Newegg vs Amazon User Review

[MNUR]

Guys, I just want to know the opinion from the experts here. What do you think about the user review from both sites ? I found some component got a 4 eggs on newegg but 4.7 star on Amazon. Can we believe the 1 eggs review on newegg and 1 star review on Amazon ? As far as I know, some we can take it as consideration before buying and some of it can be taken as grain of salt. People that are paranoid of review. Let's discuss this together. What about 5 eggs review is more than 1 egg review and 5 stars review is more that 1 star review ?

 

[13thmonkey]

i'd not be that interested in any of them, i'd read reviews by people that actually know what they are talking about.

 

[elbert]

I use it to reduce my chances of getting bad parts. I for one try to only buy parts with less than a 10% 1 egg on Newegg. Understand your dealing with differances in storage and handling with the ratings. Price is another issue that could influnce the rating that may get a part a less than perfect rating. Few tho would give a working part a lowest rating.

This however should only be used to seperate final choice of items. To remove lemons from choice if you will.

 

[Kalevra]

It depends on the product. A lot of the bad reviews are about the shipping and have nothing to do with the product.

 

[10tacle]

I am always weary of any store/website reviews, but Amazon more so than NewEgg. Amazon has the "Vine" program for top customers and reviewers where they are chosen and sent merchandise for review by the manufacturer. I find most of those overly glowing (why look a gift horse in the mouth?). Then on the other end at Amazon you have complete idiots who think they know what they are doing but clearly do not.

As far as NewEgg, I find most reviewers to be more technically adept but there are still some that are morons (like guys who complain that a new 500GB SSD isn't reading as 500GB when Windows formatted). Best bet for a product review you are interested in is to search for a hardware review site (like Tom's) to see if they tested it. If that's not an option, at the very least search for reviews that are only verified purchased. Both NewEgg and Amazon allow non-purchasers to make review comments.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I skim through reviews and look for a consistent issue. IE lets say I'm buying a wagon, if theres a ton of reviews that say the left front wheel fell off, I'd say its likely thats an issue. That said if theres a ton of other reviews who say "the people who lost the left front wheel are morons because if you read the instructions you need to install the pin in it" I will then ignore that issue.

Otherwise most reviewers are just disgruntled and tend to complain more than praise, and many complain because they are too dumb to use the product. But of course they always say they are an "expert".

 

[USAFRet]

Most reviews from retailer sites are only good for tracking down specific, recurring issues.

If you see the same issue from multiple reviews, then maybe it is an actual issue.
Otherwise, they are absolutely useless.

Yesterday, reading reviews for a book at Amazon:
"Great read!!" 1 Star.

Also, disgruntled users are far, far more likely to write a negative review vs the thousands of people who are satisfied and are just getting on with things.
Of the dozens of fully functional parts in my various PC's, I've written exactly zero reviews, 5 star or otherwise.

 

[why_wolf]

I find the Newegg reviews to be better, though not perfect. I think only tehcie people really know about Newegg while Amazon has everyone and their Grandma buying from them.

That said judging a product just off the reviews isn't all the helpful other than sorting out the truly garbage products.

Anyways judge by what the reviews say and not the star #.

 

[boosted1g]

Most reviews you have to take with a grain of salt.

Many people on newegg give them selves 4 or 5 eggs for tech experience becasue they now how to plug in a power and 2 ethernet cables into a router.

You get people that give it 5 stars because they WANT it, not because they even have it, or give it 1 star for stupid bonehead reasons like because after being on phone support for 2 hours they find out their wifi router wont even give them internet without paying a seperate subscription from an ISP!

As others here have said, go through the reviews and look for a common issues, look for people pointing out user stupidity for those issues, and look for resonibly legnthy write ups buy real experts. Now I will say that it is semi common to find some well made reviews that tell you how to easily address the short-commings of said item.

So to concur with everyone else: you should certianly read the reviews, but take the actual score wth a huge grain of salt.

 

[USAFRet]

Another example of a false 1 Star.
I was just looking for a new camera lens on Amazon.

1 Star review, because the buyer did not realize it was manual focus only. 30 seconds of pre-purchase investigation would have told him this.
And avoided a $500 mistake.

 

[MNUR]

Everyone had a good point in this. For me, i will see the recurring issues first and the star and egg, if less than 4 eggs and star, I won't buy that product.

 

[synphul]

Everyone's already pretty much covered the aspects of user reviews. They're a loose guideline at best imho. Obviously if several people have similar complaints I tend to give it more weight and do further searching/investigation prior to purchase. If it's a fan and 20 people out of 35 say it's 'loud' it might be worth noting. If it's a keyboard and 'the keys get stuck' keeps cropping up over and over, maybe there's something to it.

Otherwise some reviews are misplaced and aren't even for the product in question. Many are by people who if it doesn't work the first time they don't properly troubleshoot so give it a negative review (and turns out something else was the issue). Or vice versa, they give it a glowing review on day 1 of ownership and haven't bothered putting it through its' paces.

Then there are the questionable reviews by people who either got the item for free or heavily discounted in exchange for a review, are trying to give overly poetic reviews worthy of broadway trying to weasel their way into a review program or flat out 'sketchy' reviews that appear to be one liner spam reviews to boost overall reviews and swing the rating more positive. It wasn't always as bad as it is now, amazon in particular has gotten worse the past few years for that. It's not even one or two compensated reviews, sometimes it's page after page before getting a real review. Even then it's just one person's experience or opinion.

 

[USAFRet]

Amazon paid reviews:
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2376-i-get-paid-to-write-fake-reviews-amazon.html
https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/03/amazon-bans-incentivized-reviews-tied-to-free-or-discounted-products/
https://www.amazon.com/forum/top%20reviewers?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2Z5LRXMSUDQH2&cdThread=Tx1HZGC6589PMFD
--------------------------
"The process will work as follows:

Upon your confirmation, we will send you a 99% discount coupon code and you will purchase the product (cost will be 40 cents) on amazon via the link above.

Once you receive the product you may test it if so inclined and then post a 4-5 star review on Amazon according to your level of satisfaction. The review must be of course relevant to the product and posted within 7-14 days of receiving the product.

You will then send us confirmation and or a link to the review you posted. Following your review we will send you a $5 payment (paid via paypal)."
--------------------------------------

I've seen this on camera lenses.
Almost but not quite identical (ESL) wording, on multiple lenses, across several different camera types.
Really? You have the relevant Sony, and Canon, and Nikon, and Fuji camera bodies? Riiiiight.

So the 'reviewer' gets the product for free, gets paid $5, and then gets to sell the 'free' item, as 'New In Box'. Winning!

 

[ssddx]

agreed with the above...

i prefer to have some reviews instead of nothing but you really need to be able to sort the good from the bad.

generally i avoid reading most 5 star and 1 star reviews as they are either positive or negative rants. people with 2-4 star ratings are generally a bit more descriptive and accurate.

as mentioned before, i look for common trouble points or responses to said trouble points.

any 5 star product can still be a dud. any 1 star item may be great. the only difference is the risk level.