Are people making short and pointless laptop reviews for a 16GB USB stick?
- Thread starter rav007
- Start date
Stephen M
Author Level
It would not surprise me, some people will go for anything that is free. Pity they are taking advantage of PCS, they were good to me on one review, at the time it required putting a "like" on Facebook as well, when I told them I did not touch Facebook they sent me a USB anyway.
Oussebon
Multiverse Poster
In fairness, not everyone who buys from PCS is a hardware enthusiast. Or people who hang around on forums and like writing lengthy posts. They're normal people.
If you go on reevoo, Amazon, etc and look at the product reviews there you'll see a few extensive and detailed ones, but many with a lot less information than even quite cursory ones from PCS customers. I also get the impression that a lot of people might also find these briefer reviews more to their taste than quite long walls of text where people have stripped down the laptop, removed the heatsink, etc etc. A bit more detail would undoubtedly be nice and probably not too much effort in some cases, but if you're the kind of person who might only post a mini-review you may well be the kind of person that only reads mini-reviews.
It's also worth noting that a lot of people seem to feel a sense of obligation to act on emails from people who have sold them goods asking for information. If you look at the Amazon Q&A section for products you'll see so, so many questions posed that get an answer of "I don't know, but I got an email from Amazon asking me to answer and so I feel a duty to post something" in roughly as many words. e.g. for a particular Asus monitor I happened to have a page open for now:
I think that for a lot of people, all they are interested in is whether the PC (often a laptop?) works, looks good, is 'nice and fast', and was delivered in an acceptable time frame. So that's all you might get a comment on (and maybe not even all of that) plus the photos.
Tbh while I'm sure PCS appreciate long and detailed reviews that carefully weigh and measure their work, they are probably also quite happy to have a long stream of brief, positive reviews, with pictures. I can't help but feel that pictures from users with positive words next to them is what they're really after, in order to feed the reviews tab on the product page:
(that section, not the main review section of the website obvs)
In fact the top two reviews on the 15.6" Optimus page that PCS have used are very, very brief ones. And the 2nd's one is in Italian and for the Proteus but whatever. They seem to have a lot of Italian clients so probably were glad to wheel it out.
Also even if there is a relative spike in mini-reviews, it's not like even now the reviews being left are sufficient in quantity to rob PCS blind. I suspect they'd be happier with more reviews than they get.
TL;DR I think PCS know exactly what they're buying with their USB pens.
(incidentally the USB pen thing has been going for ages, I got an email offering that in 2012 and afaicr I still couldn't be bothered to post a review).
If you go on reevoo, Amazon, etc and look at the product reviews there you'll see a few extensive and detailed ones, but many with a lot less information than even quite cursory ones from PCS customers. I also get the impression that a lot of people might also find these briefer reviews more to their taste than quite long walls of text where people have stripped down the laptop, removed the heatsink, etc etc. A bit more detail would undoubtedly be nice and probably not too much effort in some cases, but if you're the kind of person who might only post a mini-review you may well be the kind of person that only reads mini-reviews.
It's also worth noting that a lot of people seem to feel a sense of obligation to act on emails from people who have sold them goods asking for information. If you look at the Amazon Q&A section for products you'll see so, so many questions posed that get an answer of "I don't know, but I got an email from Amazon asking me to answer and so I feel a duty to post something" in roughly as many words. e.g. for a particular Asus monitor I happened to have a page open for now:
I think that for a lot of people, all they are interested in is whether the PC (often a laptop?) works, looks good, is 'nice and fast', and was delivered in an acceptable time frame. So that's all you might get a comment on (and maybe not even all of that) plus the photos.
Tbh while I'm sure PCS appreciate long and detailed reviews that carefully weigh and measure their work, they are probably also quite happy to have a long stream of brief, positive reviews, with pictures. I can't help but feel that pictures from users with positive words next to them is what they're really after, in order to feed the reviews tab on the product page:
(that section, not the main review section of the website obvs)
In fact the top two reviews on the 15.6" Optimus page that PCS have used are very, very brief ones. And the 2nd's one is in Italian and for the Proteus but whatever. They seem to have a lot of Italian clients so probably were glad to wheel it out.
Also even if there is a relative spike in mini-reviews, it's not like even now the reviews being left are sufficient in quantity to rob PCS blind. I suspect they'd be happier with more reviews than they get.
TL;DR I think PCS know exactly what they're buying with their USB pens.
(incidentally the USB pen thing has been going for ages, I got an email offering that in 2012 and afaicr I still couldn't be bothered to post a review).
Last edited:
You utterly ruined your own lengthy review of his review by failing to upload a picture of some shiny! [rollinglaugh]
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Surely where he failed was in forgetting to mention he had pictures to upload but that the website doesn't seem to let him.
Swear I've seen a lot of that going round on the review section lately.
I d~8't ha@e a v%er&y goo$d connecti
keynes
Multiverse Poster
Not everyone may have the time to do a detailed review for their purchase and other users are not as interested in more technical details. If it my first purchase with a new retailer I would be more interest in customer service and a few lines would do for me. I would assume most people buying a laptop/desktop wouldn't do it for the gift (worth around £4?) and more as a goodwill gesture to others but maybe that's me being naive.
Stephen M
Author Level
There have been some good suggestions as to why some people do not write long reviews, it is a personal thing and not everyone enjoys writing a lengthy review as it can seem quite a chore to a lot of people, regardless of their literary ability. I also agree with Keynes about the goodwill gesture, if I desperately needed a USB stick I would buy one, although I do appreciate the free PCS ones as I am good at losing things so it provides a handy replacement.