Fake Amazon reviews 'being sold in bulk' online • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by kgc » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

ianmcgowan wrote: post #117

harry8 wrote: 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'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

This might also be helping their Amazon brands. Easy to stand above the crowd in terms of quality this way. Also, they have all the data they need to target the most profitable / fragmented segments.

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

#162

Post by mxcrossb » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

ianmcgowan wrote: post #117

harry8 wrote: 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'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

Amazon is basically my last resort these days. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic means there are times where I can’t justifying going out to buy something. But I wonder if they’ll be taking a bigger than expected hit once things clear up.

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

#163

Post by renewiltord » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:48 AM UTC

dwighttk wrote: post #47

What’s the deal with people answering questions completely irrelevantly on Amazon? Do they boost your review karma if you answer a bunch of questions or something?

The question is framed something like this:

Dwight, as a reviewer of X, can you help this customer? Rene asked

So it's like it's been directed at you. So people will answer with "don't know" or "I didn't buy this" or whatever.

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

#164

Post by chii » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:52 AM UTC

projectileboy wrote: post #158

ianmcgowan wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

Also just anecdata, but I’m the same way. I don’t mind buying commodity goods off of Amazon, but if I need to know that I’m truly getting product X of brand Y, I now typically go elsewhere, because I just cannot trust that I’m not going to get a counterfeit product. Over the years, I’ve received two counterfeit books and three counterfeit hardgoods from Amazon. That may not seem overwhelming, but it’s enough to break…

the question really is whether buying brand name goods vs consumables is a bigger market.

amazon might be OK with people going to a different place for brand name goods but continue to buy low cost, no-brand goods from amazon if that market is much larger.

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

#165

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:53 AM UTC

harry8 wrote: 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"…

[deleted]

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

#166

Post by a254613e » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:57 AM UTC

jariel wrote: post #93

Better idea: Fall back to trusting brands. What does Amazon really offer now: 1) Search convenience, which is really not that big of a deal and 2) Fast delivery but everyone is catching up and do we really need that thing in 2 days instead of 3? I never buy on Amazon and I don't feel as though I'm missing out.

3. Amazing customer support.

Living in "Servicewüste" Germany I would still buy from amazon, even without the first two points that you mentioned. Because customer support... isn't a thing here. On top of that there's things like higher prices, and more expensive and slower shipping usually slower by up to a week, not by a day or two.

Amazon's customer support goes way and beyond to help you out, I've had hundreds of euros worth of stuff sent to me again right away, no questions asked - because I called them and said that the official delivery information saying that it's been delivered to me personally an hour ago is not true, and I don't have the items.

That all being said, I do wish amazon would take care of fake reviews, and mixed inventory from different sellers.

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

#167

Post by retsibsi » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:57 AM UTC

shalmanese wrote: post #139

harry8 wrote: 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"…

> Amazon loves fake reviews as long as they are 5 star. Do they? It's not immediately clear that an Amazon where the average item has 4.7 stars would sell more stuff than an Amazon where the average is 4.2 stars. Consumers mostly compare items against others on the same site and it's possible that all grade inflation does is make the top performing items harder to separate out and makes buying harder. As a counterpoi…

> It's simply resulted in everyone adapting to 5 = slightly above average, 4.9 = average, 4.8 = run away screaming.

Just out of curiosity from someone who doesn't use Uber, is this an exaggeration or meant pretty much literally? (Not with regard to running away screaming... but is 4.8 genuinely a terrible score?)

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

#168

Post by loonster » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 6:04 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #124

osrec wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that tell you if the product is any good though? Popularity doesn't automatically imply quality.

It doesn’t - but if 80% of purchases end in returns you’d know to stay away.

A reputable distributor would stop carrying it.

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

#169

Post by joshuaengler » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 6:05 AM UTC

I'm staggered people didn't know this was a thing, anybody surprised must have their eyes closed or possibly be naive. It was obvious years ago, not just Amazon either... But most retailers. Most of what you see in life is fake and/or a scam, sad but true. Use your mind and stay away from scam products.

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

#170

Post by impalallama » Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 6:07 AM UTC

ianmcgowan wrote: post #117

harry8 wrote: 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'm sure Amazon has some smart people looking at the numbers on this, but as just one anecdata, my family has been buying a ton of stuff from Amazon since they were just books. Now we buy things that are repeat purchases or a couple of trusted brands (e.g. Amazon Basics or Anker). For bigger purchases (like a medium-basic coffee machine) we're either looking at Costco and Target, or researching a lot on Consumer Repo…

When it comes to Amazon reviews you never go by the average you go to scroll down to the actual reviews and read what the one and two star reviews are complaining about and decide if that is acceptable assuming it will happen with your purchase, IMHO.