How useful are reviews

[Fadcode]

I know that some reviews are useful, like taking a bit of kit into the fireld and trying it out will normally highlight the pro's and con's of the article, and in some instances make the designer or maker to adapt the bit of kit to take away its weaknesses, etc.

I have just been onto RM,s site as I was looking to buy a Woodlore as a gift for someone, I looked at the reviews all 77 of them and was a bit dismayed to find that all but 8 of the reviews were actually posted before the knife in question was even thought of never mind made, the new knife was made in the summer of 2017 yet most of the reviews are dated before January 2017,

I know that the new knife was redesigned and made by a new maker in the summer of 2017, and the reviews therefore must be about the SWC and the AW Woodlore, but is it fair to include these reviews about earlier knives.?

 

[Stew]

Too many reviews these days are just adverts - paid for with money or being able to keep the goods.

 

[John Fenna]

I agree that a lot of reviews are "advertorial" - which is why I try and find fault with everything that comes to me for review!
I have been a gear reviewer since I was in my thirties and as I have professionally designed gear, had my own gear label, written books about making your own kit and been a user of serious outdoor kit for about four decades, I am in a lucky position of being able to look at kit from more that one perspective - more than most reviewers who get to play with stuff that it seems, at times, they barely recognize...
Some reviews - especially on social media - are "Fan-raves" and not worth reading, some are solid advice...
The problem is seeing beyond the dross to the good stuff!
I know I write some of the reviews here - and you can take them for what you will - but the other reviews written for BcUK front pages are some of the best I have read and I would trust the views of the various authors - they have been there, done that AND reviewed the T-shirt!
As to keeping the reviewed kit - most makers have a "review budget" as part of the advertizing funds and do not expect to get kit back, some have review items that get passed around various reviewers, some want the kit back.
Personally I like to keep the kit to use or sell on as what I get paid for a review by a mag would work out at pennies per hour (£50 for a full page review inc photos) and not a viable employment.
If I think a piece of kit has serious issues I ask the suppliers to take it back to look at again - and I get nothing for the work I have done in trying it out.
I am not getting many items for review these days ... perhaps the suppliers prefer "advertorial" and "Fan-raves" to serious reviews!

 

[oldtimer]

I find that reading reviews often saves me from making bad purchases. It isn't always about the strengths and weaknesses about a particular piece of kit but more often about how suitable it is for the purpose to which I want to put it.

I reckon that I recover the cost of my annual subscription to BushcraftUK by avoiding bad buys. I like John Fenna's and others' professional reviews, but also enjoy the informal comments that pop up in members' threads. I also have been grateful for advice and replies to direct questions about kit: these are a type of review by another name.

It is important to be clear about what you are looking for in a review. It should give information on which one can make one's own decision it should not tell you what to get: advertisements do that. As the Roman put it CAVEAT EMPTOR (buyer beware!)

 

[C_Claycomb]

The kind of review you are talking about Fadcode, is also prevalent on Amazon, and it is always important to check how long ago reviews were written. I have dodged more than one purchase when I found that the predominantly positive reviews were all a year or more ago, and all the bad reviews were in the last 12 months! Some design change comes along and turns a good product bad. Whether it is unscrupulous on the part of the seller is hard to say. I imagine that the admin side of updating reviews, or culling the old ones, could be taxing. While there is a strong incentive to keep good reviews up, even when you have changed source or design, there is likely also the hope that the fundamental design is close enough to the original that the original positive reviews will still hold true.

And if you are interested in knives...rather than rely just upon reviews and photos, I can thoroughly recommend going along to this:
http://www.knives-uk.info/finding-the-venue/
and getting to talk to makers and handle their wares!

 

[Fadcode]

I honestly take no notice of reviews or recommendations, unless I feel it is honest and true, it just seemed odd to me that despite having 3 different knives and 3 different makers, they still thought the reviews were of value, despite them being from different knives, also found it strange none of the reviews bar one mentioned the makers.The only similarity was the generic name of the knife.

 

[daveO]

Amazon reviews are next to useless now. I've seen too many questioning whether the item was actually genuine or not and when the reviews cover the same item from multiple sellers you never know if a bad review was of a fake item sold as the real thing.

I read some Amazon reviews today of a Fjallraven bag. One gave it 2 stars because the bag wasnt big enough, another gave it 4 stars with the entire review reading 'it works as intended'. I'm not sure what these geniuses are hoping to achieve with these reviews?

 

[Fadcode]

Amazon reviews are next to useless now. I've seen too many questioning whether the item was actually genuine or not and when the reviews cover the same item from multiple sellers you never know if a bad review was of a fake item sold as the real thing.

I read some Amazon reviews today of a Fjallraven bag. One gave it 2 stars because the bag wasnt big enough, another gave it 4 stars with the entire review reading 'it works as intended'. I'm not sure what these geniuses are hoping to achieve with these reviews?

I went on Amazon today looking for a soldering station, found one flagged as being in the UK (or so i thought) priced well, it was the fact I wouldn't get it untill march the 26th, that convinced me it was probably a fake coming in from China, same thing on Ebay its hard to tell the genuine from the fake,

 

[daveO]

Too many ebay sellers are buying fakes in bulk from China now and selling them on labelled as from UK stock. Add a couple of dozen fake reviews and it makes the whole system even harder to navigate.

 

[Old Bones]

Its a difficult subject, isn't it!

Many reviews online are basically paid advertising, and although its often easy to tell, there are many cases where its subtle enough that you do think they are real. And, as someone has pointed out, looking at reviews on Amazon etc are not always helpful - often vague to the point of uselessness, or where the review often has nothing at all to do with the product, but is a gripe about delivery times, etc. And there have been cases where authors have pretended to submit 'unbiased' reviews of their own works, or ones that slam their rivals. Its possible to game the system.

I sell TV's etc part time, and although I'm happy when people have done some research, etc, reviews can be problematic. Some sources are taken as gospel (such as Which), when actually they may be quite flawed, or might be from a magazine which may possibly be happy to print a positive review, possibly on the understanding that advertising review will be generous (the accusations are vague but not impossible...). I've certainly read positive reviews of sets that we've hated, and equally dreadful reviews of equipment thats generally very highly thought of.

I tend to quote the old Irish saying 'when six people tell you you are drunk, lie down' - if you get a lot of reviews from different reputable sources, and they are generally uniform, fine. However, too much information just leads to overload.

The other thing to consider is expectation, expertise and outlook. When I answer questions on a particular website about TV's, etc, there used to be a particular question about why someone couldn't get HD channels on their new HD TV. 90% of the time it was an easy guess - they'd bought a TV from one or two particular shops, which were relatively cheap and had no HD tuner. But when I looked at that model on the shops website, the reviews were generally great, even though I'd think it fairly rubbish. Their expectations had been met, and they didn't know much about TV's, so they were happy. And that goes for travel sites as well - Trip Advisor really let us down!

Much the same goes for hiking stuff from stores like Mountain Warehouse or Sports Direct. The down sleeping bag from Mountain Warehouse gets great reviews on their website, with some saying how cheap it is compared with brands like Rab, etc. Thats not surprising, because its not as good as the likes of Rab etc. But if you dont know any better....

And people get a bee in their bonnet. I've seen reviews of equipment which pick at one aspect, which skew the whole review, and because of the starring system, end up slamming a perfectly decent product. Or alternatively refusing to accept any criticism of a particular brand.

But at the end of the day, its one persons opinion - its your money, and your choice, and you will be the person using it. But yes, buyer beware!

 

[Fadcode]

The other thing is what they dont tell you, or let me clarify, they make it hard for you to notice, like some of the adverts on TV, unless you can read some of the small print at the bottom of the screen, or listen to the legal speak at the end rushed in such a manner that its hard to understand it, I have just written to the Advertising Agency regarding one of these loan company adverts, which say an interest rate of ...one, two ,three, five percent, and have asked the AA why they cant say, one thousand two hundred and thirty five percent , i have also asked them how a blind person can read these disclaimers at the bottom of the screen.
It seems to me the more technology we have, the more likely we are to get cheated..

 

[Lou]

I tend to use Youtube for independent reviews, as mostly the you tubers (in bushcraft anyway) are people that get products themselves or have it come their way rather than be sponsored by the company. Some great youtube reviewers are also here on BCUK. It gives you a chance to look at the product from all angles and see how things work in real time, and you can ask any question you like.

I will look at the website's reviews but take them all with a pinch of salt - of course they are biased towards the product.

@John Fenna why don't you set up a youtube channel? After you get your follower base set up, you will get products flooding in to you. My daughter also informs me that reviewers actually get paid by youtube for the content they post after they reach a certain number of followers.

 

[John Fenna]

@John Fenna why don't you set up a youtube channel? After you get your follower base set up, you will get products flooding in to you. My daughter also informs me that reviewers actually get paid by youtube for the content they post after they reach a certain number of followers.

That sounds like too much work
I am a technophobe and lazy - so I do as little as possible to earn my crust and avoid getting involved with IT as much as possible I quit an amazingly well paid job in a Commercial Bank's computer dept. (programming in Cobol and Assembler!) in Brussels after 12 months (four decades ago!) because I realised that computers were not me
During the Summer season I am already working up to 7 days a week (not full days at weekends but I need some down time) and prefer doing stuff that I find fun.
Four days out of those 7 are Bushcraft based and well away from confusers/computers, one is making my craft stuff and two are other work (varied) at the Care Farm (as is one day of the Bushcraft). Setting up a channel would be like working for a living...

 

[The Lord Poncho]

I do find so called 'professional reviews' quite useful - but i usually pay no attention to what the author has said or their opinion, but rather i find the fact there are often a number of additional photos of the kit beyond the standard company marketing shots. I can then review the pictures myself and make up my own mind as to the suitability of the kit.

Must admit, I've been badly burnt following a positive 'professional' review for a particular 'camelbak style' daysack - when the item turned up it had a considerable number of design flaws, was cheaply and badly made, and used poor materials - despite getting a rather glowing review from a established professional reviewer. Of course, no o0ne else to blame but myself, and one of the inherent hazards of purchasing outdoor kit almost exclusively via the web!

 

[Broch]

I think one of the problems with reviews is that people in general have a habit of either a) trying to find blame for an incorrect buying decision (so slate it) or b) try to justify their buying decision by giving the product false praise. Consequently I tend to ignore all 1 and 5 star ratings and will read what people have said about a product that they have given a 3 start rating to. Remember, all products have a shade of Marmite, some will love it, some will hate it and most will put up with it

 

[Trig]

I buy most things online, cant be bothered tramping around shops, and usually the internet gives me a greater selection to pick from.
Amazon reviews tend to be varied. "Not actually used it yet, but arrived quickly, so 5 stars" "Packaging was torn, 1 star" Lot of help.

I try to look for reviews on most things before buying,but as above, its usually a case of trying to read between the lines of all the glowing reviews and all the terrible reviews, and forming your own opinion.

 

[daveO]

The worst part with bad Amazon reviews is when you get a terrible review with '10 people found this helpful' under it. It tells you nothing about the product but lets you know one guy cant write a decent review and 10 people are morons.

I find myself looking at stuff in shops now though and being unsure about buying because I cant look at a review first. Like it would really matter what Maureen 56 from Skegness thinks about it. This stuff gets in your brain after a while.

 

[Broch]

I have the same problem with theoretically independent reviews. I have been researching a car buy - the one of interest has good reviews from a number of car magazines - What Car, Top Gear etc.... it consistently comes within the top few of their appraisal for its type; Which? on the other hand slated it and put it in their 'don't buy' category! Who do I believe? More and more these days I suspect there is money changing hand!

 

[Fadcode]

unfortunately most of the revues seem to be contrived, and in most cases its" suck it and see", even on ebay now, the seller tries to point you away from giving a bad review by saying contact us first, as if they know some of their customers are going to be unhappy, I fear getting quite a lot of well known brand names as you are never sure they are genuine., recently I was looking at a new Ham radio rig, and it seemed odd to me that they had actually spelt the name of the (manufacturer) of the rig wrong, I sent a message pointing this out, and they were adamant they were right, they had spelt Yaesu Yeasu, eventually they sent me a message and admitted their mistake, needless to say i didn't buy the rig.

 

[Trig]

The worst part with bad Amazon reviews is when you get a terrible review with '10 people found this helpful' under it. It tells you nothing about the product but lets you know one guy cant write a decent review and 10 people are morons.

I find myself looking at stuff in shops now though and being unsure about buying because I cant look at a review first. Like it would really matter what Maureen 56 from Skegness thinks about it. This stuff gets in your brain after a while.

Try looking at the answers people get in the questions section of a product on amazon. Amazing how many of the answers are "I dont know". If you dont know, and the question wasnt specifically to you, why bother taking the time to answer with "I dont know" ?

That is part of the reason i prefer online shopping, i like to check reviews and watch videos, and compare prices. Quite often i find myself that annoyed with review hunting that i end up not buying it at all, so it saves me money on some stuff i dont really need i suppose