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-   -   Do you think Yelp reviews are reliable? (http://forum.videofitness.com/showthread.php?t=231230)

Vintage VFer 06-16-21 11:40 AM

Do you think Yelp reviews are reliable?
 
I've noticed that Amazon reviews are about useless anymore in general. Other sites' reviews tend to be questionable as well.

I was wondering what folks here think of Yelp reviews. Sometimes I need to find a new medical professional and, along with asking friends, I like to read other reviews.

Do you trust Yelp reviews? Are there other sites with relaible reviews?

ADoll 06-16-21 12:18 PM

I have been relying on Yelp reviews to have work done in the house. So far, the ones I have used with 5 stars reviews have been great.

warriorprincess 06-16-21 02:04 PM

Personally, I think Yelp is pretty shady. They manipulate which reviews show based on how much advertising a company will buy from them. This doesn't mean the reviews are fake. It just means you can't use it to compare and evaluate businesses. Good businesses that can't afford it, or won't succumb to it, will not come out well.

It's estimated that 20% of all reviews on Yelp are fake. This isn't just a Yelp problem. But I trust Google reviews more, and Nextdoor reviews even more.

It's not like I've investigated this. So just my opinion.

rhbrand 06-16-21 02:58 PM

With a grain or two of salt.

I automatically toss out a few of the best raving reviews, cause they easily could be paid. And I will usually toss a few bad reviews cause there are "Karens" out there that will slam a business for stupidest stuff.

Sue B 06-16-21 03:12 PM

Some restaurants have a bunch of clearly fake or paid reviews (reviewer lives hundreds of miles away and has similar-sounding glowing reviews around the country) so I look for local, real people reviews.

bee 06-16-21 07:03 PM

I trust amazon reviews more than I trust yelp!

YetAnotherDeb 06-16-21 07:33 PM

Not specific to Yelp, but I mostly use reviews to help me think about issues I might not have considered. For example, a recent VF thread about air fryers got me interested. Then I started reading reviews on Amazon and discovered that there were some negatives that didn’t bother most people but were deal-breakers for me.
_____
YADeb

Joni O 06-16-21 09:57 PM

The reviews I've used have been reliable, and I've also submitted quite a few.

creatrix 06-17-21 12:34 AM

I used to know a guy who got paid to write fake Yelp reviews. It was funny to read his reviews for businesses around the country, talking about the excellent care given to his son, or his dog (he had neither). He finally got banned after he accepted a job writing a negative review about a client's competitor. It was an auto repair shop, and they knew that no one by that name had ever brought his Mercedes in for service.

bzar 06-17-21 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer (Post 2929584)
Sometimes I need to find a new medical professional and, along with asking friends, I like to read other reviews.

for medical, i first check if they're in my network. then i did a general Google search to see where their offices were located, and in the Google results, there was a separate review site for physicians called "healthgrades.com" that included detailed reviews that popped up. i found them to be pretty frank. there's another review site called vitals.com, also very frank. i went in with a healthy skepticism.

i think i checked yelp a bit, but healthgrades.com was a lot more revealing to me. i also selected this one physician because she's part of a group of several other physicians in her field - ob-gyn. if she was out of the office, i wanted to have a couple more back-up physicians who cover for each other. or if she didn't work out, i could go to one of her colleagues.

i felt comfortable relying on Yelp for repair services and installation services for appliances. again, i took it with a grain of salt if it was super negative.

as far as referrals - i rely heavily on my friend's and co-worker's suggestions for repairmen and home construction.

with Amazon, i mentally graph the reviews on a curve, looking first at the negative reviews. i skim them and look for the ones that are well written. i try to see how the average star rating resulted, especially if there are only a few reviews.


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