To think people should open the box before reviewing

[wannabeanomyous]

DD got a jojo bow maker for Christmas and it's so rubbish I was surprised to see a fairly high star rating on amazon etc. Looking further, a lot of the 5 star reviews are from people who have bought it as a present and not opened it, so comments like "prompt delivery" and "my daughter will love this" . This gives a misleading impression and no doubt happens with a lot of products.

AIBU to think you should hold off reviewing until you have actually tried the product.

Obviously YANBU!

When I order stuff online, I get sent emails asking for a review. Sometimes, it's of the product and sometimes it's the company or delivery.

YANBU. Annoys me too. I try to use something for a while before leaving a review in case it's about to fall to pieces!
Too many fake reviews too often lots posted with the same date and all 5 stars. this is a good website for checking reviews reviewmeta.com/

A possible reason is that if you buy from Amazon Marketplace, you get emails urging you to 'rate the seller' - I think people sometimes mistake this for a request to review the item.

I always check what the one, two and three star reviews say about a product before buying as they often point out possible flaws.

Yep - this product had 5 stars from people who had the box (and the clever ones who could work out the instructions) and 1 or 2 stars from people who had really tried it.