Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#71

Post by zerocrates » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

rafaelreinert wrote: post #38

jandrese wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like it should be reasonable to have a review warning people reading them that many of the 5 star reviews are suspect as the reviewer was compensated by the seller.

No, because amazon is a marketplace, for example, a product can have more than one seller. because that the review is about the product and not about the seller. The right thing to do is complain about the seller on feedback and amazon delete all reviews from this specific seller buyers.

Wouldn't this kind of thing generally be coming straight from the manufacturer, or at least a fairly dominant seller for the product? Since they're paying for 5-star reviews of the product.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#72

Post by OJFord » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #65

Buttons840 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how many products/companies are doing this? If there's 500 different products/companies offering $20 gift cards for 5-star reviews you can milk that for awhile and spread the word to others who are also in on the scheme.

Unfortunately they don't seem to advertise the gift card. Maybe there should be a site with current gift card offers - call it something like reviewbribes.com?

And do we use that site to avoid dodgy products/companies, or to 'side hustle' (god I hate that) reviewing and returning?!

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#73

Post by scorpionwin » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

ilamont wrote: post #16

I purchased the same webcam for my high school sophomore in September 2020, as school restarted (all online for him). The box contained a $20 "gift card" if I emailed proof of my 5-star review. It looks identical to the one I received (including the email address). Only the reward is different. I didn't try to write a review, I notified customer service in an attempt to report the seller. I documented everything incl…

Throwaway because of my suspect behaviour.

I have actually emailed the people on these cards out of curiosity. The range of rewards has been refunds, steep discounts and free products.

I am now on some lists and I can get regular free stuff. Sometimes I just write the review and give the product away to friends and family. Sometimes they ask you to mark certain reviews as helpful.

While unethical, the few types of things I’ve done this for have been ... kinda good actually. Even if I paid for them. So I don’t feel so bad recommending the product.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#74

Post by AlexandrB » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #37

yenwodyah wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got the same kind of card ordering a laptop charger earlier this year. Tried to report it to Amazon. Got back a canned response telling me to report individual reviews. Amazon doesn't care.

Worse, there's no such thing as 'free' money. If they can pay us $20 per item to write reviews, they are over-charging us $20 per item. So whoever doesn't do this is over-paying $20. If you buy 100 items like this a year, you're burning $2,000. That's non-trivial money for most people.

Solution: don't shop on Amazon.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#75

Post by kazinator » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

Amazon is right here. If such a review were allowed, the first people to exploit that would be the the scummy vendors themselves. They would post fake one-star reviews against competing products, claiming that all the good reviews of those products are from bribes.

Always consider the secondary effects, like back-scatter from replying to a spam e-mail to give them a piece of your mind!

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#76

Post by croes » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

ilamont wrote: post #16

I purchased the same webcam for my high school sophomore in September 2020, as school restarted (all online for him). The box contained a $20 "gift card" if I emailed proof of my 5-star review. It looks identical to the one I received (including the email address). Only the reward is different. I didn't try to write a review, I notified customer service in an attempt to report the seller. I documented everything incl…

Amazon doesn't really care about customers like the rest of FAANG. It's all about money, data and power. Everything else is just PR and advertising.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#77

Post by t-writescode » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

nyxtom wrote: post #58

I wonder if anyone has done any analysis on marketplace diversity for a given product. One of the absolute sore points of buying anything on Amazon is when you run into the issue where the product clearly looks the exact same yet there are seemingly dozens and dozens of brands all with hundreds of 4-5 star reviews.

Isn’t that just a common, white-labeling manufacturer?

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#78

Post by mikequinlan » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #67

Buttons840 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leave a 5-star review, get your $20. Resell the item on Amazon for $10 less than what the original seller was selling for. Earn $10 dollars profit. Repeat for other such products. Earn more profit. Make a blog about your antics; earn more profit, and help others profit the same way. Exploit the system until Amazon has to fix it. EDIT: I guess at no point is Amazon actually harmed by this scheme. However, the companie…

Someone I know made easier money by listing Amazon-available products on eBay and selling them there for higher prices. They didn't even need inventory, they just got them with Prime shipping after a purchase on eBay. People are stupid. On eBay before buying stuff I always ask the seller if they can beat the Amazon price - 5% cashback that I get on Amazon, or deduct CA sales tax in their price if the product is avail…

People do this with Walmart and Amazon -- they list products at higher prices on Amazon and when people order it, they drop ship it from Walmart.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#79

Post by mixmastamyk » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

rsync wrote: post #48

Now I remember ... The previous review practice that outraged me was when someone here at HN was producing very detailed analysis of LED bulbs (spectral analysis, etc.) and proving that lots of bulbs on Amazon had CRI and color temperature ratings that were way off . He then described how he posted that in some reviews and they were all taken down. Which is to say, crummy LED bulb on Amazon with an inflated CRI canno…

Yes, Amazon is a mess. I recently was fed up with the price of a beverage at the local overpriced Albertson's, $3 per tiny can. Decided to order a case on big A instead, to save some money.

Guess what, same price per can plus exorbitant shipping cost on Amzn. Came out to ~$5 a can and I had to buy 4 or 12 at a time. It just didn't make sense. I left a polite review that said as much, and it was rejected. :D

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#80

Post by Buttons840 » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #72

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately they don't seem to advertise the gift card. Maybe there should be a site with current gift card offers - call it something like reviewbribes.com?

And do we use that site to avoid dodgy products/companies, or to 'side hustle' (god I hate that) reviewing and returning?!

Both. Those in on the hustle will do the work to keep the site updated (making money in the process). Everyone else just uses it to spot fake reviews.