TRUSTING A REVIEW

[Duchess]

When contemplating a new purchase & reading the reviews for it that are pretty much equal in being good and bad, which review to you believe?

[Maggot]

I made the decision on my dishwasher from the reviews. It worked well. I was more concerned with the noise and cleaning than anything else. Screw the warrantee though. Thats a waste of money. I took the good with the bad if the review sounded like a 2^nd grader wrote it I dismissed it.

[Donovan]

When I am buying something on the expensive side I will trust online reviews if it's a reputable source. CNet for electronics for example, or Consumer reports.
One thing I always do online is read the negative reviews from consumers. Positive reviews are generic and often prompted by a menu button. But when somebody has a problem that passes them off enough to write about it, they go into detail. Then if I see a problem described more than once, like "blackberry has terrible apps" I will Google that phrase and it calls up all sorts of articles. That gives me a good idea about whether or not a problem one guy had is chronic or if it's just that guy.

For cars I stick with nonprofit sites like the Natl Highway Safety site that does all the testing or a repair site like Edmunds.com which does the recall lists and chronic issues. One time in the interest of safety over style I bought a big fat Mercury and I remember that review said "this car is no fashion statement but you will walk away from all but the worst accident." I drove that ugly piece of shit for three years and one day an idiot plowed into me trying to pass me. Folded the whole ass end of the car up, shattered the windows, Totalled It Out and Gave Me Chronic Arthritic Issues In my lower back, but me and the seven - year - old riding along walked away. It did what it was meant to and kept us alive. So in that case reviews proved highly helpful.

[crash]

I'm the same as Dono. I read all the reviews. Google peculiarities mentioned about features I'm interested in. I take notice of product related gripes more than service related gripes, unless I know I'm going to be relying on the service a lot. I look at a lot of review sites. If you see something once, it could be anything; you see it 50 times, its pretty much certain.

[FAHQTOO]

I always check reviews. I even read all the employee reviews when I was thinking about applying to Costco.

[QueenBee]

I like to read customer reviews on Amazon, or the reviews of Consumer Reports. I use CR especially for big ticket items. If reviews are mixed, I just tend to weigh both against how much I really need or want the item. I mean, if it is a car, or an appliance, It can pretty much be a need.
If reviews on something are mixed, or leaning toward "do not like" I will often not buy that product.
An additional question for you all...would YOU be willing to write a review, positive or negative on a product?

[HairOfTheDog]

An additional question for you all...would YOU be willing to write a review, positive or negative on a product?

If a product or service was exceptional in one direction or the other, I'd be willing to write a review.

I've written a couple of reviews on Yelp when a restaurant was particularly good, but that's about it.

I sometimes read product reviews before first-time purchases, but not always. Sometimes I don't and wish that I had.

Used to read movie and music reviews in advance, but stopped doing that after I'd avoided seeing/hearing some of them as a result and then discovered that I really liked them some time later; too subjective.

[Duchess]

Big ticket items I research half to death and almost always rely on Consumer Reports. Love that magazine, no ads.

[Cynical Ninja]

If you rely on online reviews you will drive yourself insane for every positive you will probably find a negative.

I prefer peer reviews, I'm more likely to believe and take onboard the views of someone I know and trust as opposed to anonymous review online.

There are probably a million reviews online saying my shitberry is junk, but no sorry for me totally incorrect, best phone I've ever had.