How much trust do you put into product reviews and ratings?

[caver]

There are browser extensions that analyze reviews for like bezo's junk store. It's on my old computer so can't recall the name on the one I use. If the person uploads a picture I pay attention. They are bitter enough to show you what broke or shortcomings. They also can show you how well it works.

 

[Torvy]

Reviews have to be read closely. Some can be valuable, but you need to wade through the clueless and the paid endorsements. Many times the complaints show the ignorance or bias of the writer, too. A minor problem gets one star, etc. I look for trends in the comments. Anecdotal evidence is not all that helpful. I also lean toward those with a higher volume of reviews. I don't trust the opinion of anyone on you tube. They are either getting paid or lying about getting paid. Some seem more honest than others, but bias abounds. How-to videos are fine but the more they shill products, the less I tune in. I really dislike the ones who are selling merchandise and effectively make a living from it. They are often less knowledgeable than the average poster here, but get paid to make the videos, shill products and sell merchandise. It's like asking the JD salesman who makes the best plow. Smh.

I am no tree hugger, but for small equipment, echo makes awesome cordless tools. 58v powers through a lot of work. I have the chainsaw and weed wacker that use the same battery. That weed wacker is stout. I rarely even need to use the higher power setting or full trigger pull. The battery is heavier than some, but not too bad. I haven't tried the pole saw, but the chainsaw is a beast. It is every bit as fast and powerful as the similarity sized gas model (I used to have an echo gas model). Did just lose a cell on one of the batteries. We've had it for years, so not entirely unexpected. I cut down a large hardwood (ash, I believe) tree with it. 24" diameter trunk with 16" bar. It took some time because I of the bar size. I cut up the whole thing with that little saw. Anyone who says it is slow either hasn't used one or hasn't compared it to the same sized gas model. The gas model definitely sounds like it is doing more work, but that is an illusion.

 

[Dwellonroof]

I get asked to review items before the item even arrive!! so saying that I wish people would wait and actually use the item for some time (maybe a year) before they do a review
The retailers know the sooner it gets reviewed the better the review will be that is why they ask so soon for it.

 

[mikester]

I've noticed that many amazon reviews are identical for different products even different brands.

My favourite reviews are "I give this 5 stars. I've never taken it out of the box but it looks real good quality." as well as "I give this product 1 stars because it wasn't delivered by the next day."

 

[2manyrocks]

Slightly off topic on my on topic, but sometimes I search for something on Amazon and it seems like no matter what terms I put in, the results are skewed to what Amazon wants me to see instead of what I'm looking for.

 

[Yander]

I hate it when people give one star because of shipping. It skews the product review.

I find tire reviews to be someone accurate. I usually go to tire rack and read reviews.

I trust those reviews over what a tire salesman tries to sell me

 

[Straightgrain3016]

Reviews have zero value to me if the reviewer is an inside spammer or if the reviewer cannot separate his or her emotions from the product; save the buyer's remorse or shipping nightmares for the bartender...

 

[deserteagle71]

I get asked to review items before the item even arrive!! so saying that I wish people would wait and actually use the item for some time (maybe a year) before they do a review
The retailers know the sooner it gets reviewed the better the review will be that is why they ask so soon for it.

^This!

Made a bunch of purchases in the past couple months and in every case I immediately get an email asking me to review the product. My response every time is...check back with me in a year or so, after I've had time to use this thing for a while!

 

[2manyrocks]

One tree service that gave me a quote last year emailed me a request for a review and I hadn't even hired them to do the work.

The guy who got the job and did an excellent job never asked me for anything.

 

[Oaktree]

I don't trust the opinion of anyone on you tube. They are either getting paid or lying about getting paid. Some seem more honest than others, but bias abounds. How-to videos are fine but the more they shill products, the less I tune in. I really dislike the ones who are selling merchandise and effectively make a living from it. They are often less knowledgeable than the average poster here, but get paid to make the videos, shill products and sell merchandise. It's like asking the JD salesman who makes the best plow. Smh.

I am no tree hugger, but for small equipment, echo makes awesome cordless tools.

Agree on Youtube reviews for the very reasons you mention, plus, I'd rather READ a review than sit thru a video. I can skim thru a written review and get to the meat of it without listening to someone blathering on and on about stuff I don't care about.

Don't have any Echo cordless tools, but have had very good experiences with their gas ones.

 

[5030]

Reviews are a scant step above spam for me.

 

[beowulf]

I read the reviews, and the questions and answers posted about the product (you can learn a lot there). Sometimes you can sniff out fake reviews by the way they are written (balanced, mention the good and the bad things about a product), but sometimes you can't figure it out.

Here are two ways I try to assess (on Amazon) if reviews are likely real and reliable:
1) If there are several great reviews with the same date, I usually ignore them.
2) I also click on the name of the reviewer and access all the other reviews they have posted. If there is a balance there - some good, some great, some poor, and so on, then I feel that chances are decent that I can trust that reviewer.

 

[5030]

I find the best, unbiased reviews on Harbor Freight actually and the worst and most biased on Amazon but I try to avoid Amazon anyway.

 

[2manyrocks]

I agree about the reviews on Harbor Freight and am totally skeptical when I see five star reviews posted by very few buyers with no written commentary to back up the rating.

I am also totally skeptical when I see multiple youtube reviews posted at or about the same time just about the time when some new product is being released.

 

[5030]

I will say when I buy something from HF, I always review it and I do it without any bias. If it's junk, I say so. If not and it's a good item, I say that too.

 

[Jstpssng]

I placed an order to Cabela's earlier this week; before it even shipped they had asked me for a review. You can put as much stock in that as you care to.

 

[5030]

We are about 7 miles from one of their stores and we never go in there or order anything and that includes firearms. Cabelas is way over priced, the staff are idiots and everything has the Cabelas logo on it.

The only thing they actually have that is good is their fudge and even that is overpriced.

Cabelas has no draw for me or my wife at all.

 

[Jstpssng]

We are about 7 miles from one of their stores and we never go in there or order anything and that includes firearms. Cabelas is way over priced, the staff are idiots and everything has the Cabelas logo on it.

The only thing they actually have that is good is their fudge and even that is overpriced.

Cabelas has no draw for me or my wife at all.

Every year my employer gives me a $200 gift card to their store. It's a pretty good incentive to shop there. As you said though, the scope I bought is about 15% more than I can get it for elsewhere.

 

[newbury]

This could get long.
On the subject of reviews:
I look at Amazon reviews very carefully and quickly.
If over 7% negative I usually move on.
Otherwise I usually only read the negatives and quickly scan the positives.

On the subject of pole saws:
I've
2 manual saws - old and not the best, but long. If it's just a few branches they will usually do.
3 battery operated saws - 2 HF and 1 Dewalt - The HF are good but discontinued. I'm a DeWalt 20v max fanboy, so I also bought the dewalt, it works well.

But my pride is my Echo PPT-280 w/ 4ft extension.
It will enable me to reach out 17 foot. It's a beast when fully assembled. But I've lots of trees around my sheds and I can stand on the roofs and reach out to trim trees.

Echo used to have 20% off sales. Sort of wierd, once a year at different dealerships.

 

[5030]

Tell you what I put my new CS Echo to the test today and it shines. Only thing I had to do was buy a non cat muffler for it that interestingly Echo sells and add a set of bucking spikes. It's the lightest saw I've ever used and has plenty of balls too. Running it on synthetic 50-1 fuel, It's very happy and so am I. It's a one hander at 7 pounds fueled. Have to check out their pole saw. I have the HF (electric) one and it works well but the bar oil capacity is not much and it's hard to fill.

HF discontinued the Portland pole saw but replaced it with a Hercules, I think

I do know one thing, compared to a Stihl they are a bargain, Stihl has priced themselves out of the market more or less.