Providing authenticity, in whatever form, is a huge business opportunity, and it's only going to grow.
Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
171–180 of 273 posts
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#172Why don't they make a review system where the products with fewest bad reviews gets rated the best.
If the reviews have to go through Amazon's system it should be hard enough to fake. The "true" customers will make bad reviews if they didn't like the product. The "fake" reviewer can't rate their own products to make them get a better review, an they have to buy the competitors product x times to give x bad reviews.
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#173Providing authenticity, in whatever form, is a huge business opportunity, and it's only going to grow.
That is what VeChain is aiming at [0]. One of the better blockchain incentives around if you ask me.
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#174I'm not really sure why there are any real reviews on sites like Amazon, Yelp etc. Why do people leave reviews; what's in it for them? Is it some strange form of altruism where they're helping their fellow anonymous shopper while also helping out one of the world's most successful megacorporations? Writing this comment has made me re-think why I'm writing this comment.
I write reviews usually only in extreme cases if something is either exceptionally good or bad. In the positive case, I want to help the creator/owner having the deserved success, in the negative prevent fellow customers getting ripped off.
The problem is, my review might appear fake.
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#175Why don't they make a review system where the products with fewest bad reviews gets rated the best. If the reviews have to go through Amazon's system it should be hard enough to fake. The "true" customers will make bad reviews if they didn't like the product. The "fake" reviewer can't rate their own products to make them get a better review, an they have to buy the competitors product x times to give x bad reviews.
And to further secure it, the amount of buys can be compared to amount of negative reviews.
Because who will in their right mind buy a product with a lot of negative reviews, to later give a negative review?
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#176Fakespot.com is your friend. I'm fast finding their service indispensable. Also their iOS app is super convenient - you just share a link in the Amazon app with it, and you unmask all the fake reviews.
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#177I'm not really sure why there are any real reviews on sites like Amazon, Yelp etc. Why do people leave reviews; what's in it for them? Is it some strange form of altruism where they're helping their fellow anonymous shopper while also helping out one of the world's most successful megacorporations? Writing this comment has made me re-think why I'm writing this comment.
You have to look at the alternatives :
- you can post a review
- you can talk about your disfunctional item to the next person in the room
- you can stay silent
Staying silent is often a mental burden, because you invested time and energy to buy something that doesn't work, and you feel betrayed. You can keep silent only a finite quantity of such "betrayals", before it adds up and starts affecting your mood and social interactions.
Talking about it to the next person in the room is a quick way of getting rid of that mental burden, at the cost of your social interaction with that person. Most people don't want to listen to other's problems/failures, especially if it regards an item they will never use.
Or you can leave a review. That way, you can get rid of the mental burden, and the review targets the most pertinent people : the seller and the future buyers (which include yourself maybe). At best, the business will iterate on a new product, taking into account some of the reviews.
Edit : just writing that comment to convince myself here ;-)
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#178I've been burned multiple times by this; the worst was a pair of remote control off-road trucks for my sons' Christmas presents. They had hundreds of 5-star reviews and both units worked for maybe 5 minutes each. Within days of Christmas, the listing was flooded with 1-star reviews from other conned parents with very similar stories. The number of products impacted must be far over the 1% claimed. There are whole cat…
> This problem is quickly destroying Amazon's credibility with a lot of customers It has totally destroyed their credibility with me personally. I used to be an avid Amazon shopper. It was just too easy. I now actively find stores locally to shop. Does it make a difference to Amazon's bottom line, not in the least. While it might be less convenient, I feel less dirty than supporting Amazon. There are times where loca…
I still buy a lot of stuff from Amazon but I have found that I cannot trust their review system at all. So all research is outside Amazon or else I'm basically treating it the same as Alibaba.
The thing that utterly destroys credibility in my eyes is that fraudulent sellers are able to target name brand listings by offering fakes at a slightly cheaper price than the original manufacturer. There are apparently some mitigations against this but their use must not be widespread among sellers or something because I've been burned by this.
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#179Anecdata, sample size 1. I bought some toy for a toddler. Upon receiving it, I realized that the description was misleading; many of the "pieces" they had listed boldly were just cheap plastic pieces of crap that had no useful functionality. So I returned it, and wrote a 1-star review. A few weeks later, I got an email from them: they were offering $30 if I took down the review. I ignored the email. Several weeks lat…
>> Basically, Amazon has no interest in making sure that the reviews are not being gamed
I don't agree. First of all, these fake reviews are bad for Amazon's reputation and thus for their business. Second, these frauds lead to people returning their items to Amazon. I do not know how Amazon settles this with the original seller but I'd imagine that in the end Amazon will not make any profit on the whole transaction, or even a loss.
Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
#180Anecdata, sample size 1. I bought some toy for a toddler. Upon receiving it, I realized that the description was misleading; many of the "pieces" they had listed boldly were just cheap plastic pieces of crap that had no useful functionality. So I returned it, and wrote a 1-star review. A few weeks later, I got an email from them: they were offering $30 if I took down the review. I ignored the email. Several weeks lat…
Hmmmph. The best I've been offered is a full refund to take down a review. I obviously didn't: a refund does not change the quality of a product.
That being said, I had a few reach out and ask me for a review. In one instance I merely indicated that I had to use the product for longer to offer a genuine review, they gave me a line to the founder for concerns. For a cellphone screen protector, that has actually worked beautifully. I honestly don't know where to draw the line between buying reviews and customer service. If I put myself in the shoes of an honest businessperson (as I'd hope to be), I hope I'd deal with customers personally at early stages of the startup. It's hard to be objective with so many miscreants in play.