Yesterday I bought a no-name 21 bottle thermo-electric wine cooler from Tuesday Morning. I wanted a feel for whether I got a good deal, so I did some post-purchase comparison shopping on Amazon.com. I couldn't find my exact model there. Again, I'm certain it's a no-name, made-in-china, rebranded by a distributor type affair. I did find a couple of models on Amazon that are extremely similar to my own. So much so that I would not be surprised if they are actually the same unit with minor cosmetic revisions.
As I was reading the customer reviews, they were mostly pretty terrible, complaining of failures within 18 months of purchase. Most also complained that there wasn't a place locally to get the appliance serviced. Unsurprising. Oh, well. Live and learn, I guess :-(.
However, what was interesting to me was that for each of the two items, I found one review that was uncharacteristically positive. Even less likely, both reviews were impossibly similar, following a template, highlighting the same positive features, and using similar wording.
I'm not going to link to the Amazon product listing because I don't want to help boost those items' page ranking, but I have pasted in the product name as found on Amazon, as well as the full review in each case.
From the "NewAir AW-210ED NewAir Thermoelectric Wine Cooler With Dual Temperature Zones"
From the "NewAir AW-210ED NewAir Thermoelectric Wine Cooler With Dual Temperature Zones"
A four star review:
I ordered this as a present for my wife, and read a lot of reviews. There were so many negative product reviews for wine coolers, I really didn't know which one was actually the truth. I didn't know what to buy or who to believe.And from the EdgeStar 21 Bottle Dual Zone Wine Cooler
This fridge is really quiet. In an empty room without any other appliances on, you can't hear it.
It's beautiful. It's aesthetically pleasing and fits in well into our dining room. She loves the sleek black finish, we get lots of compliments on it. It gets a lot of attention believe it or not. Some people are really impressed by it. My friends think NewAir should of made room for cans of Bud Light, but I disagree. The unit stores my $[...]bottles of Opus One. It is definitely a higher end unit meant to store wine collections not beer for UFC fights. Same high quality as Cuisinart models we've seen at Bloomingdales, but bigger which means more room for WINE! I would definitely choose this unit over a built in unit. This model requires some room for venting like most refrigerators, which makes sense. We had a built in wine cooler in our last house and it was nothing but problems. When they had to fix because the compressor went I had to contact a laundry list of people because the manufacturer went out of business. Then the guy who came to fix it decided it was ok to damage our granite bar top to access the built in wine cooler.
No assembly except putting on the handle. Let's face it not many of us spoiled Southern Californians are handy.
he temperature holds steady and does not reset when exposed to sunlight, or when the room is warm. It's really easy to read the temp setting, really easy to set, and it works like a dream. The LED lighting is awesome. Also, you can feel the difference in temperature between the 2 zones.
Dollar for dollar, this was competitively priced. I really liked my experience with Air & Water. They were great. And, we're SO happy with it.
I know you will be too.
A five star review:
I ordered this as a present, and read a lot of reviews. There are so many negative product reviews for wine fridges, I really didn't know what to buy. So, let me put your fears to rest:Here are the points addressed by each review, in the same order:
1) This fridge is really quiet. In an empty room with no AC on, you can't hear it.
2) It's beautiful. Really nice stainless finish, we get lots of compliments on it. On par with Cuisinart models we've seen at Macy's, but bigger.
3) No assembly except putting on the handle. Hallelujah!!!
4) Consistent temperature - the temp holds steady and does not reset when exposed to sunlight, or when the room is warm. It's really easy to read the temp setting, really easy to set, and it works like a dream. You can feel the difference in temperature between the 2 zones.
Dollar for dollar, this was competitively priced. I really liked my interaction with Compact Appliance. They were great. And, we're SO happy with it.
Hope you will be too.
- The unit is quiet, and in a quiet room, you can't hear it
- The unit is beautiful
- Requires little to no assembly
- Keeps a consistent temperature
- Competitively priced
- Interaction with the manufacturer/distributor was great (WTF? you bought it from Amazon.com)
- We're so happy and "hope you will be too."
It's kind of amazing how blatant these reviews are. I guess the most Amazon can do is close each user's account. Since the reviewers are disposable, the PR firm just hires more, or even creates new accounts under new names.
