Quite happy with Amazon these last years. If there's any problem, it gets rectified swiftly. 

A couple of things with product reviews.  One, most people that are happy with a product don't take the time to give a positive review.  I try to go out of the way to review myself, and I'm still getting requests to answer questions about the Dell Touch Screen I bought years ago.  Which is fine, although many of the questions are so stupid I can't believe those people can figure out how to get out of bed in the morning.
 
The people most likely to review are the ones that think they were ripped off.  they squeal the most and most often.
 
Many, if not most product sites will take down negative reviews (not Amazon's).  I can't say I blame them.  If some one slagged my product saying "this guy doesn't know enough to get out of bed in the morning how can he make X" I would do myself a favor.  I just didn't buy a music stand after seeing that a majority of Amazon reviews for the cheaper units complained about problems.  So I just use an old one that my kid used - it was cheap and falling apart but free.
 
So it is a real "read" between the lines.  But more information is always preferred, just taking into account the sources to balance things out.
 
@

Sweetwater reviews seem to be the most blatantly planted. 

kitekrazy1
 
 Usually the honesty comes from forums.

+1 for honesty .....most of everything I have been happy buying has gotten a decent honest fair review from forum members here 
On the other side of the coin if I'm gassing super hard for something , I may want to hear some whoppers and outright Lies just to keep the dream of gassing for it  alive
The truth is my wallet always seems to have the final say .
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny

Amazon reviews were ruined by the introduction of paid reviewers. That is, when you read a review and it ends with the disclaimer "this fair and impartial review was written in exchange for a discount on the product." You see those all over the place now. As soon as I see a product with those reviews, I back out of the page and look at another product. The reviewers were getting some great deals however - my girlfriend's sister was doing it and she had hundreds of codes for free stuff and discounts. In fact whenever I've said I was going to buy something on Amazon my girlfriend would say "oh hang on, I think my sister has a code for that."

Thankfully I believe Amazon have banned the practice now. Part of the problem with Amazon is that its "fulfilled by Amazon" scheme has given birth to a landslide of "Amazon entrepreneurs" who sell stuff on there and have Amazon store and ship it for them. There is a huge competition among these sellers to have their products come up top in search results and this is why they go nuts incentivizing reviews - the more reviews you have on a product, the heavier you're weighted in searches. Some of these guys are making a ton of money. My girlfriend's uncle has made over a million dollars selling doorbells on Amazon. He has them made in China and uses Fulfilled By Amazon to handle all the sales and shipping. They call him Uncle Ding Dong now. He has used these paid reviewers.

Then again, he'll remain Uncle Ding Dong for quite some time. You win some, you lose a lot.

VST4Free is kind enough to give a number of my little creations a second home and they offer ratings and reviews. I have chatted to the very fine gentleman who runs the site and I get the impression sometimes he cringes a bit when my stuff gets hammered in the reviews. Hey I figure its better to know the truth of what folks really think and maybe you can actually learn something by the negatives, what annoys folks, what isn't worth releasing etc...
 
Often it does seem like it is either comments from folks who can't get things to work or don't like them or folks who are very excited. So often 5 or 1 star, though you do get some three star type ratings.

timidi
Sweetwater reviews seem to be the most blatantly planted. 

Yeah, I noticed they sort by best reviews first, a bit misleading. Check out the presonus 1818vsl on their site - looks like good reviews - then sort them by date. The most recent 5 reviews are all one star due to presonus' deceptive practices - selling off the 1818vsl which had the vsl functionality removed 2 years ago.

This month if ordered a new camera, 2 filters, hot shoe spirit level, neoprene case, lens caps, left handed scissors, first reader books, USB adapters, cables, but all to the UK. My dad is bringing them out when he visits in 9 days. I've been bombarded with amazon review requests. I;ve not had the chance to use any of it yet. You'd think they'd ask in a month. If you have something new, you'll be busy using it t care about reviewing, and how can you give a good review for something as complex a digital camera, without having had a chance to use it properly. These things are full of functions nowadays. Things like cables may work well the first few days and g a little funky.
 

I once wrote a review that I subsequently regretted. I should really try to find it and amend it.
 
The review was for a microphone cable I got from Parts Express. It seemed like an excellent deal at the time, but a month later the cable failed. Now I am feeling guilty for possibly having a hand in suckering others into buying that POS. The moral of the story: don't respond to those emails begging you to review things you've bought; wait a few months.