Originally Posted by
cowculator
People are usually much more vocal about bad experiences with a brand, whatever that may be. This is more so when it is expensive, even though statistically speaking, failure rates are lower than peers. I tend to discount poor reviews a fair bit,
That is nonsense. The problem is that reviews are far too positive. Just look at ebay or whatever, the average seller has a rating of 99.5% positive or so. Or check out Kayak where reviews of "mediocre (2+") are completely unheard of. The vast majority of hotels are "excellent (8+)" and "good (6+)" which doesn't make sense as the median hotel should be ranked as a 5-6, which should then have a connotation of something like fair, run-of-the-mill, or average.
Most reviews are biased to be overly optimistic. I think it doesn't make sense to discount just poor reviews a fair bit. It makes sense to discount all reviews quite a bit (or at least try to correct their over-enthusiastic sentiment).
By the way, it has been studied theoretically and empirically quite a bit why most reviewers are dishonest by being too positive.
EDIT - To apply this a bit more concretely to the question, I do own luggage from Rimowa, Tumi, and such. And, considering the premium I paid, I do expect more from that it from run-of-the-mill luggage sold at most big retail chains.
I recently had a Tumi bag with a defect after just six months of use and it's tilting me a tad bit away from the brand. My personal experiences with Rimowa have thus far been stellar.