but if I like the price and I like the option, that's that, I'm buying.

[jackfaire]

Nice Armageddon quote, Jack :-)
.

Thanks it's my mantra right before I "fix" things.

[Giggle Goose]

With those sites, I just get so skeptical that the reviewer is actually working for the company. I look at Amazon reviews for just about everything! If I can see that the person has submitted other reviews then it looks legit to me. If it's just one review and there's no other info on the person, it starts to look sketch.