Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's so ridiculous to me. But the Japanese are also big on robot and virtual girlfriends. To each their own.
meanwhile you americans are into fleshlights,
and indians into cows..... ow
Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
371–380 of 499 posts
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
The best place to find reviews it seems is through subscription paid independent reviewers. Consumer reports is one that comes to mind (they are also non-profit), as well as rtings. If you are looking for reviews for more niche products though, your pretty much on your own when it comes to finding out if its good or not.
A decent free option for reviews is Wirecutter from the New York Times. I've yet to buy anything that they recommended that was outright bad, and they have a surprising breadth of categories that they review. They make money through affiliate links, but they claim that the writers/reviewers have no knowledge of which companies have affiliate relationships with the Wirecutter so it doesn't bias their picks.
I used to think Wirecutter was useful, until I saw their recommendation for "the best bike rack" (for carrying bikes on the back of a car). They insisted that the best kind of bike rack is the type that is attached to the trunk lid using nylon straps and hooks. That's the cheapest kind, but also the worst by far, from my own experience and also just common sense. If $100 bike racks that scratch your car and have the bikes wobbling back and forth are really the best kind, why would anyone spend $500-$700 for high quality hitch-mounted and roof-mounted racks (that are easy to use and don't risk scratching your car or your bike) ?
It convinced me that the people writing these "reviews" have no idea what they're talking about and cannot be trusted. When the recommendations are for categories that I'm not an expert in, they can recommend whatever they want and I can't dispute it. When it's for a category that I know something about, and the recommendation is for the very worst kind of cheap junk product, it does raise a lot of doubt in my mind.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
The purpose of a system is what it does. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...
If you have two actors within a system that are at odds, using the term "purpose" to refer to the system is either mostly incoherent, or (in most cases) trying to import the connotation of "purpose" into a conversation. A charitable view would be that Amazon is trying to create a system that rewards fair sellers and provides unbiased reviews to consumers, while unscrupulous actors attempt to defeat that by engaging i…
> A charitable view would be that Amazon is trying to create a system that rewards fair sellers and provides unbiased reviews to consumers, while unscrupulous actors attempt to defeat that by engaging in new forms of grift.
I would agree with that until something like this happens, where Amazon prevents people from letting other people know that the reviews are paid.
> If the unscrupulous actors are 10% less effective because of Amazon's efforts, does that mean the "purpose" of the system has shifted 10% away from honest dealing? If Amazon all but eliminates dishonesty, does that mean the "purpose" of the system is to have an ever present, tiny baseline of fraud? At that point, better to use a different word.
I'll think on your point. I'm not sure how to quantify purposefulness.
> It's because of strategic equivocation between the "actor" being implied in the "purpose." The implication is that Amazon creates the system and this is their purpose, but the cybernetician's definition of purpose is more like "the role this system plays in the overall society in light of all the infinite restrictions on everyone's behavior."
Point taken.
> If you have two actors within a system that are at odds, using the term "purpose" to refer to the system is either mostly incoherent, or (in most cases) trying to import the connotation of "purpose" into a conversation.
I think that one can still imagine that the point of a competitive endeavor is separate from the purpose of the competitors involved in the system.
Thanks for the reply, I'll consider your ideas.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#374I'm seeing similar things everywhere. I stood in line for a food truck a couple years ago that offered a promotion "$2 off your order if you show us your 5-star review of our truck on [site]." Obviously, you have to do this before you even order your food so I was intensely put-off by this. I gave them a 5-star review with no comment, received my discount, then after I tried the food I edited the review to 1-star wit…
Almost every single item on Amazon and everywhere else is 4.5 stars. No matter how terrible. I can see one star after one star helpful review but it will still be 4.5 stars for items that just fall apart and are obviously defective. The sellers just game the reviews until they get to that magic 4.5. Goodhart's Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Luckily Amazon will take back anythi…
The problem is that a lot of people don't bother sending back stuff because it's too much of a hazzle, and it's unlikely that any of the other products on Amazon are any better. You already know that you aren't really going to get some high quality product for 19.99€. You still check the reviews to try to get the best quality product, but in reality you already know the product is going to be crap.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#375I'm seeing similar things everywhere. I stood in line for a food truck a couple years ago that offered a promotion "$2 off your order if you show us your 5-star review of our truck on [site]." Obviously, you have to do this before you even order your food so I was intensely put-off by this. I gave them a 5-star review with no comment, received my discount, then after I tried the food I edited the review to 1-star wit…
While I think you mostly played this right I also greatly dislike people leaving totally binary reviews. 1 star because they had sleazy review tactics? This is part of the problem. We need unbiased reviews now more than ever. So many people aren't going to share your principles so trying for force the issue by giving a misleading rating is not a good approach. I think it would have been much better to just review it…
If the top end is already a binary choice. Why not have the low end also be. We have heard how companies like Uber penalise anything but 5-star review. Even if a average ride should be 3-stars without any questions. So why not just go to the other binary end of scale when you have sub average experience?
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#376I do not agree with the article. Reviews are for the product, not the seller or the tactics.
I once bought some snow chains off Amazon, and the ones their system recommended didn't in fact fit my car. SImilar to the OP, I also did a low review and got it removed. But then yes, my review was not of the product, it was of the algorithm so I understood.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#377Amazon lets sellers leave review for products that are not launched yet. For instance, every Garmin product is "coming soon" but still have at least 2 to 5 5-star reviews by default mostly saying "previous generation was good!".
Amazon is scummy and I am slowly moving to other marketplaces.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
The behaviour you describe would be considered normal in Japan. There it's not a sub-culture. Pretty much any Japanese buyer would consider the packaging as part-and-parcel. And they'd complain in case of defective packaging, regardless of its functional impact.
As someone who lives in Japan that’s a behavior that a loud minority of unreasonable people exhibit, but most Japanese people I know don’t mind damage from transit like most well-adjusted humans anywhere - the delivery person might point it out when you sign for the package but it’s not a big deal. It’s more important for gifts and stuff though where the presentation is part of the gesture.
I was more thinking about B2B shipments, than consumer.
The general presumption upon receipt of product at the loading dock in Japan is that slightly damaged packaging is a quality issue. It is applied to domestic and global suppliers alike. But the latter may sometimes fail to understand and vainly push back.
These are well-adjusted humans too. Just operating under a different set of criteria w.r.t. quality.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#379I'm seeing similar things everywhere. I stood in line for a food truck a couple years ago that offered a promotion "$2 off your order if you show us your 5-star review of our truck on [site]." Obviously, you have to do this before you even order your food so I was intensely put-off by this. I gave them a 5-star review with no comment, received my discount, then after I tried the food I edited the review to 1-star wit…
Do people read the Google reviews of a food truck before they buy from it?
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
>All it has to do is conduct an investigation to confirm the complaint, which is as easy as ordering the item in question and confirming it contains the offer reported by a single customer. The number of humans available to perform daily investigations versus the total number of products sold makes this most decidedly not "easy". The easiest thing to do here would be to simply return the item because the seller cross…
> The number of humans available to perform daily investigations versus the total number of products sold makes this most decidedly not "easy". Only if you're taking the blinkered tech mindset that employing people to do anything is hard. Amazon employs 1.2 million people [1] , and has people employed that literally touch every single physical items it ships at least once. Every time you contact them you talk to one…
That is completely absurd. I too can "touch" tens of thousands of packages a day. That doesn't mean I can perform compliance on tens of thousands of customer complaints per day. You are simply asserting it is easy without providing actual evidence of how they would achieve this. Sorry, I don't see anything remotely logical in your comment that I can respond to.