The power of reviews

Whenever I buy something the reviews are an important part of the process. The more detailed the reviews the better. Someone may give an item a low review for a feature that's not important to me so it might not be a deal breaker. For example someone gave a bad review on the car I just bought but his main complaint concerned the sound system, not a big deal for me. If the bad review concerns something basic to the function of the item that is a big deal.

As a public service to other buyers I've been posting a lot of reviews. Since I buy a fair amount of things through Amazon, they have a lot of my reviews. I never realized the power of a bad review until a company contacted me directly about a bad Amazon review.

I'd purchased some sanding belts for an old sander. They failed after just a few minutes of use. The adhesive strip that held the paper together failed long before the grit even started to wear down. The company shipped me new, much better sanding belts and practically begged for an updated review. Impressed with their service I gave them a better review.

Recently I had a more expensive product fail. It cost around $250. It worked great for about a year then fell apart. The warranty period was past. However, I wrote the company and told them how the thing suddenly fell apart. As a courtesy, I said, I was contacting them before posting an Amazon review. They kinda freaked. Photos were sent their way. They claimed they'd never seen such a failure before. Fine, but mine did fail and was not abused.

In the end they said they'd ship me a new one for the cost of shipping. Seemed fair to me.

-Sixbears