Unpopular / true opinion: even more Trumpian tariffs on China will help fix this problem.
Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
201–210 of 429 posts
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Amazon should employ a hundreds of everyday people to review products full time. When you list a product on Amazon, you have to pay 10-20 of those Amazon Employees to review the product at arms length. Say each reviewer is given 2 hours for each product, before you can list a product on Amazon you have to pay $2 x 20 x hourly rate. These should be the only reviews. Or you can sell your product with no reviews…
Too expensive for most products. Simply limit "review rights" to users who have made a certain amount of purchases, are already subscribed for a certain amount of time, etc.
Why do you feel the process would be too expensive for most products? That is, let's say the review process might cost the merchant $5,000 on a one-time or biannual basis or whatever--does that seem like an unreasonable charge to take reasonable care that the products offered on the marketplace are authentic, of good quality, etc.?
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#203Gutsy for them to write such an article when they rely so much on affiliate links. Definitely makes me respect The Wire Cutter much more. Maybe does their article imply that as long as you purchase through their recommended links you'd be safe(er)?
> Definitely makes me respect The Wire Cutter much more. I'll probably respect them more when they stop hypocritically linking to Amazon. > Maybe does their article imply that as long as you purchase through their recommended links you'd be safe(er)? The article implies that, but it's not true.
Well, the very reason they exist is for you to click on their links. Thats their business model. So really, for them to write such an article is really to bite the hand that feeds them, which shows some gumption. But they would never cut off all their income by removing the links.
I’m not sure how it works with counterfeits on Amazon, will the same product id or same link sometimes be the real thing and sometimes not?
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#204"Getting the fake gloves removed from Amazon can be a long process, Hirsch said, taking weeks or even months of playing whack-a-mole with counterfeit sellers" That's the brand owner saying that. I'd love to see an Amazon response to that.
Personally the brand owner makes me trust them as far as I can throw them as they have a fundamental interest in hampering secondary markets and undermining right of first sale. Sure there are valid concerns but it becomes "CEOs claim higher CEO compensation main factor linked to better company performance".
They also have a fundamental interest in protecting the reputation of their product, which is definitely at risk from someone burning themselves with counterfeit gloves.
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another way to read it is that amazon doesn’t believe the consumer is a reliable counterfeit detector, versus “crappy product”, etc.
This can be solved with an "I believe the item I received is a counterfeit" option alongside the "Item is defective or doesn't work" option already present during the return process.
My personal favorite was the manufacturer who purchased an item from us (a third party merchant) who claimed it was counterfeit. This product was originally purchased from the manufacturer and had its original sales receipt. Amazon’s project zero uses a hammer to fix this problem by removing all sellers (even ones that have a right to sell the item). Sometimes in rare cases legal action is taken and they do get the real counterfeiter but from what I saw the real problem (for the accuser) is solved because now only amazon or only the manufacturer can sell against that listing. Hoping this will one day change but I’m certainly not going to hold my breath.
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#206Fake reviews also contribute to more fake and low quality products being sold. It looks like Amazon simply doesn't care. https://thehustle.co/amazon-fake-reviews FTA: "One stay-at-home mom from Kentucky told me she makes $200-300 per month leaving positive reviews for things like sleep masks, light bulbs, and AV cables." “Do you actually like the products?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she wrote. “I never use them.”
I'll bite - how would them caring make any difference in terms of quality of "fake" reviews? The way I see it the problem is unsolvable. There is no mathematical way to absolutely determine truth of reviews and it is fundamentally an arms race. No measure they could do could keep it true and free of deception.
The problem is mostly solvable. Review quality went downhill when Amazon decided to let 3rd party sellers run rampant, in order to boost their margins. A decade ago or earlier, when they had a handle on their supply chain, the reviews were pretty reliable. They can always go back to that model, but the smell of a greenback is too intoxicating for this to happen.
Notice that Walmart, Newegg and other wannabees are going down the same route. Typical cases of crapification of the late stage, overfinancialized capitalism.
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#207It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…
The web feels like a huge fine grained stress test to reassess all the reasons why most of the world was the way it was.
We had to steamroller all of Chesterton's fences to figure out which ones we'd miss.
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
i think from the director of engineering at amazon charged with making sure reviews are not fake, they would say "we can only make it so difficult to create a new account and prove you are human before it literally becomes impossible for new people to make real accounts." You say amazon has to police this more. I say amazon has tried and there is so much money to be made in jumping through the hoops to prove you are…
Only allow reviews from verified purchasers
I bought a $25 product recently on Amazon. In the box there was a “coupon” that I’d get $20 back if I left a 5-star review for the product on Amazon. Instead I left a 1-star review saying that they were trying to game the system, and my review got REMOVED! I give up.
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
i think from the director of engineering at amazon charged with making sure reviews are not fake, they would say "we can only make it so difficult to create a new account and prove you are human before it literally becomes impossible for new people to make real accounts." You say amazon has to police this more. I say amazon has tried and there is so much money to be made in jumping through the hoops to prove you are…
Only allow reviews from verified purchasers
Verified purchases on Amazon aren't trustworthy, either.
I live downstairs from someone who gives 5 star, raving reviews in return for "free samples". I'm not sure if it's for profit or for fun or what, but the rate at which Amazon delivery people deliver packages to our building is truly staggering.
Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?
#210Unpopular / true opinion: even more Trumpian tariffs on China will help fix this problem.
More unpopular / true opinion: Coronavirus will probably fix this problem.