Rating online merchants
Dec. 13th, 2016 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcMany web-based portals for shopping use a five-star system for rating vendors: for example, four stars in Amazon is
I prefer to reserve glowing feedback for those vendors who are a cut above the average: providing an unexpectedly high-quality product, super-fast or well-tracked shipping, whatever. Yet, other buyers seem to routinely award the highest possible rating for mere adequacy and vendors appear to expect that, making the ratings a rather weak signal. I don't even hope for excellence when wanting somebody to put a multipack of halogen lightbulbs in the mail to me. The rating of vendors is thus one of the many situations in which I choose between bowing to peer pressure or taking a futile stand.
More likely is that vendors may lose a star from my default four for easily avoided disappointment: for instance, in a recent order from Book Depository via (and owned by) Amazon, the order page on Amazon suggested that two books were in the same shipment. However, only one book was in the package I received (eventually, the other arrived after the suggested window) and they failed to answer the simple question,
good, five is
excellent; eBay's five stars include some
veryadverbs. Most transactions do not exceed what for me feels like a four-star threshold: they sent me an intact manufactured widget in a satisfactory manner but largely not such that I experienced delight and amazement.
I prefer to reserve glowing feedback for those vendors who are a cut above the average: providing an unexpectedly high-quality product, super-fast or well-tracked shipping, whatever. Yet, other buyers seem to routinely award the highest possible rating for mere adequacy and vendors appear to expect that, making the ratings a rather weak signal. I don't even hope for excellence when wanting somebody to put a multipack of halogen lightbulbs in the mail to me. The rating of vendors is thus one of the many situations in which I choose between bowing to peer pressure or taking a futile stand.
More likely is that vendors may lose a star from my default four for easily avoided disappointment: for instance, in a recent order from Book Depository via (and owned by) Amazon, the order page on Amazon suggested that two books were in the same shipment. However, only one book was in the package I received (eventually, the other arrived after the suggested window) and they failed to answer the simple question,
were they actually mailed separately?. A
sorry, we don't knowwould have been an acceptable answer but they might lose a star for twice trying to fob me off with boilerplate responses rather than even acknowledging my reasonable inquiry.
