Observation on Amazon Reviews and Microsoft

I like Microsoft Office 2007, it was a bear at first but soon I adapted. It was different. But it is useful. Thus when Office 2010 was announced I got it, yesterday, the day it was released.

I tried to load it on my computer, you see I have been doing this stuff since 1962 so I think I know something. But alas, like so many Microsoft products, it bombed out. It tells you that you must remove Office 2003 first. But I never had Office 2003 and there is no way to remove something I never had. I even checked with the Help function, no luck, read all the files, again no luck, and on and on. Alas I sent it back.

I then wrote a review on Amazon about the problem, the only negative review and the only one written by a person who had not been working on the Office 2010 Beta versions. Then the hounds of hell came loose. Negative reviews by the bucket load.

I started to think that perhaps there is some clan of Microsoft junkies that if something gets a negative review, albeit a little negative review since I never even got it started, that somehow it would be disregarded. Not these guys. I am willing to bet that there must be some Microsoft Watch Group which looks over what is said on Amazon and then slams them hard. I did get one positive along with a thank you comment, but it was clear that he was not a Beta user.

So what all does this lead to. Reviews. Yes, and the term professional reviews. I always use my real name, if anyone has a beef they can then contact me. Most of the bloggers I follow and link to do that. You can check them out and then determine if the review has merit. The problem with negative comments is that they come from unknowns and you cannot vet the comment from the source.

For the most part the reviews are helpful. However, I also suspect, in my opinion, that for the most part products protected by large players have groups with agendas that may not be in the interest of all, but it is just a suspicion, I have no facts, just the observations herein.