I don’t trust 5 star reviews. If an item has too many, I’m less likely to buy it. When I give a 4 star review, I’m trying to skew the results in a way that makes people like me more likely to buy it in the future.
The market is flooded with 5 star reviews now, so finding something with a good amount of 3 or 4 star reviews tells me that people actually buy it, as opposed to overwhelmingly 5 star places (or the dreaded “only 5 star reviews”) or products that seem like either they were paid for or people were coerced in some way.
Yes, I understand that some marketplaces (Etsy) punish you for getting less than 5 star reviews. This is bad and Etsy should feel bad. All it does is encourage fake products and fake (or at the very least insincere) reviews. Going for a 5 star product becomes either a gamble or at least an exercise in discernment that I shouldn’t have to be trusted with on a site as prominent as Etsy.
Comments
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I’m not sure this is unpopular. But I agree with you!!! I rarely will give 5 stars to anything. 5 stars is like…flawless, can’t be improved… is the perfect price and I won’t stop buying it… etc. it just feels fake.
I really enjoyed the podcast. I wouldn’t change a thing; 3 out of 5 stars
I got a new phone in January, but the store didn’t have any cases or chargers I liked. I wanted an Otterbox and the Apple made chargers. So, I ended up going next door to another cellphone store and got those things.
A few weeks, and about six charges later, my phone stopped charging. I asked Apple for a new charger, and then showed my friend the chargers. He informed me they were fake.
I emailed and demanded a refund from the store, then went and got it. They tried to bullshit me, but I didn’t let them.
I eventually wrote a 1 star review, but it’s drowned out by a bunch of 5 star reviews from bots or people from foreign countries. I’ve tried flagging them as spam, but Google has done nothing.
I went to a chiropractor once and right on the desk it says, “Give us a 5 star review on Google (or whatever it was) and we will give you a $10 gift card to Publix.” So many places are buying reviews. It’s so ridiculous.
It’s a cultural thing. In many Asian cultures, people tend to rate things more strictly. For example, on Tabelog (a Japanese restaurant review site), a 4 out of 5 is considered top-tier. In contrast, people in Western cultures often give 5 stars to indicate that there were no issues at all.
This difference can make things like restaurant ratings in the U.S. a bit confusing. In cities with large Asian populations, some of the best Asian restaurants might only have ratings of 3 or 4 stars, even though the food is excellent.
That usually changes once the restaurant goes viral and starts getting reviews from non-Asians. At that point, the ratings often shift, and sometimes the food quality declines as the place gets more popular.
But we Asians know that a 4-star rating often means better quality than a 5-star one. We even check the reviewers’ names to figure out whether it’s a “U.S. 5 stars” or an “Asian 5 stars.” They mean very different things.
I look at bad reviews when I’m looking to buy a product. They’re more likely to be honest and not a bot.
When looking at the 5 star reviews half of them say the exact same thing just worded slightly different.
Agreed!!! They don’t mean anything anymore
Nowadays?? Hahahha
It’s a good idea to look at the lower ratings to see if there are any patterns with the product itself having issues. If a product is REALLY good, you’ll find that most or even all of the low reviews are because someone got the wrong item or something got damaged in shipment.
I look at the bad reviews for pretty much everything. If the bad reviews are pretty consistent and make up a decent portion of the overall reviews, then you know it’s probably shit. This applies for restaurants, games and other services like hotels.
The worst pizza place I’ve ever ordered food from took 2 hours to deliver the food, had barely thawed chicken wings, and the pizza had spoiled toppings. Gave them a 1 star review and they had about 30-40% 1 or 2 star reviews. Each of those low rating reviews had similar things to say as well.
So when I see highly rated reviews, I don’t trust them at all because some people have really really shit tastes or they are bot reviews. Even that shitty pizza restaurant had plenty of glowing reviews saying it was the best in the city.
I always look at the 1-3 star reviews. I want to see the worst people have to say about an item.
4 stars means “meh”
4.5 means “pretty good”
And 5 means “great.”
Anything other then 4 is the worst thing ever.