Comments on: “Best book I’ve ever read!” Rave reviews for sale

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 00:46:19 +0000

Thanks for reminding us about that I Love Lucy episode – a classic!

By: Jessy S.

Jessy S. — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 00:24:53 +0000

And it is an inexpensive way to trash your competition. It is even worse if the reviewer was actually an employee of another company. There is no limit as to the amount of accounts one person can have on any given website, and the reviews can be either positive or negative.

BTW, the poster child for “positive reviews” like this, would be the “I Love Lucy” episode “Million Dollar Idea.” The episode involves Ethel Mertz dressing up as Mary Margaret McMertz on an afternoon TV Show and she uses an “unbiased” housewife from the audience, who is really Lucy, to first sell and then unsell salad dressing.

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 04:16:17 +0000

Two good recommendations, Bev! Thanks for these.

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By: Bev RN

Bev RN — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:25:42 +0000

One more reason to subscribe to Consumer’s Report and Angie’s List when it comes to purchases! So far as I know, they are both reasonably honest. Angie’s List has a great potential not to be honest, but if you write a review, your name is accessible to the person/company being reviewed. I think this serves as a deterrent to lying and trashing someone who doesn’t merit that.

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:32:57 +0000

Sigh…. And these bad reviews are likely even more effective than fake good reviews!

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By: Jessy S.

Jessy S. — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:01:54 +0000

And then there is the other side of the matter. Fake horrific reviews for sale. Often times a company will pay reviewers to trash their competition.

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By: Bev RN

Bev RN — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:39:24 +0000

Yes, they did publish it. Verbatim. I had also ordered and tried out a different one that was a disaster. I wrote a scathing review of it and it was published as well. The package instructions also said that they would refund the return of any unopened, undamaged bubble wands. I wrote in my review that “they’d better refund the money I paid on the lousy wand I’d opened and the postage, too!”

Well, I called the seller and told the lady who answered the phone about how awful their product was. To my surprise she was very, very nice! She said, “Thank you so much for the feedback. That’s a new item we’re selling and we didn’t know how it would go. And yes, of course we’ll refund the wand you opened. Just put it in the box with the others. Tell me your email address and I’ll also send you a UPS label to put on the package.” Or words to that effect.

Her tone of voice was just so nice I felt kind of awful about the strong negative tone I’d written in my review. I could have said the same thing more nicely. However, I went back to that site and was able to add another review. I wrote about my experience with the store who was selling the wands – what she’d said about the opened wand and postage, and especially about her tone of voice and earnest wish to correct my problem re the costs I’d worried about. I was so glad I was at least able to add that.

And Carolyn – about the caterer you used for your daughter’s wedding – (I hope it was lovely and without any disasters or near disasters like we had!) – I think you should definitely write your review! You could write it in a way that makes it very personal and maybe that would help any suspicious reader believe these people are legitimately excellent. I think a job well done deserves your best effort in telling others about your experience.

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:03:11 +0000

Hi Bev – who knew there was so much that could go wrong with bubble wands?! Did they publish your review? You have just reminded me to post a (positive!) review myself – on the website of the caterers who did my daughter’s wedding last month. They were spectacular! I’ve told all our friends – but I should really leave an actual real-life review for them to post. Maybe if it’s too positive though, others might think it’s made up ? ! ? 😉

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By: Bev RN

Bev RN — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:16:50 +0000

Well, maybe these fake reviews explain why, when I was shopping online for a good bubble wand, I searched and searched and finally, there it was! It looked like I finally found one! It had 4 100% glowing endorsements – all 5 star reviews with not a criticism in sight. I was happy with finding what I wanted (I babysit) and bought several of them. As I expected, the wand+special soap solution did indeed make gigantic bubbles – quite the show stoppers! However, about a third of the time, I couldn’t get any bubble at all to form.

I wrote my own review, mentioning my difficulty, but also saying it was worth the failures since the successes were so stunning. Secretly thought I must be doing something wrong! Dipping the wand into the dish of soap and waving it in the air – well, that’s so very complicated that it probably needs a college level course, but I actually did think it must be me, considering the reviews. No one mentioned any problems at all!

Reading your article, Carolyn, I suspect now that maybe they were fake reviews – or at least a little over the top regarding a very good but imperfect bubble wand. And maybe I’m not bubble-making impaired after all!

As a bit of optimism, so far as the morality of our society, I will add that when I shop online, I very often find not a single review. And when there are reviews, I find quite a variety off replies. I used to be really bummed out by that. Now I’ll take it as a happy sign that this is an honest seller!

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:14:36 +0000

Interesting that you mention those Rate Your Doctor sites: it’s an increasingly common online topic for docs and health care professionals (how to counter these bad reviews from their patients). I’ve seen this advice online: “ask your staff/family members/best patients to write positive reviews.” One dentist even tried to impose a gag order on his patients to prevent bad reviews; the patient sued.

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By: cave76

cave76 — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:55:03 +0000

Truer than true! I’ve spent a decade or more exposing this type of mis-information to people at on-line health forums. Not that giving fake reviews for ‘stuff’ like tweezers or restaurants is acceptable but when it gets into the health field, I’m incensed!

The sites that rate doctors are not exempt. One doctor wrote his own ‘glowing’ reviews (that’s a plural) but finally had most of them removed. But not all.

After a while, I developed a sense of smell about fake reviews. And they do stink!

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