Why does nobody talk about fake review filters on big shopping sites?

I spent $60 on a set of kitchen knives last week based on 4.5 stars and glowing reviews. Got them in the mail and the blades were so thin they bent cutting a carrot. Dug deeper and found that the site's filter hides negative reviews unless you manually sort by lowest rating. That's not a review system, that's a sales tool. Has anyone else noticed how many products seem perfect until you dig past the default view?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindahunt1mo ago

You're absolutely right about the default sorting thing, but I'd gently push back on one part. It's not that nobody talks about it - people definitely do, just not in the mainstream feeds most folks scroll through. There's a whole corner of Reddit and consumer advocacy blogs that have been yelling about this for years. The real problem is that these sites bury the conversation behind their algorithms. They don't want you clicking through to a forum post when you could be buying a different knife set instead. It's like they designed the review system to be a trap, not a tool. Your mileage may vary, but I've started checking "lowest rating first" on everything before I even look at the average score. Makes a huge difference.

aaronlee1mo ago

Isn't this making a mountain out of a molehill though?