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Old 08-27-2018, 04:09 AM   #21
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I read reviews first, but with caution. I look to see if they are product related, situation related, or personality driven. I have found that IMHO Good Sam overrates campgrounds consistently. I always downgrade a star or two from what they recommend.

On products, like a person above, I look to see if the are specific about the product, looking for things like cheaply made, didn’t fit, poor quality, etc. Comments like wrong color, slow shipment, etc, I look to see if there is a trend. Some are personality driven or a dispute between buyer and seller over something frivolous.
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Old 08-27-2018, 06:07 AM   #22
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I use Amazon and many other online suppliers of plumbing parts because none of the brick and mortar plumbing supply houses stock or have access to many of the obscure (and not-so-obscure) parts I need for plumbing repairs.

I always read the reviews for non-OEM replacement parts that I haven’t used before and more often than not, the bad reviews are due to people not knowing what they are doing/ordering — it can be quite entertaining for me. I find this to be the case with many bad reviews for non-plumbing-related items, also.

It appears that I put more faith and trust in reviews (particularly with Amazon) than many posting here do, and it has worked out pretty well for me. With any product, I first look for the items with the most reviews, then I sort those reviews by the most recent, then I read the worst reviews first and work my way up to the best.

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Old 08-27-2018, 05:58 PM   #23
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I've stayed a lot of CG's and RV Parks where there were tens of reviews. All reviewers gave them 1 or 2 stars due to lack of Wi-Fi, poor Wi-Fi, or my favorite: Couldn't get DISH or DirecTV because the trees were in the way!

Actually, the places were pretty nice, for camping that is.
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Old 08-28-2018, 11:07 AM   #24
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I do use on-line reviews a lot for things I'm buying, services, campgrounds, vacation spots, etc. I work like this.

1. Reviews on websites like this or others where I know (or am getting to know) real people get the most weight. That would include Facebook and other social media. Any time I can get real information from a trusted source I will typically look no further.

2. I look at the graphs. Something that has 400 reviews and 3% of them are 1 star or worse with a smattering in between starts to engender some doubt. In these cases I'll start to review the negatives first. Often times, something with a lot of reviews are fake boosters with the "Great product" type of reviews with no details.

3. If something is really a big deal (expensive or complicated) I'll dig further into negative reviews by checking out the reviewers other reviews. I do this a lot with campgrounds reviews. There are a lot of folks out there that are never happy with anything and who give bad reviews because a campground's cable didn't get all the movie channels. I try to focus on reviewers that use a broader scope of criteria to judge a product or service.
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Old 08-30-2018, 11:01 AM   #25
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i only read the ‘worst’ reviews since i believe they are the only ones with a real ‘view’ of the product... Though i don’t believe them, either, half of the time.

And, like some contest judged and scored by mere humans, throw out the ‘best’ and the ‘worst’, so now you’ll have some ‘averages’ to chew on!


: )
not true most really bad reviews are competitors trashing a product.
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Old 08-30-2018, 11:08 AM   #26
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I've noticed that like on home depot the reviews arent even for the product your looking at. Say your looking at a 4k or so generator like im searching for, reviews will be for 2k of same brand. its utter BS.
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Old 08-30-2018, 11:09 AM   #27
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not true most really bad reviews are competitors trashing a product.
Don't think that is true...

Some yes..most, no!
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Old 08-31-2018, 06:37 AM   #28
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Don't think that is true...

Some yes..most, no!
X2

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Old 08-31-2018, 07:15 AM   #29
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I've learned to not trust the reviews for campgrounds. I do look for key words but know that bad reviews are edited to lean toward a more favorable opinion on the "campground review" sites
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Old 08-31-2018, 07:38 AM   #30
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I've learned to not trust the reviews for campgrounds. I do look for key words but know that bad reviews are edited to lean toward a more favorable opinion on the "campground review" sites
X2....I don't per say trust the reviews either there have been campgrounds that we liked that received poor reviews and vice versa some that received great reviews that we found were at best just average in our opinion.

I think a big factor for the DW and I are the site(s) that you are staying at in the campground that can make a big difference in when it's time to make a review.
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Old 08-31-2018, 10:26 AM   #31
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With campground reviews you have to look for recurring comments.

These are tell tale signs of good or bad!
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Old 09-06-2018, 07:42 PM   #32
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From experience 99% of people happy with something will not take the time to say anything. But the opposite is true for someone dissatisfied. Example, search for reviews on your favorite truck and I'll bet you find lots of people having an issue with one problem. Based on the number of trucks sold, seeing those 20 bad reviews really shouldn't worry you much. The other 10,000 happy people didn't bother to write a review.
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Old 09-06-2018, 08:04 PM   #33
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Consider the date of the reviews. Old reviews may not apply to a new generation of product. Same with services (ie campgrounds), a 5 year old review may no longer be relevant or even the same owners...

This holds for both good and bad reviews too.
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Old 09-06-2018, 08:47 PM   #34
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I look at the total number of reviews, plus the percentage of 4 and 5 ratings. If there are a significant number of 1 and 2 ratings, I look at them . If 75% rate 4 or 5 I figure that is good. There's always a bunch of gripers.
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Old 09-06-2018, 09:08 PM   #35
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Real Amazon Reviews?

Here is a website I found where you can paste the Amazon URL for the item you are considering and the site will tell you whether the reviews are appear to be valid or fake (robots, repeats, etc). Doesn't help you find quality products, but does help prevent lemmings from buying crap due to glowing reviews. Has saved me a couple of times. "https://reviewmeta.com/amazon/B078XN4JLC" (don't include the quote marks in the copy/paste.)
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Old 09-07-2018, 01:05 AM   #36
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Here is a website I found where you can paste the Amazon URL for the item you are considering and the site will tell you whether the reviews are appear to be valid or fake (robots, repeats, etc). Doesn't help you find quality products, but does help prevent lemmings from buying crap due to glowing reviews. Has saved me a couple of times. "https://reviewmeta.com/amazon/B078XN4JLC" (don't include the quote marks in the copy/paste.)
Thanks, this might be a useful site for major purchases of unknown products. My usual system is to scan the highest and lowest reviews just to see what people are saying. What to trust is a matter of my judgment based on factors too many to list.

Like restaurant or hotel reviews, usually some reviews say its the worst on the planet while some say its the best. They can't all be right. Somehow, my sixth sense is reliable as to which reviews to trust. Explaining how it works would take ten pages.
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Old 09-07-2018, 01:14 AM   #37
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I agree with all the posts ... plus I look for the longer reviews; they usually give me more product details than the listing itself.
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Old 09-07-2018, 09:29 AM   #38
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I agree with all the posts ... plus I look for the longer reviews; they usually give me more product details than the listing itself.
x2, except for the rants.
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Old 09-07-2018, 09:41 AM   #39
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Here is a website I found where you can paste the Amazon URL for the item you are considering and the site will tell you whether the reviews are appear to be valid or fake (robots, repeats, etc). Doesn't help you find quality products, but does help prevent lemmings from buying crap due to glowing reviews. Has saved me a couple of times. "https://reviewmeta.com/amazon/B078XN4JLC" (don't include the quote marks in the copy/paste.)
I'm wondering just how much this site can be trusted...

This is the internet, after all...
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Old 09-07-2018, 09:43 AM   #40
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x2, except for the rants.
A lot of times the rants are probably the best and most accurate reviews.

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