Reviews…Do you do them?

As an author, I ask for reviews all the time, it seems. I post kindly reminders on Facebook, I message my friends that if they have a second…, and I nag my best friends in person! Do they leave one? No. I mean what’s the big deal? Okay…so I don’t always practice what I beg. Amazon sends me endless email notifications to leave reviews, but I usually scroll right past and keep reading what store is giving a 20% discount for this day only! That’s so not right. The very thing I peddle, I neglect to do. So this morning, I’m feeling all good about myself because I left a review for our family dentist. They completely rock! And I was so proud to write all the wonderful things they mean to me. We go twice a year. Yeah, let that sink in. Five appointments…which at one time meant five kids under the age of 10. But my dentist made it feel like spa treatments. We never wait, they always stagger us, and I literally hop from one chair to the next, hearing the condition of each of my children’s teeth. It couldn’t be more painless if I, myself, had to sit in the chair  and endure the drill. No one has ever cried, bit, or left unhappy. That’s quite a feat, and exactly why I was so compelled to leave a five star review.

Now to the ugly one star I had to leave recently. A book I ordered, for a gift, which was incredibly priced over half off, arrived completely junked. I’m not so sure it wasn’t junked when it took off from the warehouse. I mean how can you pay so little for an item that originally is pricey? Yeah, well I get it now. The cover plastic was separated from each other, bowing up as if it’d sat in water the whole trip to my home, and every page was bent. It didn’t help that they shipped it in plastic equivalent to a grocery store nuisance bag. So when I reviewed it one star for condition, I promptly received an email from them, stating I was receiving a refund. They claimed they had new people working the day my book shipped out. Hmmm… Beyond the uncanny of time thing, though, how amazing is that? But I wanted the book…it was a gift. Keep the money, just send a new book. Well, I suppose it was the last damaged book they owned, so the money I got. I’m going to give the book…it’s an awesome reference material. I’ll just explain some horrific story behind the damages. Maybe the delivery guy was attacked by a pack of wolves and as he was hanging on a precipice, the book endured water damage from the nearby stream trickling past his mangled hand. Sounds better than it was the last book they could find shoved underneath a warehouse shelf, huh?

Anyway, I hope this encourages me and anyone else to leave more reviews. Not bad ones, indeed! Good ones. Ones that deserve the five stars, but it seems we’re too busy to press the button. You never know how it can boost someone’s business. I know when I shop on Amazon, it’s all about the rating. I need to give back a little more. 🙂