Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#421

Post by interpol_p » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:40 AM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #409

interpol_p wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking for a review is OK. Asking for a five-star review is not I imagine that food truck operator would do a lot better by simply asking "Like or hate our food? Leave an honest review on for a discount" If their food and service is good, they'll get the positive reviews they need

I think even that is way over the line. Having to show the review means it's likely to drive the reviews up. I'd probably add a star or two because I'm afraid of conflict. And if the reviews give a discount, you encourage first time buyers to give a (made up) review before buying. The only acceptable way to do it is "Please give us a review at [site]". No discounts or promotions.

True, having to show it definitely adds some social pressure to make it a good review. But it's still a little more ethical than explicitly asking for 5-star reviews

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#422

Post by interpol_p » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:41 AM UTC

esailija wrote: post #414

interpol_p wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking for a review is OK. Asking for a five-star review is not I imagine that food truck operator would do a lot better by simply asking "Like or hate our food? Leave an honest review on for a discount" If their food and service is good, they'll get the positive reviews they need

If the food and service is good what incentive is there to write a review at all? It's additional work and time for nothing. I never write positive reviews for that reason. For negative reviews it's completely opposite. So completely "honest" unedited review system would always skew very negative, because only negative reviewers have any incentive to write a review.

I was suggesting it as an alternative to offering a discount for 5-star reviews, just to offer a discount for honest reviews as it would likely generate the same result and the business would seem less shady to customers

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#423

Post by dolmen » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:43 AM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #311

bigbubba wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The customer paid not only for the product but also for the service of having that product delivered to them. Asking them to restrict their review to only one aspect of what they paid for does not seem reasonable.

It's about giving proper weight to each aspect. Giving a 1 star review to an otherwise 4 star experience is dishonest if you only have some issue with the shipping (or marketing tactics), just as an example.

Right. Issues about shipping are not what product rating are for.

Of course it is a problem that Amazon does not provide a way to separately report packaging and transport problems.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#424

Post by b0rsuk » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:44 AM UTC

Mistletoe wrote: post #321

maxk42 wrote: post #210

I'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…

I deal with this by explicitly seeking sub-5 reviews. I read them to see if criticisms mentioned bother me. I used to think I was a little paranoid, but now I'm going to double down on this.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#425

Post by tinus_hn » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:50 AM UTC

hunter2_ wrote: post #392

rebuilder wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selectively removing negative reviews is so sleazy, one wonders if it is actually even legal. Surely there's some truth-in-advertising legislation this falls under?

Not a lawyer but I think in the US, you have the right to remain silent. I don't think a law can compel anyone to publish anything. Might be the first amendment.

There’s plenty of exceptions like the DMCA forcing a host to restore access to something if a counterclaim is filed. Or being required to communicate the surgeons general warning on tobacco products.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#426

Post by z3t4 » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:50 AM UTC

Uhrheber wrote: post #420

Amazon sellers keep complaining, that more and more users only bother to write reviews when something is wrong with the product, but not when everything is OK. Well, I wrote three 5 star reviews during the last year, and I put a real effort into them, giving others tips how to avoid common mistakes when using the product, and correcting common misconceptions. I could do this, because I know this class of devices well…

You should post the review on your own web page. There are several specialed review sites making a million or more per year on ads alone, so it could be a nice side gig.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#427

Post by b0rsuk » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:54 AM UTC

vmception wrote: post #214

maxk42 wrote: post #210

I'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…

My favorite is seeing 5 star reviews that are hijacking the top to complain. I've also seen 1 star reviews that are exalting reviews. But my all time ongoing pet peeve is how recommendation engines especially on video streaming and video game series use numbers and star systems that are not based on any other human's input. Not a critic, not a user score, just an algorithm's confidence score on similarities.

Portal, the game by Valve, has some rabid fanboys. I only played it this year because my computer was unable to handle it. I was disappointed with how easy and short the game was. Style over substance for someone who enjoys Baba Is You or Riven.

Anyway, the first several negative reviews read like this: "Are you seriously looking for a negative review? Come on! The game is amazing! Buy it!"

I hate the people who don't cast their vote to represent just their opinion, but rather try to get the score where they think it belongs.

" Absolutely amazing dont listen to the "gamers" that havent even played it yet and just love to get on a hate train. " (10)

" A fantastic game troubled by some technical issues. It's obvious that right now it doesn't deserve that 10/10 (with some patches tho? possible), but I'm still scoring it like that to counter all the review bombing GTA kiddies (more depth, rotfl) and trolls that haven't even seen the game. " (10)

The above from the most overhyped game of the year.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#428

Post by alpaca128 » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:55 AM UTC

Can_Not wrote: post #388

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most frustrating thing now is seeing a product >4.5 stars, but going to the reviews and all the most recent ones are 1/2.

Often I'll find that all the five star reviews describe a completely different product.

That's the trick where the seller replaces a good product's name, description and picture, which effectively transfers all existing(positive) reviews to a different product. Which only shows how many people don't look at a single review if the score is good enough.

The other trick that Amazon doesn't give a damn about is using the mechanism meant for different product colors and sizes to combine multiple products into a shared entry, which mixes all the reviews together and makes it basically impossible for the customer to see the score for each individual item.

As far as I can tell Amazon's only reaction was to start banning customers who returned too many products. I wonder why.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#429

Post by vixen99 » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 9:59 AM UTC

Mistletoe wrote: post #321

maxk42 wrote: post #210

I'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…

Not my experience with books at least which is about all I buy on Amazon. I've come across plenty of negative reviews. A book's probably worth buying if it appears to meet the buyer's expectations culled from something like half a dozen reviews or more from disparate sources.

Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews

#430

Post by johnsea » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 10:00 AM UTC

maxk42 wrote: post #210

I'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…

I pointed out such promotions in reviews and never had a rejection. Other than your review I also wrote some sentences about the product. Maybe that makes a difference?

In any case it's import that people point out such bad practices. (One time I would have received a gift certificate for 30 $ for a product which costs 25 $. Crazy!)