The wrong actor is being targeted here: Amazon is just as culpable for encouraging bad behavior.
Amazon has their own "Vine" program to do the same thing.
FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
51–60 of 199 posts
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#52There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…
Shopping on Amazon is like shopping in Chinatown now. The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term. This shit must be working, for some definition of working. Personally, anything that touches my child, or goes in my body, is not allowed to be bought on Amazon.
Most companies collapse from within, they don't get trounced by competitors. Competitors come along with a new angle that seems innocuous at first, but then turns out to entail 'the thing people want'.
It's very, very easy from an operational perspective to focus on the data-driven decision to sell crap, to ignore fake reviews etc. because that's what sells 'today'.
But an A/B test (short view) does not capture users recurring behaviour, and response to that experience overall.
If the A/B test encompassed a 'year long study' they might find a different set of data: upset customers who don't come back.
Which could lead to systematic 'sand in the engine' that could seriously erode Amazon.
The only way this would be resolved really is if Bezos himself makes a pretty firm commitment to it, which is hard obviously because 'quality' is a difficult thing to put a number on.
That said, it's hard to conclude how truly damaging this is. Once people are hooked on something, it takes an alternative for them to change their behaviour.
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#53There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…
Shopping on Amazon is like shopping in Chinatown now. The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term. This shit must be working, for some definition of working. Personally, anything that touches my child, or goes in my body, is not allowed to be bought on Amazon.
Tooth past, soap, food items like protein bars are so easy to order off the site. It is hard to imagine the challenge of hunting these items down in crowed stores to shop them my self. There are lots of items I regularly buy that are not review dependent and I will keep ordering them for the long term.
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#54There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…
I recommend that you copy and paste the Amazon link to https://reviewmeta.com/ and https://www.fakespot.com/ to see how many of the reviews are actually legit.
Was just about to post fakespot.com -- I've used it to great benefit in spotting some of my purchases that didn't have a reasonably priced, stand-out name brand to choose from (HDMI -> RCA audio splitters, or as mentioned in this thread, good bluetooth wireless earbuds.
Amazon is consistently allowing multi-hundred unverified 5 star reviews for new products to persist, and my wife and I are starting to drift to other, more reputable resources. After a decade+ of Prime membership, this is a really disappointing betrayal of trust.
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#55There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…
Even the 1 star negative reviews are faked. Sellers pay users to leave negative reviews to competitors. EDIT: Funny how completely broken and anti-customer the Amazon review system is given that the #1 leadership principle at Amazon [1] is the following: "Customer Obsession - Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to com…
Perhaps their definition of their customer has evolved to focus on resellers/manufacturers, and we, the public consumers, are simply a crop to be farmed?
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If you are interested in a (FREE PRODUCT), please get back to us with the screenshot of your review. >Note: you can click the link below directly to leave your positive review: (LINK TO AMAZON TO LEAVE REVIEW) >Please rest assured that we’ll arrange (FREE PRODUCT) to you ASAP after we receive the screenshot of your review together with your shipping address. It'd be interesting to see what they do if you left a neut…
Can't you edit the review or just take it back once you've received (FREE PRODUCT)?
I looked back at a review I wrote a little less than a month ago and I still have the option to edit it, so yeah I suppose you could.
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#57There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…
I recommend that you copy and paste the Amazon link to https://reviewmeta.com/ and https://www.fakespot.com/ to see how many of the reviews are actually legit.
Spoiler: It gets an 'F'. Color me surprised.
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish I was as discerning a buyer. I send back half of what I get off of Amazon, something like once every other month. By volume it's a lot more than I return anywhere else except for games impulse purchased and "returned" to Valve on Steam.
> I send back half of what I get off of Amazon If you return too much stuff amazon will cut you off: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/05/23/a...
I'm sure the people who get cut off are serious outliers though. Like so far out there it is obvious that they should be cut off.
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even the 1 star negative reviews are faked. Sellers pay users to leave negative reviews to competitors. EDIT: Funny how completely broken and anti-customer the Amazon review system is given that the #1 leadership principle at Amazon [1] is the following: "Customer Obsession - Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to com…
Perhaps their definition of their customer has evolved to focus on resellers/manufacturers, and we, the public consumers, are simply a crop to be farmed?
If you took one look at the forums for resellers / manufacturers, they'd laugh at the idea Amazon cares about them at all.
Re: FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Indie Retail Website
#60There are so many fake reviews on Amazon that the "average" stars for a product are no longer reliable indicators of quality. Especially for cheap electronics (read: headphones), products that have only been listed for a month somehow have hundreds of 5 star glowing reviews. When I do research nowadays I have to deliberately select the 1 star reviews to see if there is a real issue that's glossed over by the paid rev…
Shopping on Amazon is like shopping in Chinatown now. The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term. This shit must be working, for some definition of working. Personally, anything that touches my child, or goes in my body, is not allowed to be bought on Amazon.
> The funny thing is, you know Amazon has the data and must be optimizing in the short term.
Why? How do we "know" they have the data? How do we "know" that can act on whatever data they have? People here seem to ascribe a level of omniscience to tech giants that I'm not certain they deserve.