Reviews are subjective. That’s obvious, of course, and basically no matter what you are considering to watch, read, use, or whatever, there are going to be some people who sing of its praises and others who have nothing but words of criticism.
As to how these opinions can vary, well, let me tell you a story. One day, I stumbled upon an incredible deal on a name-brand air fryer and oven. I knew my mother had been wanting a larger one, so I jumped on it. After all, the oven on Amazon had about 4.5 star review average with probably 12,000+ reviews at the time. It was exactly what my mother wanted — large enough she wouldn’t need to use her regular oven to bake most of the time, but she could also do some air frying and other cooking techniques.
But, as you can guess from me telling the story, it was an utter failure. A lot of Amazon reviews praised the oven for its air frying capabilities, but it seems not many must have tried baking in it. Food would look dark and done on top, but the inside was a gooey mess. Adjusting the temperature and/or cooking time did not help. I so wish I kept the pictures I took, because food was bad. Canned biscuits, for instance, were as hard as a hockey puck on top, but the inside was just like the dough straight from the fridge. A lot of food — pizza, cookies, more — ended up in the garbage.
I reached out to online forums to see what they had to say since so many people in various threads about it looooooved their air fryer oven. And a lot of suggestions were to…just watch and experiment?? As my mother stated in her own colorful way, what’s the point of an oven where you have to spend your 20, 30, 60 minutes of cook time doing nothing but staring at the oven to watch your food, and for every new food you want to eat, you have to buy several and keep baking them to find the magic combination of time and temperature to get them right. And meanwhile, while it’s baking, everyone is getting closer and closer to starring in a Snickers commercial.
But, you know, hey, maybe my mom got a dud, one where the temperature wasn’t calibrated correctly. Well, my mother called the manufacturer, and she got a replacement sent and they took the old one. Same thing. And still the same thing when she sent that one back! So three strikes, and she was out. The company gave her a credit for the value of the oven I got, which she used on a microwave from the brand, which had absolutely no issues. Neither did the air fryer/oven she bought from a competitor, and a third brand that was even cheaper works better than either of them.
So while currently 75% of Amazon’s thousands of reviews give this a 5-star, my family would join the 5% 1-star category. And while I was sorting through reviews when we had that machine trying to figure out why, as I’m sure many of you can attest to, I had to discard a lot of “reviews”. For instance:
- Customers who tried it once and gave it a high mark, which isn’t much of a test.
- Reviews where the person rated the shipping, not the product.
- Reviews where someone mentioned they bought it as a gift and hope the receiver is excited.
- Not a review but asking questions or requesting help, which tend to be IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE HOW DOES THIS INTERNET THING WORK
- The one-word reviews, which now also include ratings instead of reviews. Because “good” is soooo useful when deciding which $200 cooking device you want.
I’m sure I’m not saying anything you don’t know. But surely I can’t be the only one thinking it’s getting harder and harder to find the good among all the junk.
I’m sure some of you know the reason why. And here it is:
You see, like a lot of people, I sometimes need to unload things by selling them online. No longer wanted, don’t fit, old versions, etc. Online shipping rates are cheaper than the stores, so of course I print off labels at home. But it can be annoying either wasting a full sheet of paper for a half-sheet label, waiting to see if someone else buys something so I can print 2 at once, and, of course, cutting and taping. Sure, it’s something many people would tag as #firstworldproblems, but moving on. So on-and-off, I’ve thought about how it might be nice to have a thermal label printer. This way, I could just hit print and then slap on the label on a package, saving some time, energy, and paper.
But like with other products, finding one is easy — finding a good one at a good price is another. The name brands tend to cost a couple hundred dollars, and I don’t sell enough to make that kind of investment. Recently, though, I found one of those names-you’ve-never-heard-of-before models at a good price — about $75 — and it came with some labels and could take rolls, which I wanted to save space. And good reviews, even after I mentally subtracted some reviews. It’s not like I needed a fancy model as if I were a business. So I took a chance and ordered one. As I was setting it up, I found that card inside the package.
I know from my deal searching that paid reviews appear to be coming an issue. It’s not just being rewarded for a review, but this “bonus” requires a positive review. To be sure, getting a $20 bonus — which, admittedly, could be $20 in labels or something, but I highly doubt that — is tempting, as that’s about 25% off on a machine that was already at a good price. But I wouldn’t do such a thing. I know I’ve gotten messages from third-parties at Amazon before wanting to post reviews and offering things like an extended warranty or a coupon code, but this time was pretty blatant.
Of course, I suspect some of the 5-star reviews of this model are from people who wanted that $20. And if there had been fewer reviews, would I have bought it? Tough call. I suspect I might have still taken a chance; I have purchased things with few and perhaps low-star reviews before, as I know bad news travels faster than good news. But maybe I wouldn’t have noticed it among the hundreds of similar models if it had fewer positive ratings. It’s just hard to say. The site FakeSpot rated the machine and company a B, so I figured it was good. But that can only help detect actual reviews by customers and not prepping up by the company, which was the original issue with Amazon reviews. Now, it’s a lot of “bonuses”. In this now-deleted thread I happened to read recently, one user reported a company would only honor the warranty for a defective product by getting a positive review.
A few other users chimed in saying that companies have offered to pay for the cost of the product to remove a bad review. Because they all know that the best way to stand out at Amazon among its dozens, perhaps hundreds of competitors, is to have as many good, high-ranking reviews as possible so you can be on page 1, maybe page 2 of results.
So how to tell a good product when there’s so many similar versions available? Well, as a reminder, just because it’s a different name doesn’t mean it’s a different product. You see this all the time in grocery stores with their personal line of products. Walmart’s Great Value bread, for instance, is made by Sara Lee, which costs a lot more. Same with Costco’s Kirkland-brand batteries, which are made by Duracell. So look to see what the reviews are for similar-looking products.
1. Use FakeSpot. Again, not perfect, but every tool helps.
2. Check out the average reviews. Less likely it’s someone just raging when it’s a simple solution or someone being bribed, and they can often combine good and bad points into one review.
3. Check reviews elsewhere. Amazon, being the online powerseller, has the biggest problem with reviews, but you may be able to balance some of them out with other big-named retailers (Walmart, Best Buy, etc.) and even smaller stores.
4. Check the dates on reviews versus when the product is first listed. FakeSpot tries to detect this as well I believe, but very few people are going to be inspired to buy a certain product so close after its launch and then decide it’s worth mentioning it’s good.
5. Test it yourself. Ultimately, for a lot of products, you are just going to have to take a chance on one. Make sure the store and/or seller you are buying from offers returns though — specifically, returns on opened products. I was searching for a fabric shaver recently, and just when I thought I had found one to try, I noticed several low reviews complaining they had wasted their money. That’s when I realized the product page at Amazon was listed as non-returnable. Crossed that one off my list real fast! Regardless, make sure you try it soon after you receive it; the longer you wait, the easier it is for life to get in your way and you realize you ended up with a dud. Don’t treat places like your own personal showroom though, as too many returns can get you flagged by a store.
I know some would suggest just to stick to well-known companies, but a) some of the unknown brands and/or knock-offs are actually better than the original, and b) sometimes it isn’t viable for the price point you’re willing to spend. For some things, a 2.5-star product used only occasionally is going to be just as good or have minimal differences for a person as a 5-star model.
So, just be alert. And if you do get an offer to be reimbursed for a positive review, I hope you do the right — and arguably legal — thing and disclose you wrote your positive review in exchange for compensation.