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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

#221

Post by keiferski »

This is the same problem as with journalism / sources of information, except for a different domain.

Authoritative sources are considered reliable > newcomers undermine old sources > newcomers become authoritative sources, repeat ad infinitum.

When small shops sold most products, you could rely on the owner being connected enough to the community to not rip anyone off. As communities and local social connections broke down, the penalty for being dishonest evaporated. Amazon and other competitors took advantage and became trustworthy. Now they are slipping...

My guess: in both journalism and in e-commerce, the next step will be a return to “personable” sources of information that are perceived as reliable. Substack is on the right track here WRT journalism. Something that has real people (with good reputations) review products might be the e-commerce equivalent.

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

#222

Post by rrauenza »

masto wrote: post #131
spullara wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are so many people buying counterfeit stuff on Amazon? What are they buying? Why would someone copy it? Are they just looking at price?

Here’s an example from real life just last week. Clorox ToiletWand Refill. Go look on Amazon, I’ll wait here. You’ll find many different sellers, some obviously “third party”, and some that look original but when you delve into the reviews you find stuff like this: https://imgur.com/9vyE8kq I didn’t want to buy a toilet cleaner that would fall apart and make me fish it out of the toilet, so we went and got them from…

And the item with counterfeits is the first hit from google ...

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

#223

Post by distances »

ahepp wrote: post #135
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMG wire cutter. Affiliate advertising once removed. EDIT: NextDesk scandal aside, when was the last time you saw WireCutter recommend a product that did NOT offer affiliate commissions (let’s just call a spade a spade: these are kickbacks). I don’t use WC anymore so I can’t answer that myself. I stopped using them when I saw some companies completely ignored in 2 different industries with which I’m familiar. Those c…

Have you found a good alternative to wirecutter? I am sure there are plenty of honest reviews on the internet, tucked into enthusiast sites or on personal blogs. It's hard to find them unless you're a member of their community. Unless they review a lot of products, you have no continued relationship with them. This means you can't evaluate your opinion of their reviews (as to trustworthiness, or even just taste). Sur…

If you don't mind paying and can handle German, Stiftung Warentest is very reliable. I only wish similar organizations were more widespread.

https://www.test.de, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiftung_Warentest

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

#224

Post by TylerE »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #110
TylerE wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think reviews are bad, but I think 5 stars is. Should just be thumbs up, thumbs down. Maybe a "meh" in between. Alternatively, ask for ratings as 5 star, treat 4 as a meh, and anything 3 or below as a thumbs down.

No please don’t Netflix the Amazon reviews. There is a huge advantage in granularity. Everything in life isn’t so binary, where you either loved or hated it. There is so much gray area in between that makes ratings useful. Netflix neutered their whole rating system when they introduced the thumbs up and down system.

I don't find it useful granularity. It just adds noise.

Product has . 4 stars.

Product was a slightly different shade than the picture. 1 star

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

#225

Post by rrauenza »

benrbray wrote: post #206
cobookman wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This attitude comes from a place of privilege. You can afford a brand-name coffee maker, many can't. If you look at the median Westerner, most don't have that kind of disposable income to afford those kinds of goods. Amazon offers a cheaper (commodity) price, which drives overall increase in sales. Amazon is going after Walmart, the lower-end market at the cost of loosing parts of the niche higher-end market.

Sorry, what? The situation we're complaining about is more like this: > Steve can't normally afford nice things, but he saves up to buy a nice coffee maker on Amazon, paying close to $100 and expecting to receive a product that will last decades. However, Steve receives a counterfeit product in the mail that breaks just a few days after the return window. With most of these products, you're paying full price but gett…

Or worse, it's not actually UL approved and burns Steve's apartment down.

I am very wary of buying anything electrical on Amazon.

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

#227

Post by unishark »

mrfusion wrote: post #119
DNied wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They’re way too negative and usually list weird one off problems or shipping issues. The real action is 3 star reviews. Those people have really given a lot of thought to the review. Also the reviews with pictures tend to be useful.

> They’re way too negative and usually list weird one off problems or shipping issues.

That's presumably why they said "read" the negative reviews. Obviously you don't then base your decision off negative reviews that turn out to not matter.

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

#228

Post by d13 »

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…

What happened to Wirecutter?

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

#229

Post by lordnacho »

wp381640 wrote: post #24

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.

Is there a review system where I can see just my friends' reviews? Eg browsing for a phone and I see my buddy's review, you see your buddy's?

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

#230

Post by unishark »

wyre wrote: post #141
csa wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is half of an idea... people still want/need guidance on purchases. High quality, curated, independent reviews is probably something that most people would enjoy and appreciate. That said, the current system is fairly worthless, and what little worth it has is based on hacking it by looking at a specific subset of reviews.

> people still want/need guidance on purchases It’s funny because Amazon normalized folks needing reviews on things before buying it.

There was also ebay feedback which was key to shopping for a lot longer I'd say.
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