Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#161

Post by kevincox » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

SoSoRoCoCo wrote: post #128

Here's one solution: don't buy cheap garbage. Yes, someone makes a $23 drone. It is cheap plastic shit from China. Do you really need to buy it, and then throw it in landfill a week (or two days) later after it breaks? Did OP reeeeeally expect a $23 drone to be on the up-and-up and NOT end up as landfill? OP is a bit oblivious to his impact on the environment. This race to the bottom for the cheapest crap is what ins…

The problem is that we don't have a great indicator of quality other than price. Why do I think the $30 or $50 will be better? It probably is, but I have no way to tell if I am getting a better quality product or basically the same just sold at a higher price. It is hard to decide to take this "risk" when you don't know.

Trusted reviews and recommendations can solve this but they are hard to come by.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#162

Post by cambalache » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #142

cambalache wrote: post #29

I was a heavy Amazon customer 8-10 years ago. I only bought stuff sold directly by Amazon, and that was not hard to do, since +90% of the products had that option. The other day I was just checking the price of an article for my mom and I was shocked how different is now, the proportion has totally changed, +90% of the articles are not sold by Amazon and by the "stores" name it looks they are barely better than rando…

Where do you purchase things from now? I've been using Zappos for clothing and shoes, their filters are dead simple and allow laser-targeting.

I dont buy much stuff these days but my last cell phone for example, I bough it from my regular supermarket!, same price as Amazon (just a Blu phone, nothing fancy), 1 year warranty, and I could check it first for a while so I had a better idea on what I was getting.

I liked Newegg too for PC parts and other stuff so I am dismayed to see they are going Amazon's way too.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#163

Post by mcpherrinm » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #133

hanklazard wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've also found myself buying a lot of things from Best Buy, something I would have scoffed at 5-7 years ago. These days, I just want to know that I'm getting a genuine (vs replica) product and most of the time I can go pick-up my purchase same day, solving the "fast shipping" problem.

Since NewEgg started up their 3rd party seller program, I've also switched to Best Buy. Running out of places to buy from that aren't flooded with trash.

BestBuy has added third party sellers online too: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/about/selling-on-marketplace/bl...

Though they don’t seem to have many yet, I did run across it recently. In-store pickup items are still seemingly safe though.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#164

Post by mdoms » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

Presumably you've all stopped using Amazon because of this issue, so they're motivated to fix it..?

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#165

Post by Tempest1981 » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

Raed667 wrote: post #8

From the article listed (a toy drone) [1], reviews range from talking about car oil, stickers for kids, a plaque for finishing a race, honey, something about horses (?).. What is this mess !? And how is this not Amazon's top priority? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P14T1Z2

Unfortunately, Fakespot isn't catching it either:

https://www.fakespot.com/product/taktoppy-drones-for-kids-uf...

And the example from the article also got an A, but looks like Amazon may have fixed it? Only 54 reviews now:

https://www.fakespot.com/product/shwd-ufo-drones-for-kids-ha...

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#166

Post by kevincox » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:15 PM UTC

tangoalpha wrote: post #78

This is how the seller can do it, atleast on Amazon India. Swapping the details completely triggers AI based flags and often causes the change to be manually reviewed. But the seller can add a variant of the product (like size or color). But the seller instead adds a completely different product he intends to swap the original product with. Now the listing will show two completely different products as variants on a…

This is a huge problem. Or a single "product page" with "variants" that are completely different products.

I just outright refuse to buy from these sellers but it is clearly a successful model.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#167

Post by coldpie » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:17 PM UTC

mcpherrinm wrote: post #163

coldpie wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since NewEgg started up their 3rd party seller program, I've also switched to Best Buy. Running out of places to buy from that aren't flooded with trash.

BestBuy has added third party sellers online too: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/about/selling-on-marketplace/bl... Though they don’t seem to have many yet, I did run across it recently. In-store pickup items are still seemingly safe though.

Seems to not be on the US site, for now, but that's very discouraging to see. I don't know where to turn for electronics if Best Buy goes to crap, too.

(I smell a market opportunity for a retailer that sells only quality products...)

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#168

Post by HPsquared » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

TravisLS wrote: post #18

There's a somewhat pervasive idea that advertising and brand recognition are coercive tools that will ultimately die out, replaced by better objective information about products. I'm kind of partial to this idea myself. But increasingly we seem a long way from achieving this. Amazon reviews have become such garbage, I've fallen back to pretty much relying on name brands as my placeholder for product quality. There's…

Branding is an emergent phenomenon in nature as well, e.g. flowers of particular shapes to attract bees. The book "Alchemy" by Rory Sutherland goes into this.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#169

Post by kevincox » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

ProAm wrote: post #47

It's not a problem for Amazon, it's a net positive feature monetarily speaking.

Is it? I regularly look elsewhere because I can't be confident that I am getting what I want.

I guess if they expect that the products are worse than they appear then making reviews useless would be helpful. But if they have some good products and good reviews I would be more inclined to buy.

It seems that there is the a low area what bad quality reviews help more purchases but for the middle quality and good quality products I would expect low review quality to drive sales elsewhere.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#170

Post by Tempest1981 » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

Bedon292 wrote: post #82

14 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment caught my attention are bad cables really destroying your tablets? I ask because I literally power all my phones and tablets with cords I bought at the dollar store. Never had any problems. Have I just been lucky?

Not sure about Micro, but a few years back a Google employee posted a bunch of info about bad USB C cables. Sadly I think it was on Google+ and gone now, but his reviews are still on Amazon [1]. There were certainly some really bad ones, missing resistors and things, so its quite possible on C at least. [1] https://smile.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFLICGQRF6...

Maybe Benson Leung?

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/225719-amazon-bans-che...

Try https://usbccompliant.com/