It depends on what I am buying. You can put in "______ reviews" into a search engine and there will be several sites that pop up with reviews. Also, if it's appliances and such, I will check out Consumer Reviews.
Do you ever read Amazon reviews before you purchase an item?
Sometimes and I post the question here for really goooooooood honest reviews and suggestions.
Yes, I've also read them for entertainment purposes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1001250201
If it something that I am unfamiliar with or if it something more than a few bucks I do. I always check to see how many bad reviews and read the worst reviews to see what problems might actually be going on. We actually just bought a power washer the other day. There were very few bad reviews and they all had a personal response from the CEO of the manufacturer asking for them to get in touch so they can fix the problem. She also responded to the good reviews thanking them. Even though my husband had wanted another power washer, I talked him into this one. I figured if there was a problem it looks like it would be fixed.
100% of the time. Reviews have saved me lots of $. Of course you can usually tell if the review is a "planted review". You can also tell if the issue the reviewer is having is do to them not readying the instructions.
sometimes and it depends on items.
Yes, I do, before purchasing any item, read their reviews about the site and product quality, recently I purchase the diamond Jewellery online from Kasturi Diamond, then before buying I read their reviews, I get a good response.