Trusting product reviews!

[Osage]

With numerous products available,how does one trust product reviews?Im sure this has crossed others minds,if not it should.I try to read product reviews,then I try to categorize those reviews.First thing you need to remember is not all reviews are fair,what I mean by that is,some folks are what I call tunnel vision reviewers,these reviewers find absolutely nothing good to say about a product.Next you have I'm cheap so I like anything that keeps the money in my pocket,this type of reviewer is the other end of the reviewer spectrum.The type of reviewer that I place my money on are the But reviewers,this typs says,I like the product,BUT,I found this to bother me.The But reviewer also says " I didn't like this product ,But".In other words,very few products are "All good"and very few are "All bad".So for those who are having trouble deciding what new product to buy,pay close attention to the fairness in which a reviewer rates a product.I hope this helps anyone struggling with spending the money on a product.

[cold_feet]

I never trust reviews period. Most the responses to a product is from someone involved with building it or has a tie to it somewhere.  I normally wait a year or two and go from there and buy it normally by then the "want it" wears off and you see you really didn't need it so bad in the first place. Fishing has become a world of gimmicks trying to seduce someone into thinking they really really wont catch a fish unless they use  product X  that guarantees to put fish in your freezer. The only really proven gimmick like that is TNT and a 10 second fuse.

[pike4some]

I never trust reviews period. Most the responses to a product is from someone involved with building it or has a tie to it somewhere.  I normally wait a year or two and go from there and buy it normally by then the "want it" wears off and you see you really didn't need it so bad in the first place. Fishing has become a world of gimmicks trying to seduce someone into thinking they really really wont catch a fish unless they use  product X  that guarantees to put fish in your freezer. The only really proven gimmick like that is TNT and a 10 second fuse.

I totally can agree with what you said cold feet.

How many times I have been in that situation of do I really need it and walk around the store with it in hand and end up putting it back and never buy it.

If it is something that is really needed then I look at the reviews. If there is very minimal reviews you sit and wonder if they are true reviews or someone associated with the product. If there are many then I am sure they all can't be and scroll through to get the goods and bads. It's like this year when the new vex hit the high circuit. It is a very nice unit and all the talk is it is a must. I went out and used my basic fl8 and caught fish and still enjoyed using it and figured I had a good enough for my use at this time. Maybe a few years down the road I may upgrade but wait until then so the bugs and issues work there way out.

[neveruminda]

Reviews are one man's opinion and every person has a variation of angles, experience, and needs

I ALWAYS use reviews from mult. sources to initially evaluate (assess/size up) a product
After that's done, it's hands on and thru a retailer that has an excellent returns policy (90 days)

[toofuss]

X100000000000000000000 0000000000 on the return policy.

I am a faily low income individual. So when the time comes for me to spend my hard earned money on something I want to make darned sure it will work for me. As a result of this I have become somewhat of the go to guy amongst my buddies when they want to know weather or not something will work for what they want it to do. I have more otherwise useless knowledge about ice gear floating around my scull than 95% of the people working the retail stores selling the crap lol.

[Tackle]

I'm a guy that reads reviews on pretty much anything I buy besides food.

You need to be smart about it. I work in IT and I read many reviews on technology equipment. It's easy to spot a reviewer that understands the product and how it's supposed to work. Then there are people that will rate pos/neg because of things that are not relevant to the functioning of the product (like the color of a hard drive or noise of something that will be in a server room anyway).

[DTro]

Alright, here’s the dealio
 
When a company wants to market a product they have many different options.  One of those options they have been using quite a bit over the years, is their Pro Staff.   Now when you hear the word Pro Staff you think this person must be skilled, knowledgeable, amongst other things, that would deem them a “Pro”.    However in a lot of cases that isn’t necessarily the truth and they are more like spokespeople for the product.   I’m not saying this is a bad thing, however I do think that there needs to be a grain of salt taken whenever you are listening to a spokesperson for the company.   Obviously you won’t always know who the person is that is making the review and/or claims.  So to answer your question, you really don’t know who to trust.     Unless of course there is some history of the person giving honest reviews and feedback to products.  A good indicator of this is including negative stuff about the product in the review.  Not just duckies and bunnies.
 
I love trying new products and giving reviews, and was at the point where I was able to get some stuff at a significant discount in exchange for doing reviews, posts, pictures, videos, etc.   It was always under the agreement that it would be under my own discretion to say whatever I wanted about the product good or bad.  Fair enough right?  Well, that was all fine and dandy until I had to start saying some negative things.  Next thing you know a PM or email or phone call instructing me how to post, and what to say and not say.  That is where it ended for me.  I have no problem whoring myself out to support my hobby, but only when I’m allowed to be honest and at times I was not allowed to.
 
You won’t see people in the industry saying anything about this because obviously they want to protect their sponsorship and freebies.   But nothing is perfect and in a lot of the cases you only get one side of the story with reviews.  
 
Also always remember that a long term review is much more valuable than something that just came out.  When a product is released and people start using it, there is always a lot more good things to say than bad, so whenever I do a review I always try to follow up at the end of the year or a couple of years later.  There are times when something just breaks or is defective and you don’t find that out until a year later or something

[hnd]

i listen to most reviews outside of prostaff stuff. 

[bigbuckmiddaugh]

i think sometimes you need to read between the lines....some may be true....some may be they had a bad batch or something

[Alex Delarge]

Many people will have a bias when reviewing a product. If someone on IS is giving a review of a vexilar flasher and they have a picture of a marcum as their avatar, (not to mention any names) they will point out how bad the vex is and then try to promote the marcum. These people have issues with thinking that what they have is the best, if it wasn't the best they would not have it. After reading several reviews you can usually figure out the difference between a brand loyalist and someone who is giving their honest opinion about a product. There are PROS and CONS to almost every product and the reviewers who fail to observe either are probably biased to a certain name brand. With that said I like to read reviews when making purchases over $100 or so.

[onza04]

I will chime in.

If anyone is from the Prostaff of that said company. I won't give it much thought because they either get the product at a great discount or for free.  So what they say is rarely taken as the gospel.

I try to research other reasonable competitors in the market, watch videos, read online reviews from retailers websites.  I even go out and document my own personal experiences on camera and post them on YT hoping it will help another user down the road.

Reviews are nice but they are one's opinion. Only way to truly know is to go buy it and try it. (return it with the return policy if they allow it)

Thnx.

[T3]

Hey bud! I am totally new to this forum and ice fishing BUT..... what I can say with internet savvy is that ice fishing forums have been the most one-way/sponsored answers I have ever seen!  BY FAR.    I have browsed the web a LOT for reviews of ANYTHING I purchase, cars etc. and I have never seen such biased/sponsored reviews as when it comes to ice fishing.  (Particularly ice flashers)  I really am going with a grain of salt attitude on fishing products because of this.  I am treating all fishing forums as such.  I have just never seen an internet community so biased towards their sponsors like this and it almost seems as the answers are "cut and pasted" from their sponsors.... really.  Just my take on it from one internet info surfer.  Good Luck Deciphering!

[Osage]

This is why I started this post,I think reviews have uses,but not all are good.I Live outside the range of stores that carry ice fishing supplies.Nearly everything I buy has to be ordered online,this makes me more dependent on reviews than someone who can do a hands on before making a purchase.I am very particular and leery about reviews,I depend on many fellow IS members opinions about products.So for those that give reviews I ask you to be open minded,and remember some of us are poorer,or live on the outskirts of availability,returning a product could take weeks,cutting into fish time.

[eyesonice]

Great topic Osage, to offer my opinion up, I look at reviews formost things I am buying that are over $100.00. Obviously there are always the biased reviews and that will surely never go away (ford,chevy dodge). It has been around since time. However the more time you spend on different sites reading reviews you can usually get a good feel for things. I do love this site for reviews of bad service or products. The whole flasher debate will rage on forever but that's fine. I find it more helpful to identify companies that have terrible customer service. As soon as I see that I know who is not getting my money. Again, great topic.

[DAPOS]

I thought this site might be a good place for product/service reviews. What I've found is the good ones get posted, the bad ones disappear. I think that's too bad for all of us.

[MT JigMan]

I wrote a review for a product that I purchased at Cabela's ONCE.  The product was good if you were lucky enough to get the right size.  I measured and ordered per direction and there was no way the product would fit!  My review was negative in this aspect but by no means scathing  and wouldn't you know they didn't put it in their reviews.  A few years later I ran into someone who purchased the same product and had the same problem!  When looking at reviews (which I do) I always look for independent reviews not from the manufacturer or retailer.

[Kilbourn]

I like to read some reviews on some things staying open minded. But I've also seen reviews on things like movies were people say it sucks and I watch it anyway and like it. I just saw a girl being interviewed on the news about a month ago where she talks about how she gets paid to do false reviews to help company sales. She said it's good money and over half the stuff she's never heard of or uses. Sometimes she even made up reviews on male products and used a guys false name. Sickening on how you really can't go off them anymore.

[NEZ]

When I look at feedback regarding a piece of equipment that I am going to buy, I usually pay very little attention to the 5 stars or the 1 star rating.  You will get a better picture from someone not rating it as good as sliced bread or the biggest piece of garbage out there.  I do agree that it is important to see what the return policy is on whatever you buy and what do the people say about the companies customer support.  My new Showdown is having problems on day 2 on the ice and when I called Marcum, they are sending me an entire wiring harness with new transducer puck without question.  This is a reputable company and this is what you should look at.  At times you might find something cheaper, but customer service and how the company backs up their equipment is pretty important when I spend my money on a bigger item.  Good Luck

[rgfixit]

You mean to say that someone is trying to SELL me something I don't really need?

Darn those sneaky sales people. I'm gonna keep my eye on them from now on.

My Bride discovered the 3 new rod blanks and in line handles I ordered recently. She asked "What do you need with 3 more ice rods?" I gave her the "Beagle Face". You know what I mean...head tilts sideways with the blank stare your beagle gives you when you tell it to do something. Kind of an "I have no idea what you're saying" look.

She just said "Oh, never mind!".

Nobody sells me anything. I buy!

RG

[hnd]

I wrote a review for a product that I purchased at Cabela's ONCE.  The product was good if you were lucky enough to get the right size.  I measured and ordered per direction and there was no way the product would fit!  My review was negative in this aspect but by no means scathing  and wouldn't you know they didn't put it in their reviews.  A few years later I ran into someone who purchased the same product and had the same problem!  When looking at reviews (which I do) I always look for independent reviews not from the manufacturer or retailer.

i had this problem with a cabelas brand electric fillet knife.  it was such a hunk of junk.  i posted the review (i hardly ever do this) and it never got posted.  this is after they wouldn't take it back over the phone.  i waited for a year until i finally had a chance to go into another cabelas.  took it up to the return counter and was like, i purchased this from you guys. its the biggest hunk of crap i've ever used.  she called a guy over and he was like, "oh one of those give him a gift card. "

[tswoboda]

Hey bud! I am totally new to this forum and ice fishing BUT..... what I can say with internet savvy is that ice fishing forums have been the most one-way/sponsored answers I have ever seen!  BY FAR.    I have browsed the web a LOT for reviews of ANYTHING I purchase, cars etc. and I have never seen such biased/sponsored reviews as when it comes to ice fishing.  (Particularly ice flashers)  I really am going with a grain of salt attitude on fishing products because of this.  I am treating all fishing forums as such.  I have just never seen an internet community so biased towards their sponsors like this and it almost seems as the answers are "cut and pasted" from their sponsors.... really.  Just my take on it from one internet info surfer.  Good Luck Deciphering!

This guy nailed it.

The fishing forums we all view are available to us because of sponsor fees.  Without the forum bias towards those funding sponsors, there would be no sponsors and without the sponsors there would be no website.  It's the nature of  the beast.

Example of a trustworthy review... one that starts with Posted by: DTro

Example of an extremely bias review... one that ends with the signature:  Clam Powerstick