Image by pierre pouliquin via FlickrOn Amazon, I've tried to leave negative reviews a couple of times. Once, I objected to paying almost $16 in shipping charges when the two items I purchased were combined and weighed less than 1lb. I also mentioned in the review that one item was not as great as I'd expected. Overall, the review wasn't terrible, but I tried to be honest. After trying to reach the seller with no response, I posted my review. At that point, the seller contacted me and was offering "anything" to get me to retract my review. He was going to send me new items and refund all of my money. It was unreasonable. I removed the review and told the seller not to worry about it.
I also recently had a review opportunity for a b&b I stayed at in Paris. The experience was really nice and the host was personable and provided a great experience. However, there were some things about the stay that could have been better and because of how the overall review process is, some of my comments would have made the experience seem worse than I would like to specify. I decided to not leave a review instead.
Am I the only one that does this? Are there scores of untrue, or omitted reviews that could be helpful to us in our search for better products? If someone walked into my house and asked me about this specific b&b in Paris, I would unashamedly tell them everything I think. The prospect of putting those thoughts in writing and having those thoughts affect people I don't know is overwhelming. Knowing the audience (my friend in my house) I tailor my comments for that person with the understanding of how they might use those comments.
How do you get around the fact that online reviews are too broad a stroke? How do you also get around the fact that anything less than 5 stars is a harmful review? How can consumers get the truth about experiences according to their own views and use of them?
I see this differently than you describe. Consumers now have the power to have their voices heard. Poor products and service is no longer ok because everyone will hear about it. If you give less than 5 stars in a review and the company is willing to do "anything" to have you remove that review....they are in fact rectifying the problem. Which might mean that they do in fact deserve 5 stars. Or not. It's your call. For the B&B, why not give 5 stars and offer suggestions for improvement? It's not a bad thing that companies are so beholden to our reviews. It means that we can drive better service through our opinions.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in real information for consumers. If a vendor can essentially pay for a 5 star review, then reviews are just another form of marketing. This does not lend itself towards better information.
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