It’s really annoying. I mean, how can every pillow be 3.5 stars? Have they not perfected the pillow yet - they’ve been around for several hundred years and they aren’t particularly technologically complex. Well, I guess memory foam could be said to be technologically complex, but that’s neither here nor there. Really, the point is that it’s a catch-22 situation I’m in trying to buy the right pillow - in order to know why people are giving the pillows bad reviews. I would out of necessity have to read reviews from the kinds of people who write reviews of pillows on Amazon - what kind of person does that? Not like I’m any better opening a thread to complain about reviews of pillows on Amazon.
Not staying cool on both sides is worth a whole star by itself.
Pillows are important to me. I do actually read the reviews. Oddly, because I find use for the reviews, I do not look down on those who write them. In fact, thoughtful reviews generally improve websites, not detract from them.
Staying cool, star.
Doesn’t turn into weird lumpy nodules after a month, at least a star.
It’s funny, I’ve made the exact same complaint in the past. It’s interesting the trends you can pick up on Amazon about the generic item itself rather than a brand. People are picky about pillows and love their stick blenders. Nobody’s ever completely happy with a dish brush. Bathtub non-slip decals are a massive disappointment and electric pressure cookers will change your life forever.
Frankly I recommend the Tempurpedic. Expensive AF but I’ve had it for years and still very supportive. I also got my husband a bamboo pillow on Amazon and it’s held up really well.
ETA: I am the kind of person who reviews pillows on Amazon. There’s really nothing beneath me to review.
If the pillows aren’t beneath you, how are you using them?
Perhaps to suffocate smart-asses?
Everything is three stars, unless it absolutely delights me above and beyond my expectations. That’s what three stars is: it does the job and meets expectations.
Yeah, I’m that guy that customer service surveys hate. Sometimes I’ll bend my rule if I know that an “average” answer might somehow hurt someone, but my basic expectations are average, and if you only meet my basic expectations, that’s basic reviews.
My reviews are always inflated. I almost never give anything one star. Even shit I hate gets two stars.
I once gave a book two stars on Amazon and the author wrote a personal appeal to me about how devastated he was by my brutal review. Awkward.
I don’t look down on them - it’s just a little different for me. As I said in the OP if anything I’m even worse; writing a review of reviewers reviewing something I never thought about reading reviews for. The thing about pillows is that pillows aren’t really a hobby, like drumming or cycling or swimming, so it’s not something I would have thought of as evoking such passion. One reviewer was so mad at the manufacturers of a pillow that she would have damned them to hell for all eternity given the option. Those weren’t her exact words, but there was a lot of emotion.
Pillows were always more of a basic commodity thing in my mind. It’s almost like writing a Yelp review for a vending machine, I almost though of doing that once:
“The vending machine at the Sunoco on 49th and Tasker is a decent option if you are in the area. I found the prices to be in line with other machines in the city but the selection is a little bit more minimal than what I’m used to. There is plenty of parking in the vicinity, and this vending machine is easily accessable via public transportation, which I find very convenient. Overall I would recommend this vending machine if you are in the area and want a soda, although I do prefer Pepsi products. 4 out of 5 stars.”
I’m pretty sure Yelp would scrub it right away though if my past experience with them is any indication of current business practices. Once I owned a small shop and I got so sick of the reviews that I tried to hide my business from Yelpers. The reviews weren’t bad per se, it’s just they weren’t very accurate - my crappy hole in the wall shop kept getting all these glowing reviews so people started coming from all over expecting it to be something it wasn’t. You can’t take your business off Yelp, that’s not an option, so instead, since I had claimed the business, I changed the category from bike shops to health and beauty. The next day they changed it back and locked me out so I couldn’t make edits to the page any more:(.
These reviews are really a blessing and a curse; now I can’t just buy a pillow, I have to do like 3 or 4 more hours of research before I can even begin to make a decision on which one to buy. Luckily I’m on vacation this week.
I’m overdue for a new pillow; when I do get around to shopping for one, I suspect it’ll take me some time, at least until I master saying the above three times fast.
I really wanted a Miracle Puff Hypo-Allergenic Non-GMO Foam Pillow, but when I ordered it on Amazon, they charged my credit card twice and sent me a case of Korean deodorant instead. And it took two months to arrive!
So I’m giving this pillow one star. :mad:
I need a new pillow but I am so picky I may just sew a cover over the one I found that works for me. I need support and coolness but not too much support and not too much coolness (until I fall asleep). Most pillows are way too soft. The pillow I use is a couch pillow filled with (I think, because it’s not spilling out yet) that gray fluffy cottony but not cotton stuff. Acrylic stuffing is not supportive enough, feathers poke. Pillows plumped full of whatever and have no give suck too.
I dunno… guess I will just keep molesting pillows with squeezings until I find one that works.
Can I get a review on the deodorant?
Here’s xkcd’s take on reviews: xkcd: Star Ratings & xkcd: Reviews and best of all: xkcd: TornadoGuard
I sleep in hotels many nights every month. And have for decades. Which means putting up with whatever they happen to have. Along the way I’ve learned that pillows come in a bewildering array of sizes, shapes, firmnesses, and materials. IMO reviews will be useless until / unless you can know what sort you prefer and what sort any reviewer prefers.
At home I have something about like this: https://www.amazon.com/Buckwheat-Pillow-Made-USA-ComfySleep/dp/B006O8EJ68/. This type of pillow is vastly superior (IMO) to anything of foam, feathers, or batting. You mold it to securely hold your head where you want it, rather than your head ending up wherever the springiness of the pillow wants to put it.
As a result of my preference for weird pillows if the hotel’s pillows are too ginourmous and/or stiff/springy I sleep using a rolled up bath towel as a pillow.
Those are all very true. I particularly like the second one, the one with the lamp. I do read online reviews and sometimes they’re actually helpful, but I try to assess their credibility and don’t give them any more credence than they deserve. Honestly, as in the second cartoon, if you were to take all reviews seriously, you’d never buy anything.
On the subject of pillows, I’m with the picky lot. They are absolutely not commodities, because there’s such a great variation in firmness, resiliency, thickness, and thermal properties, and so many subtle variations in those properties. There’s a lot more to be picky about than in mattresses, and I’m picky about those, too.
IMHO old pillows are far better then new ones, so new pillows could never get a good rating. Perhaps there can be a process to make a new pillow act like a old one it can.
I tend top look at the content of the reviews rather than the rating. What one person thinks is great, the other may see it as a negative. For instance:
Reviewer: “Their ribs are fall off the bone great!!”
Me: Fall off the bone?? No thanks.
I recently reviewed a mattress pad like that.
They advertised that it was cool to the touch. It was. As in I shivered all night. I threw it away after 3 days of trying to make it work. Some obese person would probably love that feature.
I said as much in my review: “It *is *cool. If you want seriously cool this is for you. If you don’t want seriously cool, this thing sux. I’m skinny. For me it sux.”
Most hotels buy pillows for back-sleepers; I’m a side-sleeper. I’ve been in hotels which had a “pillows menu”: all for back-sleepers.
The concept of “pillow” is a lot more complicated than many people think.