Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store
On November 17, Apple removed the "Ratings & Reviews" section from all product pages on the Apple website. It is currently unclear what has prompted this decision, nor when Apple will bring back the option to read the opinions of other customers at the time of purchase.
AppleInsider received a tip from a reader who had noted the buyer review section was missing on Apple's online retail store page. The user also pointed out that the pages have been removed from U.S., U.K., and Australian Apple online stores, which suggests this is not simply a mistake, but rather an intentional move on Apple's behalf.
The reviews were pulled over the weekend, though it's not clear as to why this has happened. Apple had been known for leaving up even especially negative reviews, which demonstrated both transparency and integrity to their customers.
By removing the reviews, it's possible that Apple will be seen as less credible to potential buyers.
Utilizing the Wayback Machine, AppleInsider found that the reviews were pulled at some point between the evening of November 16 and the morning of November 17. The image below shows a capture of the sections on November 16 and 17, highlighting the missing "Rating & Reviews" section.
AppleInsider has contacted Apple for clarification over the feature's removal, and if it would be making a return.
It is possible to view the changes by looking at the Wayback Machine archive page for the original Apple Pencil.
A YouTube video offered as part of the tip was published by the popular photography account, Fstoppers, titled "Apple Fanboys, Where is your God now?" In the video, the host reads a selection of negative reviews of the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with the video published on November 16, coinciding with the removal of the website feature.
However, it remains to be seen if the video had anything to do with Apple's decision to remove the reviews, given the 56 thousand page views at the time of publication doesn't seem like a high-enough number for Apple to pay attention to the video's content. Other videos have been more critical about the company's products, and some with far higher view counts, but evidently Apple seemingly does not spend that much time involving itself with such public complaints.
AppleInsider received a tip from a reader who had noted the buyer review section was missing on Apple's online retail store page. The user also pointed out that the pages have been removed from U.S., U.K., and Australian Apple online stores, which suggests this is not simply a mistake, but rather an intentional move on Apple's behalf.
The reviews were pulled over the weekend, though it's not clear as to why this has happened. Apple had been known for leaving up even especially negative reviews, which demonstrated both transparency and integrity to their customers.
By removing the reviews, it's possible that Apple will be seen as less credible to potential buyers.
Utilizing the Wayback Machine, AppleInsider found that the reviews were pulled at some point between the evening of November 16 and the morning of November 17. The image below shows a capture of the sections on November 16 and 17, highlighting the missing "Rating & Reviews" section.
AppleInsider has contacted Apple for clarification over the feature's removal, and if it would be making a return.
It is possible to view the changes by looking at the Wayback Machine archive page for the original Apple Pencil.
A YouTube video offered as part of the tip was published by the popular photography account, Fstoppers, titled "Apple Fanboys, Where is your God now?" In the video, the host reads a selection of negative reviews of the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with the video published on November 16, coinciding with the removal of the website feature.
However, it remains to be seen if the video had anything to do with Apple's decision to remove the reviews, given the 56 thousand page views at the time of publication doesn't seem like a high-enough number for Apple to pay attention to the video's content. Other videos have been more critical about the company's products, and some with far higher view counts, but evidently Apple seemingly does not spend that much time involving itself with such public complaints.
Comments
Personally I dislike unpacking, setting up, using, not liking, then repackaging products and arranging for return shipping or scheduling another trip to the brick and mortar. Worse is when you look at reviews after-the-fact to see just the type of issue frequently mentioned that was what YOU disliked about it too.
1) fake reviews. Some buy weird internet trolls, Some by people who think they are “helping,” and some by people with invested interest in a product.
Agreed. AI needs to upgrade their "Like" system to allow down-votes.
I have increasingly used reviews and ratings to decide if I'm going to buy something from a retailer.
AppleTV remote has two stars! That is not representative of the quality of the product, but Apple is charging $60 for a replacement!!
My app has 4 stars so I'm happy enough, but I do hate the many reviews that complain about the price of my app being as much as a sandwich and a soda, as though I somehow write and maintain the code in my sleep rather than sweating blood over it.
The NYT comments section comes to mind.
The biggest reason online reviews are worthless is that many of them are fake - you can pay someone in China or India to write a bunch of reviews for your product to make it look good and most places don’t verify whether you’ve purchased the product or not. Amazon’s one of the worst for that. Of course half of Amazon’s products are fakes from china anyway.
Reviewing reviews is a waste of time for Apple. Amazon (for example) probably has an extensive system set up to remove the trolls and verify buyers.
If I went to a manufacturers website, I’d question the legitimacy of the reviews posted there. I want independent reviews to help with decision making.
Apple wants an uncluttered website and strictly controlled message, there is no place (in that) for reviews.
There are some legitimate reviews to be found, but there are way too many garbage reviews that have very little to do with the actual product at hand. There are also numerous reviews that are plagued by issues that are caused often by user error or ignorance.
When I read through reviews about a product that I am interested in, I quickly skim through them all and disregard all those that I find to be garbage for various reasons.
If I'm interested in a product, I'll research it, I'll also check multiple review places and not just rely on reviews found on one site. I might also check a few youtube videos, if I want to see the product in action.
Eventually, I'm left with some reviews that I find to be legitimate and I'll make my decision from there. I rarely regret anything that I buy, because I usually know exactly what I'm getting and if it'll work with my specific set up or equipment. Research pays off.
I remember being at Costco a few years ago and I came across a suitcase that they had on sale for a good price. I hadn't planned on buying any suitcase that day, but I did need a new one and it looked nice plus the price was nice, so I went online while I was still in the store to check out some reviews of that particular suitcase and all I found were 3 reviews and they were all low star reviews.
Using my wealth of knowledge and understanding of psychology of the ridiculous human mind, I quickly deemed them all to be garbage, as the reviews were merely ranting about some unrelated issue that didn't have much to do with the product at all.
So after reading those 3 very low rated reviews, I went ahead and bought the suitcase anyway, since Costco has great warranties, and I couldn't be happier with the suitcase I bought. I've used it on many trips and it still looks new and is as good as the day I bought it. Had I relied solely on those 3 garbage reviews, I would have never bought it.