Shopping for GSM cell phones has become so much easier in many ways now. It’s beautiful what the internet – of which the WWW is just one part, actually, even if folks commonly use the two terms interchangeably – can accomplish for so many people. While primarily used by scientists and educators at first (well, in truth the very first intention was for a means of communications that would survive a nuclear strike), one of its most popular uses everyday is to conduct business over great distances – namely, sales.
A host of GSM cell phones can thus be purchased easily, quickly. Because of the web, shopping is faster, easier, and sometimes even safer than ever. Word-of-mouth is viral online and a whole lot more powerful. That’s because the marketers have all but spammed the hell out of things online, and even mighty Google employing some of the smartest folks in the world can’t stop them. This means that a lot of what purport to be reviews of GSM cell phones (or anything else, really) are just plants – planted reviews, planted material, stuff that’s been planted to mislead at best and totally misinform more often than not! That’s right, it’s an eternal war between consumers that just want to make informed purchasing decisions and the online marketers whose job is to simply create more publicity and sales for a company.
Things have gotten so bad that even otherwise reputable consumer review sites have been subject to such efforts at misleading shoppers. Something like GSM cell phones are particularly vulnerable as there is a lot of money to be made all-around. How can one combat this?
Quite a few things, actually. The most important thing to do is to talk to the retailer. It can be helpful to talk on the phone. Is it the same guy answering the phones all the time? Do they answer the phones at all? Or is there even a telephone contact provided? An address? And is that address accurate, or one that isn’t just an office in the mail-forwarding business?
For all the plants, however, the most reputable consumer review sites are trustworthy and should be consulted. That’s because scammers and bad businesses don’t have the money it takes to sustain a first-class reputation management (that is, disinformation) campaign – they’d rather steal what they can shafting the unlucky passer-by! So reviews sites are still important; just make sure that those are reputable, too!