What do you think of Amazon reviews?

[dennis thompson]

When I'm looking for a product I often look at the Amazon Reviews.
Do you use them?
Do you think they're reasonably OK?
Are there other places you go to for reviews? If yes, where are they?
Thanks
Dennis

[scott spencer]

I treat Amazon reviews much like I treat most...lightly. They're from people...some are good, some are lame, some aren't even relevant to the actual product in question at all. Amazon has very few requirements for people to post a review (like most retail reviews), so it's pretty easy to do, which can invite overly harsh reviews from competitors, and/or rants from people who have a beef with the shipping, a brand in general, or Amazon itself and not the product. It's important to read the reviews and not just look at the star ratings.

Places like Epinions.com have stricter requirements, and a more evolved peer rating system of the reviews, so they tend to be a little more thought out and pertinent to the subject.

Even if a review is well written and is a legitimate reflection of a writer's experience, or is professionally done by a qualified reviewer in a magazine, I still take the reviews as someone's opinion, because what they view as important may or may not match my criteria. It's also important to note that what's considered "good" is relative to what else you've been exposed to.

[Matt Meiser]

I pretty much feel the same way as Scott. I'll add that if an item has a lot of reviews, you can get a pretty good picture of how people like it though. If something has a couple hundred reviews, averaging 2 stars, you know something is up.

[Michael MacDonald]

for technology stuff (TV, etc.), I look at amazon, epinions, cnet, and I usually google using keywords like "samsung, tv, problem"... things like that. there are two types of reveiws--real folks and boosters. only a percentage of the real folks are useful, and none of the boosters. But there are some thoughtful folks out there who can give you a heads up as to problems or "better ideas"... one idea for amazon is to click on the reviewer and look at all their other reveiws... if a person has a mixed history across lots of products, then a better chance of being a real reveiwer... of course, perhaps the boosters have started to game that.

for tool stuff, I go here, to other woodworking forums, to the magazines (when I can get in) and also google the product and keywords. I also use consumer reports and (embarrasingly enough) angies list for service vendors. angies list has a high percentage of real people who are not useful, imho.

[Dave Gaul]

I use Amazon reviews, as well as other review and retail sites as tools to help me formulate my own decision. If I don't know much about a product, I will look at Amazon in the specific category, then sort by "average customer reviews" to get a good starting point...

[glenn bradley]

I take them all with a grain of salt. I value the input but I use it as input. It is not uncommon to receive conflicting info even from the magazines that are supposedly impartial. Factor as many sources in as you can and don't allow any one source to be the end-all, be-all.

The reviews I tend to value least are the ones under the control of the party to benefit most. I am not dogging Rockler by any means and buy from them regularly but, they are the editor in chief of what appears as a review on their website. If I was selling a 'widgit', I would probably like to have favorable reviews from satisfied customers that would encourage sales of the 'widgit' I am offering in "my" catalog.

I value actual owner/user comments the most but these too must be taken lightly. One is inclined to speak highly of something one just decided to spend X amount of dollars on. The folks I truly appreciate are the ones who can remain objective and state the pros and cons based on how they use the item. This allows me to see the good or bad and how it may effect me based on how I plan to use the item ;-)

[Bob Borzelleri]

I've been quite impressed by the Amazon reviews I have written.:cool:

[Paul Ryan]

I usually check amazon's reviews regardless if I am going to buy from them or not. As others have said in order for me to pay any attention to them there needs to be a few dozen reviews for them to carry any weight in my mind. And then I usually read the negative reviews to see if there is a pattern. The goof balls that complain about something unreasonable or about amazon for some reason I disregard them. But if there is a pattern of repeat failures or missing parts I take note of that. I have also bought products that had great reviews and I have been very unhappy with. The most recent was a digital frame that got great reviews, but had a terrible interface as far as I was concerned. I bought a different one that had much more neutral reviews and I have been very happy with that.

[Jerome Hanby]

I think if you take the time to actually read the reviews, then they give some good insight. It's pretty easy to pick out useless reviews where someone is mad about shipping/availability or had unrealistic/wrong ideas about what the product was/could do from those that have actual problems with the product.

Just looking at the breakdown of how many rated a certain number of stars is only helpful if there are a stellar (pun intended) number of reviews.

Generally speaking, I don't buy anything that gets a strong set of negative reviews.

[John Pratt]

I don't put too much stock in Amazon reviews. When in doubt, refer to the reviews of the wolf shirt. http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-Medium/dp/B000NZW3J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1275498313&sr=8-1

Real reviews and makes you wonder about the reviews of some other products. At least it is good for a laugh or two.

[John Shuk]

I look for common themes in the reviews and have made buying decisions based on Amazon reviews. It generally isn't too hard to read between the lines when going through them.

[Steve Bigelow]

Yep, I'm one of those who will read the Amazon review, even if I end up buying elsewhere. I've had limited results with the Epinions reviews. I like the places that only let you review the item if you purchased it from them, but those are few and far between.

[Pat Germain]

You know, what's funny about Amazon reviews is how often they are perpetuated. Several years ago I wrote a scathing review for a Christian CD. I found that same review on at least five other web sites.

I agree that if there are enough reviews to clearly establish a trend, Amazon reviews can be very helpful.

[John Coloccia]

The only reviews I trust are ones from people that I know and/or have a reputation they'd like to keep intact. I would trust reviews and opinions from SMC before anything from any other site.

That said, as one poster already mentioned, if you actually read the reviews they usually all hone in on the same basic design flaws or praise certain special features.

[Randal Stevenson]

As stated, if a lot of reviews, then general consensus (and I might look up specific issues listed in them). Also Epinions, and if electronics, Cnet, Engadget, etc. (sites that review that type of product).

But as John Pratt said, Amazon's reviews can be humorous and untruthful. The Laptop Steering Wheel Desk is the most interesting one I have seen/read.