Apple Store Removes Customer Reviews
Amber Neely (Slashdot, Hacker News):
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.
The Verge points out that it was not uncommon for Apple products and accessories to have unfavorable customer reviews through Apple’s online store. For example, Apple’s Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter had over 700 one-star reviews.
Presumably this was because customers were mad that newer iPhones need such an adapter, not because the adapter itself didn’t work. On the other hand, the Lightning video adapters have been widely reported to not be reliable. And the extended Magic Keyboard is well regarded but had lots of critical reviews because of its bending problem.
Previously:
- Lightning Video Adapters
- The Magic Keyboard With Numeric Keypad Is Apparently Bendy
- Apple’s Lightning to Headphone Adapter
- Removing the iPhone’s Headphone Jack
2 Comments RSS · Twitter
To be fair I found Apple online store reviews unreliable. Often people were complaining about an issue not related to the product or were ignorant of what the product was intended to do.
You had to do so much reading between the lines that there may well have been no lines in the first place.
@Niall
That could be said for nearly any online review. The Apple store reviews certainly were a mixed bag, but it was quite telling that Apple's accessories were widely lambasted on the Apple online store. This mirrors my opinion of nearly every Apple branded accessory I have ever owned. Expensive and generally flawed. At some point, I would imagine there was likely enough push for such high profile negativity to be eliminated. Oh well. I actually appreciated Apple had the integrity to leave such content there for anyone to view.
