Why You Should Beware of Amazon's 4 & 5 Star Reviews

[ElspethB]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I often use fakespot

Another vote for Fakespot. In addition to checking Amazon reviews, I also use it to check reviews on Sephora, TripAdvisor, and Yelp.

[lumpynose]

Another twist to Amazon ratings is that they sometimes don't show the most highly rated. I was looking for an electric tea kettle and a friend has one by Cuisinart which she says is great so I went looking on amazon for "electric tea kettle" and sorted by ratings and Cuisinart wasn't in the list. Then I navigated to the Cuisinart tea kettles on Amazon and it had 4.75 or something stars.

[DiapDealer]

I typically don't "shop" at Amazon.com. I buy there. I tend to shop using "top rated <widget> 2019" or "Top 10 <widget> 2019" Google searches and then read the pros/cons of the tons of various hands-on review articles that are invariably returned. Then I use that knowledge gained to find what I've decided on at Amazon, and buy it (if it meets the fulfilled by Amazon requirement, of course).

This is the electric kettle I recently decided upon, by the way.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I typically don't "shop" at Amazon.com. I buy there. I tend to shop using "top rated <widget> 2019" or "Top 10 <widget> 2019" Google searches and then read the pros/cons of the tons of various hands-on review articles that are invariably returned. Then I use that knowledge gained to find what I've decided on at Amazon, and buy it (if it meets the fulfilled by Amazon requirement, of course).

This is the electric kettle I recently decided upon, by the way.

The real question is if the Strix control mentioned is a real Strix control or one of the mass of fake ones manufactured in China.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This is the electric kettle I recently decided upon, by the way.

The one I got always had a slight plastic smell after boiling water. So I retrograded and got a good ol' stove top one.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The real question is if the Strix control mentioned is a real Strix control or one of the mass of fake ones manufactured in China.

According to the comments on its amazon page that kettle is made in China so who knows. The stove top one that I got, Pykal, is "designed in Germany" but made in China, which surprised me; I thought the Germans made their own stuff.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The real question is if the Strix control mentioned is a real Strix control or one of the mass of fake ones manufactured in China.

I'll be honest. This is the first I've ever heard of "Strix control." I certainly don't remember it being mentioned when I bought the item. Two quick searches didn't make me any wiser as to what it actually is/does. I only learned that "British Strix" is the manufacturer of said whosiwhatsit. More than likely, it's not something I'll need anyway for making almost-boiling-water for french-press coffee.

Neither "Boiling dry" nor freakishly accurate temperature control are things that are relevant to my usage. Make the coffee, empty the kettle and put it away.

[JSWolf]

When I'm looking for something, I tend to read the 1-3 star ratings to see what sort of problems other have had. By doing so, I've been able to avoid buying something that I would have otherwise bought had I read just the 5-4 star reviews.

What I really dislike is how different products are lumped together in the same entry and the reviews are all over the place. I should be able to specify that I only want the reviews for the specific item I'm looking at.

[4691mls]

I would not buy based only on an overall star rating. Like JSWolf, I look at low-star reviews to see what the problems might be - did the product break after a few days of normal use, or is the reviewer obviously an idiot who didn't read the description and had unrealistic expectations?

Also, as others have already said, I don't rely solely on store reviews but look for other sources of information - either online or IRL. If someone I know has a product like what I'm looking for I will ask them if they like it.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Another twist to Amazon ratings is that they sometimes don't show the most highly rated. I was looking for an electric tea kettle and a friend has one by Cuisinart which she says is great so I went looking on amazon for "electric tea kettle" and sorted by ratings and Cuisinart wasn't in the list. Then I navigated to the Cuisinart tea kettles on Amazon and it had 4.75 or something stars.

I used electric tea kettles for a few decades to boil water for my single cup coffee filter. I usually paid between $50 and $100 for them and most lasted many years. However the last two that I bought, just as expensive but I don't recall which brand, didn't last even a year. They were different brands.

Next time I went to Walmart I found one sold under their housebrand, Mainstay, for $10 and I've been using it now for about 6 or 7 years.

Barry

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'll be honest. This is the first I've ever heard of "Strix control." I certainly don't remember it being mentioned when I bought the item. Two quick searches didn't make me any wiser as to what it actually is/does. I only learned that "British Strix" is the manufacturer of said whosiwhatsit. More than likely, it's not something I'll need anyway for making almost-boiling-water for french-press coffee.

Neither "Boiling dry" nor freakishly accurate temperature control are things that are relevant to my usage. Make the coffee, empty the kettle and put it away.

I ran into it when one co-worker had his apartment damaged by his near new kettle. Despite the claims made on Amazon's page and the labelling on the kettle, the control was not manufactured by Strix and had not received any of the testing certifications whose logos were on the control. His insurance company used this information to refuse to pay most of his claim (the term penny on the dollar was kicked around).

BTW, in the link you gave, Strix is mentioned twice and the ad for the newer version for half the price specifically says "British Strix" though that unit lacks the temperature control functions. Both include an image of the base with the Strix name on the round connector.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DNSB

BTW, in the link you gave, Strix is mentioned twice and the ad for the newer version for half the price specifically says "British Strix" though that unit lacks the temperature control functions. Both include an image of the base with the Strix name on the round connector.

I'll take a look at the base of mine and see what I see. But as I said, mine's not plugged in for more than a few minutes at a time. And always under my supervision. It's very much a "watched pot". It beeps, it's poured, it's put away.

[DiapDealer]

It does have the Strix logo on both the base and the bottom of the kettle. I know that's not really proof that it's not fake, but I'm satisfied that someone would have mentioned something about it somewhere in one of the independent review sites I checked before buying (many of which had it listed in their "top 10" budget models). As for Strix being mentioned in the newer model without temperature control... *shrug* . Temperature control was a requirement for my needs.

[pwalker8]

Gee, I didn't even know that electric tea kettles were a thing. I've just used traditional whistling tea kettles on the stove all my life. Live and learn.

DiapDealer, how fast does your tea kettle bring the water up to the proper temperature? It might be worth getting if it's noticeably faster than a stove.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When I'm looking for something, I tend to read the 1-3 star ratings to see what sort of problems other have had. By doing so, I've been able to avoid buying something that I would have otherwise bought had I read just the 5-4 star reviews.

What I really dislike is how different products are lumped together in the same entry and the reviews are all over the place. I should be able to specify that I only want the reviews for the specific item I'm looking at.

I look at the extremes.
Sometimes it is clear that the User did not select the correct product to meet their expectations and is blaming the product for not doing what they WANTED (NOT THAT IT CLAIMED TO DO THAT)

I've been bit. I failed to heed a few ' operational irregularities ' notices.
I also prefer Fulfilled by Amazon over complete 3rd party processing.
For those that don't know: Fulfilled means the product still belongs to the seller and Amazon stores and Ships it for them.
BTW 'Theducks' harps upon poor editing in his reviews of ebook reviews