Saturday, May 11, 2013

So Many Product Review Sites, So Little Time!

By Fredrick Brodey


The most disturbing thing about company review sites is that they are a dime-a-dozen these days. It seems like anyone can share their complaint about products or services anywhere. Since these review sites are littering the internet, how can a person judge which ones are accurate or just gripe sites?

Before you spend a large amount of money on a product or service, a company reviews site may be beneficial to you. What is important to know is that you should already know what you are or aren't looking for in your purchase before checking these review sites. A poor review could have a negative impact on you buying decisions if you haven't figured out what is or isn't important to you in that future purchase.

For example, when buying a car it might be a good idea to know what features are important to you and which ones are not. By doing this before checking the reviews, you can weed out the reviews that are unimportant from the ones that are. Negative reviews and complaints can be a good thing as well. If many people are complaining about the same thing, there may be some legitimacy there. Review sites can help you speed up your search when making important buying decisions.

When visiting company review sites, it's important to note the credibility of the author of these reviews. If you are looking at a company for potential employment opportunities and you see a bad review or complaint on someone's blog. Treat it with a grain of salt if you feel that the poster might be a disgruntled employee. Look for grammatical errors as well. If someone is using foul language, you could bet money that they are a little disgruntled.

Company reviews can be written by anyone, about anyone, at any time. If you or your company has been a victim of frivolous attacks, you may have some leverage in pursuing legal action. If the intent was malicious, stated false information, and has caused a decrease in income to you or your business, that person may just be held liable.

When sorting through others' reviews and you have doubt, review the company yourself. If you can't sort through all of the reviews, speak to the company yourself. Ask them to answer your questions or concerns directly. After all, there are always three sides to a story. There is what one person said happened, what the other person said happened, and then there is what really happened. Be sure to note all sides of a story before making important purchases or decisions about a company.

Company review sites like Ripoff Report, Glassdoor, pissed consumer, Angie's list, scam blogs, and yelp seem to be the most visited review sites these days. However, a few of these reviews are heavily biased in one direction or the other. Furthermore, it may be a good idea to review these sites yourself to see if someone has listed you! Which reviews can a person trust these days? The truth is, it will always be a crapshoot. However, the truth always lies somewhere in the middle. There isn't one review out there that correctly sums up a product or service. Use your best judgment and good luck!




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