User Reviews Should Not Make Your Decision For You

by on Mar 24, 2008 | 1 comment

One thing to keep in mind when reading user reviews on any retailer site is the reported ratings are not necessarily an accurate indication of the product as a whole.

Typically, user reviews can be posted by anyone regardless of whether or not they own the product they are reviewing. Additionally, everyone who purchases a product (obviously) does not review it, so you are not getting an accurate sample of reviewers. For example, if only the people happy with a product review an overall terrible product then the reviews will not be indicative of the product as a whole.

Overall, user reviews are great and can be very helpful. Just make sure they are not used solely when making your decision.

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  • Luis R.

    On the other hand, if all you see about a product are bad reviews everywhere, that should tell you something. I recently purchased a DVD player that had moslty bad reviews but I decided to give it a try. Things could not be that bad I thought. One week later I exchanged the unit with another one for the same problems I read in the reviews. Another week and a half later I returned the second one to the store for the same problems too and chose a different brand.

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