How much do customer reviews influence your buying decisions?

Doomer

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 1999
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What prompted me to ask this question is the many many links within posts here on Anandtech to products with awful customer reviews. I see them all the time and it makes me wonder why people would recommend products that stink according to reviews. Personally, I think paying attention to reviews helps avoid getting burned by a sh*t product, and there are many such products out there.

I realize you have to actually read the reviews because some of them are posted by people who obviously don't know what they're doing but a lot also point out obvious flaws with the product.

What says you?
 

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
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Sep 16, 2005
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They have quite a bit of influence, but not simply in the totals, which are fairly easy to game. I like to read the reviews, because there is usually a ton of good information buried in them.
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
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Quite a bit... But they usually turn me away rather than towards a product. The first thing I look to are the negative, one-star reviews and why. If I find that it got one star because it started fires, I stop buying anything from that brand -- I'll avoid saying which.

Nowadays, I shy away from buying things without reviews.
 

Mixolydian

Lifer
Nov 7, 2011
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gilramirez.net
I'd say quite a bit.

It gets pretty tricky when you look at a product and half the reviews say it's the best thing ever, and the other half say its the worst thing ever. In those cases I'll usually just buy it and see for myself.
 

homebrew2ny

Senior member
Jan 3, 2013
610
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Not very much....

One thing I have learned over the years is that consumers are far greater to go online and give a 'review' if they are displeased. Thus you often are overwhelmed with negative reviews because they are the bulk of what is being posted. Having said that, I do put some stock in them, but not entirely so. I need multiple sources, including professional reviews, consumer reviews, and personal experience (when available) for a valid conclusion.
 
Jan 25, 2011
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Individually not very much. But if I see similar negative or positive experiences shared by different people across different sites I'll be paying attention.

Mind you it's really only ever for large dollar value purchases.
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
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I'd say quite a bit.

It gets pretty tricky when you look at a product and half the reviews say it's the best thing ever, and the other half say its the worst thing ever. In those cases I'll usually just buy it and see for myself.

I find that a ton of positive reviews are probably from people who just opened the box -- some are probably "bought". That's why I usually avoid positives and go straight to the negatives. Then if the negatives aren't too bad, I'll look at the positives in depth.
 

velillen

Platinum Member
Jul 12, 2006
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I find that a ton of positive reviews are probably from people who just opened the box -- some are probably "bought". That's why I usually avoid positives and go straight to the negatives. Then if the negatives aren't too bad, I'll look at the positives in depth.

Same can be said for a fair number of negative reviews as well though. ive read plenty where they claim its broke and doesnt work right when in reality they most likely just didnt follow directions.

But i still usually browse through the reviews really quick and see if theres multiple people reporting the same issue or praising the same thing
 

JManInPhoenix

Golden Member
Sep 25, 2013
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Quite a bit. Though like others have said, I read through the 5 star and 1 star ones for content. A lot of 5 star ones can be disregarded since they are very recent (out of the box) - sometimes 5 star reviews seem fake to me (which they probably are). On 1 star reviews a lot of them are idiots that didnt follow directions or plain douche baggy people that are hard to please (especially with food & travel reviews).

If I see a lot of 1 star reviews that have substance, it definitely gives me pause on buying that good or service.
 
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Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
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Same can be said for a fair number of negative reviews as well though. ive read plenty where they claim its broke and doesnt work right when in reality they most likely just didnt follow directions.

But i still usually browse through the reviews really quick and see if theres multiple people reporting the same issue or praising the same thing

Yep. Ton of people who bought the wrong thing, didn't know how to make it work, had a DOA, shipping problem, etc. Those are easier to filter out than the super positive ones.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
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It depends on the type of product. I'm swayed more by customer reviews on books than by customer reviews on tech products.
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
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A fair amount. I read a lot of them for a product I am interesting in and find the info that is buried in there. If a bunch of a people are having the same problem and the review score overall for the product is mid/low that depending on what the problem is it can effect my decision. But you really need to read through a fair bit of them to get an idea. Too many people are idiots and can't get stuff to work right because they are stupid, then you have the people who complain that it doesn't do xxx even though it states it doesn't. The most helpful ones that people generally don't screw up on are when it comes to build quality, I'll avoid any product that a lot of people are complaining about build quality.
 

Ruptga

Lifer
Aug 3, 2006
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I definitely take it into consideration for most products, but I don't care about the star rating nearly as much as I care about what people are saying about it.
 

fralexandr

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Apr 26, 2007
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I usually look at the breakdown of the 5/4/3/2/1 star reviews, and then read the first page of reviews and then read some 4/3/2 star reviews. Since the 1 star reviews contain a lot of product doesn't work/is broken, etc, and the 5 star ones are mostly works GREAT!1!111!
 

darkxshade

Lifer
Mar 31, 2001
13,749
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<--- sort by most reviews

Yea, I'm a bitch and can't decide on things on my own so I tend to go with stuff with many reviews and an overall positive rating. It's worked great so far.
 

13Gigatons

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
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Many reviews are fake or skewed but if you view enough across the web you get a sense of a product.

Having previous experience with a company's products also helps.

I have bought products with negative reviews though and they have worked out fine.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,456
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Quite a bit, but I look at the big picture. All hard drive reviews will involve people saying it failed, for example. But if hard drive A has 394 reviews saying it was a DOA, and hard drive B only has 5, then I will avoid A and go with B.

Just have to consider the fact that often people are more inclined to post a bad review. If they're happy they often don't post a review at all.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
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a lot, but it actually requires reading some of the reviews just to make sure it doesn't sound like a buyer who didn't know what they were doing or someone who overreacted over bum luck (eg: getting a stick of bad RAM shipped... happens to everyone and any company worth their salt will replace it straight away)
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
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Sometimes I buy for low price, then will review the product after I get home. Somewhat recently, I needed a new vacuum cleaner. I never bought an upright detachable canister style, one where you could easily empty it out, and only used the disposable bagged varieties before. I bought a cheap Eureka on sale, then looked at online reviews. It used a clip on style canister, and people complained the clips would break, or go flying off and get lost, or didn't hold the canister properly in place. Well, that was clearly a dud. So I returned it, still unopened in the box, and got a Bissel on sale that uses several built in clasp type mechanisms and it works perfectly.
 
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rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
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none at all

The average consumer is a moron. Read 50 Amazon reviews and maybe 5 will be informed.
 

Imaginer

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 1999
8,076
1
0
Quite a bit... But they usually turn me away rather than towards a product. The first thing I look to are the two and three-star reviews and why. If I find that it got one star because it started fires, I stop buying anything from that brand -- I'll avoid saying which.

Nowadays, I shy away from buying things without reviews.

Fixed for what I do. Also, I look at each user's usage handling, user environment, and usage models and take that into account to see if the product is within my intended capability need.

The reason being, is that people are very emotional on both ends of the spectrum, either overly enthusiastic with no objective reasons to why or overly disappointed and curse up a storm with no reason why other than to slander a product based on emotion.
 

Papa Hogan

Senior member
Feb 1, 2011
413
0
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<--- sort by most reviews

Yea, I'm a bitch and can't decide on things on my own so I tend to go with stuff with many reviews and an overall positive rating. It's worked great so far.
Yes! Sort by most reviews. I could read reviews about a product for a week looking to "get to the good stuff". It's so hard to make good decisions on one's own. Involves a lot of trial and error. It's nice to get something that works well for a lot of other people. There are some brands that I'll buy from if the product has features I require even if it doesn't have many reviews.