Giving Advice

My wife and I like to see the opinions and reviews of people before we buy a product. To that end, we almost always read through the vast majority of comments made by people on sites like Amazon.com, Consumer Reports, Newegg.com, and others.

One thing we have been grousing about lately is the fact that a number of people are marking down products for things outside of the control of the product itself. For example, I was on Amazon.com reviewing "Justice League: Doom," an upcoming DVD cartoon I'm looking forward to. Today, there are 22 reviews with the majority either in 5 stars (6) or in 1 stars (8). However, when reading the 8 1 star reviews, not one of them is complaining about the cartoon. Instead, each and every one of the reviews is 1 star because of the choice of Warner Bros to release the digital copy using the new Ultraviolet format.

Now, I agree with them that this Ultraviolet format has issues. It is ONLY available when you have internet access and the ability to stream the product. Which means that, for example, if you are going on a trip and want to take this cartoon with you, you cannot. It will only be available at those times when you can connect to the internet and stream it; if your children start screaming to watch it mid-flight, you're pretty much SOL. If your internet is down, or someone is using it for something important and there is not enough bandwidth left, you cannot get to the movie at all.

But all of those are problems and issues that have nothing to do with the quality of the cartoon itself. Amazon.com is a site where people are supposed to review the product itself, not the parent company's business decisions. There is no reason to mark down a product for what may be wonderful -- the best cartoon you've ever seen.

When I was looking for products to purchase for our rebuilt PCs, I stumbled on this issue often. People would mark monitors and hard drives down for reasons other than the quality, affordability, or features of the product itself. You had an issue and the manufacturer was a dick to you? Okay, fine. Mark that in the text for the product but don't mark the product itself down because of it. You bought a hard drive that you admit and agree was awesome, ran quietly, was a great value for the price, yet you give the product only 1 or 2 eggs because the manufacturer was slow at honoring, or did not honor at all, the mail in rebate for the product? That's not fair to the product or to those using reviews to choose which product is the best for them.

If you were unsure about a theatrical release and you asked your friends, you would be left scratching your head if they responded in a similar fashion.

"Hey, you watched Safe House. What did you think?"
"I only gave Safe House one star. Did you know that Universal, the company that is distributing it, kills kittens by putting them in bags and throwing them in rivers? I can't have that happening."
"Er, that's horrible. But what about the movie, why did you give it only one star?"
"Didn't you hear me? They kill kittens, damn it!"
"Yes, that's horrible. But I really want to know about this movie right now. Is it worth seeing?"
"Kittens, man!"

Are you going to see the movie? You were on the fence before, and the information you got from the review had nothing to do with the movie and didn't help you to make your decision. It was, for all intents and purposes, worthless. Yes, you may look at boycotting Universal for their kitten killing policies, but that is superfluous to your desire to know more about the movie and decide if you'll watch it.

People need to step back and remember their purpose when they are reviewing a product. They need to remember who is reading the reviews and their purpose for doing so. And then they should put a review in that reflects that. If they have a problem with the corporation behind the product in some fashion, they should contact that company directly and complain to them about that particular action or issue. In that way, those who may want the product get the information they need, and the company receives the feedback they require.