5 Amazon Items That Have a Lot of Customer Complaints

On a quick browse through Amazon, you might think that every single item on the site is beloved since most of what you see has an average review of four stars or more. This is really the algorithms at work, however, as the shopping giant is motivated to show you only the products you would be most likely to buy . So how do you avoid buying a dud? We scoured the site for items that have a high percentage of one- and two-star reviews filled with legitimate customer complaints, so you don’t have to.

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Read to the end for a list of helpful tips and tricks to spot products with inflated or fake reviews so you can feel more confident that your shopping searches are showing you the best products at the best price .

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Dirt Devil Vibe 3-in-1 Vacuum Cleaner, Lightweight Corded Bagless Stick Vac

• Price: $54.99

With 2,249 one-star reviews (12% of the total), consumers who purchased this lightweight vacuum found that the suction was weak, the “cord began cracking immediately” and the grip handle was uncomfortable to hold. Most worrying, several users cited a tendency for the vacuum to unexpectedly “dump what you’ve vacuumed into a pile on the floor for you to clean up again.”

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Hydro Mousse Liquid Lawn System

• Price: $28.92

This Hydro Mousse product is meant to reseed your lawn, with a mousse to protect seeds as they sprout. But of 21,103 total reviews, 36% are only one star and mention problems like broken and leaky parts, useless directions and dyed liquid that stained customers’ hands and pavers. Reviewers warn not to waste time or money on this infomercial-marketed product. Worst of all, nearly all the 4,507 one-star written reviews lament no new grass within several weeks after application.

Molekule Air Pro Air Purifier

• Price: $999.99

This high-end air purifier company ran into trouble a few years ago when it made false advertising claims about air filtration. While the company seems to have gotten better about its products’ technical capabilities, this expensive purifier still has one-star reviews making up 23% of its reviews. Users complain about not being able to connect it to Wi-Fi, loud mechanical humming sounds, short product lifecycle and the enormous expense of replacement filters (more than $1,400 per year).

Crepe Erase Advanced Body Repair Treatment, Anti-Aging Wrinkle Cream

• Price: $84

While this is listed as “Amazon’s Choice” and does have a 4.1 average star rating, the 9% of one-star ratings gives a clue as to why this wrinkle cream might not be the best product for the price. Marketing professionals have scored a big win by inventing the idea that the skin on women’s bodies should be taught and smooth. This lotion claims to erase the look of crepey skin, but 608 reviewers disagree completely, saying the lotion is no better than a basic drugstore lotion and that it smells strange, even though it’s advertised as fragrance-free.

Nescafé Dolce Gusto Piccolo

• Price: $193.05

Around one-third of reviews for this espresso machine are critical, with reviewers complaining that the packaging has no instructions in English and that the machine is noisy, prone to leaking and stopped working after anywhere from three weeks to six months.

Tips and Tricks To Get the Most Out of Reviews

Try to ignore the labels “Amazon’s Choice” and “Bestseller.” While they might be technically accurate, they are also geared to support Amazon’s business model.

Furthermore, the Amazon search default is to sort by “featured” products, which can be a muddy category that prioritizes products that offer added benefits to Amazon itself (such as Prime eligibility). You can change the sorting view so that you see your results by price or average customer ratings to get a better search result.

Sponsored products also play on our brain’s tendency to latch onto the first thing we see. Scroll past the first pages of sponsored products to get to your actual search results.

Look at the worst customer reviews first by filtering for one-star reviews only. This allows you to get a sense of what can go wrong with your purchase. For example, if you’re looking to suck up pet hair and reviewers cite crummy suction, skip it!

Beware of products that are heavily advertised on social media or infomercials. We noticed that many customer reviews featured complaints about products that didn’t live up to the hype.

Use third-party review sites to double-check product reviews. Sites like Wirecutter, Consumer Reports or CNET are far less likely to be influenced by paid sponsorships, fake reviews or Amazon’s own prioritization schemes.

Finally, consider using a customer review website or extension like FakeSpot or ReviewMeta to weed out shady sellers and phony reviewers.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : 5 Amazon Items That Have a Lot of Customer Complaints