Amazon Product Reviews

I just wrote my first negative Amazon product review for an iPod able that never arrived after an almost 2 month wait.


This review was denied to be published. I have at least a half dozen positive Amazon product reviews that were published.


Now, maybe it's because I never actually received the product that they wouldn't put the review online. But, in my opinion, paying money for a product that never even comes is even worst than paying money for something that is cheap, breaks, or is inaccurately described. Certainly if there were an online knife dealer that took your credit card info but never shipped a product out, I would want to know about it.


Has anyone else had any experience with Amazon's reviews? I have to wonder the same thing about other site's reviews like Yelp!, Cabela's, Best Buy, Cheaper Than Dirt, MidwayUSA, etc. I know one buddy did a negative review of an item at Cheaper Than Dirt that disappeared. I'm sure the temptation to favor glowing, 5 star reviews of their inventories to up sales is great.

I've heard about Amazon not publishing very negative reviews.

Yelp, on the other hand, is one of my favorite sites for places to eat because they really seem to publish the good, the bad, and the ugly.

You can't review a product if it did not arrive. Have you made appropriate seller feedback? I wouldn't consider the following review useful:


Domino's Pizza. 0/5 stars
Pizza never arrived. Had to eat carpet. Carpet was moldy, got sick and was hospitalized. Would not buy again.

The reviews are for the products, not the sellers or shippers. If I look up iPod reviews, it's to read about the iPod, not to read about some guy in Poughkeepsie who's angrily waiting next to his mailbox and has not yet ever actually held an iPod..

Be patient.... : ) I've heard of packages arriving after 3-4 months even. It depends on many things, of course, destinations, shipping, etc. The longest I ever had to wait was 46 days (weekends included, shipped for free from Hong Kong). Sometimes there might be a period of lots of National holidays, like Easter for the Catholics now and whatnot....if the shipping's for free, it's also going to be slower.... I don't have any experience with Amazon as I've been having trouble registering there since the very beginning I tried. I use eBay only.

Some of you guys have had to wait more than two months!?
Wow, when did Amazon become DX? In my experience the longest I've had to wait was about two weeks. Surely you've already contacted Amazon customer service?

I rarely if EVER buy anything from amazon that isn't sold directly by amazon. Did you order some random vendor or was it showing back ordered already? That's easy to overlook if you don't look specifically for it.

bjt3833 said:

I rarely if EVER buy anything from amazon that isn't sold directly by amazon.

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I'll buy from a seller with a 95% or better rating over thousands of reviews; this is a must for anyone buying college textbooks, and good to have in mind if you want to buy a whole pile of used books for the price of a single new book..

StarHalo said:

I'll buy from a seller with a 95% or better rating over thousands of reviews; this is a must for anyone buying college textbooks, and good to have in mind if you want to buy a whole pile of used books for the price of a single new book..

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And even with the good ratings the college textbooks usually end up being the "international edition".
Oh... that's why it was so cheap.

StarHalo said:

I'll buy from a seller with a 95% or better rating over thousands of reviews; this is a must for anyone buying college textbooks, and good to have in mind if you want to buy a whole pile of used books for the price of a single new book..

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I heard 95's kind'ah low, so I look for at least 98% give or take a percentage!

Anonymous

Imon said:

And even with the good ratings the college textbooks usually end up being the "international edition".
Oh... that's why it was so cheap.

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I generally have to specifically seek out international editions (which I often do). I've never received one unexpectedly.

Students often sell US editions of textbooks for reasonable prices on Amazon and eBay. They can easily sell them for more than their college bookstore is willing to pay to buy them back, while providing a price low enough to ensure they sell quickly. It's a win-win for both buyer and seller.

It's important to keep in mind that there a lot of paid reviewers out there whose job it is to help push sales of certain products or undermine competitors. Although Amazon frowns on this practice, it happens all the time. For many reasons, it's always important to take online customer product reviews with a healthy grain of salt and try to read between the lines. Some people are just idiots too. Last year I bought a refurbished Dyson vacuum cleaner online. (Not from Amazon, though.) One reviewer raved about the machine but complained that for a machine in this price range he was disappointed and "pissed" that it didn't have on-board tool storage. I went ahead and ordered one and when my vacuum arrived it became clear that it did have on-board tool storage, just that it was not quite so obvious because of how cleverly Dyson had engineered this thing. The reviewer was simply too stupid to figure it out and he didn't bother to read the instruction manual either! There are people who may not have bought the machine because of this dumb reviewer!