REI Gear Reviews

Just looked and a negative review I did from 20 days ago is there. If you recommended or compared a product to other gear, even something by the same manufacturer, they usually won't post that review.

I did compare a new Big Agnes so called 3 plus season tent vs Hilleberg and a now obsolete Big Agnes 4 season tent.

I never regard any review on REI, Amazon, Backcountry.com, etc. as viable. That is because I don't know who the reviewers are.

Now, if 1,000 people out of 1,000 people say a product sucks, I probably wouldn't buy it.

I have never reviewed anything on a website, other than one book on Amazon and one product on BPL. I don't see the point of reviewing products on websites.

They read over the reviews for relevance and appropriate content, so it sometimes takes a while to get posted. If they don't show up after two weeks, contact customer service. They are generally nice folks who want to help.

I write reviews there sometimes, and they all end up posted. Most folks don't take the time to write stuff in depth or they give 5 stars after only trying an item on, so it's generally not useful info, but I support the concept of user reviews on retail sites. I always read Amazon reviews and let it influence my purchases.

It's probably obvious to everyone, but when you're looking at reviews to judge a product,throw out the outliers. Get rid of the most glowing and most hateful and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Just like in statistics, the more samples you have, the more accurate the results. For example, if you are able to find say 15 or more reviews on a product, then you can get a pretty good idea about the quality/fit..

I never regard any review on REI, Amazon, Backcountry.com, etc. as viable. That is because I don't know who the reviewers are.

Now, if 1,000 people out of 1,000 people say a product sucks, I probably wouldn't buy it.

I have never reviewed anything on a website, other than one book on Amazon and one product on BPL. I don't see the point of reviewing products on websites.

I get some value from online reviews, although I do have to glean them for comments pointing out self-evident features I didn't notice or look for things it doesn't make sense for somebody to lie about. Like when several people say a shoe sizes small, I'll typically believe them and order to their recommendation. Or you're looking for a power tool and negative reviews talk about a limitation you can look up in the specs to confirm.

Personally, for paranoid reasons, I've limited my reviews online to innocuous things that people aren't likely to be very upset if they disagree with me. As I had two different store owners recognize me from my Yelp review of them, which were 5 star ratings and got me special treatment at the time, but decided I didn't want to experience the flip-side of that and deleted everything.

REI or elsewhere (including some highly thought of cottage gear), I try to find at least one negative point about a piece of gear. See if it makes sense. We are all different sizes in likely different terrain, so figure there needs to be at least one serious complaint even if 99 give thumbs up.