I just came across reviews and people's comment here: https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/ozbargain
I was surprised to see the overall review is very low. All the reviews and comments look genuine (i.e real humans with their experiences and not fake reviews).
Just wondering what are the thoughts?
Edit:
Added a poll as well. How would you rate ozbargain forum community (not the deal)?
Reviews are directed towards the forum on productreview.
@spackbace and I used to link up all the reviewers with posters here. It was a fun game and there's even a review directed at me. He deactivated his account after I provided him with the fix :/
For example here's Chris upset in 2018 that his deal was no good. So much for a 10 year warranty when his store doesn't exist anymore.
Even better when they cross-post their crap onto Trust Pilot as well
(lol that the site is classified under Restaurants and Bars)
Give the public what they want Scotty
I’m a firm believer in Scotty doesn’t know
I would love to see that, for entertainment value alone
I have no doubt these 'reviewers' wouldn't hesitate to spew up more lies after the facts were laid out on the table.
Are all negative reviews about Ozb lies?
dafuq? it's a bargain forum - not schoolyard politics..
we come here for honest opinions, even said opinions offend some people.
if someone wants to spout bile.. they should be allowed to do so, but also accept that they will be judged accordingly
I'm honored to get a mention on there ❤️
I was going to say well done to you, @mspaint and @randomusername2017foe this
https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/ab14e246-3411-54f2-…
It was a real team effort to break him so hard he had to cry on product review, I'm just so proud of everyone.
I wonder if B-tech is Temu V-tech?
I took a quick look and one of the negative reviews starts off like this:
Used it for years but too friendly to nazis
Why? Because someone posted a link to the documentary 'What is a Woman?' I'm sure the reviews are real, but if the complaint is that someone posted a deal for a free documentary that they disagreed with, then their review is stupid and should be ignored.
More broadly, this is why I always read at least a few reviews before judging if a business is good or bad. If the negative reviews are unreasonable complaints, or the positive reviews are obviously astroturfed garbage, then there's no point taking them seriously.
Yep, and almost anyone that mentions nazis can safely be considered disingenuous and ignored with no further context required.
I've ignored Musk for years
I find it hilarious that outside observers can't seem to make their mind up whether OzBargain falls under the category of far-left or far-right. There's seems to be an equal amount of accusations made for both political leanings.
I'd say the overwhelming majority of people here are pretty moderate, whether they lean slightly left or slightly right come election day. They're not really interested in arguing about Israel or gender or nuclear power or whatever - they come for the bargains and move on with their lives.
Productreview is pointless. As noted in recent post here, people tend to post only when they have a negative experience, less so a positive one.
If I'm researching a product, I put more faith in the comments on Ozbargain.
Several negative reviews all highlighting some specific failing about a product can be useful though. I would have avoided frustration and effort to return at least a few items over the years had I read all the negative reviews first.
Agreed, my mum got a $100 torch recently from a local hardware store, just from the shelf without and research.
Upon trying to charge with USB a birthing smell filled the room. Torch died.
I searched the model and heaps of people had the same thing happen, makes justifying a return and refund much easier.
A birthing smell is pretty outrageous. Bad enough having that when your own child is born
I was surprised to see the overall review is very low.
Why? People are far more inclined to post a negative review based on a bad interaction/getting banned/complaining about content they dislike, than any of us would actively go post a positive review out of the blue.
I've always thought that, but some companies or industries get overwhelming good reviews, think thousands of 4.8-5 star reviews and I wonder how that is so. I'm thinking it must mostly be fake?
A good example of fake reviews on Product Review is for internet dating. Most services barely scrape in at 1.5 to maybe 2, but one service has a near five star rating. Most of the reviews are short two line blurbs: 'Wonderful service, met my soul make. Give it a go!'
The reviews for all other services are littered with jaded people and broken hearts. Why should one service be stunningly good while all others have realistic reviews?
The reviews for all other services are littered with jaded people and broken hearts. Why should one service be stunningly good while all others have realistic reviews?
That's EXACTLY what the spoofers want you to think.
@MS Paint youre famous
That was the dude who paid Amazon twice because they didn't want money sitting in their savings account due to the security risk.
I want them to take my money immediately not when they ship the item*
*Something like that. What a muppet.
That was a recent thread, it was incredibly what a clown that guy was. One of those guys who always makes it "someone else's fault" because it could never, ever be a problem of his own making.
To be fair to that guy, it is a weird business practice to not take payment as soon as soon as you process your transaction and hit "pay". I still only know of Amazon to do that. If he was new to Amazon I can understand his confusion. It is preposterous (without prior knowledge, which evidently he did not have) to assume customer service reps for a big company don't know what they're talking about, which was the crux of his issue.
In a similar vein, I think sometimes a lot of people in these forums and even in deal comments respond to genuine people with genuine questions assuming they have the same knowledge base. Another good example of this is pretty much always the comments section of the JBHF - Telstra phone deals. Someone inevitably asks how to get the deal (because it is most often not explained or explained very poorly in the deal description) and then people start replying to the question as if that person is a twat for even asking.
@tenpercent: You've got a point, there is assumed knowledge and experience and this forum has it's biases.
But a big reason that thread went off the rails so bad is that he just had a personality that couldn't admit fault (in this case a bit of poor judgement, a lack of cynicism about CS competence, thinking that gift cards are a good idea, overall lack of experience) and had to keep doubling then tripling down and arguing with everyone.
We've all made mistakes, and will continue to do so. But hopefully most of us learn from those mistakes.
Instead of learning, he just threw his toys out of the pram and left in a huff. You can tell in his productreview post that he still thinks that he is 100% right and made no errors in judgement.
You occasionally come across people like this IRL. They are insufferable, always victims or always blaming some higher authority for their woes.
@tenpercent: Happened to me yesterday. Order placed on a very good deal. 48hrs later CC still not charged and order appeared to be paused. I couldn't risk losing the deal so I got a local price match and cancelled Amazon order.
@tenpercent: Lenovo only does a pending transaction on your card until the product is shipped. One laptop i ordered got delayed for 3 months and they kept putting a pending charge then expired and re-execute the pending charge every 2 weeks it was driving me insane keeping track if I was overcharged or not.
At least with Amazon it doesn't do a cycle like this and only does it once at the end when the order is shipped.
Since deleted thread. Not sure if the user deactivated.
@MS Paint: Astonishing such a critical PSA was deleted. Future generations of Barry's are being deprived…🤔
Just blokes like this having a whinge when deals for their dropshipped junk get negged - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozot1eruE3Q&t=124s
Lol at all the recent comments about how right wing this place is. Pretty much every political poll here leans heavily left and all the cookers who came out over COVID seem to have left in the last year or so. There's a few resident MAGA nuts but that's fairly representative of the population, like have these people gone outside or maybe left Victoria?
Sir, I do not appreciate you calling me a nut
JV gets a mention, but not a single review has the word "Austria" in it. Sad. https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/01c01bf4-ec4c-460f-…
A ripper yarn.
It would appear that many of the reviews are the result of a single event or interaction that wasn’t in their favour.
Some people think that someone else disagreeing with them is “trolling”, even when they’re demonstrably wrong about what ever the subject is, and it’s simply raised for discussion.
Those types of people appear to have less tolerance to different viewpoints, and when something doesn’t go their way, they’re more than happy to close their account and leave a bad review.
I reckon @Dr Phil saw what you did thier.
He won’t even see this because it’s not the first comment.
ProductReview has always been a very, very bad way to judge a product or company. It's sad to see some people refer to it here as if it was a reliable resource.
People tend to specifically look for a website, sign up, and write a "review" only when they're annoyed by something even if it was user error or the user not understanding how something works. The legit negative reviews just get buried in all the noise.
People who are completely satisfied with something won't bother signing up and posting a review saying "It works great", although there are categories where you get die-hard fans who'd skew ratings upwards instead.
If ProductReview were actually a reliable website, nobody should ever buy anything from Apple Australia as they apparently have pathetic customer service and products with only 1.7 stars.
Have to generally disagree,re the PR website.(not sure about the Apple reviews)But 'generally' When the number of reviews per product/service is high, and the complaints consistent in direction, from ppl who have multiple reviews over the site, I trust the trend or take serious note/do extra due diligence , or avoid that product/service.
But 'generally' When the number of reviews per product/service is high, and the complaints consistent in direction,
The problem with that is, the larger a company the more negative posts you will see simply because there are more products out there and people definitely tend to post negative reviews more than positive. e.g. I'm sure you're enjoying OzBargain but did you bother posting a positive review? What about your fridge or microwave or vacuum cleaner at home?
Let's say an acceptable defect rate for consumer electronics is 1%. If company A sells five million products a year across ten different product categories, they're going to get plenty more negative reviews compared to company B that sells half a million products a year in three categories simply because there are 10x more products out there - even though their failure rate is the same.
from ppl who have multiple reviews over the site,
I think reviewers like that need a bit more scrutiny as it could be indicative of someone who complains for the sake of complaining, or someone who thinks everything is always someone else's fault. If they consistently praise where praise is due and complain when it's legit (unlike this guy who posted a 1-star review because they tried to return a phone past the returns policy because they were on holiday, their reviews could be worth something.
Unfortunately it's poor-quality "reviews" like the above that pollute the site making the star ratings worthless and filling it with so much noise that it's often just a waste of time.
You need to check out the 'reviewers' history, on this high review products/services. If all they have is neg reviews, then take the review with a pinch of salt.
I'm more suss on new high praise reviews with no review history before or since.They usually follow shit reviews on said service/product.
You need to check out the 'reviewers' history, on this high review products/services. If all they have is neg reviews, then take the review with a pinch of salt.
In reality too many people just look at the number of stars as they don't have time to go through hundreds of reviewers' post histories to determine how many of those reviews are legit. The site simply attracts disgruntled users which is not a good real-life indicator of a product or service but a great example of self-selection bias.
Reading those reviews just reinforced how stupid and pathetic some people can be. What a bunch of sissies.
The internets resident lunatics.
Hey, that's our title!
I think the reviewers who claim there's no freedom of speech are missing the fact that it's a for-profit website. The business strategy might encompass creating certain narratives to suit their purpose.
It's not that different to any reddit sub or twitter.
If you want freedom of speech head over to 4chan or the dark web.
Because every time someone ask a question others are jumping on their other posts.
TBH all Internet forums can be pretty toxic at times. It's about finding a toxicity that you can handle and a forum that makes life (mildly) better not worse.
Otherwise, for your own sake, leave. Three months ago I made a posted saying I was giving up on Reddit - haven't posted since and honestly life's (not been good) but better.
There are many iterations of the Internet forum: OzBargain will suit some, not others. It suits me. If you can pretend all the downvotes are actually expressions of jealousy - even better.
Am I missing something when people are saying ozbargain is right wing and homophobic? Lol, I've been using this site for years and it's literally 95% left wing echo chamber like what.. some of these reviews must be fake man
Advertising S. 14h · The admins and mods played soggy biscuit with me - I was the biscuit, 10/10
Not sure if this review is fake or there is another even more exclusive tier above platinum.
You gotta risk it to……
Yeah nah.
Depends on the post topic. There's way more than 5% RW trolling activism on this site.And ditto for cooker action.
Depends on the post topic
@Protractor: That Trump coffee deal brought out both types, along with "What is a Woman?" and "The Real Andrew Fauci" book. Can't forget the COVID vaccine posts either
The irony of reviews on a site called product reviews for something that isn’t a product. Whingers should get a hobby.
For all of the real or perceived complaints and issues with the site, mods, users etc etc - is there anything better? I think we should all be grateful the site is commercially successful and lives on year after year and provides us all with literally tens of thousands in savings over the life of our "membership". This is by far my #1 website of all time. My only wish is that "we" (as a community) could attract more reps, I think this is our ticket to the holey grail of bargains. Imagine every product, every category having access to end of lot, wholesale, clearance, pre-order, in bulk, true mates rates etc etc before the general public…..I can only dream.
Have an upvote!
And a ⭐️
https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/88d6246e-cf4a-50c0-…
As a small business owner, I feel compelled to share my experience with the OzBargain website
Lol true colours come out:
https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/eed6ff1b-e020-490d-…
Great Quality Boots – These are the best Quality UGG boots I’ve ever had!
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/853647
I say anyone who's known to leave a review like that should have their store banned
For anyone who wants to leave Ugg Australia a review, here you go
They even have the balls to post a neg review of Aldi uggs
@pegaxs @WatchNerd
The lies & gaslighting continues.
Can say I'm sorry to see the arse end of that store as they closed the Ozbargain door on their way out.
Probably sitting in a cafe somewhere with Mr. Pepnimble licking each other's wounds over self inflicted war stories
You mean? > Can't say I'm sorry ,etc?.
@Protractor: Was typing on my way to the airport on the SkyBus, so some errors or omissions my have been applied.
@pegaxs: Oh, you were still in Melbourne, that explains why you mentioned seeing clowns everywhere in your earlier comment…
https://au.trustpilot.com/users/5d3c32a8a34cd71b9f6130c5
So 'Kelly' posted this review recently:
Worst website i have ever seen what a scam
Worst website i have ever been to, when you try to submit a post or even comment they ban you and block you. Such a scam, these websites should be pulled down.Date of experience: 28 July 2025
It would appear that she forgot she'd been here in 2019 lol:
SCAM WEBSITE WILL STEAL YOUR DETAILS
SCAM WEBSITE DON'T DEALS DON'T WORK! OZBARGAIN WEBSITE POSTS DEALS WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR CODES FROM YOUR WEBSITE! MERCHANTS BEWARE!THEY STOLE MY COUPONS FROM MY SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE AND USED IT ON THEIR WEBSITE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!
Date of experience: 29 August 2019
Ha it's so bad they keep coming back.
Did you see this one from Mike? He's notifying the feds about OzB.
That 1 star OzB review was made 1 day after we removed Smartyez deal for lack of business details, who they rated 5 stars.🤔
Clearly the same troll who has had multiple ghost accounts, and probably one of the active current ones.There's a few here who have the same schtick, but rarely post at the same time.
It's strange how none of the reviews mention Platinum-Level-Tier. Guess that's why Barry was so pissed off in his 1 star review, he never got an invite. While platinum members are kicking back with free express shipping and giftcard inception deals - poor Barry is out there having a full blown meltdown because his blood pressure monitor didn't arrive. Somehow I don't think he needs this machine to know that his blood pressure is through the roof.
The first rule of OzBargain Platinum Tier is though…
Wow i didn't even have a slightest idea that ozbargain's reviews exist. I'm here for bargains and i get those every now and then, it's a simple equation for me.
Looks like some people take this place way too seriously.
I love that in the same set of reviews, OzB is simultaneously a draconian oppressor of freedom of speech and 'too kind to Nazis'.
We must be getting something right.
I was going to write a negative review because I still haven't been paid for any of the comments I have made here. If JV is why aren't I?
But I don't want to give any more publicity to the site!
While I can laugh at most of the negative reviews and dismiss them as idiots, this sort is thing is not funny.
If you dig deep on Google I am told, you will find a complete list of the moderators and their real names and a photo of their face (It came up on a popular forum)! They may act differently when they realize people know who they are, and they can't hide behind a computer pretending they actually have some meaningful existence.
Crazy idiots are still crazy.
Stay safe guys.
Are you talking about digging to ID Ozb Mods or PR mods?
I agree with the review, forum here is toxic.
the bargains are genuine though
I agree, but I keep coming back for the bargains, not the forums
"A concerningly pro Chinese website"
Personally haven't seen this Ozbargain. But whoever wrote it should check whirlpool out. Yes the sites are different, but that place is a sespool. For example, the pro Israeli moderation.
This place has its moments, but is relatively peaceful.
It's because they label those darn chinese products as good deals!
Next time you see a deal on flights to China, try mentioning their human rights track record. You'll be accused within 45 seconds of being some sort of Russian troll farm bot. Apparently that's what I am. TBH, the immense pile-on by such posters would make me call them the pro-China bots. It's just not a natural level of frenzied defence of a country that everyone knows does some horrific stuff.
(I bought the flights, and am going there in a few days, but still)
I was talking to the moderation team earlier this year about having a "Product Reviews Review" post where we dissect and respond to each individual review — not on their sites but here on the OzBargain forum. The mod team has pretty good idea on who those reviewers were, as they almost always correlated to some specific incidents.
But then there might be too much drama and becomes a distraction from all the bargain hunting here.