I am a Mouthshut member for 7-8 years and have been writing reviews since then(not too often though). This is a wonderful website to express my opinion about any product or service as a consumer. We can find many reviews on many products or services on some other review sites and even on some Online Shopping sites too, but many of those reviews(particularly on shopping sites) are either biased, or fake or simply written for product promotion. But here in Mouthshut, we can find many serious and well written reviews by genuine users describing their own day to day experience. This site helps us to be cautious when buying any product or opting for any service, it educates us about the major Pros and Cons about the products in the market, it teaches us the rights we are to enjoy being a consumer in India and so on. Lets take a quick look on some of the major novelties of this site –
1) The Website is organized in a neat way so that fist time visitors wont face much difficulties to comprehend what this site is all about.
2) Registration is an easy process. Creating Profiles by giving a few personal details is a good thing. For the very first time u just have to give minimal details to create your profile, the good thing is the site does not insist or compel u to complete your profile at once, u can give some details later.
3) There is a very good private interaction process through sending Messages.
4) Finding a product is easy by just typing the name in the Search Bar. It works pretty well providing suggestions instantly.
5) Rating system of any product or service is very effective. The site also shows an Average Rating compiling all the ratings given by the reviewers on a specific product.
6) Apart from the Star rating, there are also some Performance Bars to judge any product or service on various aspects. This is cool actually. U can have a clear idea how any product is performing on some separate departments.
7) There is a system of accumulating points by writing a review/blog, rating reviews written by others and commenting on the same. There is also a system of sending gifts to fellow members which is a nice way of showing respect or whatever it may be.
8) The Review of the Day concept is fantastic. It encourages us to write more and more quality reviews.
9) Many of the reviews are truly great. They are well written, informative and help the potential consumers in many ways.
10) Over the years the activities in the site has increased in a effective manner. U can now write Blogs, share your Status, upload more and more Photos etc. These are some useful additions.
11) The site has become so popular that many brands are taking it very seriously. They are listening to the issues faced by the consumers and are trying to solve them(though the number is not significant, but it is increasing steadily). U can find the Brand Pulse Update section in the Home Page easily to see what is going on regarding consumer complaints and the brands’ responses.
12) The site took some good initiatives to encourage its members by time to time by introducing some cash prizes for quality reviews. At present the Write-Share-Win contest is going on. I am happy to tell that this promise of cash prize is 100% genuine unlike some other sites. Mouthshut do give cash prizes through NEFT.
13) Mouthshut can also be found in Google Play Store or Apple Store in the form of mobile app now. So it will be your constant companion.
14) This site cares for u. I love to have their cute e-mail wishing me on my birth day every year.
Some suggestions:
1) This Write, Share & Win contest has serious consequences. Many of us are attracted to it because it is a good offer…but the conflict between Quality and Quantity has already been started and growing rapidly. Many of the reviews are written just to earn some quick money. Some reviews are totally fake, some are half-hearted and not at all beneficial for potential consumers. Mouthshut Review Team should completely ignore these reviews and reject them in first place.
2) This Write-Share-Win is making things more complicated. Suppose a member has written a review on Samsung Galaxy S6 with minute details comprising of several paragraphs. One other member has written a review on the same product in just a few lines not covering enough details. Both win Rs. 50/- for sharing the reviews. If the former come to know this, how can he motivate himself to write further reviews?(just considering the earn something by writing perspective). So there must be a proper filtering mechanism to keep an eye on the qualitative aspect of the reviews.
3) I think some products are listed under wrong categories. And Product Categories should be more exhaustive.
4) The DPs should be more flexible and should be updated time to time. Suppose someone wants to write a review on a particular Anti-Virus software. These software go through various iterations over the years and the versions change. So if he wants to write on V10, he will find the dp of V3 of that particular software in Mouthshut because when the first review of the product was written it was on V3 and that cant be changed. This can be misleading.
5) In About Us section of this website it is mentioned “MouthShut.com is who-what-when-where-why of the consumer world”. It is also mentioned there – “The central theme at MouthShut.com is community blogging about products and services”. I found someone has written about her relationship with her boyfriend in many of her blogs and also found a review on Lionel Messi(though I like him very much as the greatest player of this era)…may be there are more like these. I doubt what purpose this type of reviews can actually serve in the consumer world. May be it is the flaw of my understanding. Anyway, my humble request to the Mouthshut Team is u should change that section and instead write – “It is a community blogging site for absolutely ANYTHING”.
6) The MouthPad Approval Time has increased significantly after the advent of the current contest. The Team should sort all the requests of new products on the basis of importance/relevance or any other suitable criteria and give approval on priority basis.
7) I am facing an issue of no response through e-mail now a days. The Team handling the e-mail specifically made for contest should be more pro-active.
8) The traffic in this site has been increasing rapidly day by day. Page loading has become slower than before and I can understand the reason. I would request Mouthshut Team to consider this and take suitable measures, if possible.
After this Write, Share & Win thing started, I faced some serious issues which I want to share –
1) I wrote a review on Sandisk Cruzer Balde Pen Drive many days ago and put a MouthPad request. That is not accepted by Mouthshut Team till now. I dont know why. I need an explanation/clarification why it was not considered.
2) I have written a review about a Titan Sonata Digital Wristwatch that I am using for a few months. I had to put a MouthPad request for this too. And after that I don’t know its fate till now cause it is still pending for approval from their end. If there can be a review on Popcorn, then I think, it should also be eligible for consideration.
3) Every new product request I am making in MouthPad, either their approval is delayed or they are not being approved at all. I wrote a review on a very interesting website of XDA Forum for Android users 2-3 days ago. I don’t know whether it will be approved or not.
4) And now the most frustrating experience of mine - my MouthPad request for Nokia 130 was accepted about 19-20 days ago and I got an e-mail as well as a notification regarding the acceptance/approval. Till now, that review is not posted in the website.. I am shocked. I really dont know what has gone wrong in this site and also I am very very disappointed.
Lastly, I must say that I love this website from my heart. All the problems have started after this so called Contest. I am also facing some serious as well as irritating issues asI mentioned above. Actually this was inevitable because for some members, this contest has become a Work from Home affair. Many of the fellow members are trying to write something to earn some fast cash. I don’t know whether I am one of them(other members are the best judge of it) but actually I try my level best to keep the reviews informative and try to share my own experiences so as to make the reviews useful to some extent. Whatever may be case, the credibility is not lost for this site, just some steps are to be taken for smooth running. Long live Mouthshut. Keep up the good work Mouthshut Team. I will always be with u, sometimes supporting, sometimes criticising.
(Faisal sir, I need explanations/prompt actions regarding the issues I mentioned earlier. Thnx in advance.)