Online Product Review: An Unreliable Judgement

Online reviews, which rely on the opinions and experiences of consumers have
become a means for individuals to assess the quality of products or services they have
purchased. These reviews can greatly influence customers' decisions. However, it is
important to note that not all online reviews can be trusted due to the presence of
misleading feedback. Unfortunately, this has led to a decline in the reliability of internet
reviews. Some dishonest individuals may post reviews while others may use them as a
platform to criticize businesses offering their services or products. Therefore, online
reviews are not a reliable way of evaluating internet products and services since sellers
can pay for good reviews, businesses can hire other people to cancel competitors, and
customers can post biased comments.

To begin with, customer feedback can provide information that is useful in verifying
every aspect of the business. It can improve their ratings, bring in more consumers, and
make a good impression on potential buyers. Businesses, on the other hand, can take
advantage of this by making fake reviews by offering money or things in exchange for
well-written and positive feedback from their consumers, which may create a false
impression of the products to the customers. A seller can make a tempting deal that many
people can't refuse. It affects whether consumers get a true and accurate picture of what
others think about the business and its products or services.

As stated by Namecheap (2023), Amazon filed a complaint against the administrators

of over 11,000 Facebook groups that recruit people for review frauds in 2021. Nineteen
organizations were also detected paying $1 for fake positive reviews on platforms like
Yelp, Google Local, and CitySearch, with some based in the Philippines, Bangladesh,
and Eastern Europe (ABS-CBN News, 2013). These efforts to make the reviews more
appealing to the eyes of others makes them ungenuine and already filtered because they
are created to make their products and services pleasing to the consumers. This
furthermore exacerbates the fact that many reviews can no longer be trusted as it can be
a form of fraud.

Furthermore, businesses may have multiple competitors at the same time. It will be a
threat to their business's growth. Sellers can resort to destroying other competitors by
manipulating them. They hire influential people in order to manipulate other businesses
by creating negative remarks about their products or services. They can use this to
slander other products and services, improving negative consumer evaluations of the
other businesses. It can also be done in a large-scale manipulation or revenge, which is
popular nowadays due to "cancel-culture". It typically gives only one side of the narrative,
ignoring the victimized businesses.

Moreover, according to Pye (2022), there are many companies that use different social
media accounts to tear down other competitor's reputation so they can take advantage of
other companies' downfall. In the Philippines, Maggie Wilson, a TV host and
entrepreneur, was attacked by influencers who took cash to join a disinformation
campaign on TikTok against her and her interior company Acasa Manila which resulted
in a wide-scale manipulation (CNN, 2023). The reviews were written in this manner to
sway customers into believing them because they were presented with a lot of fake
information. As a result, consumers will have to switch to another product or service that
favors the other sellers, creating a loophole in the unreliability of consumer feedback.

Lastly, customers are often influenced by the opinions of others leading them to write
reviews that may be biased towards a product or service. Some individuals tend to
express strong opinions whether they love or dislike a product or service. This bias can
also arise when a single negative review holds more weight than the positive ones making
it more convincing. Additionally, people who read these reviews may also exhibit bias
when rating their experiences, which can distort the perception of a product or service
especially if there are only a few reviews available as people evaluate the whole
experience based on just one highly emotional aspect; whether positive or negative. They
do not consider the pros and cons since they rate based on their best or worst experience
which makes it subjective.

As a matter of fact, many of the online review platforms nowadays exhibit high
contrasting feedback of opinions such as Amazon and Yelp review sites instead of
weighing qualities of the products properly (Klein et. al., 2018). Shopee has also received
a rating of 1.61 stars from 221 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally
dissatisfied with their purchases which highlights only the negative experiences of
customers instead of evaluating it objectively in accordance with Sitejabber (2023). These
platforms tend to have an abundance of negative reviews while moderate opinions are
scarce. This creates a challenge when trying to assess the quality of products or services
based on reviews as they often suffer from biased feedback.

Regardless of the reasons given, consumers still continue to trust online reviews
because they allow them to gain even more knowledge about a business and its products
or services. Online reviews help people understand product or service expectations.
According to Clark (2023). BrightLocal's research shows that 49% of consumers trust
reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. Marketing data
has also identified online reviews to be a huge influence on the buying behavior of
consumers (Smart Review, 2019). This might go wrong, especially because anyone can
post internet reviews based only on their own opinions or experiences which will enable
consumers to believe without gathering reliable information.

To sum up, online reviews are not a trustworthy method of assessing internet items
and services. Businesses can manipulate ratings by offering incentives for positive
feedback. Sellers also pay influential individuals to cancel competitors for their own profit.
Even consumers can be swayed by the opinions of others, resulting in untrustworthy
reviews. Despite the potential for dishonesty and manipulation, online reviews provide
valuable insights into a business's products and services, but they should not be
considered a reliable source due to the potential misinformation. Therefore, customers
should approach reviews with caution while considering sources, exercise critical thinking
to make careful decisions and be cautious of profiles that are limited or seem suspicious
as they could indicate something so they could know whether the product or services are
of good quality. Customers should consider these arguments to avoid disappointment in
acquiring products or services in the future.
References

8 Types of Online Customer Review Fraud - And What You Can Do About It. (2022,
May 26). Widewail. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
https://www.widewail.com/blog/7-types-of-online-customer-review-
fraud?hs_amp=true

Clark, J. (2023, January 13) 18 Online Review Statistics Every Marketer Should Know.
SearchEngineJournal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/online-review-
statistics/329701/#close

Dana, J. (2023, January 25) Don’t Get Fooled: The Truth About Fake Reviews.
Namecheap. https://www.namecheap.com/blog/dont-get-fooled-the-truth-about-
fake-reviews/

Klein, N., Marinescu, I., Chamberlain, A., and Smart, M. (2018, March 6). Online
Reviews Are Biased. Here’s How to Fix Them. Harvard Business Review.
https://hbr.org/2018/03/online-reviews-are-biased-heres-how-to-fix-them

Maggie Wilson Asks Influencers Involved in Alleged Smear Campaign to Come Forward
to Avoid Rap. (2023, September 27). CNN Philippines. Retrieved October 14,
2023. http://www.cnnphilippines.com/entertainment/2023/9/27/maggie-wilson-
acasa-carrasco-consunji.html

Pinoys Wrote Fake Reviews on US Websites? (2013, September 24). ABS-CBN News.
Retrieved October 15, 2023. https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/09/24/13/pinoys-
wrote-fake-reviews-us-restaurants
Shopee Reviews (2023, September 25). Sitejabber. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/shopee.ph

Why You Shouldn’t Trust Negative Online Reviews. (2019, July 27). SmartReview. Retrieved
October 16, 2023. https://www.smartreview.io/why-you-shouldnt-trust-negative-
reviews/?fbclid=IwAR33KI425lbydrhAH3YsR3GSiytNJXP8bxv6F1dBuTOTXrsiQzEPfC
1_f70#:~:text=The%20reviews%20are%20subjective%20and,Dr