to thin ALL online reviews are utterly worthless?

[PyongyangKipperbang]

On Amazon we know that a hell of a lot are fake.

On Trip Advisor etc you generally only get bad reviews as only pissed off customers bother to review, if its good then you think "Oh I must review this place" and 90% of the time dont get around to it.

Same with Argos etc....generally only bad reviews because if the product you bought does what you bought it for, you dont give it another thought!

I am looking for a particular type of cookbook and the reviews seem to be either no stars/one star or five stars!! Not much help really! In the last couple of years I have started to choose items that have a decent amount of mid range reviews as they seem to be the only ones that are genuine.

I'm not much for leaving reviews but I have left a few good ones when genuinely pleased or impressed. And a few bad too.
So it does happen.

Yep. Back when I was a SE cleaner I had many, many satisfied customers. They'd keep me coming back, recommend me, ask me to do their other houses that they rented out etc. But did I get a review? No. It was like pulling teeth and you felt like you were damaging the relationship to keep asking.

Then I had one really, really difficult customer. Had a massive house, a hoover that didn't work (I supplied everything except that), ground in years old dirt and she gave me a shitty review for being too tight to cover the hours needed.

But she was the one who was motivated enough to give me a review. Figures.

I do check reviews before buying but always remember this when doing so!

Which cookbook is it? You might get some unbiased views on here if you tell us what you're looking for.

As for online reviews generally, you are probably right.

Im after an Air Fryer cook book. I have had one for ages but I am sure that there is more I could do with it!

I was looking at a range cooker earlier and several reviews gave it five stars and said they hadn’t actually used it yet but it looked nice.
Useful. 🙄

The only online reviews I think are worth reading are the professional ones. Which and What car, people who are paid to provide dispassionate comparisons of products they have wide knowledge of.
Otherwise it's all a bit random.

Some reviews are helpful, some aren't.

Overall I give them 6/10.

I do look but try to see them as one factor among many. I had a tradesman do an absolutely terrible job and then press me for a review, I ended up saying he was fast and nothing else. I look between the lines as a result.

I'd agree with posting a thread on here.

I always check the 3 star reviews for hotels or products. Most likely to be truthful as owners will always give themselves glowing reviews and competitors/notoriously difficult to please people will always give 1 star.
The 3 star people won't have any skin in the game and most likely to be honest. Especially for something that isn't likely to get your engine going like a cookbook. I laugh at the enthusiasm in a 5 star review for something like a set of clothes pegs "they changed my life", "I haven't looked back" etc.

Yeah it puts me off buying anything because I have trust issues now.
Also Amazon have really dodgy practices. Where they sell an item on their website from lots of different sellers some are legit, some are selling counterfeit products. But when these products are sent to their factories they dump them all in the same bin together. When someone orders an item they just grab any of item, therefore it may be from a different seller to the one they’ve ordered from. All because it saves time.

Some of the Amazon reviews are talking about the delivery speed rather than the product.

I do like Trip Advisor and will always look before booking anything. If there’s a theme and a few md ruin the same thing I’d take note.

*of them

It has a certain value. They are so common these days when an individual has no reviews I am wary to use them e.g. reflexologer.

I bought earplugs after a rave review on here (insomnia thread) and they were just crap and I ended up with about 50 of them. I should have come back and said but time had passed.

Of course they aren't all worthless I post genuine reviews if I feel strongly about something and there's no way I can be the only person who does

Any system is open to abuse, you have to take a view

Personally I'd be visit the local charity shops for a cookbook and put them back in the next collection if they weren't any good. But nowadays I get most of my recipes online.

The reviews about an Immac-style depilatory cream by a man who ends up dipping his balls in ice cream, and those about the pink BIC pens are frighing hilarious.

They're the type of reviews I like

I've left a negative but very fair review for an expensive product on Sephora. I checked a few weeks later and saw it wasn't published on the website. I've followed up and been told they are 'looking into' why my review hasn't been uploaded yet.

That was 4 months ago and they still haven't published my review or told me why it wasn't published. They email me every few days thanking me for my patience and assuring me that they continue to work on the technical issue.

Absolute bullshit. Will not purchase from them again.

So many people don't even know how to leave a review. I've seen 5 star reviews of an item with a line saying something like 'I haven't used it yet, but it looks great!' Others will award 5 stars but list several things they don't like about the product.

OTOH I've seen people give a book 3 stars, even though they haven't read beyond the first two pages.

I'm inclined to agree with the PP who said only professional reviews are worth reading.

I think it depends on the site. I agree that disgruntled people are more likely to post than happy ones. I find most clothes sites to be pretty useful though. My two favourite reviews:

• Someone slating a beach in Cornwall because their child was sick and they got a parking ticket
• Someone rating a tumble dryer with one star, saying "the cutlery basket is too small and fiddly"!

One of my pet peeves... “Only giving one star as wrong item delivered”

🤦🏻‍♀️

I’ve given bad reviews on restaurant sites and they’ve never been published.

OMG reading reviews do my head in. I love leaving a review either good or bad, I make sure to explain everything about an item, because you don't know what people are looking for in a product.

When reading reviews online I OFTEN see, matches my kitchen or bedroom. Wife loved it. Bought as a present but I know they'll love. Bought for my son. Does what it says on the box. Packaged well. Arrived on time.

For a kettle - makes lovely tea. Matches my kitchen decor.

Steam generator - gets creases out.

A fridge - keeps food cold.

A hairdryer - dries hair.

Make up - looks nice, matches my eyes, nice packaging, goes lovely with my other makeup.

Bedclothes - matches my room.

Clothes - fit me, son, daughter etc, nothing about their size, height and what size they bought.

Absolutely nothing about the product, useless information.

YABU because I've read a few useful ones and received positive feedback on some of the ones I've written myself. So I don't think they are ALL utterly worthless, as you put it.

I think the key is to be able to spot the genuine reviews from the idiots. Ignore all the five star reviews, ignore most of the one star reviews, and focus on the two/three/fours. Then discount the ones that are badly written or focus on irrelevancies like the Amazon delivery guy being rude to them.

You’re probably right. I have left a few reviews on trustpilot and trip advisor but it is usually when I’m disgruntled because something has gone hugely wrong. I’ve left a few positives as well though when an experience has been amazing but mostly bad, yeah. It’s when it’s so bad you feel like you really need to warn people that it’s so bad.

@elQuintoConyo

The reviews about an Immac-style depilatory cream by a man who ends up dipping his balls in ice cream, and those about the pink BIC pens are frighing hilarious.

They're the type of reviews I like

The first time this was done was funny, but the contrived shite that is all over the place now is really dire