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Comment by lhl | Hacker News Reader

I'm trying to think if there's anyone else that's doing something similar. I remember a while back I was really impressed by "NLee the Engineer"'s reviews[1] on lights/batteries.

There's also a reviewer Sporty[2] who's done a fair number of reviews on SD cards.

I took a quick look at Amazon's Hall of Fame/Top Reviewers, but sadly, it seems to prize volume vs quantified/focused cross-sectional reviews.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AOEAD7DPLZE53

[2] http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2Q6Z6MRTI2RJY

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I bought a real piece of garbage battery charger as a result of one of that NLee guy's detailed reviews. Super unimpressed.

You haven't really qualified "piece of garbage", so I have no idea what actually happened, but I will note that charger manufacturers have pulled some bait-and-switch tactics in the past. I bought a battery charger based on an NLee review[0], and was very satisfied. A friend later asked for a battery charger recommendation, and I went back to that very review and found that they'd started selling a "revised" model under the same listing, that was basically worthless. Something similar may have happened to you.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/review/RSYHTFQQYEGLG

On mobile right now so I'm not feeling verbose. He noted serious problems in his subcomments after the initial review that strike me as quite serious, but didn't alter the item's rating accordingly. Whatever.

Perhaps the product changed? I often see reviews warning consumers that the new lot of product is deficient. Hell, the Pyrex brand did that, using the name on glass that can't actually hold up to temperature swings. (Lenovo's handing of ThinkPad might fall under this category too.)

Best thing to do is return the item; Amazon will value this far more than a negative review.

Unfortunately it often takes a while for the problems with an item to shake out. In this case I used warranty service with the manufacturer which was hilariously bad.

Amazon rejected my first review which complained about the bad warranty service. Bleh.

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