Sellers Solicit Reviews

jnmeade

jnmeade

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Sep 25, 2005
Messages
1,280
Location
Eastern Iowa
Display Name
Jim Meade
Home Airfield
Iowa City, IA
Are more and more online sellers sending emails soliciting product reviews on your transaction?

Just curious - what do you think of this practice? Is it just good business on the part of the seller?

I haven't been on eBay for 15 years. One reason I left was an experience with a seller who demanded - insisted - that I give a fully favorable review (when, in fact, it was not warranted).

Am I behind the times or do others feel this pandering for favorable reviews is maybe a little unsettling or intrusive or .......?

Maybe I'm just an old goat in a young society.

What do I do? I ignore them and if the seller gets persistent I'll move to another vendor. I don't buy things to be put on a mailing list or be fished for compliments.

Sorry, this locale has been hit by political ads and calls for nearly a year and maybe I'm simply over sensitive and want to be left alone.

Oops,sorry, have to go - a phone call from an unfamiliar number - hmmm, maybe if I ignore them they'll leave a message if they really want to talk to me.

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzzZkkiJMv8
 
Yes. I travel every week and every Friday when I get home there are review requests from the airlines, the car rental, the hotel and sometimes a restaurant that somehow found me. Reviews are their way of validating themselves.

I typically just delete or ignore them. They don't know it, but they don't want me giving them reviews because I consider standard service to be a 5/10. If we do a transaction and nothing goes wrong and there's no exception service, then they get a 5. But most of their rating systems will then ask "what did we do wrong?" Nothing, you didn't screw up and you didn't impress me. Why would you think not screwing up would get a 10?
 
I bought a bunch of camping items from Amazon last week and nearly all of the vendors contacted me via email asking for me to please review.

I got a review request for tent stakes..TENT STAKES..like, what am I supposed to say? They went into the ground, didn't break? Ok..but like Brian, that doesn't mean they get a 10/10.

Average is average. The only people I rate higher than average are those that depend on that rating for their livelihood. I'm not going to be the one responsible for taking a guy's bonus away because he had a crappy day and forgot to offer me coffee or some other bs.
 
bflynn said:
Yes. I travel every week and every Friday when I get home there are review requests from the airlines, the car rental, the hotel and sometimes a restaurant that somehow found me. Reviews are their way of validating themselves.

I typically just delete or ignore them. They don't know it, but they don't want me giving them reviews because I consider standard service to be a 5/10. If we do a transaction and nothing goes wrong and there's no exception service, then they get a 5. But most of their rating systems will then ask "what did we do wrong?" Nothing, you didn't screw up and you didn't impress me. Why would you think not screwing up would get a 10?
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I recently rented a Hertz car in Fort Myers. I think I've gotten one email per-day since I returned the car asking for a review. I can easily ignore an email or two, but bombarding me with multiple emails start to get on my nerves.
 
I usually just ignore seller requests for reviews. However, in today's social media society the number of positive reviews on a business site is perceived as a higher status over other businesses. Sometimes it can affect search results and that is why they are so hungry for the likes. :thumbsup:

Also, the over use of the like button makes businesses feel like they should get a positive review for just doing the job.

The way I see it the instant "Like" social media society gives us an over abundance of positive reviews, warranted or not. Often I'll base my decision on the negatives because a thousand positive reviews that say I like the product doesn't help me decide. I'll skip over the metric crap ton of positive reviews and I'll rely on the negatives to see what they screwed up. If there are few negatives I will be more inclined to use the company. If the number of negatives is relatively high no dice.
 
Same with unsolicited surveys - no pay, no play. A software vendor asked me to do an extensive survey a few years ago, took an hour or so; paid me with a $100 American Express gift card. Wished that happened a bit more often. . .
 
I just ignore them generally. If the product is particularly good or particularly bad I'll write a review on Amazon.

Ebay is kind of a different thing as you're reviewing the seller and feedback is an integral part of avoiding scams.
 
We ask for reviews from customers, we don't badger them, just a simple "would you mind sharing your experience on Google" With social media and all these review sites we find that unhappy people will always leave a review, whereas happy ones don't seem to bother. They are important for Google search and for people to decide where or where not to shop! It's funny most of the negative reviews we receive are from people that wouldn't be happy if you gave it to them. Some are legitimate complaints, but many want something for nothing and use the Internet to get it. :mad2:

Shopshirt said:
I usually just ignore seller requests for reviews. However, in today's social media society the number of positive reviews on a business site is perceived as a higher status over other businesses. Sometimes it can affect search results and that is why they are so hungry for the likes. :thumbsup:

Also, the over use of the like button makes businesses feel like they should get a positive review for just doing the job.

The way I see it the instant "Like" social media society gives us an over abundance of positive reviews, warranted or not. Often I'll base my decision on the negatives because a thousand positive reviews that say I like the product doesn't help me decide. I'll skip over the metric crap ton of positive reviews and I'll rely on the negatives to see what they screwed up. If there are few negatives I will be more inclined to use the company. If the number of negatives is relatively high no dice.
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Mom & Pop's that do an "average" job, get a 5-star review, or a 10 on a scale of 1-10.

National businesses rarely get reviews from me. If Hertz doesn't do a good job, I will send a direct email to them detailing the specific.

I use Yelp quite a bit for finding mom and pop places to eat when travelling, and, I will usually leave them a review with good information.
 
I will do reviews on Amazon because I read a lot of them before I buy. More times than not I have looked for another brand or product after reading a review.

Most others I don't. I travel ALOT and I expect a " how was your stay" shortly after I check out. If there is a problem, I call the desk or tell them on the way out. I'm not shy about it.
 
Caramon13 said:
I bought a bunch of camping items from Amazon last week and nearly all of the vendors contacted me via email asking for me to please review.
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I don't blame Amazon vendors for asking for reviews. They're competing against a ton of other sellers. I generally buy stuff based on reviews, and I'm sure lots of other buyers do, too.

I'm kinda glad that the reviews are there. They give sellers a voice, and IMO have steered me away from mediocre products/sellers.
 
I spent a half hour on hold with Time-Warner Business Cable today trying to straighten out a billing error for work stuff.

They then transferred me to silence, effectively hanging up on me.

As soon as I hung up, I got an automated survey call asking if I would like to take a survey about my experience. Ha. Sure!

"Press 1 to continue."

So I did. And their DTMF decoder didn't work. At all. LOL. Even tried holding the iPhone up to the headset mic in case it was something wrong in our phone system. Nope. Haha.

Pricks.
 
Yeah, getting review requests from Amazon vendors is annoying. Worse, getting these requests weeks before they ship the product is downright encouraging a negative review.
I paid for a product or service. Turnabout is fair. You should pay me for mine.
 
All the time. It's annoying.

I've also gotten several lately at restaurants, inns and hotels asking me to rate them highly on Tripadvisor & Yelp.
 
JGoodish said:
It's good to know that you go out of your way to praise mediocrity.





JKG
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It is good to know that you struggle with understanding multi-syllable words.

You might want to spend some time learning what words mean before you attempt to use them.


Full Definition of mediocre
: of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance : ordinary, so-so
 
bradg33 said:
I recently rented a Hertz car in Fort Myers. I think I've gotten one email per-day since I returned the car asking for a review. I can easily ignore an email or two, but bombarding me with multiple emails start to get on my nerves.
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Post a one star review saying the car and service were fine but the experience was marred by excessive review requests.
 
I would rather get an email than a phone call like some companies do.
 
I don't see what the big deal is about getting review requests. There's no law that says I have to act on them if I don't have time or don't feel like it.
 
Here's the real problem with this stuff IMO.

These larger companies and internet sellers have a need to find out how they're doing with their customers since the decision makers don't have any contact with them. That makes sense and is probably a good idea.

The problem is the question formats are very broad and only answered on a numerical scale. They give me no opportunity to communicate a problem I'm having with the way the company is doing things. Worse, I may very well be only rating the underpaid yahoo I'm dealing with who may be doing his best but the company policy he's following is what has me upset(this is usually the case). I have actually been told by salesmen, phone people, etc that say on a 1-5 rating any rating lower than a 5 will get them in trouble so please rate all 5s. Way to invalidate survey data, you are now wasting all of our time congratulations.

Speaking of wasting my time, making your employees on the phone read obviously scripted lines touting your brand and oozing all kinds of "we care about our customers" boilerplate is incredibly off-putting. I know the person on the other end doesn't care, they just have to read this BS, they know it, we all know. It's like at Mc Donald's when they robotically begin and end every sentence with "please". Why bother? I mean I don't want them to be rude obviously but the fakeness just comes off like a slap in the face to me, I don't know about others. Just let me conduct my business as efficiently as possible so we can both get on with our day, these aren't social calls.
 
Caramon13 said:
I bought a bunch of camping items from Amazon last week and nearly all of the vendors contacted me via email asking for me to please review.

I got a review request for tent stakes..TENT STAKES..like, what am I supposed to say? They went into the ground, didn't break? Ok..but like Brian, that doesn't mean they get a 10/10.

Average is average. The only people I rate higher than average are those that depend on that rating for their livelihood. I'm not going to be the one responsible for taking a guy's bonus away because he had a crappy day and forgot to offer me coffee or some other bs.
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I was asked to review a thermostat for a 2001 Saturn once. "It's a Lovely Thermostat," I wrote, and gave it five stars.

Rich

EDIT: The funny thing was that about half a dozen people voted the review as "Helpful."
 
Survey and review requests get deleted by me for the most part. However, if I got exceptional service (exceptionally good or exceptionally bad), I may go ahead and do the survey in the hopes that there will be a spot for comments. If that survey goes more than a few pages though, I delete the tab and then surf forums instead.

As far as Amazon and other reviews go, I tend to look at them with a jaundiced eye. Gotta love the one star reviews that go like, "Bought this candle thinking it was great deal. Turns out that I have to buy the matches to light it. And it's only good for one use. I'll never buy this candle again!"
 
RJM62 said:
I was asked to review a thermostat for a 2001 Saturn once. "It's a Lovely Thermostat," I wrote, and gave it five stars.

Rich

EDIT: The funny thing was that about half a dozen people voted the review as "Helpful."
Click to expand...

that would be a selling point for me. I'd be embarassed to drive around with an ugly thermostat in my car.
 
jnmeade said:
Are more and more online sellers sending emails soliciting product reviews on your transaction?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzzZkkiJMv8
Click to expand...

Why participate if the results are skewed anyway? We often stay at Bed and Breakfasts. We found some have fine print that authorizes them to charge your credit card $100 if you give a bad review.

A good business knows if they are doing a good job.
 
geneseib said:
...We often stay at Bed and Breakfasts. We found some have fine print that authorizes them to charge your credit card $100 if you give a bad review...
Click to expand...

Wow! That would be a deal-killer for me right there!

I wonder if such clauses are legally enforceable.
 
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