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[okie smokie]

Have never seen less than 4 stars on their site.  And 4 stars are rare. 

[okie smokie]

Have decided that the shelf is a B+. Stronger than it appears and now opens and closes easily. Also it appears to be 304 SS as it is not magnetic.

To bad RT will not allow your review of less than 5 stars to be seen on their site.

Will try to go for a 4 star.  If printed, that would be fair. Actually, I am liking the shelf more as it works fine for me. Could be a bit deeper.

[Bentley]

Did not know that, so there reviews are useless. 

Much like Walton's.  I submit a good review of their Cellulose casings, and a average one for their Hot Dog Spice.  They print the good one and not the other.  I will never do business with Walton's again.

Have decided that the shelf is a B+. Stronger than it appears and now opens and closes easily. Also it appears to be 304 SS as it is not magnetic.

To bad RT will not allow your review of less than 5 stars to be seen on their site.

[pmillen]

Did not know that, so there reviews are useless. 

Much like Walton's.  I submit a good review of their Cellulose casings, and a average one for their Hot Dog Spice.  They print the good one and not the other.  I will never do business with Walton's again.

I made that decision on REC TEC for the same reason.  I'll never know if a person or a business is lying to me if they have a policy of deceiving me.  So I avoid them.

[okie smokie]

Did not know that, so there reviews are useless. 

Much like Walton's.  I submit a good review of their Cellulose casings, and a average one for their Hot Dog Spice.  They print the good one and not the other.  I will never do business with Walton's again.

I made that decision on REC TEC for the same reason.  I'll never know if a person or a business is lying to me if they have a policy of deceiving me.  So I avoid them.

I understand both you and Bentley on that but I don't rely on their own web based testimonials. I always go to the web for reviews by consumer websites (not the sales oriented ones). But you do have to hunt for them i.e. PF.  On the other hand, we should remember that often the happiest campers don't take the time to report, and the unhappy almost always do.  A recent example for me was looking at customer reviews of a portable induction stove top.  It showed about 50-- 5 star reviews and 5 one star.  So about 10% bad.  Then found out that several hundred had been sold by the dealer. So 55 reviews was not a good sample even tho they went ahead with the bad reviews. (the above numbers are a recollection, as I don't recall exact numbers-) So, my advice is to do your diligence before buying and then report to your friends both the good and the bad, as it will  help them decide. Just IMHO.

[okie smokie]

Also, I feel it fair to remind all that I recently was rewarded ($50 gift certif) for sending in some constructive suggestions to improve the 590. Never heard of anyone doing that before.  It was not a review on my part, just a letter to service dept. They said they read all of those.
I am now in the mood to let them know that many consumers have noted that they only print the 4 and 5 star reviews and that it is a sore spot in some cases. Would that be appropriate, or should I just leave that to them? 

[pmillen]

Logical viewpoint Okie, and I think I understand your position.  My reluctance to buy from them is not based on the number of pro and con reviews on their or any other web site.  It's based on their known refusal to publish the    negative reviews while other, more forthright companies, seem to publish them and reply with something like, "We're sorry that you're not having a more pleasant experience.  You might have better results if you...  If that doesn't help, please call us at XXX for a more comprehensive discussion." 

I view it as a deceptive and unethical corporate policy so I avoid them.  But I've often been labeled as overreactive.

[okie smokie]

Logical viewpoint Okie, and I think I understand your position.  My reluctance to buy from them is not based on the number of pro and con reviews on their or any other web site.  It's based on their known refusal to publish the    negative reviews while other, more forthright companies, seem to publish them and reply with something like, "We're sorry that you're not having a more pleasant experience.  You might have better results if you...  If that doesn't help, please call us at XXX for a more comprehensive discussion." 

I view it as a deceptive and unethical corporate policy so I avoid them.  But I've often been labeled as overreactive.

So do you think I should or should not send a "caring customer" note to them about it?  Bentley?

[Bentley]

I don't think they will care, but why not!

[okie smokie]

Spoke to service rep, told him straight up about the testimonials.  He was aware and himself said he felt the same. He will pass on my comment.  I then ordered the little chimney vents using my credit. He could not find the credit but said he would go ahead and send them and find it later. I received confirmation the minute I hung up.  Hard to beat the service. We shall see. 
Gonna use the chimney extensions to anchor a winter overcoat, (will modify another or design my own).  Nice winter project. 

[SeattleSteve]

I am responding to the issue of limiting posted reviews to 4 stars or better on a company website.

I am a small business owner and for a few years we used to use an automated service that allowed customers to post online reviews.

We also limited PUBLIC posts to 4 or 5 stars.  The few people who posted 3 stars or less we would reply to them privately.

 I do not have a problem with that because I know from personal experience that it is very difficult to get ANYONE to post a review.

We actively seek reviews from our clients but a very small percentage take the time to reply.  Almost all give us 5 star reviews and I can't remember the last time we had even a 4 star review.

It's not that the rest of our clients are unhappy.  I know they are happy because I talk to every one of them on the phone at the end of the transaction.  They just don't want to take the time to write a review.
I do the same thing.  I have many companies that give me great service and ask for reviews but I don't do it because I'm very busy.

Also, I know that people who are unhappy are MUCH more likely to post a negative review than somebody who is happy.

So you could have 100 customers and 99 had a great experience but one person is upset about something.  That one person may be the only person to post a review and gives a false impression of the company.
And often the person posting a negative review is upset about something not directly related to the product or service.  If you read Yelp reviews, you know what I'm talking about.

Knowing how hard it is get ANY kind of review from customers, I'm very impressed with all the 5 star (and 4 star) reviews on the Rec Teq website.

Bottom line:  DO NOT judge a company harshly for only posting good reviews on their website!  As long as the reviews are legit they provide useful information about the company's products and services.

[Canadian John]

 My take on reviews.

 Some are generated soon after the product or service is delivered.. This doesn't allow enough time for a proper assessment unless the product or service doesn't function or has an obvious defect..A six month to a year review should be more accurate. A person may be pressured thinking a bad review may result in difficulty receiving warranty or poor customer service.

 On several occasions I have been reluctant to purchase an item based on reviews. It took a lot of convincing myself to go ahead and gamble on receiving something that could be destined to fail, not work,
has no customer support etc. So far these purchases have all turned out well with no problems whatsoever.

 Some of the negative reviews are far out insane. These people have no sense of reality.

 My most recent survey request came from my car dealer stating that I would be receiving a survey and anything below a 9 or 10 out of 10 wouldn't do. When I received the survey there was a $1,000 gas card draw being offered for completing it.  Talk about influencing.

 

[Bentley]

My bottom line, your type of review process is useless.  See my post about Walton's above!

Bottom line:  DO NOT judge a company harshly for only posting good reviews on their website!  As long as the reviews are legit they provide useful information about the company's products and services.

And that is about all a person can do.

On several occasions I have been reluctant to purchase an item based on reviews. It took a lot of convincing myself to go ahead and gamble on receiving something that could be destined to fail, not work, has no customer support etc. So far these purchases have all turned out well with no problems whatsoever.

[okie smokie]

I personally think all reviews should be posted. We the consumers should be considered smart enough to sort them out. I agree that a lot of happy customers will not take the time so that relatively speaking, a higher percentage of unhappy's will report their bad experience. So what? As long as there are lots more positives, I think we can sort that out. On the other hand if there are a large percentage of unhappy's then we should read them closely and see what they are complaining about. Example: Customer has problem and calls or emails and gets no reply--that would influence me negatively. If he gets rapid reply and corrective service with good end result, then I would tend to discount his complaint. If he gets rapid reply and repeated bad result with no resolution or late resolution, then it is good to know also, even tho I am attracted to the product and may still buy it on the basis both rapid reply and/or other positive reports. Most important is whether the company is readily willing to replace or refund and has a record of honoring that commitment.

[SeattleSteve]

 On several occasions I have been reluctant to purchase an item based on reviews. It took a lot of convincing myself to go ahead and gamble on receiving something that could be destined to fail, not work,
has no customer support etc. So far these purchases have all turned out well with no problems whatsoever.

 Some of the negative reviews are far out insane. These people have no sense of reality.

This is exactly why I think negative reviews are NOT very helpful in all but the most extreme cases of fraud and/or incompetence.   A lot of people are idiots and some are deliberately out to make trouble for the company. I have had people post negative reviews about my company on Facebook when they never even used our services!  They just wanted to cause problems.

If you want honest, unbiased reviews of products come to a forum like this.  People can post all the negative stuff they want and others can challenge their opinions.  Business owners don't want to get involved in that
kind of back and forth arguing on their websites, their goal is to sell products.  So "testimonial" reviews are what they are, another tool to show how good a product is.  Don't expect them to tell you the "bad" things.