Why only one review per reseller?

[melmullen]

While I agree that one person should have one set of ratings per store, I don't agree that one person should be limited to one review per store. If I make multiple purchases over a period of time, I should be able to relate each of those experiences separately. In other words: one set of ratings per store, and one review per store per order.

And while I'm here... two things I don't like about RR:

1) the overall rating score for some stores smells fishy. I'm very often reading the reviews and trying to match numerous dissatisfied customers with a high rating. Simply put, I don't trust it.

2) I don't like the way the reviews are moderated. Change one word in a review and it disappears for days, and isn't even visible through the author's account. Why not use a language filter with retroactive moderation? It would be much less annoying.

[Lara RR]

One review instance per customer per merchant is how the system works, at least for now. Customer-Members can log into their reviews to modify or update opinions and survey scores to reflect newer transactions, at any time. New Invoice/Order numbers can be entered next to the previous number separated by a comma and space. Preceeding your new entry with self-explanatory notes (e.g., *update xx/xx/xxxx*), can help other readers understand that you're updating or writing a new review.

Re:
1) Email me (email button below) with the merchant names and/or usernames on the merchant reviews you find suspect. Automated and manual anti-fraud detection is a huge part of what we do on a daily basis, and we will investigate every merchant's reviews when reported and take any appropriate action necessary to enforce our policies.

2) We do not actively moderate reviews. Some merchants subscribe to a merchant package which puts new and modified reviews into a 48-hour holding queue, so the merchant and/or ResellerRatings staff can process the review for customer complaints, policy violations, etc. A notice of this policy precedes every review submission.

You can view or modify your review while in this holding queue; simply log in, go to the merchant's reviews page, and click the yellow 'rate this store' button. You'll be dropped into your review. To view your active reviews and forum posts, click 'my reviews' next to your logged-in username at the top right of our pages.

Just as an FYI, merchants are not permitted to:

(a) solicit a positive review;
(b) require a positive review in order to qualify for a promotion, or fail to honor the offer if a negative review is entered;
(c) solicit a customer to change review from negative to positive;
(d) solicit a customer to remove a negative review;
(e) coerce, threaten, harass, 'strong-arm', bribe, make an offer of money, gift, services, 'freebie', or otherwise influence or attempt to influence the changing of a review to a positive review, change a written opinion, and/or to remove a review;
(f) solicit reviews from prospective buyers.

We encourage any person who's been the recipient of any merchant violation above to contact me directly or report it via our contact form. Sending us a copy of the email or webpage link evidencing the violation is extremely helpful. We will not reveal your identity to the merchant, or anyone.

Submitting a review requires compliance with all our policies (incl. 1-16) and reviews found not in compliance are subject to removal without notice.

[melmullen]

Thanks for your reply.

Take for instance this reseller:

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2079.html

Quickly run over the last 50, say, reviews and guage the general feelings of people. A rating of about 9.0 just doesn't seem right. To me that should mean that about 90% of people are very satisfied, yet looking at the reviews, that wouldn't seem possible.

[Lara RR]

Funny you should mention that merchant - I went through their reviews just this morning; disabled reviews that violate our policies and sent a plethora of email inquiries to customers. Look again at their scores - you should've noticed a readjustment from this morning's and depending on the replies or non-replies I receive, more adjustments may follow.

Also, realize that this merchant has 2532 reviews spanning a long time; with so many reviews, adjustments up or down will not be as radical as a merchant with much fewer reviews.

[melmullen]

Originally posted by Lara RR
Funny you should mention that merchant - I went through their reviews just this morning; disabled reviews that violate our policies and sent a plethora of email inquiries to customers. Look again at their scores - you should've noticed a readjustment from this morning's and depending on the replies or non-replies I receive, more adjustments may follow.

It still doesn't explain why the numbers don't add up. For instance, look at the ratings breakdown... not a single category is over 7.x, but yet they have an overall score of 8.8... or 9.x, depending on which you look at.

I have had problems with this particular vendor on my last two orders with them. Looking at the overall RR score you would think they are one of the best vendors in the country. However, if you read thru the reviews you will see a different story, with many people reporting the same sorts of issues that I have had.

The question I now ask myself when looking at the overall score for any store on RR is "what does this tell me?". Well right now, I believe, it doesn't tell me very much at all.

[Lara RR]

The category scores you see on the reviews page are for the current month. You need to look at the categories' scores for the past 6 months (not including the current month) by clicking an orange bar:
http://www.resellerratings.com/selle...ory.pl?id=2079

Keep in mind that not every category is scored by every reviewer; a customer who has never used a merchant's RMA service would not score them in the Overall product replacement service category, for example.

Reading several pages of reviews is the best way to get real feel for the merchant. Also keep in mind that, if you had a bad experience or less than satisfactory experience in a certain area with this merchant, it doesn't mean that anyone, or everyone, will. Your mileage may vary.

[melmullen]

Sorry, but this is all too complicated. I would need a PhD in statistical analysis to figure out what's going on with this retailer. All I want to know as a consumer is, how good are they at delivering what people order from them *now* (not 12 months ago), and what can I expect from them now if something goes wrong with my purchase. Whatever rating you put beside the merchant name should indicate this in a simple, clear, and concise way. At the moment, IMO, the overall scores for this particular merchant are misleading.

I could argue about this until next week, but I'm sure you have other things to do, so we can agree to disagree. In the meantime, Happy New Year!

[Lara RR]

I'll see what I can do to explain this in a more concise manner. In the meantime, Happy New Year to you, too. :-)

[Admin RR]

It's really not complicated. The overall score is a simple average of all customer responses to our "overall satisfaction" question, for all time. The six-month average is a trailing average that only looks at customer responses for the past six months. We don't pick ratings out of thin air or assign ratings to companies - the ratings are automatically calculated based upon customer "overall satisfaction" survey responses. If you were to read all several thousand reviews, you would likely conclude that the overall rating is a good reflection of those reviews. Reading only the most recent 50 isn't going to do that.

[melmullen]

Originally posted by ScottW
It's really not complicated. The overall score is a simple average of all customer responses to our "overall satisfaction" question, for all time. The six-month average is a trailing average that only looks at customer responses for the past six months. We don't pick ratings out of thin air or assign ratings to companies - the ratings are automatically calculated based upon customer "overall satisfaction" survey responses. If you were to read all several thousand reviews, you would likely conclude that the overall rating is a good reflection of those reviews. Reading only the most recent 50 isn't going to do that.

As long as it makes perfect sense to you, that's all that matters. Right?