Product Reviews by Dummies

Rubbermaid shelving

We've probably mentioned this before, but a couple of the staffers at the Antisocial Network used to hang out at Epinions.com, one of the first websites to capitalize on "real reviews by real consumers." Of course, since reviewers were paid (and sometimes handsomely) for their reviews, more than a few of the reviews turned out to be fake. Whether fake or not, however, it was always interesting and sometimes downright hilarious to see the stupid reasons people had for ranting or raving about a product. Which brings us to today's dumbass, Jill Sanders. 

Unlike AN's usual dumbasses, Jill wasn't writing in a ceaseless search for extra money. No, Jill's a garden-variety dumbass: in reviewing a $250 Rubbermaid shelf kit, Jill told us,

"I am a relatively handy woman, but it took me several hours and a ten minutes with a friend to get it installed properly, thus I give it a 4 not a 5. The issues I encountered... where you do not have a stud, you drill a 5/16 hole and use the anchors- no problem once you have the drill bit, but this was one size larger than my set contained..." Our staffers have installed a lot of Rubbermaid shelving in the past few days, and it took them "several hours and ...ten minutes with a friend" to install it, too – and some of them are extremely handy. It's just the nature of the beast to take time, especially if you want it done right! But what stuck in our craw was this: Jill took one star off her rating of the product because she didn't have the correct size drill bit, though she thinks she's "relatively handy"? As high-school English teacher once reminded one of our staffers, "It's a poor workman who blames his tools..."

Blaming the product because you weren't properly prepared? In our book, that's the height of inanity and therefore a classic example of a Dumbass of the Day in the wild.

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