Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work • Hacker News Board

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#61

Post by jarek » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:14 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #36

Amazon reviews become useless as Amazon allows third-party vendors from China and HK to flood the original listing with clones. So people buy based on the review and then they find out the vendor shipped a clone, so then they give a bad review but it's not for the original listing. Amazon made a huge mess with that, they should never allow third parties to sell on the original listing.

Another fun thing I saw on Amazon a few months back was items for sale with reviews for another product. Shopping for a small FM transmitter, I found a listing where every review more than a few months old was for a roof-mounted car antenna.

I suppose there is a Ship of Theseus problem when trying to detect tricks like that automatically - surely sellers should be able to reword description, update product image, and change the product name slightly, but where do you draw the line and how do you handle that? Heh.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#62

Post by mikestew » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:15 PM UTC

whistlerbrk wrote: post #11

Why two star reviews instead of one for the cables that fail to meet the spec? Does Amazon / do people view 1-star reviews as bitter / exaggerated? Are they less visible?

Personally, I filter out one and five star reviews. To me, five stars means when you use the product, Jesus appears before you. One star means I ordered a cable and received a dead crab instead (pretty sure there's an XKCD that covers the last one).

But others don't agree with my rating system, so "ordered blue, but it was robin egg blue. Werst company evar!!!11" means one star. Five stars means "I work for the company that makes these, or I'm otherwise being paid to write this, or I simply didn't give a lot of thought to how rating systems work."

In this case, the cable fulfills most of the requirements, misses a some of them, but might work for your use case, so two stars.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#63

Post by vonmoltke » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #44

synctext wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly shows the need for a reputation system, not locked into 1 company. Reviews need sharing.

A central review clearinghouse will never happen with cheap accessories like this. If model "1234-X" gets bad reviews, the same product will just be renumbered to model "9863-V2" and even the company name may change. So there's no way to keep reviews associated with the same product -- it's the same reason why there are no good review sites for mattresses across all retailers -- the manufacturers use a variety of nam…

What's worse in the cheap accessories market is it is highly likely that groups of companies are buying and repackaging the exact same cables from the same manufacturer and slapping their own names and part numbers on them. So even if two companies are legitimately different, the product may not be.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#64

Post by ryan-c » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #36

Amazon reviews become useless as Amazon allows third-party vendors from China and HK to flood the original listing with clones. So people buy based on the review and then they find out the vendor shipped a clone, so then they give a bad review but it's not for the original listing. Amazon made a huge mess with that, they should never allow third parties to sell on the original listing.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted (perhaps for singling out China/HK?), I've had problems like this on Amazon as well when buying chargers/cables.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#65

Post by tetrep » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #44

synctext wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly shows the need for a reputation system, not locked into 1 company. Reviews need sharing.

A central review clearinghouse will never happen with cheap accessories like this. If model "1234-X" gets bad reviews, the same product will just be renumbered to model "9863-V2" and even the company name may change. So there's no way to keep reviews associated with the same product -- it's the same reason why there are no good review sites for mattresses across all retailers -- the manufacturers use a variety of nam…

companies doding bad reviews means that companies with good reviews will stand out, making selection easier.

as a consumer, i don't care about crappy products unless i end up purchasing them. i can avoid crappy products by only going for products with explicit positive reviews that i can trust. sure a grey area will continue to exist, but whitelisting is still effective for reviews, even if we can't blacklist.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#66

Post by DiabloD3 » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:17 PM UTC

I see no reason why to buy anything but Anker.

I once tried to purposely destroy an Anker MicroUSB cable (bought a 5 pack that had three 3ft, one 6ft, one 1ft, didn't need the 1ft), by grabbing the head of it with clamping pliers and yanking the fuck out of it with the cable wrapped around my hand, and bending it to near 180 degrees repeatedly for about 5 minutes.

I could not kill it without straight up taking wire cutters to it, which I decided not to do.

The cable still works perfectly, and sits in my junk drawer for when I need to plug something into the front of my case and leave the thing sitting on top of the computer.

Literally any other brand? Most I would have been able to rip the head off the cable after the first few yanks, the few that survived that would have broken the wire pairs inside either from that or from the repeated 180 degree bend.

Remember those original Monoprice USB cables we all bought and loved back in the day? Those didn't survive that abuse, and Monoprice cables have only gotten worse then. And the AmazonBasics USB cables (that I recommend for non-MicroUSB cables (only because Anker doesn't make them, only MicroUSB, Type C, and Lightning))? Don't survive that level of abuse either.

Anker also has the best damned USB chargers for walls and cars I've ever seen (heaviest USB chargers I've ever had, no coil whine, doesn't EZ-Bake itself, shuts off completely when nothing is plugged in), they're just perfectly glorious.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#67

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:17 PM UTC

ryan-c wrote: post #41

radiorental wrote: post #25

What I find interesting here is that Benson is essentially using his employer as a reputation guarantor. I guess depending on the company's HR that could fall either way of a) This is great, we're getting nice PR b) Mr Benson, we need to have a quiet word about what it is you do here and what Google is not in the business of. Really interesting. edit: I assumed this is part of his job. I just find the publishing of t…

My assumption is that he's working on some sort of project where he's buying many cables on Google's dime to test them, then reporting his results on Amazon. My worry would be the cables that get good reviews being switched out for crappy cables down the line. I've had problems with this for cables and adapters before - I'll re-order from Amazon and get a slightly different product that is not 100% compatible with th…

Isn't there some kind of SKU/ISBN-like identifier that you could use to prevent that? Enforcing consistency would be tricky, but there should be certain quantifiable properties, especially when proper specifications are involved, to rate against.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#68

Post by TillE » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:17 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #44

synctext wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly shows the need for a reputation system, not locked into 1 company. Reviews need sharing.

A central review clearinghouse will never happen with cheap accessories like this. If model "1234-X" gets bad reviews, the same product will just be renumbered to model "9863-V2" and even the company name may change. So there's no way to keep reviews associated with the same product -- it's the same reason why there are no good review sites for mattresses across all retailers -- the manufacturers use a variety of nam…

Yeah, you'd need to cooperate with the manufacturer to "certify" only one exact product, and make sure that the certification is revoked when anything is changed.

The mattress issue actually sounds like a solvable problem, if you're willing to put in the effort. It's just not really worth it when you can also buy mattresses from IKEA or various online retailers which don't engage in those tactics.

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#69

Post by andrewguenther » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:18 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #13

This is such a great service to everyone! I wish more companies let their engineers do that. Too few knowledgeable people call out the crap we're being sold.

I don't think we know if Google "let" him yet. Most companies have very strong policies against things like this...

Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work

#70

Post by devit » Wed, Nov 04, 2015, 7:19 PM UTC

Looks like Google is doing an amazing service for customers in this area.

Not only they are using a standard plug and thus not locking you into buying accessories from them, which seem reasonably priced anyway, but they even test a lot of other cables in the market and tell you how compatible they are both with their own products and even with the products of competitors with quite different practices.