# Ratings



## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

Everything is just about ratings. One star to 5 Stars. The manufacturers and retailers look at 3 stars and consider it 'good' and so here is what I come up with: What if we did things the way we went through in school?
Lets call the quantities of stars like classes. Start off by dividing 100% by 5 (the total number of stars) and then we come up with this equivalent table:
1 Star = 0 to 20%
2 Stars = 21 to 40%
3 Stars = 41 t0 60%
4 Stars = 61 to 80%
5 Stars = 81 to 100%

If you got 60% on your report card in school, No. 1 - you failed and No.2 you were probably too scared to go home. 
Knowing this, we can ascertain that manufactures looking at 3 stars ( low of 41% and a high of 60% ) think its OK because 3 is more than 1/2 of 5 which is what they use in their recommendations. So, a failing grade of between 41% and 60% is good for manufacturers and buyers but failing miserably in school. I just dont get it.

That's only part of the story. Have you ever actually read some of the comments customers make when giving a 5 star rating. I was just looking at a Grizzly 0645 Mortiser. This clown rated the mortiser at 5 Stars and here is his complete comment."12/31/2021 06:35 PM. I haven't even taken out of the box yet. I have to make room for it."
He is by no means the only one to write this. I have seen other 5 star ratings with "I haven't opened the box yet but the package arrived looking good".

Anyway, even if one gets a 5 Star Rating, that means that would be your report card for 81% to 100% could be anywhere from OK to Excellent. That's a big deal .That really leaves a relatively open interpretation. If it was on a scale of 1 to 10, we would get a more accurate interpretation of buyers experiences. 

Oh well, I'm done.


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Pretty low bar, right?!! Don't you love the ones where they give one star and in the comment it says, "I ordered the wrong product?" So why give a rating at all?


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## Bob Bengal (Jan 2, 2021)

Tony B said:


> Lets call the quantities of stars like classes. Start off by dividing 100% by 5 (the total number of stars) and then we come up with this equivalent table:
> 1 Star = 0 to 20%
> 2 Stars = 21 to 40%
> 3 Stars = 41 t0 60%
> ...


There are a lot of problems with product ratings, but I don't think treating them as a school % grade is correct. I think of the 5 star system as:
1 star = It's junk, a fail, do not buy.
2 stars = Not good, significant problems, but at least somewhat useful.
3 stars = It ok, like a C grade.
4 stars = It's good.
5 stars = Very good, recommended. Maybe flawless? If it's at the top of the price scale I'd expect more from a 5 stars than if it's near the bottom of the price scale for that type of widget.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Tony B said:


> Everything is just about ratings. One star to 5 Stars. The manufacturers and retailers look at 3 stars and consider it 'good' and so here is what I come up with: What if we did things the way we went through in school?
> Lets call the quantities of stars like classes. Start off by dividing 100% by 5 (the total number of stars) and then we come up with this equivalent table:
> 1 Star = 0 to 20%
> 2 Stars = 21 to 40%
> ...


I don't know, some of the worst purchases I've had were the ones with great reviews.


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

Steve Neul said:


> I don't know, some of the worst purchases I've had were the ones with great reviews.


And that too. 
I try to but not always can find a product with at least 1,000 ratings. Sometimes I think the good ratings come from friends, family and employees. I also think that some vendors screen out some of the ratings.


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## DrRobert (Apr 27, 2015)

I think reviews have some value, but you have to sift through them, and don’t just read the bad ones. A fair number of them (good and bad) are bogus, obviously they either haven’t used the product or used it incorrectly, are ineot, or flat out don’t know what they’re talking about.

There are professional “reviewers” who get points for doing reviews, some even get paid. I think some people just like doing them. We constantly get 5 star reviews from people who are not customers. 

I do find the questions useful to read, tho.

When possible, like ww’ing tools, I depend mostly in reviews from reputable sources like FineWoodworking, Popular WW’ng, etc.


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## gj13us (Apr 19, 2016)

I always read the negative reviews first. If they tend toward: "The box was damaged," or "It arrived late," I generally discount the negative reviews. On the other hand, if a positive review says, "It works great! All I had to do was drill a new hole and add a washer..." that's a different story.


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## Biotec (Mar 14, 2021)

Amazon Little Mix reviews together. DeWalt 618 is a router half inch they will also include the quarter inch router 611 dw 616. DeWalt routers they are not they same. unfortunately review all three routers from same person at the same time together. if the reviewer included the model number it shows the system is flawed.

if we include stars to equal a grade a lot manufactured is failing to make a decent product.
dw 611 reviews
2985










another dewalt 
with 5,797 reviews








they both have some of the same comments

5 stars 87% or 2596 of 2985
4 stars 9% or 269
3 stars 2% or 60
2 stars 0% or 0
1 stars 2% or 60

Letter Grade Percentage GPA
national grading system.
A 90-100 3.7–4.0

B 80–89 2.7–3.69

C 70–79 1.7–2.69

D 60–69 0.7 1.69

F 0-59 0.0 0.69

so based on two tools with only 87 and 89 percent positive reviews or in their list of 5 stars it only a "B" grade.

I say this is do to mixed product reviews therefore it is skewed.

also i see a lot comments of there should be a zero grade star.
another problem with star ratings is there a small percentage of people actually bother to leave review. negative or positive review.

I used to do them regularly till I started to see reviews crossed over. same brand different models.

for me, now it's just exceptionally good or exceptionally bad.


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## Tony B (Jul 30, 2008)

I think that the manufacturers are banking on the fact that most people cant do math and figure out percentages or have no idea of what 5 stars represent.. 
I think if Stars were graded on a scale of 1-10 people would understand that better and give a more accurate rating.


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