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Amazon's Fake Review Problem

brianbien.com

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Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#131

Post by slackingoff2017 »

The problem is massive. Most people haven't noticed yet but it's only a matter of time. Eventually everyone gets burned at least once and Amazon becomes the new ebay.

They need to get a handle on their supply chain and stop outsourcing so much of their product listings to shady third party sellers. Shady third party sellers go hand-in-hand with fake reviews. Most reputable brands don't want to get their hands dirty with that stuff. It's guys making margin on reselling that have all the skin in the game and most of the incentive to manipulate the system.

I've never gotten a fake from any brick and mortar or online merchant that sells direct. Only places I've gotten fakes and been duped by rampant fake reviews are eBay and Amazon. Once a competitor gets their shit together (I'm betting on Walmart) and has an equally convenient online store, Amazon will be the Myspace of online sales.

People have loyatly to brands but not the company that sells them. If something better comes along I'll switch immediately just like I did years ago with ebay

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#132

Post by corvallis »

bootlooped wrote: post #13
corvallis wrote: post #7

I am much more wary about buying from Amazon than most of my peers, who easily click and buy on a whim or out of habit. I went to buy a toy at a brick and mortar, and compared the price to Amazon while there - $12.99 in the store and $27.xx at Amazon! I think they've marketed them to be the low price leaders but that's definitely not the case. I'm also concerned about counterfeit products - I don't care as much about…

> $12.99 in the store and $27.xx at Amazon! Was this from a 3rd party seller? I have seen a lot of 3rd party sellers have listings for pretty outrageous prices. I think they're either trying to catch people who don't shop around / don't know what the product is worth, or they are just not managing their pricing well. On a lot of popular products you can see an example of the latter where Amazon themselves will be sel…

I don’t remember if this was the exact link as this was several weeks ago. This was the toy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OYJNKJG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=...

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#134

Post by yesenadam »

Someone1234 wrote: post #114
dhimes wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The has part is what I mean. As I said elsewhere, friends want to do this, no solicitation required. I'm sure the author is saddened that this got her in trouble.

So your key take-away and complaint with my post is that they volunteer to bump her book's reviews instead of being expressly asked? I really don't see what difference that makes. Fakespot was being criticized above because the person claims they misjudged his wife's book reviews while also revealing that his wife was conducting the very behavior Fakespot is designed to detect. Whether the biased reviewers volunteer…

His wife was conducting what behaviour? They said nothing about that at all. I think you're reading bad motives/deeds into the original description of events.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#135

Post by minedwiz »

Someone1234 wrote: post #81
delecti wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If nothing else, they at least allow you to filter out non-amazon (or even non-prime fulfilled) items.

They do. - Search - Pick a category - Select "Amazon.com" as the seller

Does that also filter out stuff sold by vendors, but fulfilled by Amazon?

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#136

Post by JonoBB »

rconti wrote: post #63
jacek wrote: post #39

The fake review problem on Amazon is much bigger than people think. Here are my two anecdotes: 1. I got bluetooth headphones on amazon (~$65). They had great reviews, but were very disappointing. I returned them and gave 2 star review. Representative from the manufacturer contacted me and offered me a pair for free. After I got them, they asked for positive review. I refused. That manipulation technique wasn't enough…

Huh. I've never really had an issue because I chalked it up more to people buying cheap crap and expecting it to be good. But $65 for a pair of headphones isn't exactly cheap. Was it a familiar brand but maybe a counterfeit? Or was it a brand you've never heard of, but the price is justified by very positive reviews? I'm curious.

Happens all the time. Last few times I've purchased electronics on Amazon that have been relatively recently listed (i.e 20 reviews or less), I've made a point of looking at the reviews.

Click on first reviewer's name, and that reviewer has just happened to review 5 items all on the same day, and those are the only 5 items they have ever reviewed. And all 5 items are completely random (electronics, bed linen, garden equipment, clothing, etc). Rinse and repeat with second, third, fourth reviewer and a similar pattern arises.

Majority of recently listed electronic items that I've been looking to purchase follow the same pattern.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#137

Post by nbrempel »

I can say from personal experience that I used to seek out reviews on Amazon even when buying goods from a brick and mortar store.

Now it’s almost the opposite. I’m hesitant to trust any reviews on the site and buy goods from other vendors whenever possible.

It’s unfortunate; I hope they can implement some measures to prevent fraudulent reviews.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#138

Post by pogue »

I left this comment on the site's comment section (apologies if others have already posted these suggestions - I didn't read through all the comments):

Try using fakespot.com or reviewmeta.com. They're both sites setup to try & check the validity of Amazon comments using different methodology - such as how many times a reviewer has left a review, certain trigger keywords known to be used by bots & how many reviews Amazon has deleted from a review by request of the merchant (yes, Amazon will do this!). This will leave you with a much better sense of whether or not a product has been 'review-bombed' or if the company is up to shady practices.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#139

Post by nasredin »

jacek wrote: post #108
rconti wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I've never really had an issue because I chalked it up more to people buying cheap crap and expecting it to be good. But $65 for a pair of headphones isn't exactly cheap. Was it a familiar brand but maybe a counterfeit? Or was it a brand you've never heard of, but the price is justified by very positive reviews? I'm curious.

The brand is Bluedio. They have pretty good reviews considering the price. I have used Xiaomi before and was amazed by quality/price. I was hoping Bluedio, which is another Chinese brand would be also good. I was wrong. EDIT: Here's the fake review analysis for the headphones: https://www.fakespot.com/product/bluedio-f2-faith-active-noi...

>Bluedio

Sorry to be a bit of an asshole.

Do not buy Chinese crap. It's a lottery.

My Sennheisers (made of plastic BTW) have been in use since 2014. My previous Sennheisers broke (just the headband) after a couple of years.

Bought $30 Taiwanese headphones, good Amazon reviews, but the headband is too small. And the microphonics is terrible. Sigh.

Recently bought boots, Made in China. Size is about 1.5 units off.

For a certain class of goods and for reasonable price points, you do get what you pay for.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#140

Post by ecommerceguy »

pogue wrote: post #138

I left this comment on the site's comment section (apologies if others have already posted these suggestions - I didn't read through all the comments): Try using fakespot.com or reviewmeta.com. They're both sites setup to try & check the validity of Amazon comments using different methodology - such as how many times a reviewer has left a review, certain trigger keywords known to be used by bots & how many reviews Am…

To be clear, Amazon will remove reviews at merchant request when the review is about FBA shipping. Generally, these are bad reviews. A merchant would not want to remove a good review when the subject is shipping.

"This came really fast!" 5 Stars is not a product review, however a merchant would not want to remove it. "The box was completely damaged and destroyed the product!!" 1 Star - will be removed by request if shipped via FBA. As with anything for selling on Amazon, they are not exactly consistent with this policy.

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