In general, you can't trust a review from someone who bought a product - at least not as an individual data point. As you stated, once someone has spent money on something, they've made their choice, so their bias is baked in - doubly true if there was extra risk associated with that purchase, whether it's going premium, first gen, new tech, etc. That doesn't mean, of course, that that person's review would have no value, but there's a reason why good product reviewers with experience and ethics are important. Those two e's are vital: most purchasers don't ride 5, 10 or more bikes per year, test drive that many cars, helmets, forks, shoes...whatever, so that experience is rare and also has value.
Then there's the ethics side...you also can't trust a 'review' that appears on someone's site or Youtube channel when the product was given to that person (plus cash, some of the time) in exchange for the review, or they're sponsored. That's not a review, that's an endorsement. And hey, you could point me to an unbiased endorsement (they exist but you gotta look hard) but that doesn't disprove the point, it's the exception that proves it.
This goes both ways. Someone who buys a product and loves it - well, ok, that's what you hoped for when you bought it. But there are lots of terrible reviews from buyers as well - surely those are also valid? Also yes and no, as anyone can attest who's spent time reading reviews anywhere, from independent sites to amazon to yelp (ugh).
Usually, I'll take the figure skating approach - disregard the top and bottom score(s) and see what the majority of people say (if we're talking peer or consumer reviews). In some industries and categories, there are pro reviewers I trust, and I give way more weight to what they have to say than the keyboard warrior who jumps onto a review site to crow about the product they love (which they just took out of the plastic and haven't used yet) or the thing they hate (because they got unlucky with a warrantable item, can't RTFM (read the fucking manual) or generally don't understand or made the wrong purchase decision).
Jan. 26, 2021, 12:14 p.m. - Pete Roggeman
In general, you can't trust a review from someone who bought a product - at least not as an individual data point. As you stated, once someone has spent money on something, they've made their choice, so their bias is baked in - doubly true if there was extra risk associated with that purchase, whether it's going premium, first gen, new tech, etc. That doesn't mean, of course, that that person's review would have no value, but there's a reason why good product reviewers with experience and ethics are important. Those two e's are vital: most purchasers don't ride 5, 10 or more bikes per year, test drive that many cars, helmets, forks, shoes...whatever, so that experience is rare and also has value. Then there's the ethics side...you also can't trust a 'review' that appears on someone's site or Youtube channel when the product was given to that person (plus cash, some of the time) in exchange for the review, or they're sponsored. That's not a review, that's an endorsement. And hey, you could point me to an unbiased endorsement (they exist but you gotta look hard) but that doesn't disprove the point, it's the exception that proves it. This goes both ways. Someone who buys a product and loves it - well, ok, that's what you hoped for when you bought it. But there are lots of terrible reviews from buyers as well - surely those are also valid? Also yes and no, as anyone can attest who's spent time reading reviews anywhere, from independent sites to amazon to yelp (ugh). Usually, I'll take the figure skating approach - disregard the top and bottom score(s) and see what the majority of people say (if we're talking peer or consumer reviews). In some industries and categories, there are pro reviewers I trust, and I give way more weight to what they have to say than the keyboard warrior who jumps onto a review site to crow about the product they love (which they just took out of the plastic and haven't used yet) or the thing they hate (because they got unlucky with a warrantable item, can't RTFM (read the fucking manual) or generally don't understand or made the wrong purchase decision).