Should You Trust Website Customer Reviews?

Posted by Cliff on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:10AM from the taking-their-word-for-it dept.

crevette asks: "I was looking on Amazon for some gizmo when I got a review from G. Cooke, TX, who is in the top 10 reviewers. Out of curiosity, I checked her reviews... She has 658 reviews, many on the same day, which include everything from knife sets to a plastic duck! She reviews many books on the same day... She must be spending hundreds of dollars on useless stuff every month. Worst of all, most of her reviews are 5 stars. Do you think those people are paid by Amazon or some company? Do you trust them? If not (like I tend to think) what can we do about it?"

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Re:Extremes by kjd · 2002-12-12 07:27 · Score: 1, Redundant

People are lazy. Most people probably aren't as likely to write a review if they found the product simply satisfactory (this is expected). But if the product is irritatingly poor, or noticably excellent, it may be more likely to make them want to say something about it.
Re:Trust by jiminim · 2002-12-12 08:37 · Score: 0, Redundant

Amazon Approval Process

1. Scan for profanity
2. Scan for "Amazon SUCKS!!!"
3. Approve
4. ???
5. Profit!!!
Re:Cheap reviewers by egc4ever · 2002-12-12 09:00 · Score: 0, Redundant

Hey dickhead, it was Arthur Andersen, not Andersen Consulting.