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Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

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Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#51
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disruptive solution proposal: Get rid of the review system entirely. Stars, comments, user pictures; eliminate all of it. For everyone. There. Problem solved.

That would be very stupid

I thought this place liked disruption.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#53

I haven't used amazon in years and this was largely the reason why. After getting scammed a few times by products that seemed to have good reviews I decided to just keep shopping local instead where I can actually see the product and speak to human beings who used it. Amazon will forever be the one stop shop for cheap counterfeit shit until they actually address these issues.

So easy to say. My local stores all have at least a 25 to 50 percent markup on anything on Amazon. Cameras to drones to computers to auto parts. Amazon beats on price by a huge margin.

I'd love to buy tyres and oil from the local shop but the 50 to 100 percent price difference is not worth it.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#54
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be very stupid

I thought this place liked disruption.

Disruption often means to offer an alternative, better solution to a poorly solved problem. You seem to be suggesting we don't try and solve the product validation problem at all!

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#55
post #31

Reviews are broken. There needs to be a web of trust for reviews. I would weight a review from somebody I know or trust 1000x more than every Amazon or online review ever left. It's not just store reviews that are broken - web search is also completely broken because of affiliate spam I spent far too much time at the moment with each purchase researching and tracking down trusted reviews.

Unless it’s a really big ticket item I’ve given up on product research as the investment is just not worth my time. I just buy whatever Wirecutter tells me to; usually they’re not too wrong.

I've recently had bad experiences with wirecutter's recommendations. I no longer trust them. It started a little before the NYT acquired them but the downward momentum accelerated from there.

The biggest flaw I see is their product selection process, it always involves looking at the amazon top sellers. Those are usually filled with astroturfed, paid and bribed reviews.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#56
post #30

Amazon loves fake reviews as long as they are 5 star. The more it looks like people buying stuff using amazon are happy, the better that marketing is for Amazon. Look at all these people who are so happy to be buying stuff on Amazon, so much better than the alternatives. Amazon could clean this up and then watch the average drop. From the removal of the fake fives but also it makes it look more "socially accpetable"…

Disruptive solution proposal: Get rid of the review system entirely. Stars, comments, user pictures; eliminate all of it. For everyone. There. Problem solved.

[deleted]

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#57
post #48
post #30

Amazon loves fake reviews as long as they are 5 star. The more it looks like people buying stuff using amazon are happy, the better that marketing is for Amazon. Look at all these people who are so happy to be buying stuff on Amazon, so much better than the alternatives. Amazon could clean this up and then watch the average drop. From the removal of the fake fives but also it makes it look more "socially accpetable"…

I would presume that most people that buy reviews for their own products would ask for them to be 5 stars. I wonder if anyone is deliberately paying for bad reviews of their competitors' products?

Or perhaps disgruntled customers [possibly who purchased an artificially inflated 5 star item only to find it garbage].

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#58

Reviews are broken. There needs to be a web of trust for reviews. I would weight a review from somebody I know or trust 1000x more than every Amazon or online review ever left. It's not just store reviews that are broken - web search is also completely broken because of affiliate spam I spent far too much time at the moment with each purchase researching and tracking down trusted reviews.

My solution: only read negative reviews. They're much more telling. As a bonus, they'll often kill impulse purchases, saving me money.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#59
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this place liked disruption.

Disruption often means to offer an alternative, better solution to a poorly solved problem. You seem to be suggesting we don't try and solve the product validation problem at all!

Replace reviews with raw data - total number of purchases (at this price and version), return rate, etc.

Re: Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online

#60
post #30

Amazon loves fake reviews as long as they are 5 star. The more it looks like people buying stuff using amazon are happy, the better that marketing is for Amazon. Look at all these people who are so happy to be buying stuff on Amazon, so much better than the alternatives. Amazon could clean this up and then watch the average drop. From the removal of the fake fives but also it makes it look more "socially accpetable"…

Disruptive solution proposal: Get rid of the review system entirely. Stars, comments, user pictures; eliminate all of it. For everyone. There. Problem solved.

And how exactly does that solve the problem?
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