It’s not enough that I answer yes/no questions or rate things on a numerical scale. No – they insist that I write a narrative to explain what was good or bad about my experience. I’ll tell you what was bad – having to write a fuckin’ narrative or have my whole feedback rejected!
People that don’t actually write a narrative to explain their issue with a product are scum who shouldn’t be allowed to use a computer. What the hell does 1 star out of 5 actually tell me about the product? This is especially important if the item has few reviews. Hell, if it has a lot of reviews then your “Duh, me too” probably isn’t going to be the one that sways my decision to buy.
Take some time and actually write what your issue is so I can find out that you’re pissed because the Smart TV apps don’t work in Canada (duh, any Canadian can tell you that) or that the colour was slightly off from what the picture showed so it doesn’t match your eyes the way you thought it would.
A numerical rating only doesn’t tell me if you are a crackpot who freaks out over every little thing or if the crockpot caught fire and burned down your house. Give me details or the rating system is worthless!!!
I too reject the validity of this pitting.
What Cyros said… plus if they didn’t have detailed narratives, we would be denied the goodness that is the Wolf T-Shirt Reviews.
If I have a problem with the product I contact Amazon or the vendor. I don’t bitch about it on a feedback form. And I’m not going to write a narrative about a USB cable. or a microfiber cloth, or any of the other little shit I buy.
So, none of you are ever going to get feedback from me. Something would have been better than nothing, but if the yes/no answers and the numbers are worthless to you anyway, then it’s win-win for us all.
Just cut-and-paste “Delivered on time. Performs as expected.” as a standard “narrative” for satisfactory orders, and save the thoughtful expressiveness for the (one hopes) rare cases where something goes wrong.
I’ll moderate my response a bit to say that if you are giving a high review of a product then the star system is fine. If you are going to start dinging the product that is when I want to know why.
A five star rating or equivalent should be fairly self explanatory, the product works as advertised. If you start removing points in your review that is when you should be forced to provide an actual description of why you were disappointed. Without the description, as I said, I can’t tell if you are a crackpot who is upset that the shipping company left it on your doormat and the cat pissed on it (not the product’s fault) or if the product pulled out all of your sister’s hair (an admittedly odd thing for a USB cable to do).
On the one hand, there are too many crap reviews right now, making the whole rating system useless. “I qave it one star because it arrived broken. But it was a different model. And I didn’t buy it from Amazon.” What the hell good is that review? Plus all the reviews that you know are written by the competition trashing the product.
On the other hand, reviews that point out important things, like “the product doesn’t do what it says it does”, or “the gear drive broke the first time I used it.” Amazon needs more reviews like that. Yes, people will still lie, but at least we have something to go on. What does “product sux” tell you? Nothing!
If I am “forced” to explain my rankings in a narrative, then I won’t provide any rankings at all. Which do you prefer?
If by “narrative” you mean a sentence or two that actually provides some context to your review, I don’t see the problem. If it’s not worth your time to write one or two sentences then don’t review the thing. If I care about reviews at all, I always do look at the comments. If I see a poor average review that is negatively skewed by a comment like “i wuz very un-happy becuz i dint reelize that teh product needz too be pluged in an even then i dint now that you had to press a swich too turn it on i wasted three days becuz of this so i give it one star i am so mad” then I know that I can ignore some of the negativity. OTOH if someone writes a cogent review then I give it some credence.
My overall experience with Amazon has been strongly positive. The one time I needed to return something it was fast and painless and they sent a prepaid box and then confirmed the refund by email – they probably asked for a reason but I can’t even remember. The one time I canceled an order the “reason” checkboxes or one-liner was strictly optional. What they’re trying to do with the reviews is improve their customer experience, not put you personally through the third degree of interrogation. 
I pit them because they will not except one form of feedback without demanding more and a different kind. I’m not aware of any other online retailer that does this, though of course I may be wrong.
I’ll repeat my question – is it better to receive ONLY the yes/no feedback and a numerical score, or is it better to receive no feedback whatsoever? If the former, then Amazon can change its policies (which I’m not holding my breath for). If the latter, the present system is fine, because I choose not to provide a personally written narrative for every damn thing and so I won’t bother with any of it.
Shit, I’ll go one better. If they offer me some multiple choice questions with buttons to answer with, I’ll do that too.
This pitting - One Star
Pitting is not as advertised.
Boyo Jim has taken laziness to new lows - yes even lazier than those two half-asleep corgis fighting in that video. His title led me to believe he was pitting how worthless the Amazon Feedback was but come to find out the entire reason it is worthless is exclusively because of his refusal to add any sort of rationale for his ratings.
Note that reviews of the product and vendor feedback are two different things. I’m pretty sure the OP is referring to the latter, not the former.
If you are not going to explain your rankings then I don’t care because your feedback is worthless. There are too many people marking down products in reviews for things that are either not an issue for my use or not an issue with the actual product itself. Ohh, you gave it a 3. Without context that means shit to me. Save your time and don’t put anything. If you are going to take the time to review something then don’t do a half assed job. Stay home and rant to your cat.
I prefer you don’t provide any rankings. A ranking without any explanation is worthless. A 1-star rank could mean anything from “poor quality” or “doesn’t perform as expected” to “didn’t meet my unrealistic expectation,” "doesn’t do what I hoped it would do, " or “I dropped it and it broke.”
Not sure that makes a difference. How is a vendor supposed to improve if the feedback they are given is Communication - 3, Delivery - 4 or whatever the categories are if they don’t have specific feedback (full disclosure, I’ve never looked at the vendor feedback area in Amazon and the OP did title the thread “I pit Amazon Product Feedback”). Again, a perfect score is self explanatory and can be excused but if you are docking points then say why, otherwise don’t bother? It is is not going to improve anything.
If those are the only two choices, I’ll take “No ranking at all” and be happy that there are less crap reviews polluting the system.
As someone said above, there’s too many loonies who complain about stuff like “Zero stars-UPS left product with neighbor who broke it” or “Hairdryer broke when I immersed it in the hot-tub. 1 star.”
So, no information is better than bad information.
You keep writing “narrative”. Nobody wants a “narrative”. What’s useful is one or two sentences. “Product stopped working 1 week after I got it. Vendor wouldn’t replace or refund.” or “Vendor didn’t pack product correctly: no bubble wrap, no padding. Will not purchase Faberge Eggs from them again.”
Two short phrases. 1) What was the problem? 2) How did the vendor handle it? (if appropriate). Not a “narrative”.
I have wondered whether the seller ratings on Amazon are artificially low because, when a transaction is smooth and uneventful, people don’t bother to leave feedback (as opposed to ebay, where leaving seller feedback is required). And whether this effect is exacerbated by the thing the OP is complaining about. Most of the time when I buy something from an Amazon seller, I order, and the item arrives as described within a reasonable amount of time as it’s supposed to—end of story. And I don’t bother leaving seller feedback because it’s a minor pain having to type out a contentless comment like “The transaction went just as it was supposed to.”
I cite this as “most informative negative review” and a great example of why a rationale for the rating is useful! 
I prefer that you not take up your valuable time providing a rating with zero explanation. As already said, no information is better than potentially bad information of unknown provenance. I honestly can’t image why someone would be motivated to log in to an Amazon account to provide feedback but totally balks at having to write a sentence explaining the reason for it. If you’re delighted with it, say why. If you hate it, say why. If it’s some stupid USB cable and it just works as it should, why even bother? If it’s a complex device that you’re ambivalent about because it has good points and bad points, that’s exactly the things that people want to know, and a mid-rating that averages out the good and the bad for you might be a drastically different proposition for somebody else.
What if there was no problem? Like I said, if there was, I’d take it up with the seller. Most things I buy from them, there is no problem.