How much do you trust customer reviews that are on a particular retailer's website?

I always wonder how many of them are the typical “dollar priming the tip jar”.

You know they put good reviews up themselves.

This is why I like to ask fluther. I may find a few people here that have tried something, and if I am familiar with a certain person that is answering my question, I’d rather believe them than the retailer’s website.

It depends on whether they’ll post negative reviews too. Obviously, not everybody is going to love everythin they buy. If an online retailer will keep the negative review up (as long as it’s constructive and not just a nasty rant), I’ll trust the rest.

What I would like to see is an online retailer who responds to negative comments. i.e. “We have received several comments regarding that design element and are considering a change” or the reason for that is this, perhaps this would be better suited for you. Contact us and we would like to work with you.

And you know there are always nut jobs out there who get a wireless router and can’t get it to work and “try everything” go up, roast the company, its products, employees and all the employee’s family when in the end it’s because the router was plugged into a socket controlled by a switch he never turned on.

Dipshit.

I always check the websites with no link to the company’s product in question. There are plenty of them out there. On the other hand, some people leave bad reviews because they are too stupid to use the product in question. Have you ever noticed that those strings of Christmas lights say “for indoor or outdoor use only” – what else is there? Someone with the IQ of a parsnip had to be the cause of that.

@evelyns_pet_zebra – What about underwater use? Outer space use? Imaginary use?

I typically try to read all the reviews and see if the common experience is bad or good. I usually Google to look for other reviews as well and see how they compare.