Do you trust the reviews which are on the review web sites?

Yes and no, some are based on truely user experience while some are not. if you just need quality service you should follow your exact requirements but not affected by third party reviews.

Generally NO, however I have run across a couple that attempt to accurately review providers fairly. The problem lies with verification, and therein rests the flaw.

They are kind of a good gauge, but not 100% Both in regard to the trustworthiness of the client and the host.

I had just returned to the hosting business after being gone for 5 years. I had a few negative reviews prior to leaving the hosting business. Part of the reason, and this really taught me huge lesson, is I ended up having a personal tragedy in 2004/2005 and my business suffered a little bit.

To make a long story short, I got a few negative reviews. When I came back I honestly wished I could start fresh. However I felt that you can't run from your past, just deal with it the best and move on.

I don't care how great a web host you are, you are always going to have that one or two customers that no matter what you do are going to have issues with you.

I had over 600 clients at one point and only 2 left a negative review.

My personal tragedy was nothing I did intentionally.

I will write post explaining what happened and will come back and link to it. I don't want to take this thread to far off topic.

Trusting reviews, there is a lot of conditions that they can't be the end all trust. However it is good to review them to look for signs. You see a run of "This place stink" that is usually a good sign that something is going on. On the other hand if every single review gives 5 stars, they are the complete best, I am skeptical. Again depending how many there are, how old the reviews are, etc.

No!

Why?

Because only the good experiences tend to do this, were as people with bad experience rarely post a review.

Also some hosts are affiliated with them.

Actually statics have proven that is normally not the case. When people are happy with a service they sit back and enjoy.

9 times out of 10 a host that has hundreds of good reviews from all their customers has went and asked their clients to submit a review.

When people get bad service they are know to start complaining everywhere they can.

I think ljprevo is right. People are more likely to complain, rather than praise publicly. Also, when they do complain, they are more likely to post in numerous places.

I think it's very much a motivational thing. People just don't find the drive to spread the word about things going well. A good service/product gives you what was promised (or even a bit more), but there's usually no story you can tell about it. When things go wrong, you have an attention grabbing story to tell. Just watch the news, and you'll see that in action.

Forums are always better than review sites. Review sites are most probably running by affiliates, where they only leap goody goody things about particular web hosts. Although, on forums you will also find a lot of reviews or recommendations that misguides people. So you do need a brain and the ability to think for yourself rather than simply following what the others tell you...

It's best when you hear both sides of the story, because it seems one side only can be very very slanted.

Hi cpios,

Generally, no. Most 'review' sites take in advertising from the same companies they are supposedly reviewing. Many even rank the companies by how much they paid. I never trust these sites.

I do like sites like Hosting Discussion. Here, and at others, I can read what people are saying about any company that I am interested in.