Pet Peeve: Book Reviews
Imagine being the author of a book. You put a great deal of time, effort, and passion into writing it. You eagerly await the reviews, only to find that people give your book one star instead of five solely because they received a used copy, which is hardly your fault (and really not relevant to other prospective buyers), or because the print quality was poor.
That last criticism is legitimate. But if the reviewers at the same time also say that the content is great or well worth it, does the book really deserve only one star?
When I review a product, I try to do this with other customers in mind:
- I don’t mention one-off fulfillment issues (e.g., “left on my porch in the rain”) in the review. Those are delivery problems: complain to the carrier.
- When the platform hosts different sellers, I may mention the seller’s service, specifically naming the seller, so other buyers can base their choice on it. But it doesn't affect the star rating.
- My star rating reflects only the product’s quality and usefulness -- attributes that shouldn’t change from one purchase to the next. That way, shoppers scanning ratings get a consistent signal about the item itself.
Sometimes, a product is DOA. It happens. When it happens, I contact the seller and if the replacement is good, I won't even mention the bad one.
It has also happened that a product was good but turned out not to be useful for me. I still gave a good review, mentioning why I could not use the product.
In short: I write reviews to help fellow customers, not as an outlet for my frustrations.