To further streamline functions within the communities (eg. forums, marketplace) in togoparts.com, the consumer reviews section serves 3 purposes.
1) To attempt to gather product information in the Bicycle industry and organise them systematically via categorisation.
2) To attempt to gather user views and opinions on the products listed for review.
3) To attempt to provide viewers with industry average product prices, powered by the members of togoparts (more often than not, the viewers themselves).
In short, the forums will see less of "how much is this product?" and "what do u think of this product" questions. However, this does not mean that these questions are prohibited in the forums. But we do find one-liner questions like these in the forums, which somehow clutter the place, inappropriate.
The togoparts reviews engine features reviewers tracking. Much like the togoparts forums, each review posted by a member is logged. Similarly, there will be status ratings based on the number of reviews posted. Starting from "Newbie Reviewer" to "Guru"
However, please write your review properly and maturely. To get a "high" status rating by doing many review postings is not the point. The status ratings are meant as a reward for your effort put in. Moreover, over time, good reviews done by the reviewer consistently may be known as the true "Guru" among the community.
Non-members of togoparts can also post reviews. Non-members do not require logins and therefore non-member reviews will have to go thru the reviews team for approval. This is to prevent spamming or one liner reviews too often seen in many bike review websites.
Members who are not logged-in when posting the review will mean 2 things. The review will behave exactly like a non-member review. 1) The review is not tracked and 2) the review will go thru the usual screening by the reviews team.
Writing a Review
The Togoparts reviews team highly encourages reviewers to write reviews that
are detailed, descriptive, with examples of use (situations) that describes
the product's performance, reliability and value.
· Please refrain from stating where you purchased the product from
· There will be no buying or selling of products in the consumer review section.
· Check that you are reviewing the correct item (its model, make and year)
The Rating System
There are 5 levels of rating, from 1 (poorest) to 5 (excellent). The system
calculates the average rating only via the Overall Rating you give for the product.
The other 3, performance, value and reliability are also rated, but not taken
into account on the average rating. The reason being the weightage of the 3
elements may vary from person to person. The overall rating describes how satisfied
you are with the product, depending on your personal weightage of those 3 elements.
Price Engine
The pricing engine calculates the average price of all entered prices by the
members. In this way a realistic and perhaps more accurate representation of
pricing is reflected.
Posting a Price
The following conditions apply:
· Post the price of a brand new, unused product (eg. prices quoted in shops, or from other sources)
· Check that the product in question is identical in model, make and year when posting the price. Some products have the same model name but have different sub categories within that model. Those differences have surprisingly large differences in prices. Eg. Specialized Geometery Saddles. Comfort (Cheap) Comp (Expensive)
· Check the prices posted previously for a better idea. If the price you have is different by a large disparity, check again.
· Enter the price in Singapore Dollars. There will be future upgrades to the system to cater for Asian currencies.
The pricing sub-system does not allow posting of comments. Only prices are allowed. This is to discourage prices comparisons among bikeshops (which are inevitable if comments are allowed), which is undesirable to the industry.
Suggestion of Product
To suggest a product that is not listed in the reviews section:
· Go into the appropriate sub category, click the "suggest an item" link
· In the suggest an item form, Please enter all the information as accurately as possible. The product name, year and description are compulsory. Please help the reviews team out by looking for the product's manufacturer website as well!
· Allow 1/2 to 1 working day for our team to verify the product. Rest assured, the team will verify the products at their first opportunity.
As the products in the reviews section is not exhaustive (We doubt it can be), the team appreciates the all members can help in suggesting products. The more products the merrier! The team thanks all in advance.
Enjoy!