How much stock do you put into online product reviews?

I purchased a new motorcycle helmet yesterday at my local cyclegear. It was a spur of the moment thing and I did no research prior to the purchase. It was raining and very windy so I didn't feel like trying it out yesterday. I decided to go to their web page and read the reviews for the helmet. There were 146 reviews for it and I read all of them. The helmet was almost universally panned for being extremely loud and noisy. The majority returned it for a different helmet. I got a little disheartened because the helmet fit so well. My old helmet is very loud and I was hoping the new one would be quieter.

Just got back from a test ride and am very excited that the new helmet is an order of magnitude quieter than the old one. At 75 mph it is less noisy without earplugs than the old was with earplugs. I am very happy with my decision.

However, if I had read those reviews prior to the purchase it wouldn't even have been a contender. I'm happy I didn't read them first. How much do online review play in your purchasing decisions?

Maybe the manufacturer also saw those complaints and improved their product, and you received the improved version.

I take reviews pretty seriously if there is a lot of them and they all have similar complaints.

Did you buy the chrome salad bowl or the German helmet with the spike?

They heavily influence my buying decision if I don't have any firsthand experience with the product or the manufacturers that make it. I ignore products with just a small number of reviews, since the sample size is too small. With a relatively large number of reviews, I only consider products that score 4 or 5 out of 5, and I make a point of reading the worst reviews. I don't want to hear someone rave about how swell a product is. I want to know what broke, and whether the author of the review sounds like an intelligent user or an idiot.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

After drooling all over the Shoei GT Air, I settled on this. I was just going to get one of their super cheap ones to wear when it's cold and rainy because I dropped my old one and broke the baseplate for the visor, but no one has replacement parts for it. This one fit me better than any of the other ones I tried on, more than I wanted to spend but I'm happy with it. I'll still replace the parts on my old one when the parts become available again and likely use it in the summer because the vents work so much better than the Bilt one.

you can generally tell which reviews are written by morons, and those can be discarded.

My general rule with online reviews is to pay less attention to the 1 and 5 star reviews, and concentrate on the middle ones and look for realistic / reasonable responses. Especially useful are negative comments that don't concern you (e.g. didn't hold my hand while setting up), or positive comments with conditions (e.g. good unless you want to do cook omelets with it)

The way review and feedback work in general, it is far more likely for those with extreme views to add reviews

I take them into consideration. I've been in the positive majority most of the time and the negative minority several times.

I take a look at them, but remember the cars most GRMer's like were panned by the press in the day!!

I find that noise levels with m/c helmets are very dependent on the shape of your head. A helmet that fits you well is going to be more quiet by default compared to most "quiet" helmets if they don't.

I look and read them if I don't know the product or anything. Some of them are just dumb. For example, I just got a new hitch mounted rack for my mountain bikes. It's a platform rack and the way it holds the bike down is by holding down the front tire. It was really clear from the pictures and video that it worked like that. There were multiple negative reviews from cruiser owners complaining they had to take their fenders off to mount the bike. Well, duh. Did you look at the pictures or video?

There are those for every product and I just shake my head at some.

Trans_Maro wrote: Did you buy the chrome salad bowl or the German helmet with the spike?

Also be sure to get one of these for the ultimate in anti-safety gear:

I think BoxheadTim may have a point- also maybe the profile and shape of different sizes is a factor?

I read them for some products. More often then not the complaints seem to be from people who expected unrealistic things for the price( most of my online reviews are rc parts).

For whatever reason, I start with the one-star reviews. Are the people cranks or do they have a valid concern? Usually you can tell.

David S. Wallens wrote: For whatever reason, I start with the one-star reviews. Are the people cranks or do they have a valid concern? Usually you can tell.

I'm with David on this.

I start with the 1 stars and work my way up from there. Having worked in retail, I also assume that 10% of the people are shiny happy people and won't be pleased, no matter what. If the 1 stars are 10% or less, I ignore them unless they very detailed as to why the item sucked so bad. I've seen reviews where people didn't like the color of the black item they ordered.

Other reviews I do look for.

If fatso broke something because he's 300 pounds. I'm not a light guy, not quite 300 pounds, but close.

Reviews posted months after purchase are also worth the read. Most of them are bad reviews, because people won't remember to pass on the good months later. However, they will shout out the bad from the roof tops. They can shed some light on how things will hold up, long term.

In reply to Nick (LUCAS) Comstock:

Looks good. is that built-in bluetooth on the side?

I've had really good luck with the GMax helmet line. They fit my oval head really well.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Yeah, it has bluetooth. Honestly, the helmet is a big step up in quality from my previous (more expensive) helmet. The visor is thicker, it doesn't shake when open. The stops in the visor swing are more positive, it doesn't slam shut at 40 like my old one. The seal around the visor is much, much nicer and better fitting. The only step backwards is ventilation. It was 50 degrees on my test ride and with all the vents open I was fogging the visor at 55 mph if I didn't crack it open a little bit. I don't think I would have even considered the Bilt brand if I hadn't tried it on. It just fit my head so much better than the others I tried. Which I'm sure play a big part in the reduction of noise. Also the aero of my bike play a big part in it as well. The flow breaks off the fairing and hit's me dead center of the visor. Ultimately there are so many different variables that go into helmet noise that I would say it's almost impossible to compare them on a consistent basis. If you take two guys on the same bike with the same size and shape head but one is 6" taller than the other I'm sure you would get different interpretations on helmet noise.

I guess because of the variables it's hard to compare the reviews of helmets versus a product isn't as subject to the physical dimensions of the end user.

David S. Wallens wrote: For whatever reason, I start with the one-star reviews. Are the people cranks or do they have a valid concern? Usually you can tell.

That's my approach too. I typically sort through the reviews from people who hate the product to see if they had good reasons or if it was some rather pointless nitpick. Or if they had a reasonable complaint but it doesn't apply because I don't plan to use the product like a reasonable person.

I often wonder if the manufacturers stuff the ballot box and just have people write glowing reviews. I typically read reviews on Amazon before buying a product that I don't already have personal experience with, but I tend to take the reviews with a grain of salt. I have not bought a product based on the reviews.

All I can say is if you dig the helmet, then it's the right one for you. No one wears a helmet they hate.

T.J. wrote: I often wonder if the manufacturers stuff the ballot box and just have people write glowing reviews. I typically read reviews on Amazon before buying a product that I don't already have personal experience with, but I tend to take the reviews with a grain of salt. I have not bought a product based on the reviews.

I am sure this goes on frequently. I have recently read a fair number of reviews that state something like: "I received this product free in exchange for writing a review." Seems unlikely that this person would be too hard on a product they got for nothing.

I pay close attention to online reviews. I do so with the realization that good reviews can be bought and bad reviews planted by competitors, but believe that the vast majority of the intelligently written reviews are going to be real people and real opinions.

If a product has an overall very poor rating with a large number of reviews, I will almost certainly not buy it. But that does depend somewhat on what the complaints are.

I do and don't. I have a bunch of Buck Brother's Wood chisels and I had a hard time keeping a good edge on them.. in looking them up, hobbiests like them, but professionals hate them because you cannot keep a good edge on them.

I just got come Czech chisels coming that were cheapish, but got great reviews.. I will see how they come out