I’ve been having major cell-phone trouble. I couldn’t make a call longer than 5 minutes and I was unable to send out more than a couple texts at a time before my battery fully drained and my phone just shut down. It’s a horrible feeling being so disconnected. The solution: I needed a new battery. I wasn’t about to try to go to the Verizon store (I’m not much for waiting in line for hours) so I tried problem solving using good ol’ Google. I found a couple of online stores with batteries selling from $8.99-$49.99. I’m not sure why the battery pricing was so across the board, but I wasn’t about to pay over $30, and don’t even get me started about the additional shipping fees involved.

Amazon Review

In my search I found the holy grail of cheap batteries online for $3.99-$10.99 on Amazon. “How could this possibly be so cheap?” I asked myself. I of course was drawn to the cheapest battery ($3.99 new), but went straight to the buyer reviews, because how could such a sweet deal exist? Well, to my dismay…it doesn’t. I found out that some people (out of 21 reviews) had luck, but the majority found the product to look used, be scratched, and the new battery would still not hold a charge. So what did I do? I went for the $4.99 (new) version with the more positive reviews.

User reviews can definitely be a valuable resource for users and sellers. Reviews help build trust in a product; They let us see how a product will look or work in real life by someone who has actually experienced it first hand. A buyer can learn if their potential purchase will be reliable and good quality. A review can also help narrow down all of the other potential choices out there (such as my million other battery options). If a product is perceived as favorable by a consumer, product sales can take off. And vice-versa, a negative review can impact how much you sell (like the $3.99 battery). (more…)