Apple Pulls Reviews From Online Store Product Listings

[DevNull0]

I’ll actually defend this decision. Customers barely ever write reviews on apple’s website, and mostly it’s just to complain. When you compare the reviews to websites like amazon, Best Buy, and Target, they tend to be higher because you get follow-up emails to review your purchase and all that.

First, most people will race to the forums to complain if there's a problem, not that many rush to write a positive review. So most review sites are strongly biased negative and to get the most out of the site, you've got be aware of that as a consumer.

Second, if Apple has the 98%+ satisfied customer rating Timmy is always bragging about, why is there a problem of so many people flocking to their site to complain. What orifice does Timmy pluck his satisfaction numbers from? I've had many, many Apple products I've loved and a few I've not been too happy with. How can Apple possibly know that? Now multiply me by all their customers, and how does Apple possibly have the basis for a guess on satisfaction?

Third, it's Apple's own website, why can't they follow up with unsatisfied customers as well as retailers like Best Buy? Isn't Apple the most valuable retail business in the world while Best Buy is a big box discount store?

 

[Billyk711]

why not let the world know that they are taking them down because of too many false reviews?

Why don’t you become a ceo
[automerge]1574375091[/automerge]

Didn't the laws around publishers being responsible for user-generated content change with SOPA and PIPPA? I have seen a lot of sites forgo reviews since this went in to effect.

This may be lazy more than malicious.

I find it so funny people that use windows and android are so bored they troll Mac websites.

 

[DevNull0]

"Courage"

Tim is a coward.

That's not fair. Timmy has lots of courage when it comes to deleting features. This forum feature we're talking about took courage to delete. Headphone jacks from iPhones, all standard ports from macbooks. Magsafe is gone for. a much more primitive mechanical plug. Macbooks lost their chime, their glowing Apple logo, their battery status LED, their charging LED, their breathing power status LED, their IR port.

Timmy is the more courageous man in Silicon Valley when it comes to deleting features. Socketed RAM, removable mass storage. Deleting those was very courageous. The 2014 mac mini that was a big downgrade from the 2012 model...that's courage.

And cowardly Samsung was caving into consumer bullying by offering OLED displays on sub-$600 phones in 2013. It took a huge amount of courage from Timmy to wait until 2017 and then limit it to the $1000 and up models.

 

[timborama]

I have never had an Apple cable fail on me in 10 years.Most of the failures are down to the users mis handling them.

LOL. Did you even take it out of the box?

 

[Rocko99991]

Censoring the criticism. Nice.

 

[falainber]

I guess Apple decided that their customer should learn everything there is to know about their products at their own events. Makes sense. Most customers are already conditioned for that.

 

[cult hero]

I gotta say, I always found the reviews on Apple's site to be among the most worthless. The ratings were generally lower on Apple's site for a particular product than basically anywhere else. It honestly felt like the primary reviewers were from this site, lol.

I always checked other sites. Funny thing is, I typically look for middle/negative reviews on products to get some criticism but the bad reviews on Apple's site were the worst collection of first-world problems I have ever seen. "The stickers in my MacBook Pro don't quite match my laptop. Shame on Apple! I expected better."

 

[69Mustang]

Anybody critical of this move visit the online stores of Google and Samsung lately, 2 of Apple’s biggest competitors? Guess what they don’t have on their sites either.

Google never had reviews of their products. They also aren't one of Apple's biggest competitors - at least not in product categories. None of their products rate top 10 in market share... 'cept maybe smartspeakers. Samsung still has reviews of their products on their website. https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/galaxy-s/
Even if you were 100% right about Google and Samsung, what would that have to do with Apple's actions? Absolutely nothing. No need to make up stuff to justify Apple removing reviews when none of us have any idea why they did what they did. The reasons will be revealed soon enough.

 

[Hym tix]

Tim “iOS AppStore is successfully ruined. What next... ah, I have just the right idea”.

 

[SVTmaniac]

You’re reviewing it wrong.

 

[vir2l2k]

tim cook is a narcissist. people like him want to only hear good news. that‘s why ive left

 

[Unregistered 4U]

we know too little to bash this yet.

Ohhhh, you don’t know the internet DO you? People get popular primarily by bashing things. Knowing too little is actually somewhat of a requirement in these circles

 

[JohnnyQuest]

Tbh, the reviews were always HIGHLY critical, with hardly any product having more than 4 stars. Especially Apple's own cases, battery bases, Mac accessories, etc. And for products I own and love, I've never agreed with the reviews.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

why not let the world know that they are taking them down because of too many false reviews?

Because it really doesn’t matter. There is no “right” way to do anything if your goal is to have zero complaints. Someone’s going to complain about being told, someone’s going to complain about not being told, someone’s going to complain about being told less than a certain number of days out, someone’s going to complain about them not crowdsourcing the solution so “the people” can define what THEY want out of an Apple review tool, some will take the time to remind folks that this is the same company that solders RAM... SO, if removing to come up with something better IS what they’re doing (I don’t think that’s what they’re doing) then, why waste the marketing effort? Take it down, when you’re ready, replace it.

The folks that are liable to complain will complain anyway and those that aren’t, which is pretty much everyone else, will a. Not even notice that it happened and if they DO notice, b. won’t even care.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If you want unbiased reviews, this forum is the place.

😇

 

[nt5672]

You have the right to say it, but Apple doesn’t have the obligation of providing you with a platform for that. You can write it on your Facebook or Twitter or start a website with user ratings for Apple products.

Exactly right, but I also have the right to dislike Apple products and the right to complain, and the right to not buy Apple products because they want the truth hidden. Everybody has product reviews.

In addition, if I was a big bad tier 1 seal team operator and someone called me a wimp I don't have to beat the bejesus out of him or her because I know who I am and their words don't have any meaning.

The same thing applies to Apple, if their products were so good it would be comical to read the phony reviews. But in Apple's case, the reviews hit too close to home and Apple does not know how to fix it except by removing the reviews (which is really just sticking their head in the sand). It may work for awhile, but not for long. More short sighted marketing BS.

 

[Aldaris]

Paraphrasing from SW: A New Hope:

"The more you tighten your grip, [Timmy], the more [customers] will slip through your fingers."

Timmy is the courageous Palpatine, and Apple is the Empire. That is more true every day.
Eddie wants to be Darth Vader, but he's more like Dark Helmet from Spaceballs.

Who is Schiller? I guess Jabba the hut has a big enough... well, can’t innovate any more my sluggish behind.

 

[ZMacintosh]

was wondering as I was looking at the LG Ultrafine's again. but there's sites like MacRumors, 9to5mac, Ifixit, youtube promoters, etc. most of the reviews were pointless and who cares it's apples site. it'd be to like a heckler sitting outside an apple store complaining about every little things or whatever. no big deal

 

[Hieveryone]

Don’t worry they are all going to be replaced with 5 star reviews.

I literally lol’d

thank you sir

“We see our customers want reviews and that there is a strong demand. So now we’re bringing them back, better than ever”

 

[gsurf123]

Most reviews are worthless or add very little value. The only thing you can tell is if there are 100's of reviews and it is 4-5 stars then you are good. If there is less than that stay away.

 

[decypher44]

Don’t blame them for this move. As almost everyone else has already mentioned, the “reviews” on their store site were awful. Completely unreliable. I hope they do a “Verified Purchase” like Amazon does.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

It looks like censorship in the purest form.

 

[Lalatoon]

Well, lets give Apple a chance its too early to bash them maybe its just a temporary thing.. hopefully it is but if not then what can I say... its Apple

 

[MallardDuck]

I gotta say, I always found the reviews on Apple's site to be among the most worthless. The ratings were generally lower on Apple's site for a particular product than basically anywhere else. It honestly felt like the primary reviewers were from this site, lol.

I always checked other sites. Funny thing is, I typically look for middle/negative reviews on products to get some criticism but the bad reviews on Apple's site were the worst collection of first-world problems I have ever seen. "The stickers in my MacBook Pro don't quite match my laptop. Shame on Apple! I expected better."

Agree completely. There's always a problem of reviews being either stuffed positive or skewed negative, but in this case, I'd bet that if there's 100 negative reviews, there's 100000 customers who are generally happy.

 

[blairh]

Just make it only for verified purchases.