Newegg's Review System: Negative reviews dumped??

A

azzkikur

Bad Trader
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
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Saw THIS and it caught my eye. Really sucks that sites, Newegg being one of them, could be rejecting or deleting negative product reviews so that people would still buy their products. I never questioned their reviews in the past, but looks like I'll be taking them with a grain of salt from now on. The thought that the negative reviews are not being shown completely defeats the purpose of the review system. If a product is crap, I want to know about it. This just shows what happens to companies when they get too big. :mad:
 
i always wonder if some guy from newegg is getting paid to write the reviews because they sometimes seem like they are trying to sell you the product in the review rather than review the product.
 
Yep, I've experienced that. I bought the POS Logitech Internet Chat headset, as it looked like a good deal, and it literally fell apart after a few weeks. Posted a 2/5 review, saying how fragile it is, and it never got put up. I thought it was a technical error, so I waited a week and posted a negative review again. The review's still not there. :rolleyes:
 
That is a bit unfortunate. I have seen negative reviews on NewEgg but most of the products never have a total star rating of less than 3. :confused: Obviously, that ain't right. Anyhoo... I've always taken the user reviews with a grain o salt after seeing a guy trash an AMD NF4 mobo for not working when he wanted to "just swap out my P4 CPU". He didn't even buy the mobo, he got it for free. I mean... dude, c'mon. The great 8 NewEgg review mods should have nailed that one, but they didn't.

A link for the un-believers: http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/FeedBack/CustratingReview.asp?item=N82E16813152053

Check out Mr. 7/9/05...
 
That's one of the reasons why I don't like Newegg...
 
Ha! Yeah, they definitely drop a lot of negative reviews, but I've actually had them not post one of my positive reviews!
 
I find it continually harder to use 'user' product reviews on a seller's site to gain any sort of meaningful insight into a product. Not only are the negative postings deleted (the conditions of deletion are unpublished and probably ambiguous), but the positive reviews tend to be of the "omg this is the r0x0rZZZZZ!!!! best psu evar!!!!!!!!!" variety.

Thankfully we have sites like [H] to gain useful information into products before purchasing.
 
Oftentime I'll see people hide negative reviews under 5 star ratings, just to get word through. It's almost as if the review staff only goes through scored reviews to edit.

-wil
 
Has anyone actually confronted Newegg about this issue? If they get enough negative feedback they may actually stop filtering out the negative reviews and make their customer review section more useful to the rest of us.
 
If i were New Egg i would not even allow reviews. Most of the negative reviews are by posters that dont know what they are doing and give a product an undeserved bad review.
You should do other research and find out if a product is good or not. The amount of stuff returned that has nothing wrong with it is incredable,thats why most etailers only allow exchange for same product. I would not trust forums either,but would look at reputable hardware sites for product evaluation.
 
If i were New Egg i would not even allow reviews. Most of the negative reviews are by posters that dont know what they are doing and give a product an undeserved bad review.
Click to expand...

While this may be true, the opposite is also true. Most of the positive reviews are by posters that don't know what they are doing and give a product an unmerited good review.

The sad truth is that most reviewers have absolutely no clue about the product or its competition.
 
NickN said:
Yep, I've experienced that. I bought the POS Logitech Internet Chat headset, as it looked like a good deal, and it literally fell apart after a few weeks. Posted a 2/5 review, saying how fragile it is, and it never got put up. I thought it was a technical error, so I waited a week and posted a negative review again. The review's still not there. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
thats the same headset that shipped with UT2K4 isn't it? had mine since released, used and abused it all through WoW and for CS:S. no complaints here, still holding up well as if it was new.


Newegg should really consider removing the system due to the flawed nature.

edit: read article, says newegg has a staff of 8 people checking customer reviws. I didn't think it would be so dedicated. If so they need ot train them better to look for construtive reviews, there are some on the site, but there is also alot of junk.
 
I don't care how many yellow eggs it has. What I do look for is the 2-4 yellow egg reviews. Those are usuually the most insightful. It can be a 5/5 and i might find one 3/5 review that lists a key flaw that most would miss.

-tReP
 
I've had Newegg turn down several of my reviews for no good reason at all so i just quit posting them. I took the time to write a descently thorough review of the item i purchased instead of just "Woah this thing rockz and it killz INTEL!!!" and Newegg just sent me back some retarded reply saying they weren't going to post it but gave no reason why.
 
aug1516 said:
Has anyone actually confronted Newegg about this issue? If they get enough negative feedback they may actually stop filtering out the negative reviews and make their customer review section more useful to the rest of us.
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I made a post about it on resellerratings.com, and it got taken down and they e-mailed me saying I was making false claims. :confused:
 
NickN said:
I made a post about it on resellerratings.com, and it got taken down and they e-mailed me saying I was making false claims. :confused:
Click to expand...

After all the years we have given to NewEgg (think '99-'02), they have to come out like this? I remember a time when negative reviews were actually visible. I remember in 2001 I bought my 8500 and there were some reviews on the LE saying it could OC, others saying it could not. But needless to say, ALL reviews were available (0-5 stars). I say either have no reviews at all or all UNCENSORED reviews.

Censoring the negative reviews indicates some pretty fucked up marketing by NewEgg.
Deceptive, untrustworthy are a few words that pop up in my mind about NewEgg.
 
Those "reviews" are only used for marketing.

If they don't like your review, they won't post it, bad or good.

By the way, I've seen some negative reviews get posted, but at the end they always say something like "but Newegg got it to me 1 day early! I love Newegg! I only buy from them!".

That's about the only way to get a negative review listed, or like one of the posters above said, give your bad review 5 stars. :(
 
Empyrean said:
While this may be true, the opposite is also true. Most of the positive reviews are by posters that don't know what they are doing and give a product an unmerited good review.

The sad truth is that most reviewers have absolutely no clue about the product or its competition.
Click to expand...

Agreed completely. Also i've noticed them taking the prices out of the reviews if people listed it, so they can change it often.

Do your own research before you order, most people don't have a clue.


 
This is just how rating systems work. If New Egg or any other site allows people to put negative reviews, the product manufacturers would not be very happy. They have to strike a balance. I know personally that I only look at reviews when I can't make up my mind between similar items. If you make purchases based on reviews on the web site that is trying to sell you the item, then you are an idiot. I'll repeat that, New Egg is trying to sell you the item; how well do you think something is going to sell if it has a bunch of negative reviews??

I guess it is just so shocking to me that people found this to be a surprise. This has been common practice long before new egg came around. I mean how many negative reviews do you see for a product during an infomercial or on HSN?? Why would online retailers be any different.
 
Empyrean said:
While this may be true, the opposite is also true. Most of the positive reviews are by posters that don't know what they are doing and give a product an unmerited good review.

The sad truth is that most reviewers have absolutely no clue about the product or its competition.
Click to expand...

Like i said they shouldn't allow reviews AT ALL..........................
 
brom42 said:
I guess it is just so shocking to me that people found this to be a surprise. This has been common practice long before new egg came around. I mean how many negative reviews do you see for a product during an infomercial or on HSN?? Why would online retailers be any different.
Click to expand...

It is "shocking" because NewEgg has been gradually changing their policy. I'm sure many of us could remember seeing 1 or 2 star reviews "once upon a time".

The fact is that NewEgg used to do one thing, and is now doing something else. The fact that they think we won't notice is what infuriates me most of all.
 
This along with their price raping on new items has completely changed my view of Newegg. I've spent $10,000+ with them over the past few years, and now I don't even use them anymore. Anyone remember the days when they had the lowest prices, plus free shipping and great customer service. Ahh, memories....
 
My understanding of thier "stated" policy is that they toss reviews about "problems". So if a PC Chips mobo is flaky it won't get posted, but if you say the $35 PC Chips mobo is 5% slower than your $100 Abit with the same CPU & ram it'd in theory go up. Of course, that may not happen despite the fact that a mere 5% difference between an Abit and a cheapo PC Chips mobo would make the PC Chips board look pretty good with the price difference taken into account.
Of course, if they're a smart vendor they keep track of everthing internally. If they see a lot of dissatisfaction and problems with a particular product they may not post the negative reviews, but if they're thinking they simply won't bother to order more and just remove the product once stock is depleted.
 
I wouldn't exactly base my purchase solely on review from newegg's site, sometimes some of the reviewers I don't think are that computer smart. Thats what we have review sites and such for.
 
Stu55 said:
I wouldn't exactly base my purchase solely on review from newegg's site, sometimes some of the reviewers I don't think are that computer smart. Thats what we have review sites and such for.
Click to expand...

I guess you never read Tom's Hardware when they used to be heavily anti-AMD? Of course nowadays its not so bad, but for those that remember...*shudder*

Review sites can be sources of the worst bias and distortion on the web. On the other hand, some sites like [H] don't go one way or the other, just the [H]ard truth =D.
 
Sigh, this is nothing new. Everyone should know by now that a product page is not the place to hear both positive and negative opinions of a product. Would you expect to hear good and bad things about an Intel product at Intel's page? Obviously not. NewEgg is just another business, selling a product. Treat "reviews" as endorsements and you'll do fine.

There's nothing deceptive or underhanded going on here. Welcome to advertising.
 
Quote:
Obviously not. NewEgg is just another business, selling a product. Treat "reviews" as endorsements and you'll do fine.
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Don't even read them,you'll be better off...........
 
I like reading them, if mostly the ones that are 4 stars and below.

It helps in products that are small, like keyboards and mice. Obviously for something like a mobo or cpu or gpu, I'd use the [H] or a review site, but for the stuff that doesn't matter as much, Newegg's reviews can be quite helpful. And yes, I realize that they use them for advertising.
 
The thing that probably annoys me most about NewEgg's reviews are the comments like "as always Newegg r0x0rz teh big one!!!111" and "NewEgg is the best and pwnz your whole family", "NewEgg is so awesome I think I'll crap myself over their awesomeness!".

Talk about marketing.... I mean come on, does anyone really love a company that much to specifically mention them in a product review? It's not as though NewEgg manufactured the RAM I just bought, all they did was sell it. It's not like getting fast shipping somehow is adding value to a POS product. Who cares if you live in Alaska and got the motherboard in 2 days, if it sucks, it took you 2 days to get a piece of garbage.

Do these 8 review editors edit these posts to sing the praises of NewEgg?
 
amazon.com seems to do just fine with allowing negative reviews on their site.

I've seen tons of products with two or less "stars" ratings.

Either do it right and allow all reviews on, or don't do it at all.
 
I need to submit a negitive review of some hardware I bought from newegg, I guess I'll test it out, then report my findings here?
 
bizzz111 said:
amazon.com seems to do just fine with allowing negative reviews on their site.

I've seen tons of products with two or less "stars" ratings.

Either do it right and allow all reviews on, or don't do it at all.
Click to expand...

Dont do it at all..............
 
LadyMakoFox said:
I need to submit a negitive review of some hardware I bought from newegg, I guess I'll test it out, then report my findings here?
Click to expand...
What does New Egg have to do with bad hardware other than you bought it from them,you could have have bad hardware from ZZF or anyware else.
 
That's why we have places like [H]ard|Forum where people can post their experiences on their purchases, whether good or bad.

Tip: never look at "reviews" from places you're going to buy. They'll almost always have a positive slant. Ask around, search with Google and read reviews from trusted sites before making your purchase. :)
 
Mav451 said:
I guess you never read Tom's Hardware when they used to be heavily anti-AMD? Of course nowadays its not so bad, but for those that remember...*shudder*
Click to expand...

I totally agree, and do recall. Due to the sheer *level* of bias exhibited at that point, is why I, to this day, won't go to Tom's site. People *rarely* change..."once a cheat, always a cheat."

Mav451 said:
Review sites can be sources of the worst bias and distortion on the web. On the other hand, some sites like [H] don't go one way or the other, just the [H]ard truth =D.
Click to expand...

As much as I love the [H]ard crew overall, you're kidding right?? lol

Kyle definately has an opinion, and is NO stranger to letting it be known. I equate that to bias. "Truth" as you put it, is only what's perceived, as it's still based largely on opinion/interpretation/"the experience" of whatever game/hardware/etc they happen to be looking at/comparing. And usually, they're the most adept at putting the best info out.

I fully realize that you have to make certain "allowances" for those that support your site financially *cough*BFG*cough*Newegg*cough...but even [H] has their 'faults' (read as: financial obligations) to be considerate of.

I guess the bottom line for me is simply, I have more faith in [H] and with the manner in which they NORMALLY present their findings, than *almost* any other "review" site due to the minimalization of the internal "hardware bias" as a whole.

But in short, to say that even the [H] crew, as good as they are, "don't go one way or the other", is absurd. Just look at the whole front page BenQ fiasco (and the subsequent thread that was closed due to someone getting so worked up, and posting ethnic slurs) for evidence showing "they're not biased". Even once the text in the ad was translated and the bigger picture was allowed to be understood more fully, they *still* held on like a dog with a bone (quite biased). As much of a hot-button topic as that was, bias definately exists within reviews. They're just usally more restrained and/or objective is all.

Accurate facts speak for themselves. Our perception is what sways us one way, or the other.

EDIT:
AFA Newegg goes...They should do away with them altogether. If they can't let the whole picture be painted, dont bother leaving the brush out at all. Anything less is bordering fraud in my opinion.
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*extreme example* (not indicative BY ANY MEANS of Newegg, but just for illustrative purposes):

Used car salesman: it's got 4 wheels!!
<a hypothetical 10 cars sold so far>
3 guys outside say "yeah, but after 200 miles one falls off.."
 
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