Do you rely on "reviews" to a large extent ?

[orchidsarefun]

I am curious because of my experience with these.

Firstly - we are fortunate to be able to vacation in Mexico every year. We religiously avoided inclusive resorts with bad reviews ( on tripadvisor and elsewhere ). That is until I decided to go and take a look at one personally. We were impressed and from the following year we decided to go for the resorts offering the BEST DEAL, rather than the highest reviews. We had one proviso to this - there had to be at least 2 good recent reviews. That was about 6 years ago and I am happy to say that we have not had a bad experience since.
Secondly - movie reviews. I have seen enough movies on DVD to know that a lot of reviews seemingly don't apply to our viewing habits ! If the plot outline, the actors and the trailer look OK, we are not swayed by bad reviews and see these movies on the big screen.
Thirdly - car reviews. Having been told NEVER buy a Chevvy or a Ford for years, we did end up buying both at different stages. And haven't been disappointed !
Fourthly - orchid vendors. I am not sure what to say about this, other than it really seems to be mostly dependent on luck and the plant. Where possible I now make sure I see the plant in "real life" before buying it. But I do buy on e-bay for those hard to find plants - its really about the plant, not the vendor - and maybe I am lucky, but have never had issues that couldn't be resolved.

All I can say is Caveat Emptor and you should really make your own mind up ! A review generally can't account for personal taste and luckily everyone is different...

[billc]

Most people are quick to give a negative review on a product they don't like. Whether it's the reviewers fault or not. I usually take the negative reviews with a grain of salt. I find word of mouth is a much better way to buy something I'm not familiar with.

Bill

[fotofashion]

Reviews are, generally, rather subjective. I could get what I think is the most beautiful, healthy plant and you might think it is a lemon.
And then, there is the possibility that a vendor might make a mistake one time and that might turn you off buying from him.
I only have two vendors on my "do not buy" list. One was mentioned today. Generally I have received very nice plants from vendors that have a feedback rating of 99-100%. It doesn't take much to lower a vendor's rating.
Buying a plant that is the very one in the picture also helps IMHO.
Beverly A.

[Bud]

A review is a person's opinion.

But the way a review is presented can be reliable and useful.
If the reviewer presents pictures of the plant that arrived with mechanical damage, dark spots on leaves or rotting roots=then it becomes a fact and the seller's quality control becomes an issue.
Like on Ebay when the buyer rates the product well with five stars; then the vendor becomes reliable and trustworthy.
That is only then I 'rely' on reviews

[NYCorchidman]

I think quantity and quality are the keys in getting the most benefit out of the reviews.

Yes, reviews are subjective and can be personal.
However, if there are enough reviews for a particular topic you are interested in weighing in the value or the worth of, whether it is a hotel or a retaurant, and there seems to be a concensus of certain direction, then it says something about that particular business or service and you can safely judge what your experience might be like.

Now, if there are not enough reviews, (or even if there are enough reviews), the details of why the reviewers left certain opinions or comment are very important and helpful. You can then be a good judge for yourself. With out details of what and why, it is just impossible to depend on the reveiws and can be very misleading.

With that said, I read up on reviews on restaurants (pricy ones because I don't want to pay big bugs and feel like I wasted my money) and hotels and related services among other things and only care so much if there are details as to why they think it is good or bad or so so, or if there are enough numbers of reviews to be reliable.

Movie reviews do not affect me and I actually do not really read about the movie reviews.
I watch whatever I find interesting. I watch any movies with actors or actress I like, pretty much any genre I enjoy.

[Paul Mc]

Ok, so this is only coming from my personal work experience.

Reviews should always retaken with a grain of salt. Look at the date and time stamps to see if there an influx after a negative review, how many are negative and how many good ones are actually relevant or detailed. Also examine the negative with a grain of salt because there can sometimes be a small detail there that tells you if it was an experience or misunderstanding. Also, are all of the positive reviews 5's, cuz thats a dead give away those reviews were put there by someone with a stake in the company.

My last job was as an online PR monitor and adjuster, among many other hats. Once a negative comment is online, you can't get rid of it. Companies can only attempt to push the negative rating off of the first few pages so that most people wouldn't take the time to find it. Unfortunately, people with axes to grind are far more vocal and willing to take the time to review and talk about it as opposed to people who love the company. And it only takes one person to start the PR negativity online for others to see and start taking part.

I use to watch for negative reviews and push customers to give me permission to use the positive comments they gave, then post them. But many companies actually hire writers to post reviews for them.

So in short, what you are reading (both negative and positive) may not be entirely truthful or from real customers.

[butterfly_muse]

I am a compulsive review reader. That said, I, like most people who have responded so far, take the negative reviews with a grain of salt. I have seen some really horrible negative reviews where the problem was clearly operator error and not the product. I recently read a review on an electric razor I bought for my fiance and a few people said it was "loud" despite the fact that many, many others said it was quiet. We got it, it's quiet. So it's all a matter of opinion, I suppose.

The reviews that matter a lot to me are product reviews, especially if I'm going for a large purchase that is a "buy once, cry once" type deal...My fiance is obsessed with Consumer Reports for cars. Obsessed. We aren't even going to buy a car soon. But a purchase that large is something that I would put a great deal of research into. Someone's personal bias against Fix Or Repair Daily (yes, I own one, I'm allowed to say that) or Chevy or whatever, that's not really something to weigh. Plenty of people told me how crappy Fords are and I've had my soccer mom car for 6 years and have put 105,000 miles on it since I bought it. It's not anywhere close to dying (at least, I hope not...though I do fear it going out in a fiery spectacular doom in the middle of rush hour traffic).

The biggest thing for me as far as reviews goes is that I recently read reviews of the apartment complex we are moving to next month. They have great ratings, a lot of people have weighed in (and often) and it impressed me that people liked the place enough to actually take the time to review it in a positive manner. Not to say there weren't negative ones, but they were along the lines of "There is bird poop on the sidewalk and that's gross!" Sorry, we live in an area with LOTS of trees. Bird poop happens. Get over it. xD

In other news, our honeymoon is going to be at a Sandals resort in Jamaica and we read some reviews just out of curiosity about what you could do there but they weren't at all a part of how we made our decision. The butler sold us!