Are any Reviews real anymore?

I recently wrote a negative review on an establishment. All of it was 100% true, although unflattering. I was surprised when my review was in "pending" mode for weeks and still not published. I used to use reviews to help with decisions on purchases especially if it was a decision between two similar items. Now I feel like too many reviews are paid, fake or outright censored now. I find it interesting that some sites now pay for reviews but show that the writer received a buck or two for the review. With large portions of the population ordering items online now, how are we to trust what is out there? I know that fake reviews have been around a long time, but it seems so much worse now.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I look at reviews for products on Amazon.

Even though there is little orange text underneath some of the reviews that says "Verified Purchase", I am HIGHLY skeptical that the reviews I read are legit. Especially on "popular products". Most of the time the reviewer's name is something run of the mill like "Eileen" or "Joshua", followed by a gushing review of how this product completely changed them and their spouses' lives. To me, it is fairly easy to spot the fakes, and places like Amazon, Facebook and Google are known to BS the public, which doesn't help their case

I've also had negative reviews remain stuck on "pending", never to be published. I don't really wonder why that is, I believe I know just as you do.

nothing is real anymore trust nothing and no one

Honestly I think people make a bigger deal out of this than need to.

Read the longer reviews with verified purchase (at least with Amazon) and I think you can tell what is real and what is not.

Yelp is a joke though.

I wrote a review for a canine cryo bank about 10 years ago talking about how great their frozen yogurt was.

It's still there, I saw it a few months ago.

originally posted by: entermemo
Honestly I think people make a bigger deal out of this than need to.

Read the longer reviews with verified purchase (at least with Amazon) and I think you can tell what is real and what is not.

Yelp is a joke though.

Actually Ive ordered a product with real reviews that were faked... As in you get to review the product and in doing so you get a second bottle free.. So you end up giving it a better review than you should first because youre all buttered up and second because the product sort of works...

I actually didnt do a review, but yea...
even if its "verfied purchase" there may be something fishy going on..

It's very frustrating the ammount of fake information on the internet these days. Something I've gone by that hasn't really let me down yet is on Amazon, I can click a reviewers name and see their profile. So if someone writes a make or break review in my opinion, I click their profile and see what other reviews they have done and try to judge their honesty based on what I see.

-Alee

I don't know about establishment reviews, but I swear it seems like 90% of products out there, whether it be at Amazon, Walmart or Home Depot, has 4 stars.

That said, I see plenty of negative reviews of products. In my opinion, those are the only ones worth reading to get the best sense of what you might be getting into.

I have noticed that every single program produced by Netflix, movies and series alike, are rated, by Netflix, with 5 stars out of 5 stars. Each and every one.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Motel reviews aren't faked from personal experience. When the motel changed some things and remodeled it still took about a year for the bad reviews to go away. I believe the owner petitioned them to remove the bad comments because the problems were addressed. These reviews were posted on various sites like hotels.com etc.

I only believe the ones from stores where somebody complained and said why. The ones that are all good and everybody bought and praised the highest cost item I call BS.

I received an email from Amazon yesterday that read "Did 'Amazon Prime Membership Fee' meet your expectations?"
Tell us your thoughts and leave a review...

Of a membership fee...

originally posted by: toysforadults
nothing is real anymore trust nothing and no one

I don't believe you.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: toysforadults
nothing is real anymore trust nothing and no one

I don't believe you.

Hahahahhaha! 😎

originally posted by: Reverbs

originally posted by: entermemo
Honestly I think people make a bigger deal out of this than need to.

Read the longer reviews with verified purchase (at least with Amazon) and I think you can tell what is real and what is not.

Yelp is a joke though.

Actually Ive ordered a product with real reviews that were faked... As in you get to review the product and in doing so you get a second bottle free.. So you end up giving it a better review than you should first because youre all buttered up and second because the product sort of works...

I actually didnt do a review, but yea...
even if its "verfied purchase" there may be something fishy going on..

I had a similar situation with a free phone app. It looked pretty good in the reviews so I downloaded it, only to find that in order to unlock any useful features you had to first rate the app 5 stars. They would have gotten a 5 star review if it worked well anyway, trying to extort it out of me just rubbed me the wrong way. Deleted it and moved on.

I looked up a phone number for a local medical office. Saw a review link so for grins I checked it out. The review looked to have been written for a restaurant so it seemed obvious it was bogus.

nothing is real anymore trust nothing and no one


Except for 'toysforadults' if the batteries are charged....

originally posted by: underpass61

originally posted by: Reverbs

originally posted by: entermemo
Honestly I think people make a bigger deal out of this than need to.

Read the longer reviews with verified purchase (at least with Amazon) and I think you can tell what is real and what is not.

Yelp is a joke though.

Actually Ive ordered a product with real reviews that were faked... As in you get to review the product and in doing so you get a second bottle free.. So you end up giving it a better review than you should first because youre all buttered up and second because the product sort of works...

I actually didnt do a review, but yea...
even if its "verfied purchase" there may be something fishy going on..

I had a similar situation with a free phone app. It looked pretty good in the reviews so I downloaded it, only to find that in order to unlock any useful features you had to first rate the app 5 stars. They would have gotten a 5 star review if it worked well anyway, trying to extort it out of me just rubbed me the wrong way. Deleted it and moved on.

On those, I'll give them a 5 star, and if the app sucks, I go back and change my review to a 1 star and include a gripe about said gimmick.

Honest reviews are hard to come by tho..

a reply to: JAGStorm


Did You know that You could purchase "likes" ? So for instance You decide to open a pizza parlor, (Mangia! Mazel Tov on the new place...) You can purchase the "likes" for Your 'social media' account. This is where farcebook™ and the like come in. These places are mined and 'like people' (folks who share a common theme) are 'mixed & matched' to make profiles, then these people "like" Your pizza/knish combo

I saw an episode of the X-Files on the Mandela Effect (or was it the Mengele Effect?)



I guess nobody knows for sure...what does it matter?

"That restaurant is the best, there is no possible way they have roaches."

Restaurant reviews are the worst.

Some of the best places I've eaten have some really bad reviews by some fat, unhappy, unrealistic feeders.

Owners know the power of google reviews and often have family and friends do reviews.

I think Amazon, or their sellers use bots quite a bit, you can see ig in their writing style across many products.