Why do some people review products they've never tried?

That sheep and mice tread so warily through the etherwebs that supply the wants and needs of their existence and have naught but praise for the vendors and their wares surprises you? Raised in the cradle of ebay to review on demand without a moments thought I say!

Paddy, on certain merchandise I try and locate a review before purchasing. Especially tools, certain blade steel when I made knives, even reviews on some electronic devices. Gives me some insight what to expect. I read tobaccoreviews.com to get an idea of a blend, doesn’t mean I’m going to purchase any, tobacco’s are subjective but I do enjoy reading others thoughts.

What about ratings?? Before I eat at any restaurant I look for the Board of Health rating, if the rating is below 96% I will not order any food and move on to another restaurant.

I rarely review (as I am usually too busy ordering), but a lot of reviewers are Amazon are usually interested in reviewing their way into free products, discounts, etc. I will occasionally review, when something is truly worthy, but it is rarely as detailed as some of these review parrots.

Good observations. Are the payments for reviews a common thing?

I agree and also have an issue with another thing people do, mostly on Amazon.

They have a section in the listings for a product that I find at times pretty helpful and that is the "Questions" part. People ask a question about a product that is not in the description and others who have the product can answer it. At times, an email goes out from Amazon saying "Can you answer this question?" But people seem to think its a personal email so then they post a reply to the question "I don't know." "I never tried." or many other such not helpful at all posts. They weren't asking you DIRECTLY ya dingbat! They have contributed nothing and sometimes I find myself seeing five or more of these kinds of posts before someone has an answer. If you don't know, you don't know.

*end rant*

I've never personally received or heard of anyone receiving payments from any program associated with Amazon in exchange for reviews.

I would not be surprised to learn that it does indeed happen, it doesn't amount to anything but advertising, which is just capitalism in action. However, I doubt it's sanctioned in any way by Amazon or eBay or any other online retailer with any reputation.

I think it’s the human condition that we all desperately have something to say, even if it’s not valuable. The internet makes us particularly vulnerable.

Hey...I resemble that remark....ugh..resent?

Good point, Russ.

Someone I know was involved in a start-up that had vendors give samples to their "advertisers", which were just regular people who signed up. They would use/wear the products, talk them up among people they knew, and get paid for it. They called the practice guerilla advertising.

that's all true. I just thought it was really interesting the way they had it set up. Like, you never know who's pushing what. It might be your good friend selling you stuff without you knowing...

I don't I mind people being paid to try out and write an honest review of an item.

I'm not particularly enamored if people are paid to write a good review of an item,regardless of what they thought about it.

But I think I don't even mind that at much as people giving an item x number of stars and then writing, 'bought this for a friend. Never used it.'

Self-validation. See it all the time in other forums. "I bought this car/motorcycle/gun/knife/pipe/tobacco/whatnot - what do you think of it?" It may be the goose who laid the golden egg, but probably not. You are usually a doofus for asking for validation of an already made purchase of questionable quality. This is only slightly more annoying than the: "I don't know what to do...!?" Asking advice and opinion is one thing, saying you are incapable of making decisions is another entirely. ::stepping off my soap box::

I find annoying the “What should I buy next ? “ posts. They are often given with absolutely no information about the poster or their intended use. The reply that always plays in my mind is ‘If you have zero idea, how am I supposed to know ?’

There's actually a great scam where an Amazon Marketplace seller of cheap crap sets up an account and gives it a random US shipping address, buys a bunch of their cheap crap using the account and then writes "verified buyer" reviews. There was a story in the Globe a while back about it, and the people whose addresses are used, who don't know what to do with all the random cheap crap that keeps showing up.