Amazon Overhauls review system

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I've had my issues with amazon's review process. We bought a Traeger Jr pellet BBQ at Costco. The design is one which could burn something down so we had to re-engineer it with a different switch. I posted that to Amazon and gave it a 2 start review. You could tell all the fake reviews there - generic, one name user, few previous reviews. But funny enough, people believed my review and it gained thumbs up (or whatever it they call it). Low and behold, a year later they no longer sell that model and modified it to do what we had suggested (and done ourselves) so it doesn't burn backwards into the pellet hopper.

The review process can work and I do think that the steps they are taking could end up being worthwhile.

Here is a very good example of why reviews from people who haven't bought the product from Amazon can be extremely valuable.

Sure, the policy can breed fake reviews, but even if people have bought the product from Amazon, their reviews could be full of hidden agendas.

No matter whether the review is negative or positive or whether or not the person bought the product from Amazon, it's up to the consumer to use care and common sense when digesting all the opinions -- just as you would when presented with a pitch from a salesman in a store.

But all in all, I find the reviews at Amazon incredibly helpful -- more helpful than Consumer Reports in most cases. I use them all the time even when I buy the item elsewhere. They have saved me from lots of buying mistakes.

--Pat

[RHWright]

Originally Posted by PatNY

I really don't see the review placements changing much from these new rules as the reviews with the most thumbs up were already being shown front and center. I don't see how this would change much.

Critical reviews won't be buried at all if they are helpful. They could instead jump up to the front. Unhelpful critical reviews will be buried -- as they should be.

What I wish Amazon would try to change and minimize is their practice of having multiple product options on one product page -- which results in different product reviews being mixed together. This is very unhelpful and can be very misleading. This has bothered me for years.

--Pat

^^This. With Amazon's long history and huge marketplace, reviews of particular releases of a book or movie get all jumbled together. There should be a way to tag/filter that a review is about the substance of the work--"Jaws is a masterpiece of moviemaking that illustrates ingenuity over effects in a pre-CGI era when everything couldn't be fixed in post."--versus the release--"The 40th Anniversary DVD has improved picture quality and a great 5.1 surround mix."

Can't tell the number of times I've had to slog through reviews about the VHS release (yikes) or earlier DVD releases that had problems.

If this fixes that sort of thing, more power to 'em.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by PatNY

.... What I wish Amazon would try to change and minimize is their practice of having multiple product options on one product page -- which results in different product reviews being mixed together. This is very unhelpful and can be very misleading. This has bothered me for years.

--Pat

I always had a problem with this too, but if you go to view all reviews, you can limit to only the specific options you are looking at. It's the Filter by option - if you click on All formats you can limit the reviews.

[Purple Lady]

The new system will give more weight to newer reviews

This will help in the App store. It's not very helpful to give the same weight to a review of an app that has had fixes and updates since the review. It would be like relying on a Calibre v1.2 review to decide if the current version would suit your needs.

[murg]

Originally Posted by RHWright

^^This. With Amazon's long history and huge marketplace, reviews of particular releases of a book or movie get all jumbled together. There should be a way to tag/filter that a review is about the substance of the work--"Jaws is a masterpiece of moviemaking that illustrates ingenuity over effects in a pre-CGI era when everything couldn't be fixed in post."--versus the release--"The 40th Anniversary DVD has improved picture quality and a great 5.1 surround mix."

Can't tell the number of times I've had to slog through reviews about the VHS release (yikes) or earlier DVD releases that had problems.

If this fixes that sort of thing, more power to 'em.

When I'm looking at the reviews, I mainly trying to find out about a specific media release (DVD/BluRay), and want info on the quality of the BluRay for instance. What I get are pages of the reviews based on the VHS tapes.