Tbh if I'm making a quick purchase that doesn't matter much to me, I just get the one with the highest purchase number or whatever is cheapest. If I'm purchasing something pricey or that I care about... I'm looking for actual reviews elsewhere before buying anyways.
It's still worth a glance at some reviews, as I'm finding the popular well-rated products sometimes have reviews for different products entirely. Like they took over a genuinely good listing and replaced the item with a different one.
Sellers are able to entirely replace the product page with a completely different product. Give the reviews a once over to avoid getting something you think is good quality.
Yup, and that's essentially what I'm looking for. I read critical reviews, positive reviews that don't seem like shilling, and maybe a few recent reviews.
It would be even better if Amazon got their act together and penalized companies that introduce significant changes to the same product listing. For example, Wi-Fi dongles sometimes change the Wi-Fi chip, which changes the performance and compatibility. I've read reviews on exactly that type of product and chosen a different one because the replacement was worse than the original.
I just don't trust Amazon listings, and it has saved me enough times that taking the extra effort is worthwhile.
Its why I think companies need to pick up the Valve model of reviews in the area of splitting overall score and recent review average. Recent review reflects whether if something changed and is bad, then the product would rate poorly, despite overall reviews.