I’m hoping someone has a definitive answer for what causes the phenomenon, but educated guesses are cool too.

Lately I’ve been trying more generic products to try saving some money, and despite my dislike for the company, Walmart generally has the cheapest prices around me for groceries. But trying to read product reviews to get an idea of what to expect it seems like the vast majority of comments don’t talk about the product’s qualities at all but just Walmart related service problems.

“This item was missing from my order!”
“It’s expired, I want a refund!”
“The can was dented.”
“Delivery driver put the chips under the milk!”
etc.

My question is: are these just confused users that are intentionally leaving these pointless messages on specific products they order instead of contacting support, or (my current suspicion) that Walmart is somehow presenting them with some kind of post-purchase rating request that is easily confused as something intended for customer service?

And regardless of the cause of it, why doesn’t Walmart do anything to filter them out? They don’t help prospective shoppers decide on an item, and usually only serve to make the employees/company look bad.

I don’t place orders on their site so I don’t know what the typical web order flow looks like to the end user so I’m hoping someone has an idea what’s causing it.

  • Kaiyoto@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 day ago

    I think it’s a combo of stupid and some people can’t be arsed to reach out the seller to fix shit or they expect they’re going to get ignored.

    I know on amazon some people will give a negative review and the seller will refund or replace the product and ask for an updated review. They might be hoping for free product.

  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    This is why many/most reviews are actually useless.

    Many people use reviews to complain, about anything, especially if it has nothing to do with the product because it’s the easiest way to try and get it out of their system.

    Combined with fake reviews, astroturfed reviews from undisclosed free products, and the average user having no knowledge of a product or category to compare against, etc. and I’d even say most reviews are effectively useless.

    On the bright side, seeing any of those types of phrases in the review means you can effectively ignore that review entirely.

  • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    Don’t rely on walmart product reviews. I on more than one occasion have left less than favorable reviews on products themselves which was valid issues with the product, and they accept the review… and then never actually post the review for everyone else to see.

    What you see isn’t an accurate representation of the products, bad reviews rarely get posted. Take everything with a grain of salt.