Microsoft App Developers Can Respond to Your Reviews

[JMcEntegart]

Microsoft's newest feature for Windows Phone developers is the ability to respond to reviewers.

Microsoft App Developers Can Respond to Your Reviews : Read more

 

[ferooxidan]

Well, android dev can do this from years ago, but still an asshole of developer is an asshole. So many half baked apps and so many users reporting bug and bad experience just to get no answer and no responses from the dev. The funny things is when site like Tom's guide feature it as a good app and when one goes to the download page and see people raging and reporting bugs, making one unsure whether it is really good as some-famous-tech-site says or just a crap filled with bugs, even more no response from dev EVEN THOUGHT the dev can response them. I hope this is not the case with Windows Phone, cause I'm beginning to get interested in WP.

 

[rwinches]

^^ For Example^^

eBay tried the seller is not allowed to give negative ratings to buyers thing and it left seller open to extortion by unscrupulous buyers of which there are enough to be problematic.
Also ignorant or uninformed buyers are big problem because of this.
eBay not enforcing the auction terms is another wrong idea.

I would hazard a guess that the majority of negative reviews netwide are from ignorant buyers or trolls, some paid. Many complain about off topic things like the store is far away or I couldn't fine parking near by. Or they complain about how they ordered the wrong item or claim they see that the problem they are having is reported a lot, yeah by other buyers that can't read or google the item before purchase.

One of the lamest is the buyer that interprets terms so that they fit their complaint, I paid for 3 day shipping and when I called the day after my order it had not even shipped so it took 4 days to arrive, but I wasn't there to sign for it so I had to wait til the next day, why didn't they tell me they would not leave the ($2000 50" HDTV) item on my doorstep, so it took 5 days to get here one star, I would give zero stars if I could.

This all means the real review info that is useful is obfuscated by a system that does not qualify and sort reviews and complaints other than 'verified purchaser' or not.

 

[back_by_demand]

Good idea, users can leave all kinds of ignorant dross and devs have no method to respond so allowing them the same forum will at least level the playing field

 

[b23h]

The author of this piece is making an assumption about how it would be best for developers to only engage with reviews that have constructive criticism. I believe that conclusion cannot be supported. I expect that if a user makes false claims about a product and the developers corrects the false claims that is not "misuse(ing) the ability to respond to app reviews". One would hope that Microsoft can parse out what is an appropriate response to false or inflammatory claims by reviewers, versus snippy and inappropriate bickering over personal tastes.

If they have any problems doing so, my background in philosophy can help and my pay needs are reasonable, if not relatively minimal.

 

[bak0n]

What they should do it release patch notes. Not argue with bag reviews.

 

[Shin-san]

The author of this piece is making an assumption about how it would be best for developers to only engage with reviews that have constructive criticism. I believe that conclusion cannot be supported. I expect that if a user makes false claims about a product and the developers corrects the false claims that is not "misuse(ing) the ability to respond to app reviews". One would hope that Microsoft can parse out what is an appropriate response to false or inflammatory claims by reviewers, versus snippy and inappropriate bickering over personal tastes.

If they have any problems doing so, my background in philosophy can help and my pay needs are reasonable, if not relatively minimal.

It's better to not respond to "Your app sucks. You are Hitler for making this not work!"

Now, "I can't use the app; it crashes on my Galaxy S3" can be replied with "Sorry about that! We hope to issue a fix for this soon! We are a small team that only had an S4 at the time"

 

[b23h]

The author of this piece is making an assumption about how it would be best for developers to only engage with reviews that have constructive criticism. I believe that conclusion cannot be supported. I expect that if a user makes false claims about a product and the developers corrects the false claims that is not "misuse(ing) the ability to respond to app reviews". One would hope that Microsoft can parse out what is an appropriate response to false or inflammatory claims by reviewers, versus snippy and inappropriate bickering over personal tastes.

If they have any problems doing so, my background in philosophy can help and my pay needs are reasonable, if not relatively minimal.

It's better to not respond to "Your app sucks. You are Hitler for making this not work!"

Now, "I can't use the app; it crashes on my Galaxy S3" can be replied with "Sorry about that! We hope to issue a fix for this soon! We are a small team that only had an S4 at the time"

Shin-san,

I agree with the examples that you gave. To respond to the first example would be absurd. There is no specific data that you can work from and it's just inflammatory. Your second example gives sufficient data and in the example you posit a particular scenario that would suggest the need for a response.

The main point of my post though was that there could be examples of comments where the reviewer is either making false claims about the product because they don't know how the product functions, or they are being malicious. A potential developer may want to assist those not understanding how the product functions, or respond to the false claims by the malicious. I realize that some of the responses I am talking about veer into support issues, rather than straight customer reviews, however I bet that is a common issue.

In the end I think this discussion is simply an artifact of the way the author of the article emphasized features of how the ability to review was launched. I believe the conclusions that were drawn by the author do not necessarily reflect how Microsoft will handle their sanctioning of developer's responses.