Newegg practices censorship

[HolySmoke]

This may have already been discussed but I buy alot from Newegg and give honest feedback about their products. They are top notch for service but a product they sell may be a dog. Anyway, I noticed that my feedback was not getting posted and then today voila I see this

Newegg.com is not a forum for product reviews. For product reviews, we recommend sites such as www.cnet.com, www.anandtech.com, and www.tomshardware.com. Newegg.com is a private site that conducts the business of selling computer hardware and as such, any specifications and information posted by Newegg.com regarding products for sale must be factual. However, customer comments in regards to their experience with said products are the opinions of the user. The customer opinion reviews are used at the discretion of Newegg.com as a marketing device for positive and constructive ways to share the benefit of the product. It is not used as a source for negative commentary as we cannot endorse the validity of any negative comment. Therefore, the Newegg.com site is moderated to remove any unproven biased negative comments. It is not the intention of Newegg.com to mislead any customer and therefore all purchase decisions should not be solely based on the customer review.

What do you all think of this?

 

[gregor7777]

It's been this way for awhile. If an item has 10 reviews, but it only shows two or three, and it stays that way for awhile, you know they left some bad reviews out.

 

[Paulson]

I think it's reasonable...

They're in the market to sell things... obviously they want to sell as much as they can, and having bad reviews might make the buyer reluctant...

I don't see why you're whining though, they even tell people to get REAL information from sites such as anandtech... can't be more forward than that. I don't see most companies even going that far.

I like newegg, and being the nerd I am, I never read their reviews, I look elsewhere to find out about their products. Remember, it's like best buy, they try to make it sound 1,000 times better than it really is (the product)... You gotta do the homework.

 

[Don66]

True they aren't a forum..True they are a private website..True they have every right in the world to run it the way they see fit.

 

[Borked]

 

[HolySmoke]

I for one appreciated the negative comments with the good. It gave Newegg a sense of strong credibility. Please don't call me a whiner.

 

[Borked]

I think they were quite honest with you when they said, "The customer opinion reviews are used at the discretion of Newegg.com as a marketing device ....".

I have no objection to this since they are in the business of selling products, not objective reviewing of products.

PS. Sorry for the double tap (post), these newbie fingers are too quick on the trigger.

 

[Howard]

You've never had any experience with the medical community, have you.

 

[HolySmoke]

Don't friggin ask me for a review if your gonna delete it. Tell me to leave positive feedback or none at all.

 

[Toonces311]

Where at newegg does it Ask for your review? Reviewing a product is totally optional.

 

[Auric]

IBTL. Ha ha. What is this doing in GH? Anyhoo, they can do what they want with their own site. Just like Anandtech can censor, delete or move this thread. If anything, the mere existence of a policy statement at all demonstrates good intentions.

---

Enjoy a 2 week vacation.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[StageLeft]

I like negatives as well but I can't act surprised at this. Can you picture going to Ford motor company and they have a section with owner comments and a couple are like "My Ford sucks. The damn transmission fell out on the way home. Don't buy a ford!"?

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Newegg is a quality part retailer. Their reseller rating ranges from 6.6-7.0

That's good enough for me.

 

[BuckleDownBen]

This was actually discussed in the last Maximum PC. Newegg could get into trouble with their hardware suppliers if they have something on their website that bashes a product, or so they claimed.

I'm getting pretty tired with people bashing Newegg and other vendors. There are a million places that sell stuff. If you don't like, spend your money elsewhere. Newegg, and other vendors are trying to make some money, and its not right for them to be slandered on a site where maybe 25,000 hardware buyers can see it. True, every time someone bashes Newegg there are 10 people to say what a good company it is, but if someone just looks at the title of the post, they may choose to go elsewhere.

 

[wfbberzerker]

its like advertising a movie or product. would you see a movie if it had critics saying "the worst piece of sh*t ever" on the advertisement? its the same way with stores. people will buy if it looks good, so of course theyre going to make it look good.

 

[jasonmc1023]

Even though they're 'apparently guilty' of review fraud, chances are you're still gonna buy from them..

 

[wfbberzerker]

just like to add:

in a recent review of aquanox (by pc gamer and maximum pc), both magazines bashed the game for having crappy gameplay, and the game's score reflected that. however, in the next months issue of the magazine, i saw an ad for the game, containing quotes from both magazines praising the game saying how "pretty" it was. while they did say those things, it didn't really reflect the true feelings of the publishers. but thats not really censorship, is it?

 

[Lord Evermore]

I'd never depend on information about a product coming from the people selling it.

 

[Auric]

Indeed, Lord Evermore. Indeed.

 

[obenton]

Newegg should certainly be on everyone's list of honest and reliable internet companies. The recent exposure of its manner of censorship of solicited product reviews has been, I think, an embarassment to them - as well it should be. Editing of reviews is certainly necessary (for language, tone, reasonableness, and - as best it can be gauged - accuracy), but the same editing standards should be applied to positive reviews as is applied to negative reviews. This Newegg failed to do, and it has cost them credibility (which, in the long run, can hurt sales). The disclaimer that now precedes their review listings is hopefully a first step in correcting the deficiciency.

 

[Silver222]

Look at it this way...it doesn't take much for some dumbass kid to forget to put a heatsink on his processor, fry the whole thing, and then have a his leet friends post "reviews". Take them with a grain of salt, or don't read them at all. Nobody is making you