Unfair reviews - does Garmin care?

peterdedecker said:

I think it's not a review of the data field, it's just showing the incapability of the end user to operate the garmin device. 

In the defense of the end user I also think it's not straightforward to set up data fields on a garmin device. 

Given that this type of review seems to happen all the time, maybe Garmin could try to do something about that?

For example, why do some devs create their own documentation sites or videos just to show users how to install their data fields? Obviously that type of effort is admirable, but it shouldn’t be necessary.

I don’t blame the dev or the reviewer in this case.

dpawlyk said:

Developer reply: Tens of thousands of users can do it! Don't you think it depends more on your inability? Tens of thousands of users can do it! Don't you think it's more down to your disability?

I mean ironically, this reply is objectively much more abusive / inappropriate than the original review

Well, I don't need to tell you all how annoyed one gets about a review like this. Especially when you consider that it's all voluntary and unpaid.
These are moments when you ask yourself whether it's worth the trouble and whether you shouldn't just program for yourself.
On the other hand, high download numbers and good reviews are, of course, a moment of confirmation of your work.
So - I'll calm down again!  

The person that left the bad review probably moved on and won't see your reply. but anyone else checking out the reviews of your app will.

I decided not to waste my time on trying to remove these reviews. The time it takes to brag about them here or to have them removed by Garmin doesn't worth it, when I have so many other things I can brag about (old bugs, new bugs, bad design, Garmin doesn't care about ..., etc) ESPECIALLY if you already have lots of downloads and lots of reviews, removing 1 1 star review will hardly move the average. The other thing I realized that even nice users who give me 4 stars and ask for some new feature are actually lowering the average, when it's above 4... So just let it go. Unless you have a clear case when it's clearly against the rules.

I think there are a lot of things wrong with how reviews are used

- I don't like no text reviews (this includes the 5 star no text review)

- I don't like reviews that have feature requests (use contact developer)

- I don't like reviews that have questions (use contact developer)

- I don't like reviews that complain about garmin bugs (contact garmin support)

- I don't like reviews that complain about app bugs (use contact developer)

I may be old fashioned about this, but I think a review should be a review about the app, nothing less, nothing more.

flocsy🤠 said:

I decided not to waste my time on trying to remove these reviews.

I've stopped flagging (and reacting to reviews - even when they are nice and emotionaly touch me), but I can understand flagging when you only have a few reviews as it has a major effect on the score in that occasion.

flocsy🤠 said:

The other thing I realized that even nice users who give me 4 stars and ask for some new feature are actually lowering the average, when it's above 4...

for me it's incentive not to do the feature "request". I'll never understand users who do the hostage approach, I'll give you 5 stars when you add this. 

You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

The way it works now it's not even possible to change the review. I once wanted to review, it told me I already had reviewed that version and I should edit it, but it was impossible to find my existing review. I reported it to Garmin, but if course it wasn't fixed, because they weren't able to acknowledge that there is a problem at all.

Worse even: let's say user gives 3 stars, and reports some real bug. The same day you fix it and the happy user gives you a 5 star review. The problem is: they can only review if the installed the latest version (which I understand why Garmin decided, and it's a good thing), except that the 3 star review is now stuck with the previous version and nobody can remove it, even if the user was willing to.

I see that some users give me 5 stars with a nice sentence every time I update the app. It's nice, but all in all it would be better, if 1 user could only have 1 review. If they come back and change their review then it should update the existing one. Similar to how it's in android play store. First and foremost it would stop developers releasing fake updates just to give themselves one more 5 star review (times X fake accounts they use for this...)

peterdedecker said:

I think there are a lot of things wrong with how reviews are used

- I don't like no text reviews (this includes the 5 star no text review)

There's no way you can force your users to write something in their review (even a positive review) unless Garmin enforces this change in their review system (similar to how some stores for shoes and clothes force you to add text to your review.)

This wording makes it sounds like the reviewers are doing something wrong when it's really a flaw in the system.

OTOH, for Amazon and the iOS app store (for example), the ratio of ratings (without text) to reviews (with text) seems to be sky-high, especially for popular products, which suggests that there'd be a lot less feedback if non-text ratings were banned.

peterdedecker said:

- I don't like reviews that have feature requests (use contact developer)

- I don't like reviews that have questions (use contact developer)

I don't blame you, but I also get why they do this.

peterdedecker said:

- I don't like reviews that complain about garmin bugs (contact garmin support)

The user often doesn't know or care about the difference between a Garmin bug and a bug in your app.

peterdedecker said:

- I don't like reviews that complain about app bugs (use contact developer)

I may be old fashioned about this, but I think a review should be a review about the app, nothing less, nothing more.

How is a complaint about an app bug not a review about the app? Because it's software and you have the ability to fix it without having the user return a physical item?

Where's the line between "app bugs" and "general things the user doesn't like about an app"? Obviously from the dev's POV, a bug is when something doesn't work as designed, but again I think the end user often doesn't know or care what the intended design is.

What if an app has many more bugs than the user would reasonably expect? Would that warrant a bad review?

Speaking of design, what about bad design decisions? Can the user complain about those? Why would those be fair game and not "bugs"? If those aren't fair game, then is the user allowed to complain about anything?

Yeah I hate bad reviews as much as the next person, but let's face it. If we devs had the power to block any reviews we didn't like, then every app would have nothng but 5 star reviews.

User: "This app crashes 9 out of 10 times. [1 star]"
Dev: "Sorry, no bug reports!"

Maybe I'm being a contrarian, but I think an app review/rating is about whether the user liked the app or not. Feature requests and bugs (even bugs outside of the dev's control) are going to come into play here. From a personal standpoint, the Spotify app for Garmin has a ton of bugs and design issues which ruin the experience for me. Are some of those things outside of the dev's control? Maybe, but as a user, why would i care? I'm going to leave a review which reflects my perception of the app.

On the flip side, if a user is not allowed to complain about bugs and lack of features, are they allowed to praise an app for being bug-free and having lots of features?

I agree with PeterD.  He's a long term developer, with apps that have been download millions of times (his total for apps is in the 5m+ range).  

FlowState said:

User: "This app crashes 9 out of 10 times. [1 star]"
Dev: "Sorry, no bug reports!"

That's not what he's saying.  He's saying the user should use contact developer so there's additional info, like "Which device" and "when does it happen".

How would you fix "This app crashes 9 out of 10 times" if that's the only info you had?

I’m just playing devil’s advocate and trying to see it from the user’s pov. 

Even if I tend to agree with everything peterdedecker said, there’s no way he can force users to change.