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

#351

Post by colejohnson66 » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:39 AM UTC

StreamBright wrote: post #309

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know my comment will be lost in a sea of voices, but I need to share my experience _somewhere_ else other than amazon reviews. I got my fiancé two Christmas presents this year - both bought off Amazon. One was an electronic keyboard that was dead on arrival, the other was a snuggie type blanket that started falling apart yesterday. Both items had thousands of 5 star reviews. I usually go somewhere (anywhere) else b…

I was thinking about creating a site (allreviews.com or something) where you could write a review about anything, purchase, service, etc. Not sure about the legal background. Could I face legal challenges having such site in the US?

Review sites are legal, but you’d almost certainly be at risk of defamation lawsuits from unhappy businesses. You’d most likely be in the clear, but it won’t stop them from trying.

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

#352

Post by jart » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:47 AM UTC

mason55 wrote: post #58

TeMPOraL wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I myself am convinced that brand recognition is on borrowed time - that is, recognition of old brands may still work as useful filter, but new quality brands will be near-impossible to establish. The reason for that: we're being DDoSed with brands on e-commerce sites. For an increasing amount of product categories, you're going to find 10+ "brands" on Amazon that are selling the same white-label garbage class product…

What you’re describing is exactly how brands work. The garbage brands will continue to cycle because there’s no reason to keep the brand name (in fact it’s better to change it so that people who got burned don’t know it’s the same). But the good brands are investing in the brand name and so they will stick around and you’ll start to recognize them. Look at a company like Anker. They operate in spaces filled with garb…

I love Anker. I remember when I discovered them around 2013 and started making purchasing decisions on Amazon by just looking for their brand name, it almost felt like cheating, since I knew I wouldn't need to do an hour of research to make sure, "ok is this charger going to be the kind that explodes." So I just buy Anker and it works like a dream.

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

#353

Post by dreamcompiler » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:54 AM UTC

redisman wrote: post #343

robotnikman wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding fuel to the fire; I remember reading an article last year which appeared on HN, it was about how sellers create groups on facebook which offer to send people free products in they agree to give 5 star reviews. Apparently this is also a massive problem with thousands of people doing this So not only will the reviews be for the wrong product, there is also a good chance that the reviews were bought and are fake.

Many crappy products I've bought literally have a business card inside the package where they offer you a $5 giftcard for leaving them a 5 star review. You have to send them a screenshot of the 5 star review.

If Amazon wanted to they could stop this tomorrow. All they have to do is post on their website "If any vendor offers you money to leave a good review, send us a photo of the offer. We'll check it out, and if it's real we'll pay you double what the vendor offered and then ban that vendor from Amazon."

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

#354

Post by corty » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:54 AM UTC

jb775 wrote: post #337

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know my comment will be lost in a sea of voices, but I need to share my experience _somewhere_ else other than amazon reviews. I got my fiancé two Christmas presents this year - both bought off Amazon. One was an electronic keyboard that was dead on arrival, the other was a snuggie type blanket that started falling apart yesterday. Both items had thousands of 5 star reviews. I usually go somewhere (anywhere) else b…

I cancelled my Prime last year because the "2 day" shipping was consistently taking 4+ days. The final straw was my Halloween mask not arriving by Halloween lol. Between late deliveries, bait & switch 5-star reviews, and being able to find cheaper prices elsewhere, I now only use Amazon if I can't find a product anywhere else.

Agreed. Shipping quality on Amazon has declined massively (before corona), and since marketplace and comingling, products have often become unreliable and even dangerous. On top, there was a forced price raise to sell me videos I didn't want. I did the math and am now prime-free.

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

#355

Post by corty » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 1:00 AM UTC

zwaps wrote: post #345

TeMPOraL wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Also the regular "optimization" (i.e. of costs, not value). For example, Miele was a decent brand of white-label goods, but I've read numerous commenters here claiming that they're succumbing to plasticpartisis and their products aren't as reliable as before. I also vaguely recall hearing that Anker isn't what it used to be. (Then there are brands spanning great many product categories - like Phillips. I'm hav…

I disagree on Miele. They still produce their products in Germany. That's not something you do if you want to sell plastic knockoffs. Sure, quality may vary, but this is literally their brand identity. So I seriously doubt there is a calculated attempt to be less reliable. It gets more difficult. Tefal produces great pans in France, and really terrible pans in China and they are almost the same product and have the s…

Miele still produces in Germany, but quality has gone way down nonetheless. Repairability is also getting poorer, you no longer get parts you one used to get for 20 years after the sale.

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

#356

Post by rendall » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 1:03 AM UTC

com2kid wrote: post #287

rendall wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is an upvote for engaging. Kind of a non-sequitur, no? I was talking about toy drones.

> Kind of a non-sequitur, no? I was talking about toy drones. Batteries are regulated, as is the type of paint used in kids toys. Even with regulation companies still try to sneak in lead paint(!) and batteries occasionally burst into flame. No regulation would mean parents would have to carry around lead paint test kits... Review sites cannot keep up with the deluge of brands, and some aspects of product quality, su…

People keep bringing up batteries, paint, USB, restaurants. We were talking about toy drones. Focus, people

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

#357

Post by rahimnathwani » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 1:10 AM UTC

FYI a drone like the one pictured can easily be found for under $6 in China (retail price, including shipping within China).

Amazon in the US sells similar things for under $20, which seems reasonable given the local logistics costs.

I wouldn't recommend a toy like that for anyone under 6 years old. You're meant to hold it steady on your outstretched palm, then pull your hand away swiftly. Younger kids can find this too hard, which causes them to resort to tossing it up in the air. The resulting collisions (which are much harder than the collisions during flight) could easily cause the type of damage described.

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

#358

Post by samatman » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 1:13 AM UTC

yrimaxi wrote: post #179

Grimm1 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An older friend of mine made the observation that really before the few large news networks and papers in the last 40-50 years objective information that everyone roughly agreed upon was not the norm. Yellow journalism, hearsay and rumors dominated common conversation. He observed that with the internet we're returning to what was this "normal" state with anybody being able to post something and gain widespread recog…

Nostalgia for the days when the NYT and co. could lie the whole nation into some war (or rather the people who read the NYT).

The manufactured consensus of the mass media had some terrible failure modes. Perhaps it wasn't worth it.

But it had a nice positive externality in creating a shared reality for people who otherwise didn't have much in common.

We can all watch the landscape shatter into pocket, subcultural realities, and the fear of the other and general distrust is palpable.

People are falling back on the old stalwarts: common ancestry and/or religious conviction. That, too, has advantages, but it comes with severe downsides.

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

#359

Post by mortenjorck » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 1:41 AM UTC

throwaway201103 wrote: post #231

jimmaswell wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This experience is alien to me. I order from Amazon all the time and everything I get is generally fine. Occasionally something breaks after a while or is missing a part but that can happen anywhere and Amazon has extremely generous return policies. If anything I've come to trust AmazonBasics as a reliable brand if I'm deciding between products.

Maybe this is a longer game by Amazon. Let bogus reviews and bad experiences pile up for third party sellers, slowly driving people to only trust "Amazon Basics." They have nearly perfect knowledge of the profitability of any item, so they know what items they should have under the "Amazon Basics" umbrella. Over time they could expand this into other Amazon "Brands" at varying quality/price points.

I’m surprised there aren’t counterfeit AmazonBasics products by now. Or are those the only listings that disallow third-party / commingled-inventory sellers?

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

#360

Post by com2kid » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 1:47 AM UTC

rendall wrote: post #356

com2kid wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kind of a non-sequitur, no? I was talking about toy drones. Batteries are regulated, as is the type of paint used in kids toys. Even with regulation companies still try to sneak in lead paint(!) and batteries occasionally burst into flame. No regulation would mean parents would have to carry around lead paint test kits... Review sites cannot keep up with the deluge of brands, and some aspects of product quality, su…

People keep bringing up batteries, paint, USB, restaurants. We were talking about toy drones. Focus, people

Toy drones have paint, batteries, and a USB port.

Toy drones are literally painted plastic, some spinning painted plastic, a battery, a USB port, a micro-controller, and some motors.