Letters to the Editor
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when two products are the same...
When two products are basically identical (like the tissue in this article) it probably doesn't really matter which one you pick, and as such the reviews are little more than an entertaining distraction (I mean, would you really trust someone who is so passionate about klenex that they log on to Amazon and right a review? I'd be rather skeptical about that fact alone).
Reviews are helpful when a product appears to be something it is not. I recently went and did my holiday gift shopping on Amazon and was looking for an ipod holder/gel skin. I found some pretty looking ones for a low price -- I was almost sold! Then I came to the reviews... averaging 3 stars... not a good start. I then read the several outliers who gave the product a 1 or 2... all of whom had experienced issues with shipping and missing pieces. That sort of information is invaluable in a customer review, since it isn't the sort of thing that a professional reviewer is likely to tell you.
Things like shipping time, broken products, helpfulness of customer service staff, and return policies are all important tidbits that often get lost in the ether of internet shopping. I suppose they're not so much a review of an actual product so much as the company who supplies it -- but either way, they're helpful.