And it’s not just the formal review sites; it’s every business that wants you to review it, or rate its employees. The company that took over my dentist’s practice wants a review. The maker of my car wants me to rate my experience with their service center. On and on–and if you say anything but perfect, you are made to feel like a terrible human.
I once rated the service experience at car repair as all 10s except a few 9s. The head of service called to ask if there’s any way I could make it all 10s. Apparently a stray 9/10 could cause people’s jobs to be threatened.
Writers I know are angry and dismayed by anything less than five star reviews on Goodreads because they affect sales.
On and on. I don’t think it’s added any value to our lives, especially with the twin scourges of 1) afraid to say anything negative, or 2) damaging deliberately negative reviews.
Plus, the threat of any review being fake anyway, so the usefulness is very doubtful.
This was true when I worked for a dealership computer company. We dealt with dealerships representing different car manufacturers across the nation. The higher the CSI (customer service index) score was, the higher the dealer’s ranking was…and in turn it would affect which vehicles the dealer was allotted by the manufacturer. Considering certain models and colors are often more popular, and consequently easier to move, CSI affects sales.
I enjoyed the Goodreads reviews until the practice of giving free books to readers to review became much more prevalent. I appreciate when the reviewer discloses that information up front, but I find it troublesome.
Also Spare was a glaring example of the pitfalls of the reviews. There were so many one star, negative reviews from people who obviously did NOT read the book…for goodness sake, the book hadn’t even been released or leaked!
It’s sad we’ve come to this. I was a big fan of Consumer Report when we were younger and making a lot of purchases for our house. We’ve lost a lot of trust.
Yes, this has sometimes come up in car forums. Basically, the grading scale is 10 (or whatever the top score is) = A+, while all other scores = F. There is no way to give a review that is like a B, C, or D grade in school.
When I read any reviews now I only look at those with a bit of specifics written in them. I try to write the same. With specifics I can usually tell if it’s an honest review or not. This is true especially for hotels and restaurants.
My plumber offered me a discount in exchange for a 5-star review. I’d always been happy with his work so I agreed. Now, he’s got a slew of 5-star reviews and is one of the top-rated plumbers in our area. I do wonder how many people weren’t totally pleased with his work but agreed to rate him highly in exchange for a discount. I agree it can be hard to tell which reviews are truly sincere. Like @creekland, I look for specifics.
I am extremely unhappy with my DD orthodontist. The office had 5 stars reviews on yelp. Then I found other reviews for this office that described this orthodontist as horrible which I totally agree. Apparently this office offers $300 refund for 5 stars review after completion of service. It was stated on multiple yelp reviews but unfortunately after we started working with this orthodontist
I’ve been writing tripadvisor reviews for over 20 years, but THEY DO NOTHING about fake reviews. I always report them when I see dozens for a single hotel or restaurant. My profile has over 700 reviews, but all the fake reviews I see are single reviews, many with an employee name, like “Brittany gave us such great service.” The next review will say, “Juan took good care of us.”
I did receive an email from any angry man, accusing me of ruining his Key West restaurant business after my “bloody chicken” review.
I still am! Please tell me CR has not been infected with this nonsense?
Speaking of which, I used to be a HUGE fan of Amazon in the last decade. It was basically my only stop for electronics. I trusted the descriptions and the reviews. During the pandemic and after (assuming we’re in the “after”), the amount of deception, fake reviews, and reviews that had nothing to do with the product I was looking for was staggering. I now run an AI app on Amazon that supposedly checks the reviews and gives a letter grade as to whether the majority of reviews are legit.
It’s really sad that it’s come to this. But I suppose the fraudsters out there will say its their right.
My only solution is to check multiple (and I mean like 10 or more for large expenditures) sources before I consider making a decision. Even then, I am very leery.
I don’t give anything except the handful of profoundly earth-moving, transformative reading experiences I have had a 5. I have a friend who is an author…not a huge name, but she sells enough to have “bestselling author” on all of her books. I stopped using Goodreads because I could never give her books a 5, but she would know if I didn’t review them, lol!
Oops! Yes I still like Consumer reports. I should have made the distinction between them and “personal reviews”. I was trying to say that I started relying on reviews from publications like CR but because of what I’m witnessing on Goodreads, Amazon etc, I’ve lost trust in reviews in general. Sorry.
Here’s one for you! (this isn’t a news site I would recommend, but it’s OK in this case)
According to one commenter, the company included the following language in its services contract: “Any bad reviews posted against Liberty Bell on any social media platform or other review sites due to alleged damage, or lost items will be deemed false and defamatory. Any such false and defamatory remarks are made against Liberty Bell Moving & Storage will make the signer of this document liable in court for punitive damages for making these allegations.”
According to the Federal Trade Commission, it’s illegal to prevent someone from sharing their honest opinion of a business.
[quote=“Creekland, post:4, topic:3627368, full:true”]
When I read any reviews now I only look at those with a bit of specifics written in them. I try to write the same. With specifics I can usually tell if it’s an honest review or not. This is true especially for hotels and restaurants.[/quote]
Completely agree with this.
Another thing I pay attention to is if the review is praising/criticizing something I care about. For example some negative restaurant reviews say nothing about the quality of the food, complaining solely about portion sizes not being big enough…something I rarely encounter in American restaurants. So that would automatically make me wonder what the reviewer’s priorities are.
I just finished a big project and had a few minutes to spare. Checked the Yelp comments from this company, and their owner is “interesting,” to say the least. For comments they don’t like, this is their literal constant refrain: “%100 fake news!”
I never care about all the 5-star ratings/reviews. All I want to look at are those 1- and 2-star reviews and whether the issues they identified are the ones I should be concerned about. The poor reviews are much less likely to be fake, and more easily identifiable as such if they were.
I always think the one and two star reviews have a good chance of being from competitors or disgruntled customers/clients writing multiple reviews. I read them too, but with a skeptical eye.
First of all, if there’re more than one competitor, it’s very difficult for any one of the competitors to destroy the reputations of all its competitors this way. Its other competitors may benefit equally, if not more, from its fake reviews. It isn’t a simple zero-sum game. Secondly, this competitor has to put significant resource into generating all the distinct fake reviews to make them look real (not just a simple 1-star rating without detailed review, which I agree should be ignored). It generally isn’t worthwhile for that competitor.
I had an upper endoscopy recently. Several weeks later I received a request to review the anesthesiologist.Seriously?? I don’t recall meeting you before the procedure and I couldn’t tell from the name on the request whether you were even male or female. You must have done a 5 star job because I was out cold and don’t remember a thing.