When shopping at Amazon which reviewers carry the most weight for you?

[aquielisunari]

For me it's the Amazon Vine Voice reviews.

Because I lack the ability to test a product prior to use I rely on reviews, both personal and business(when available). I look to the 4 and 2 star reviews on Amazon prior to making a purchase. The 5 star reviews have what you'd expect. The 1 star reviews offers the other end of the spectrum. 4 and 2 star reviews usually are the most constructive in their review. If there is an Amazon Vine Voice review those usually carry the most weight for me. While they do receive the product for free they still need to pay taxes if they receive more than $600 worth of products in a tax year. They are also the some of the most unbiased because they don't actively seek out a particular product. They are offered a product so the cart's coming before the horse, so to speak.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I look for unpaid reviews of the product elsewhere.

 

[velocityg4]

I look at the one and two star reviews to see if there is a common problem. If everyone seems to have the same problem. I know it is something to avoid.

I also look at the 4/5 star reviews. Mainly to verify they are legitimate. I'll look for the verified purchase label. I'll also take a random sampling and look at their review history. To make sure these are real reviewers.

Also if a product has been around for a while. I'll look at the review history. If there is nothing or only a few bad reviews. Then suddenly it's loaded with 4/5 star reviews over the last couple of months. Then something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

If it is a product I'm really iffy about. I'll also look at review averages for other products a company makes. Like a replacement battery. I want to see if in general they make good batteries. Since most batteries are no name brands. I'd feel more comfortable if Energizer/Duracell made aftermarket batteries for phones/laptops than buying some random battery.

 

[kevbifs]

Generally agree with velocityg4 Take a snap shot of the mid-ground. Bottom few are the serial moaners and the top few are usally their mates

 

[cpike84]

I tend to look at a mix of the most helpful and the most recent reviews, but I'll also check some of the lowest rated reviews on certain products to make sure there isn't a potential bug/defect with it.

 

[jsmithepa]

Relying to Amazon reviews is been made more difficult.

Amazon tends to bundle reviews of similar items, they shouldn't.

Amazon makes no distintion on different hardware versions, firmware versions. Can make a huge difference. Very old complaints may not be valid anymore and is left to the user to discern. Is it that hard for Amazon to show me a chart of complaints distributions, so I can tell at-a-glance, aha, all these same complaints happened >5 years ago. I know I am dreaming, Amazon will NEVER make it that easy, but they are Billion Dollar company dang it.

At the end, because by God, nobody have unlimited time to go through all the reviews, I may buy anyway, item SOLD by Amazon are easy enough to return anyway, at least here in the U.S. sometimes u just don't know until u have it on your hands.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Amazon tends to bundle reviews of similar items, they shouldn't.

They also do this with q/a

They bundled the 9900k and 9600ks together aswell. I was looking at a 9600k and in the q/a someone asks "how many cores does this CPU have" and someone replied "The i9 9900k has 8 cores and 16 threads".

 

[punkncat]

I typically try to judge items by their own merit and the sheer number of sales and/or reviews if you can find that information "on it's own". As stated above, in some cases similar products reviews are lumped together. I also try to find "independent" reviews when I can....but in truth that whole segment is so skewed with paid shills it's not honest.

 

[SgtScream]

I choose the product that has the highest number of reviews and percentage of reviews close to the 5 star mark. I then make sure it says prime and best seller, then just return it if it sucks.

 

[USAFRet]

Amazon/Newegg reviews? I look at the 1 and 2 stars, just to see if there is a common fail trend.
Obviously, ignore the 1 Star fools who had heartburn over shipping, etc.

The 4/5 star reviews are mostly useless. Too many paid and/or clueless idiots.
"I just opened the box! Can't wait to try it out!!" 5 Stars.

A year ago, I was looking for a new lens for my Fuji X-T1.
I came across this exceedingly cheesy superzoom thing. 500/1000mm, $80.
I knew it was a POC, but read the reviews anyway.

5 Star review, verified purchase.
"I love this! Works great with my Fuji X-T2."
Later...
I love this! Works great with my Nikon D70.
I love this! Works great with my Pentax.
I love this! Works great with my Canon.
I love this! Works great with my Sony.

5 Stars all.
Same guy.

Really dude? You have $10,000 in various top end camera bodies, and you're shilling for a known crappy $80 lens?
I think not.

 

[AllanGH]

When I'm feeling a bit on the "blah"-side, I read some reviews, like these:
https://www.amazon.com/product/dp/B006J1FBLM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8#customerReviews

https://www.amazon.com/product/product-reviews/B000EVOSE4

You'll know what I mean when you hit the good reviews.

 

[Mark Dyson]

The reviewer who posts the pics of the product received.