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Sunday, May 10, 2015

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

10 comments:

  1. I'm so silly I tend to read the reviews AFTER I've bought the product...

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    Replies
    1. You sir are a confident man who trusts your decisions.

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  2. I'm thinking you're likely to experience "writers cramp" or suffer from carpel tunnel by the time you finish the reviews on your new Nissan if you run it much during salt season in NH.

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    Replies
    1. Time will tell. The plan is to avoid winter driving as much as possible by being somewhere else.

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  3. I'm about to paste two big lemons on the side of my tundra. Do you think the dealer would be amused?

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  4. I have had my Jeep Liberty 4x4 for over ten years and it is still a very dependable vehicle.

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  5. Word of mouth, the electronic version.
    It reaches millions, not just a few people.
    Bad reviews are a death sentence.
    The same thing is very true for EBay.

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    Replies
    1. The company said they were small and a bad review would really hurt them. Had no idea it was that powerful.

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