How Reading Online Reviews Saves You More Money

There are several ways to save money when shopping, including buying items on promotions, using coupons, price matches, and taking advantage of cash-back opportunities, among others. However, one of the most overlooked money-saving tips is checking online reviews.

In many instances, customers lose money when shopping due to failure to do due diligence to establish if the company they want to buy from is reputable. Customer reviews on platforms such as PissedConsumer.com indicate common complaints like poor customer service, poor product quality, being overcharged, and delivery issues.

Below is a look at 3 ways that reading online reviews can help you save money.

1. Helps to establish if a company legitimate

There is an increase in the number of fake companies, especially online, as scammers seek to dupe customers. In most cases, such companies list products for sales cheaply. While some deliver the products, the products are of low quality.

On the other hand, others do not have any actual products, and once you make payment, it becomes difficult to get in touch with them. In both scenarios, they advertise deals that are too good to be true or run online offers to collect customer personal and banking information.

If a company is not genuine, there most likely will be reviews by previous customers that indicate so. You may also come across articles warning that the company is a scam.

However, you might have to take a keen look at the online reviews to establish that the company is a fake. Some signs that the company is illegitimate include numerous complaints about a lack of physical address or contact information.

2. Helps to establish if offers are legitimate

Even legitimate companies can have unscrupulous advertising methods such as bait and switch, false representation of a product or an offer, and unfavorable terms and conditions.

For instance, a company may offer a free trial period but fail to indicate outrightly that you become tied up in a 3-month mandatory membership by enrolling on the trial.

Before buying from a given company, check its reviews across different platforms for complaints about false advertising.

3. Indicates if products are of high quality

The last thing you want is to spend your money on an item and not use it because it arrives defective or breaks down after a few uses. This might cause you a huge loss, particularly for pricey items, even if you had bought them at a discount.

Let’s say you are buying a sofa or bed worth several thousand dollars at a 200-300 dollars discount. While the discount is considerably significant, if the bed or sofa is of low quality, you end up losing thousands.

Therefore, before making any purchase, check reviews on the quality of the products you are considering. Also, ensure that the company has a favorable returns policy. Check return and refund-related reviews to ascertain that they honor return claims and refund or exchange timely, without taking you around in circles.

Another critical aspect to check customer reviews for is the quality of their after-sale services. Look out for complaints such as delivery delays, rude delivery staff, and unprofessional installation technicians who do not honor agreed installation schedules or do a shoddy job.

Finally, when checking consumer reviews, beware of fake reviews as they do not accurately represent a company. They can be negative or positive. For instance, some companies hire people to leave positive reviews on review websites.

On the other hand, some companies hire people to leave negative reviews and troll their competitors. Fake reviews are easy to identify as they are usually vague and fail to provide context and tangible details.