Thread: Amazon reviews: how reliable are they

One of the things I like about amazon is the reviews.
But I have started to have some doubts.
Recently I bought 2 items from amazon.de
One of them was good, I posted a positive review that got published.
One of them was not as described and also stale (herbal tea). So I returned it and posted a negative review that was not published.
So I started to wonder what value do these reviews have. Does amazon censor reviews before publishing?

Have you guys had the same experience?

If its got 1000 good reviews it should be ok. If it's only got a few, buy with caution.
Many Amazon sellers pay for positive reviews.
Another thought. With a lot of things on Amazon you can return. I brought an umbrella that looked great online with great reviews. Turned out to be cheap crap. Returned the next day and got a refund into my account a few days later.

My daughter is an author, her books have a following with regular sales, mostly in the U.S. market. She usually gets good reviews, both on Amazon and elsewhere. However tastes vary and she gets the occasional negative one. Interestingly, some Americans are intolerant of British spelling e.g. colour/color whereas British readers don't care. She takes the view that if there are no negative reviews, it's not realistic and therefore expects to get some. In my daughter's case Amazon doesn't censor reviews.
My problem with Amazon and other reviews is that many are subjective, when an objective review would be more appropriate. Likewise, a one star review because of delayed delivery says nothing about the product.
The other daft type of review is when a product that screams 'Chinese knock-off' is purchased with expectation that it will be as good as the real thing costing ten times more.

I only read the negative reviews with one or two stars. It works well for me.

Originally Posted by JOB15

I only read the negative reviews with one or two stars. It works well for me.

That's what I usually do.
Sometimes people write good things but give only 1 or 2 stars. V.v. happens as well.

The thing is: some items have only good review like the tea I bought. There was so much wrong with it that I wonder how it got its positive reviews. Either it was a bad batch or they had a couple of friends or emplyees buy their product and write a good review. I got a refund within a day.

I heard of something where people can "buy" reviews. So some items with a lot of reviews will be fake reviews. just google the item you want and type in reviews and look at what other sites have to say about it

Originally Posted by Kees

That's what I usually do.
Sometimes people write good things but give only 1 or 2 stars. V.v. happens as well.

The thing is: some items have only good review like the tea I bought. There was so much wrong with it that I wonder how it got its positive reviews. Either it was a bad batch or they had a couple of friends or emplyees buy their product and write a good review. I got a refund within a day.

I think at the end of the day you can't rely on reviews , take a chance and buy it , is my motto

For a good ten years, my rule of thumb was if I was looking for something, and was reasonably priced with over 30 reviews on Amazon, if it had 4.5 or 5 stars I would just buy it without going further.

I stopped doing that about two years ago due to proliferation of false reviews.

Little off subject but lately Amazon has not been making me happy due to the shipping times. It used to be quick. Now its a couple weeks or more. I have one thing on order a month now and it still hasnt shipped. Although they say it will be here Friday. Sure it will.

But I do read a lot of reviews. What i look for is the reviews that dont look writen by a pro. Maybe not the best in grammer and such. Shows its a real review. And yes. Sometimes those are hard for me to find when others may find them easy.

One has to be careful with their reviews. I have read some where I looked more into it, it was the same brand but different model number. As they say, buyer beware!