Obsessed Garage is an enthusiast supplier of high-end tool storage products, garage cabinets, automotive detailing supplies, and everything you need to turn a garage into a drool-worthy and productive workshop.
A lot of the products they carry aren’t for those with light wallets.
I’ve never shopped at Obsessed Garage, but I enjoy seeing their well-organized setups on social media.
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It seems they explore garage storage and auto detailing and care products, and sell the ones they like most. Makes sense.
I came across a recent video clip of theirs on social media, and well…
Here’s the question:
Will you ever have reviews for products in your store?
And their answer, if you didn’t watch the video above:
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No. Never.
Freaking never.
Why would I want a bunch of idiots who I taught about the product, talking about the product they don’t know anything about?
It’s so dumb.
The only people who leave reviews are weirdos that like leaving reviews, or people who are mad because something bad happened.
They just may have just had a bad bad luck.
Yeah, never in a million trillion years would I have reviews on the website, and they should get rid of all reviews on every website forever.
In my opinion, that’s a bit harsh.
They backtracked a bit when called out in the comments:
The people I’m referring to are the ones who leave reviews on something that they haven’t taken time to learn about.
A majority of the people that buy from my store are much more intelligent than that.
Customer reviews on retailers’ websites can be pretty bad.
Some of the tool and other product reviews I’ve seen read like someone ranting about how the spoon they bought won’t cut a steak, husk a coconut, or scoop spaghetti out of a pot.
Or, it’s like how someone on Yelp will complain that they ordered takeout and the fries were cold after a 20-minute car ride home.
When shopping for products, I’ll sometimes find some helpful user reviews, but it takes work to filter out the useless noise. The better reviews are often buried between rants from uninformed users – yes, it can be normal to see sparks inside brand new cordless power tools with brushed motors! – shills, nonsensically aggerated reviews about unrelated products, those with an agenda against the brand or retailer, and reviews that have 10X more words than necessary.
But Obsessed Garage sells high-priced premium products to enthusiasts, and maybe also businesses that serve high-end customers. They’re not selling cheap disposable gear.
If shopping at an upscale retailer selling things like a $12,000 row of cabinets with a custom wood workbench surface, I’d want to hear from other customers, at least about what the delivery and installation experience was like.
Ignoring how they phrased it, are they wrong? What do you think about retailers’ customer reviews?
BigTimeTommy
Scummy attitude. I’m a weirdo who leaves reviews andI leave more good ones than bad. I always leave bad reviews when product quality and customer service doesn’t match the price point, which is probably the problem this smug dbag has with reviewers.
Yeah man, it takes a real special brain to understand what makes a box good. What a bozo.
John
Thumbs up!
Mike
Amen.
bob
I concur with your statement
eddie sky
I never bought this or use it, but the packaging arrived damaged. I give it one star.
BigTimeTommy
“I can’t ignore an obviously dumb review, better to have no reviews at all.”
It's me
We can only vote with our wallets…..and reviews. Keep it up
ken
What I really dislike is the reviews where the product was provided free of charge or fake reviews that are not even in proper english. That being said some information is better than none. Also, if your website has reviews it does not mean potential customers are obligated to read them. If you don’t find any value in reviews then do not read them.
MoogleMan3
No reviews, exorbitant prices, and not even made in the usa? They can eff off.
mike
not to mention you can just source everything he lists for about 20-30% cheaper. Especially all the power washing setups. Kleen Rite has all those same parts for way cheaper.
Great site to pick what you want, then go out and find it for cheaper.
Andrew
This is exactly the sort of review he really doesn’t want posted.
Mark
Yep – I frequently use his site to find the right plumbing fitting for my pressure washer setup, etc. Then I go find the exact part elsewhere for significantly less.
He knows this exists and unfortunately has chosen to act the way he does rather than try to continue to innovate solutions that others don’t have easily available like he did in the earlier days.
Back then he was actually bringing some nice solutions to the detailing world but hes really just become a weirdly toxic/negative online retailer for garage-stuff in last few years.
I’m really surprised he doubled-down on his anger towards his own potential customers throughout the years. He must just ignore anyone in his camp that tries to tell him to chill on this front.
S
Many companies have similar business models.
Crutchfield for instance is one of the best at this. Everything they sell can easily be bought at 20-40% less without even needing to jump through sales hoops.
But people keep going back to crutchfield because of their amazing customer service, and a “don’t worry, we know you’ll need this so we threw it in the box” attitude.
There is absolutely space in any market for such a player, but the road to get there is not easy.
I don’t know enough about this company to say either way, and I’m also the wrong market– I’m perfectly happy with bare studded walls in my garage.
It could be he offers that amazing level of customer interaction. But generally, that’s reflected in most reviews– which tends to be a point to giving space for reviews on the sites. Which leads me to suspect he’s really just a crappy middle man trying to protect his own existence buying and reselling products at a markup large enough to imply something custom without all the work.
If that’s the case, his house of cards can only last so long.
A. Putnam
Your comment shows exactly why he has the attitude that he does. Just completely disregard the fact that he is the one providing you the information, and base your purchase only on the cheapest price. Quite frankly, they aren’t interested in having you as a customer because you don’t value the time and effort it took into putting together solutions.
Stuart
Are you hearing what you’re saying?
That’s how this company really feels, that customers should pay more for the privilege of being sold curated products?!
A. Putnam
100%. Some people see the value in buying things from someone who knows the ins and outs of their product line. Someone who knows which products work together, and which products work best (which of course is an opinion).
This is a pretty common discussion within woodworking circles, and I would imagine most skilled trades as well. You are generally going to pay for someone’s experience. Another Craftsman might be able to make you the same item, but a more experienced person justifies a higher price for a multitude of reasons. Most people charging a higher price, or with more experience would actually prefer to not have the bargain shopping customers in the first place. The consensus seems to be that those are the people who will find a flaw in everything and who are generally the most nitpicky. This is not a revolutionary concept.
Stuart
Let’s say we’re talking about a wood bench. You’re not buying the woodworker’s experience, you’re buying the results borne from that experience. When you start having to pay extra for intangible aspects, such as “the legwork to vet a product,” that’s more akin to luxury goods than consumer products.
Matt Moron
He’s the one providing us the information? lol. How are you oblivious to the hypocrisy? He’s doing the very thing he is calling others idiots for. Matt somehow believes that he is some sort of expert because he spent money purchasing whatever item he is talking about. He has even once said that he can tell whether or not a certain tool was considered good or quality quality just by looking at it and needing to use it at all. Blows my mind how he has so many followers fooled thinking he is some kind of detailing expert. Simply go back and watch his old videos and you can see the truth. In some instances he outright copies and mimics esoteric details paint correction process and tries to pass it off as his own creation. SMH. 🤦♂️
Hon Cho
It’s clear that reviews are a mixed bag. One person’s common sense is another person’s nonsense. Having worked retail pre-internet an awful lot of people are incapable of following instruction or opening a user manual to find the answer to the simplest of issues. Some fraction of those people write inane and misleading reviews that often just muddy the waters instead of providing useful information. I think it’s smart for retailers to just avoid accomodating reviews rather than selective editing/deleting of what reviews are submitted like so many internet retailer and review sites are guilty of doing. In my opinion, what this retailer did wrong was answering the question with anything more than “No.”
Ct451
Seems like a marketing ploy. Our products are too good for the common weirdos who leave reviews.
Mark
Yes – this is his whole schtick
A. Putnam
I could not disagree more. His whole “schtick” is selling the best products available and/or complete solutions. He is the one doing the work on the front end, and then other companies jump on the bandwagon and sell the same products. Because they haven’t had to do any of the legwork, they can charge much smaller margins. Some people value the work that goes into finding these products, and they are willing to pay for that.
His “schtick” as it relates to reviews is that their experience and knowledge is what people should base their purchasing decision off of. Customer reviews would only muddy the waters here. Reviews are good in some places, ie a retailer who doesn’t have actual product knowledge, but the whole Obsessed Garage business model is about people trusting his knowledge and experience.
Matt
I bet you aren’t even aware of his lie about dealing with OCD? Vasovagal syncope is not OCD. He lies about it so people believe his story. The guy is so full of shit from his ocd lie to the illegal “giveaways”. That’s why nobody in the industry associates with him unless they stand to profit from it.
Stuart
This is getting out of hand and way off-topic.
The amount of trash-talking about someone who isn’t here to defend themselves seems unfair. True or not, let’s stick to just discussing online reviews.
John
It’s one thing to have opinions on products and voice those. It’s another thing to voice your opinions on people who might be future customers in a negative way. Bad for business and self image.
Charles
I don’t think he cares what we think. He builds out some incredible garages and the people with the money to have him do it know it. I would hire him in a heartbeat if I came into a bunch of money. The garages he builds are simply amazing.
Mark
Actually, you would be hiring his friend mike who actually has the installation skills, and his employees who do the design.
Matt’s skill is buying expensive things he finds online and then acting like a snob about them to convince ppl who don’t know better that his products are the best.
I say this as a previous customer and long-time detailer.
Matt F
I’ve seen some of this guy’s products (I guess it’s better to say the products he sells), and it is nice stuff. I’d love to have my garage set up like that.
But after seeing his comments, which is a good indicator of his quite arrogant attitude, I’d gladly pay one of his competitors three times his cost for the same product just to ensure my money doesn’t go to him.
I can’t imagine having that kind of attitude toward any of my clients, and I’ve certainly dealt with some very difficult ones.
Scott K
Their stance is harsh, but it can be tough to find well-written reviews on many websites. Lots of sites also allow “star” ratings without corresponding text which is not at all helpful, because as mentioned in the clip, their rating could be based on something unrelated. I think it’s reasonable to not allow reviews if your storefront specializes in handpicked high end products.
I rely almost entirely on ToolGuyd, outdoor gear lab, and wirecutter for reviews. Fake spotter can be somewhat helpful as a baseline on Amazon.
Scott K
I should also have added that it’s hard to know if reviews are being screened. We recently had a bad experience with a bed from Crate and Barrel- the same issue twice made me think this was a design flaw or quality control issue. They also force “white glove delivery” which meant someone with no product knowledge but their own tools. I tried to detail this in a review but it was declined twice for violating their terms. My reviews focused first on the product and install process- the second was only on the product. Both were deleted.
MFC
He’s basically saying that no one is smarter than him, or will ever discover anything that he hasn’t. I can hear a fall coming.
However, he’s fed-up with the amazonian style reviews of people that complain that the box arrived damaged, or the color didn’t quite match the website picture, or it rusted inside their 90% humidity barn.
We all hate those types of reviews, but I still want reviews 100%. I’m just smart enough to sift through them and find reviews that actually bring up valid points or correlate with other people’s reviews.
He obviously believes that the consumer isn’t smart enough to use their own judgement.
BigTimeTommy
No fall coming, that’s the beauty of putting yourself in such an expensive niche. The people who buy his products probably share his same garbage attitude.
Stuart
Explain?
Mark
People who have a budget, or don’t believe they received value in-line with the cost of a product only feel that way because they are too dumb to have not made enough money to be able to just open-check work with Obsessed Garage on their project.
I second BigTimeTommy’s comments. Matt has had this attitude the last few years and he basically cannot take criticism of his product solutions in a positive manner and instead says you are too dumb/poor if you don’t understand why his products are “the best”
With all of the insulting of his customer base he does, you basically have to tell yourself “yeah Matt! I am not a poor! I will spend a ton on your site to prove it! These poor people just don’t get what greatness is!”
Stuart
Ah. So it’s not about the products, but the sales approach?
I haven’t seen any of this – I’ve just looked at the pretty pictures of neat organization, ever since a reader linked to them in a reply to this post – https://toolguyd.com/ernst-bit-boss-hex-bit-organizer/ .
BigTimeTommy
Mark put it perfectly.
MFC
Several of the richest guys I personally know (land developers and tech guys) don’t have this kind of attitude, wouldn’t hire someone like that, and do care about value. It’s how they got to where they are. They do buy the best when they buy something because they know that quality matters in the long run, but they won’t just write a check for anything over $5k. They want to know what they’re getting, what the next step down is, and why the upgrade is worth it. They drive mediocre vehicles that are functional and live in nice, but not obtuse houses. They’re constantly asking what the ROI is for any decision they make.
Mark
100% – Exactly. Matt’s (obessesed garage) attitude is just a poor one.
I really used to watch like every video this guy put out and admired the way he was building his biz. Even visited his shop back in the day and met him personally. He was chatted with me about his orange 1M bmw he had at the time.
But he kinda grew pretty aggressively at one point and he kinda just got outwardly angry at basically the world, it seems.
Robert
I have cowardly mixed feeling on this.
On one hand, in the internet age we’ve unrealistically come to expect high quality free information. So whatever antics go on in reviews, objectively I can only shrug. It may be smart for a really good manufacturer to permit bad reviews because as a “really good” manufacturer that will be outweighed by the positive reviews and the audience gives credence to that by the presence of scathing reviews. Or not.
On the other hand, it is awfully convenient to have the reviews right there with the product.
On the gripping hand, I wonder if the customers for Obsessed Garage are as kind and thoughtful as the Obsessed Garage spokesman Stuart cites. They may deserve one another.
I will keep their site in mind for ideas I can do in wood.
Collin
As a small business owner who sells stuff myself, I agree. Many customers are simply dumb.
Especially the younger generations. The younger generations will simply REFUSE to pick up the phone to give you a call about any issues. Go on any subreddit for a particular product or service and you’ll see the same complaint over and over: “I had an issue with product/service, I have emailed them 10 times in the last 3 days, and have received no reply.” Jeez, dude, have you thought about using your phone for something other than emails and TikTok? How about calling the business and speaking with a real person?
These same people will be the first ones to roast your business online in a negative review before bothering to pick up the phone and talk it out and attempting to come to a resolution.
Also, another issue with the younger generation is that MANY of them automatically assume that any biz owner is making $$$$$ hand over fist and customers like themselves are automatically getting bent over a barrel. So leaving a scathing review is no big deal to them. Older customers are much better about this. Older customers realize that biz owners are often NOT laughing all the way to the bank and older customers are less inclined to automatically roast a business online without at least picking up the phone and giving the business a call.
Eric
Not wanting to call is understandable. We’ve all been trained by huge corporate call centers that calling is almost always hopeless. You spend 30+ minutes on hold. Then get a person with a very thick and hard to understand accent. And they often can’t do much to help you if it isn’t part of their script.
MM
I certainly expect that kind of nonsense if I call a large corporation or the government, but my experience with calling smaller businesses is the exact opposite. It’s usually easy to get a qualified person on the phone and they are usually very happy to help. I think the underlying cause is some form of anxiety for many people.
But what Collin describes isn’t limited to just the telephone. I’ve seen many people ask for help with a product on various internet forums but they never Emailed, etc, the company behind the product. Years ago when I had a machining business we sold goods on Ebay and Amazon. I would regularly spot customers asking for help on online forums or leaving less-than-stellar reviews regarding a problem that they never contacted us about. It’s very frustrating to read about a customer having a poor experience that I could have easily fixed if they had only bothered to ask. We didn’t have any sort of phone tree or answering service and got back to emails within a few hours at most.
Mike
In fairness, there are an awful lot of corporations that have no phone to call. Personally, I prefer online chat if I’m having an issue or have a question. But I prefer to minimize human interaction, AND I don’t have to worry about understanding an accent (even an American accent) when we’re typing at each other.
The other thing is that on Reddit, you often find employees of said company hanging out, responding to issues, passing them on to tech support or responding in a helpful way. But yes, the average user is below average IQ.
Collin
And yes, I agree with the point that customers are very often less well informed than the business owner, so it’s a bit silly to have a customer leave reviews on things that are under informed about.
Case in point: I sell high end commercial furniture such as chairs that rely on a partially threaded bolt with a nylon lock nut that enables the seat to pivot. The bolt is only partially threaded so that the smooth shank of bolt can act as a pin. The nylon lock nut is only present to prevent the pin from moving out the joint. A cotter pin would work equally well in place of the nut. Or a circlip. Now, if I had a dollar for every customer who crawled under their chair and claimed that they found a “loose” screw… I’d be Elon Musk. Every single person under 35 thinks that this pinned joint needs to be further tightened, failing to understand that this is a PINNED JOINT and that the bolt is PARTIALLY THREADED so it’s both impossible to tighten it past a certain point and that you want there to be some lateral free play so that the pin doesn’t bind and…works like a pin.
Obsessed Garage doesn’t need reviews. OG is catering toward customers with money. The ones that don’t necessarily care if they just spent $80 on, say, a car wax product that wasn’t necessarily the best in the world. OG is NOT looking for penny pinchers that need to watch Project Farm videos and analyze 2000 Amazon reviews and compare prices across 32 different retailers and Google for mfg coupons and discount codes to find the car wax that provides the most bang for the buck for under $23.99. If you like to do that, good for you. You’re not the clientele for OG. Reviews are noise to the type of clientele that OG wants. The point of OG is that he sells a curated line of products. He’s not selling anything and everything under the sun. He’s selling what he thinks is good. No additional reviews are needed. If you need reviews, you can go elsewhere.
Charles
Nicely said.
Anthony
I’ll also add that their website does an amazing job describing the products: hi-res photos, well written description, and many products have videos as well.
Mark
tbh a partially threaded screw that looks loose when you have identified alternatives that would not appear loose seems like an opportunity for improvement to your product.
Especially if you consider it high-end, where customers care more about the appearance and the impression the object gives off.
If I spend $3k on a chair and there is a bolt hanging there that LOOKS loose, I am not going to like that, as my goal was to have a $3k flawless chair I can flaunt to myself & others.
Mark
I should add that OG could apply this too. They have an issue where the quality of their products comes into question. Instead of working to prove it to their customer base, they label criticism as idiotic noise.
If car manufacturers can make something as complex as an automobile easy to use and understand for the common person, then anyone claiming to be “providing the highest quality solutions” in a given realm should be able to do the same.
No one “finds a loose bolt” on their car, no car manufacturer calls their customers “idiots” for getting in an accident or not understanding how a piece of equipment works.
They get to work engineering the product to be better in order to meet the needs of the customers.
Acting like the needs of the customers is idiotic noise is is well…. idiotic.
LK
If you have the ability to post in the comments of a tool blog you have the ability to respond to 1 of the 10 emails from a customer who needed your help.
This sounds like a “you” issue, not a “younger generations” issue.
Ben
It’s not a “younger generation” issue. I work for a tool company and work in close proximity to the customer service team, who are based in the US. It’s people who have no common sense, or refuse to RTFM – regardless of age – who are the problem. You have answers to most questions right there. The worst ones are the entitled guys who have been woodworking for 357 years, and rebuilding small engines since they were in utero, who verbally abuse our CS team the worst, when they’re just trying to help. Those guys (and yes, they’re almost uniformly older men) cannot be bothered with a solution. They just want to yell. Oh, and when you ask them if they have the manual handy, they will admit to throwing it away.
We have a good CS team, and we’re a smaller company, but I cannot tell you how many times I have called a different company (often a large one) only for there to be an impenetrable wall of automated menu options, or if I do get the honor of speaking with a human being, for there to be someone who can’t help, or has communication issues – either a bad phone line, a thick accent, or a refusal to deviate from the script.
I’ll fully agree with the sentiment that “many customers are simply dumb”. They are. And customer behavior is getting worse over time. But don’t go whining about the “younger generation” without admitting that old folks can be jerks too.
Hans
Two things I am not seeing: Usually it is pretty easy to see “idiot” reviews for what they are. An egregious version is “this is a bad widget – I got it late and UPS bashed the box so it was broken.”
but also (#2)…
If they are constantly misunderstanding the pinned screw thing on the chair, that IS your fault, not theirs. Design in something that says “This thing loose so it turns” – or put it in the instructions (really, both). Or engineer something that works but doesn’t look janky to an office chair user. Cotter pinned nuts may be perfectly readable to someone who deals with such things, but unless your chair is specifically aimed at engineers, it looks – kinda wrong.
What the person in the video is really saying is that they don’t want to sell to idiots (using the derogative purposefully), and, let’s face it, by some peoples measures there are a lot of them, but they deserve cool garage storage (or whatever) as much as you do and should be able to purchase it and have a good experience.
Overall, this comes from a lack of designing the whole experience, and I would suggest that, tho some may be face-slappers, most of the negative feedback could be leveraged into better products or instructions, with the pinned nut on the bottom of the chair being a perfect example. Nuts connote (to most) fasteners that should be tight and not fall off. If the pin isn’t communicating “loose is correct” you are expecting too much from someone purchasing an office chair.
/endrant/
Stuart
Almost every single day, there’s a post on reddit “hey is this normal?” as they show sparks inside the housing of a new brushed motor drill. I don’t know why there’s no sticker on new drills saying “hey, sparks are normal!”
I bought a Sony camera lens, and when I first got it, I noticed a rattling sound coming from inside. A lens with focus motors and optics groups inside isn’t support to rattle, right? The rattling only went away when the camera and lens were powered on.
I unfolded the paper manual insert that it came with and… there’s a paragraph about this, and about how the lens will rattle when powered off.
Even so, there are many posts online about the same lens, asking: “my new Sony lens rattles, is it normal?”
I like to see reviews where the manufacturer or retailer can respond and clear things up. That seems like a better counter to misinformed customer reviews than simply not allowing them.
Jared
I have a different perspective – but maybe I am the problem. I figure, if the company HAS a email-support option, it had better actually work.
If you tell me I need to call to get help, no problem. Just don’t offer me email support if I’m going to wait 3 days for an answer that just says “call customer support”.
Kevin
The irony is OG doesn’t have a phone number for people to call and only has email for support. He’s has a very firm stance on why no phone number, similar to his no reviews.
His stance is why would I want my customer calling in and wasting his employees time. If you need help you can email and the majority of information you need is on the website. I’m not going to pay someone to hold your hand to answer questions that are already on the website. Back to many people are dumb/ lazy.
Tim D.
Calling your customers idiots is pretty much never a good policy.
My take on reviews on the website that is producing or at least recommending the products is “why would I trust it”?
Reviews are already untrustworthy enough, I’m certainly not going to trust reviews on the website of the company benefiting directly from it. For example, Harbor Freight’s reviews of their own products on their own website. Seems like it would be extremely easy for you to remove or cherry pick the reviews you want. I’m not saying Harbor Freight curates their reviews, but they certainly could if they wanted to.
PW
Harbor Freight 100% “curates” their reviews.
I think they used to censor them less. A half dozenish years ago I found their reviews ratings to be uncannily accurate. 5 stars – I would never be disappointed. 4 stars – works well with some qualifications. 3 stars – has issues, read the negative reviews for more. Less than that – avoid.
Then they redesigned their website and I noticed the same products suddenly had better ratings. And the intelligent, critical reviews (which often contained workarounds or important bits of knowledge about the product) had disappeared. Now it seems like they only allow token bad reviews that say little and seem ignorable.
Then I noticed some of the critical reviews I had left were gone.
Then I stopped reading or paying attention to the reviews and also stopped shopping there as much – I could no longer tell ahead of time if I’d find a product satisfactory.
A. Putnam
An answer to your question of “why would I trust it”, the whole Obsessed Garage business model is based around people valuing their recommendations. Though they do sell individual products, more broadly they sell complete solutions and curated products. This comes from testing a multitude of products on the market and picking the best ones regardless of brand allegiance. The whole thing is based on their taste, experience and recommendations. That’s the reason why you would trust it…
Stuart
There are plenty of other online stores that offer curated product selections.
Many of these small businesses find a new brand or product, talk about it a bit, and then add them to their stores.
How is Obsessed Garage different than that? And does it change anything? Like I said, their phrasing was harsh, but the spirit of the argument is understandable.
As a customer, I still want to be able to hear about other customers’ experiences. If OG is afraid customer reviews will harm sales, that only means there are points to address and respond to.
“The only people who leave reviews are weirdos that like leaving reviews, or people who are mad because something bad happened.”
As a customer, I want to know about the “something bad happened” part, especially if I’m buying thousands of dollars in cabinets instead of just a couple of drawer accessories.
IronWood
“Why would I want a bunch of idiots who I taught about the product, talking about the product they don’t know anything about?” Uh, so which is it? You taught them about the product, or they know nothing about it? Not a fan of the tone of this guy’s comments. Sounds like he just doesn’t expect a lot of good reviews…
Mark
Hes pretty terrible tbh. He treats his wife like garbage and puts her down on camera all the time too, or at least used to couple years ago when I stopped following him.
OG could just implement a review system that is “the best” just like all the other bs this guys sells thats “the best”. But its all a sales pitch thats gotten less and less convincing over the years.
harrison
Idk. The guy seems a little high on his own supply, but I can definitely understand not wanting to host reviews right on your own website. Plenty of businesses don’t generate enough reviews to get a good balance, and a few pissed-off customers can easily upset the average.
While I’m perfectly capable of separating the good from the bad, ratings are kind of useless overall. I totally agree that unless prompted in some way, most normal people don’t bother leaving reviews unless they’re over the moon or really upset.
With social media, YouTube, personal blogs, etc there are plenty of ways to share your opinion, all of which are likely more impactful than a quick rating, and that bit of extra effort usually leads extra thought and credence to your review. Anyone looking to drop serious coin on expensive tool storage solutions should be taking the time to do a quick Google search for a third party opinion anyways.
~
I think the funniest and most wildly inconsistent reviews I’ve seen are for temporary storage tents/garages. They are fiddly to assemble, and the success of the installation is entirely down to the user’s care and attention to detail. They are product often purchased out of desperation, and a lot of people don’t bother to stake them or maintain them properly.
harrison
To be fair I do think ratings can be helpful if the platform is large and varied enough, say Home Depot or Amazon. For an individual store front? Eh.
Collin
Ugh, I understand your point, but I hate Home Depot reviews. I’ve noticed that a lot of times, right after a brand new TTI product is launched, it’ll already have like 300+ reviews on Home Depot. Most of them 5 stars, of course.
harrison
That’s disappointing but not particularly surprising. TTI and Home Depot are pretty cosy, they basically treat Milwaukee like a house brand.
I try not to buy tools at HD and my main tool lineup isn’t TTI, only the occasional fixture or supply in a pinch.
Josh Hammett
They have another reason. Garbage customer service, bought a kranzel pressure washer. Needed a couple spare o rings, they really should include spares. Was told to basically screw off.
They wouldn’t even help with some fittings to change the wand to a quick attachment so I could use one of their foam guns.
Blocky
A small retailer may have many practical reasons not to host reviews. Perhaps he’s right in part, but his supporting arguments are wack.
Excellence or expertise in one or two things doesn’t excuse the contempt he clearly harbors probably for most people. I’m already very unimpressed.
fm2176
I like to read reviews and will leave one on occasion myself. A good review should be objective, and void of any overt negativity or fan-boyishness. In other words, “5 Stars: this is the bestest drill evah!” is going to be ignored, as is “0/5 stars, I bought this hammer, and it wouldn’t drive the screw I needed it for.”
If I’m tempted but not fully sold on a product, I’ll look for the 3–4-star reviews. Those tend to be among the more honest and least passionate.
Dominic S
“On-Website” reviews have gotten exponentially worse in the last 10 years. It used to be you just had to filter out the reviews from the idiots who didn’t know what they were buying to start with. Now you have to look out for fake reviews that businesses can pay for unscrupulous marketing firms to leave there by the dozens. Those used to be in broken english but now they’re hard to distinguish from someone who actually bought the product without reading each and every one in its entirety.
I’ve stopped relying on reviews unless it’s a full write-up from a reputable source, and even then you have to watch out for sponsored ads disguised as reviews. It’s every person for themselves out there these days.
Michael F
The guy just comes off like he’s full of hot air honestly. Way too opinionated. I do agree that reviews largely suck (I saw one recently complaining that the Makita XMT04 Multi-Tool took “proprietary” blades he couldn’t find – it’s StarLock), however, you do come across well-written reviews that read like mini blogs instead of rants. Those can be very helpful, especially when evaluating how a business behaves after the purchase in customer service.
KMR
He creates Instagram Garages… just like his own personal garage with every tool he sells organized to perfection, he likely hasn’t ever had to use 95% of the tools in his drawers. Have you ever watched him try and take apart the pressure washers he was testing in early YouTube videos? The guy struggles.
I wouldn’t hire him, because I actually work in my garage/shop. I know my work routine and working priorities, I know what I dislike about previous arrangements/organization, and I know what I want to improve without repeating past mistakes.
Very little of what Matt does is original, he’s managed to scour the internet for everyone else’s good ideas, and roll them into his own business and charge a premium for these items. Everything he sell “is the best” until he finds something else that is better that is now the new best. He occasionally sells items that are “under cooked” and has to then come up with multiple revisions (spray bottles in particular, which were “the best” until there were multiple revisions).
He’s also one of those YouTube personalities that just gives me the creeps, similar to Doug DeMuro.
Mark G
I rarely use consumer reviews to answer the straight up “Is this product good or bad?” question. Too unreliable, too easily faked or filtered, etc.
However, consumer reviews are extremely useful for answering more specific questions:
* Will this product work for use case x?
* Are there any notable caveats one should be aware of with the product?
* Are there tips or suggestions for making best use of the product?
* Are there comparable products available for less, or better products available?
* Is the product compatible with ?
Those (and a million other context-specific questions) are often not sufficiently answered by the product description, images, etc. and consumer reviews can be extremely valuable in those cases.
Andrew
Can help wondering if some of the reviews he’s going to squash point out cheaper sources for the things he’s supplying. I get the impression he’s doing a lot of high markup so it shouldn’t be hard.
MM
I think he came across as rude but honestly I think he has a point. I’ve been in his shoes when it comes to owning an business that did most of its business selling goods online. And frankly he’s right, many customers are idiots. People will leave bad reviews for shipping delays which were the fault of a 3rd party. People will leave bad reviews after the Honda part they bought doesn’t fit their Ford. People will leave bad reviews because they didn’t read the instructions that came with the product and therefore installed it incorrectly. People will complain about a problem without even attempting to contact the seller to resolve it.
I think a huge part of the problem with the poor quality of many online reviews is that the sites selling the products constantly push for customers to write reviews. I’ve often received emails from companies whom I have ordered from, Home Depot being a good example, asking me to review the product I bought a day or two after the product arrives. I never reply but I always think the same thing to myself: I’ve only had this thing for a day, how on earth could I give a meaningful review with so little experience? It’s even more ironic when the reviews inquire about the durability of the product. Ask me that in five years, not now.
Chris
I wouldn’t word it exactly like that, but his point is spot on. I know I only read reviews to look for consistent complaints or problems. Most people simply don’t know the difference between crap and quality, and we have seen how easily reviews can be manipulated.
Mark
I used to enjoy alot of Matt’s (obsessed garage) content maybe 3-4 years ago. Hes always been a cranky dude but unfortunately as he has found more success he has turned this anger onto his customer base & seems to have let it proliferate throughout his employees.
This is going to appear off topic but I argue that you shouldn’t respect Matt/OG’s opinion, and even if he has a sliver of correct-ness in his stance, overall his motivation is to mute the complaints of his customers as his business expands and does not maintain the high-performance ethos is started out with.
His whole attitude is “Only rich people who buy alot and don’t ask questions are smart, everyone else is an idiot not worth my time, BTW, if you are smart/awesome enough, you should buy this package solution I source from others, because if you aren’t poor scum you will pay my markup”
It used to be more about creating solutions that were of the highest quality. but hes just adding stuff like becoming a Milwaukee retailer where he hasn’t added anything but packaging a large amount of things into one transaction.
If you are actually knowledgeable about detailing, a lot of his products have stagnated a bit too. The haven’t been the best solutions for couple years.
Its no wonder he doesn’t want a venue for customers to rebutt the claims he makes in his content, to me.
IMJOSHV on youtube is such a better resource for alot of what OG sells & attempts to dicuss. IMJOSHV actually performs tests to determine the best options for different price points and always tries to find best bang for buck. OG content these days comes off an insincere plugs for “ooh look how great the thing I source is, this thing is so great, its great because I like it the best” and there’s no pursuit to find the ideal solution anymore. Its just plugs for whatever supplier relationship best fits his biz.
I completely avoid his business and content now, as being routinely insulted for my interests by someone trying to sell me things seem ridiculous.
Like he bought a super clean Mistubishi EVO 8, it got me to click on a video of his again. Immeadiately he is crap-talking other Evo owners, talking about how cringey and stupid they are, and how hes going to help them be better.
Meanwhile the guy is an absolute terrible person to his wife, on camera, etc.
Idk why anyone wants to support such a toxic person anymore. His emotional issues have caused him to become quite jaded against his own customer base. I don’t get why no one is trying to pull him aside and tell him to chill out.
Ray
Above all the things I dislike in this life, I cannot abide arrogance. I won’t be near arrogant people let alone buy from or support them.
Mike
I appreciate seeing useful user reviews at the site. I’ll also search YouTube for actual users showing how the thing works, the problems they might have, etc. The problem with that is, like the user reviews, sifting through videos that are actually worth watching. Come on, it’s YouTube, don’t talk like you’re giving your 8th grade science report in front of the class!
The biggest problem I have with user reviews is when they obviously aren’t reviewing the same item I’m looking at. It’s not the same model, maybe not even the same brand! On some sites, that’s actually how the reviews are aggregated, all reviews of everything by X brand are on every product of X brand that they sell. Now THAT’s stupid. (and lazy)
Mopar
He’s not wrong. But he went about it the wrong way.
Should stopped at “No”. Or even better, something like “not at this time, but our business is always growing and adapting and who knows what the future might bring?”
I see this everywhere. You should see some of the compact tractor reviews! You can tell it was their first experience with things like diesel engines, hydraulic steering, and non-synchronized transmissions.
Tractor A sucks because it’s hard to start in the winter, and when it does the engine smokes and makes a horrible rattling noise!
Tractor B sucks because the steering wheel logo doesn’t line up straight. Every time they take the steering wheel off and re-align it, it’s off center again next time they use it. What a piece of junk!
And OMG, tractor C is the worst! it never wants to just go into gear, and they bent the shifter on the 4wd when they tried to engage it!
Frank D
A couple things I hate about reviews: free product reviews where the person is not objective or has no comparison basis, and it is clearly a first day or two, must pump this out thing ( hello Amazon, Home Depot, ,,, ); incentivized reviews for a raffle … holy cow Ryobi and Home Depot that drives me nuts, just the laziest comments day of, day after, …; and then we get not being allowed to leave a comment myself. I had an objective review of a failed product and no customer service, so it squashed by the seller and/or amazon … then I was not allowed to post further.
And yes, there are a ton of lazy, uninformative reviews. Plus you have to watch out for fake ones.
But I take reviews into consideration and will upvote clear ones where that user informed me about an important detail, positive or negative. Who wants to buy a product and have to send it back or it dies in days or weeks?
Anyway.
But this guy insulting his premium customers as idiots … good luck with that.
kent_skinner
There are plenty of terrible reviewers “this vegan restaurant doesn’t offer steak – zero stars” type pf people.
But taken as an aggregate reviews are great. I travel for work frequently, and eat in new restaurants all the time. I generally find a place that has a large number of revues that are generally positive. I skim a handful of the 5 stars and 1 stars. Most of the 1 stars are clearly from crazy people (complaining that there was a line, complaining that they couldn’t get their exact dietary needs met, etc).
Reviews, when read by intelligent people, can be very valuable.
I wasn’t familiar with this shop, and since he feels inclined to insult me I’ll skip it.
Beanhole
No offense to car janitors, but it’s pretty easy to have a pristine workshop when you don’t fix or make anything. That silly walnut top would be a total waste in a typical workshop. Also, who has room in their boxes for storing levels and 30 tape measures? Hang that shit on the wall like a normal person. When I see stuff like this it reminds me of a staged home for a real estate listing.
James
Lol.
SamR
In his defense, he has a very high standard on what products he sells on his website, and he does tons and tons of research and testing due to his OCD. When he finds something terrible about the product, he calls it out and contacts all the customers who bought and replaced it (this is the case for a pressure-washer pump)! Basically, he is saying I am the “review!”
xu lu
Most manufacturer sites censor poor reviews so the ones they publish are meaningless. The bot farms are ever more sophisticated in the cat and mouse over retailer reviews. Just wait for full blown AI. As for the rest, as Stuart has pointed out, they are paid or bartered but undisclosed by the reviewer. There is no actual source of truth now nor has there ever been. The internet once held promise but is a cesspool of half truths and outright lies. Crapping your customer is never a good look. He managed to do that even if his products are very good.
bob
After reading the responses, I’ve come to the conclusion, that I’m not OG’s target audience.
I like to learn from other user’s experiences, preferably over time. I’ve often found that many “issues” aren’t readily apparent until a product has been used repeatedly. Front loading washers come to mind. I don’t care how efficient they are, the smell it leaves on clothes is not worth it IMO. And no, I’m not going to constantly wipe down the seal or leave the door ajar. I’ve never had those issues with a top loading washer.
Vards Uzvards
My own experience is rather limited – I have a front-load washer from Whirlpool, at home in San Francisco, CA (purchased in 2013), and I have a top-load washer from Whirlpool, at home in Rio Rancho, NM (purchased in 2016). In both places I have a corresponding drier (the circa 2013 ones can be stacked one on top of the other, unlike the other pair). And know what? The second pair is a complete garbage, compared to the first one. But in both cases, there is no small, whatsoever, left on the washed sheets/clothes/etc.
Vards Uzvards
s/small/smell/
Marc
I guess I am one of those weirdos who leave well meaning constructive reviews for others like me who want useful information. Yes, some people leave bad reviews who have never used the product. He could weed those out by only allowing paying customers to post reviews. But he doesn’t want honest reviews, or he would do that. He wants everyone to accept his web marketing.
Many people carefully post reviews that are honest and helpful to others who are interested in the product(s). Shame this owner is so arrogant and hateful towards his customers, and more importantly potential customers. Our opinions don’t matter to him. That’s OK, his opinion no longer matters to me; no matter what the quality of product he is selling.
Bob
Have you seen his Sonic Tools vs Snap-On “review”? Absolute cringe.
He’s a shill…bought and paid for hawking cheap tools as “premium” that he prolly makes 45% on so it’s no wonder he doesn’t like reviews where he could be called out on his tactics. I guess this is why you don’t get tool reviews from your car wash guy lol
Adam
He grew up snorting the Snap-On crack, won’t have anything less, and gets sick of hearing others complain about the cost.
A well done independent review is invaluable to a customer. My only review gripe is in the reviewer who doesn’t actually rate the product, but skews the review by giving it a 1 star for poor shipping or similar. If you really must call them out for that, I’d give them a middle of the road 3 out of 5, then write & score the product from there in the text.
A. Putnam
Wow did this article open a hornet’s nest. If only someone could have predicted that taking comments out of context and only providing one excerpt without full explanation or understanding would lead to disagreement. Without understanding the Obsessed Garage business model, or the way Matt approaches business, of course his comments sound harsh and elitist.
Stuart
How is it taken out of context when that’s the question and full answer from their video? I also saw the backtracking comment and added it in.
They sell garage storage and organizational products on the internet. Will a better “understanding of the Obsessed Garage business model” change this?
A. Putnam
Oh the irony. Write an article on this topic, and then censor the comments.
Stuart
As I said above, stick to the topic, rather than your agenda of hyping up OG’s business model, which you made sound ridiculous.
How hypocritical for you to think people should be allowed to fanatically promote a business with cult-like fervor, but not leave customer reviews.
You’re free to shill somewhere else.
Stuart
Before their IG post, I thought “hey, this store sells garage storage products, I should keep an eye on them.” With the video they posted to social media on the topic of customer reviews, I thought “hey, that’s a harsh way to put it, and I disagree, but I think I see their point.”
With everything you’ve been saying about the store’s business model, the more it seems like a store I don’t ever want to shop at. The idea that customers should have to pay a higher markup because the seller vetted the products is ridiculous. Selling products you recommend, or recommending products you sell, doesn’t make the seller automatically deserving of higher a profit.
When you go to a restaurant, your meal isn’t marked up an extra 25% every time the server says “I’ve had that dish, it’s great.”
I thought a lot of the criticisms were harsh, but I also didn’t see where they’re coming from. Your defense of the store and their business practices has been… illuminating. Thanks for that.
BigTimeTommy
The people criticizing matt seem to understand him and his business model perfectly well.
Bob
Hey Matt!
Samuel
Have never and will never buy products from this guy. He used to work at Merrill and was fired for not following the rules. Source: I worked at Merrill at the same time he did, and it’s also public information on the FINRA site. So if he can’t follow rules in a highly regulated environment like wealth management, why would I expect him to do the right thing for his customers in a much less-regulated environment like retail? No thanks.
BigTimeTommy
Makes sense, I should’ve known by his awful smug self-important attitude he came from that kind of background.
Andres
Yeah I’m going to buy from OG, he know tools. Guy can’t even make a coherent vid on the pros of the products he shill for.
Shilling for sonic should tell you everything you need to know.
Alex
I’m partially agree with his attitude “remove all reviews from the internet”.
Most reviews nowadays (and I really mean last 12 years or so) are paid reviews, written by some people whos job is to write reviews. They’re untrue, misleading and just a waste of time.
So yeah, at least the guy is sincere with us, and I respect that. And do I need a review of something $5k-$10k on the web site? I personally don’t,
Andres
You can tell what’s a payed review tho. It’s super easy to tell too.
Also what would you not want something so expensive vetted and reviewed? This is the problem with OG, he “vets” stuff and calls it the best thing. when there is multiple failures, you can’t complain or review or anything. OG just ignores everything, changes the product, and calls it the best thing ever again lol.
Also the guy is a legitimate shill. I will never listen to someone who doesn’t use his tool and promote a garbage tool company like sonic(Chinese expensive crap)
N C
It’s kind of ironic that his business seems to have stemmed from him finding the best made products and selling them. In a way, is that not a review from him?
I wish it was easier to see “high value reviews”. Reviews not done by folks who got free products, or are getting paid, reviews from folks not selling stuff, reviews from folks who have experience or knowledge in the space, or at least can speak intelligently about the product. That all said, reviews left on websites are **seldom** this quality.
Generally speaking, the reviews I care about are simple “star” ratings. I want to know that a product has a lot of reviews (means a lot of units out there) and has a overall decent reputation. The only time I start to read actual reviews is if it’s a borderline rating on something I want, and am interested in seeing what the negatives are (did the quality recently go downhill perhaps indicating a bad batch or company takeover, was the packaging not well done resulting in shipping damage, etc.)
That said, I’ve seen a few videos from Obsessed Garage, and this tone doesn’t really surprise me. I am of the opinion that the owner will only talk positively about stuff he can sell. For example, he recently did a review comparing SO to Sonic that I found kind of interesting. He has basically nothing nice to say about SO tools, but surprisingly also trashed their ratchets and boxes (both of which are functionally universally loved, outside of price). I thought that was kind of surprising, until I checked the website and saw he is selling Sonic tools.
Now, I have no clue if he started selling them before or after this recent review he did, but I know that he he couldn’t have gotten a deal with SO to resell online, so now I question the value of said review.
Doesn’t really matter to me too much at the end of the day, since the guy is selling stuff that is far to rich, often times absolutely unnecessarily, for my blood. I do think the question of reviews is worthwhile as a conversation though.
Max
I kinda get his point – most reviews are meaningless at this point in the internet. Almost all of the good ones are from people who received a product (or service) for free or at a discount and almost all of the bad ones are from competitors or people who do not understand what they are doing or what they purchased.
At this point I rarely read reviews any more. It is rare to find actual reviews that are worth reading and to do so, one must filter through all the nonsense.
I love the approach at ToolGuyd for having honest reviews and disclosing relationships, but that is few and far between. Isn’t that stance a bit of a different take on the same problem?
Actual in-depth reviews (like ToolGuyd) are worthwhile, but ratings and reviews on sales sites and places like Yelp are the biggest waste of space on the internet.