Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#181

Post by antoniuschan99 » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

MR4D wrote: post #180

noduerme wrote: post #56

I wish I could say I stopped buying things off Amazon for ethical reasons, but the truth is, I stopped buying because if you look closely at the reviews, you realize that almost everything for sale there is now a scam or a knock-off. This was a slow creep for awhile, but now the problem has grown exponentially. Amazon is what Canal Street was in the 90s - somewhere to buy fakes, stolen goods, and electronics that mig…

> Amazon has no interest in fixing this problem I’d add the word “yet” to the end of this statement. Many people I know have started to buy from online places like Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Newegg, and B&H Photo when possible, and only use Amazon in a time crunch or when the product can’t be found in stock. I would encourage everyone who is frustrated by this Amazon problem to not only do the same, but also to encou…

Unfortunately Walmart, Best Buy, and New Egg have Marketplaces too now :(

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#182

Post by ndaiger » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:01 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #140

xvector wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

B&H - general electronics, tax-free Headphones.com - headphones, tax-free Drop.com - general hobbyist goods DigiKey/Mouser - miscellaneous parts Your local bougie salon - high-quality body products (bodywash, hairspray, etc) Bed Bath and Beyond - bedding and bath products Design within Reach - furniture Ubiquiti - wireless APs, PoE switches, and the nicest Ethernet cables I've ever used ProtectLi - firewalls Crowdsup…

"within Reach", LOL. (Sorry, love their furniture, not so much their prices.)

I agree the name is pretty terrible for a mass-market company because everybody associates it with price, but I believe the origin was due to the fact that they offered direct sales of products that were previously only available "to the trade" (aka professional designers/decorators).

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#183

Post by yawaworht1978 » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:13 PM UTC

wheels wrote: post #101

noduerme wrote: post #56

I wish I could say I stopped buying things off Amazon for ethical reasons, but the truth is, I stopped buying because if you look closely at the reviews, you realize that almost everything for sale there is now a scam or a knock-off. This was a slow creep for awhile, but now the problem has grown exponentially. Amazon is what Canal Street was in the 90s - somewhere to buy fakes, stolen goods, and electronics that mig…

This has had a significant impact on my buying habits as well. For luxury items, I tend to order them from a large department store chain, which is pricey, but more predictable quality, and for cheap knock offs, I just go to the source and get them from AliExpress for 1/3 the price they are on Amazon. Nowadays, you see almost the exact same stuff there without some rando brand I've never heard of attached to it.

Does that work consistently with AliExpress or are there many scammers? I have read pretty bad stories, am curious.

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#184

Post by yawaworht1978 » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:30 PM UTC

cube00 wrote: post #151

jiggawatts wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get unusually annoyed by fake movie trailers. The type that edit together random scenes from previous movies and get 17M views. Like… wtf. If an actual content creator uploads something they filmed in their own garage but there’s a sliver of a poster in the background with Mickey Mouse in it, it’s instantly flagged as a copyright violation. Straight up reposting of 5 minutes of a movie pretending I be a new one? Fi…

Lots of ad dollars to be made on 17M views so I'm not surprised they really take their time to carefully consider and weigh up the opposing arguments of removal, free speech and what not /s Meanwhile the one with 200 views gets their channel banned along with their Google account.

Assuming this is the person's first viral video and they have no affiliate contract yet, do they get something in retrospective?

And if someone is a partner, how much money would they make just by the views? Let's exclude followers etc. Do they get something for just the views or do they have to have ads in the video?

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#185

Post by bagacrap » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

civilized wrote: post #3

I don't understand what Amazon thinks it's doing with its legions of data scientists, analysts, product managers and engineers that they consider so much more important than solving this problem, which will destroy their reputation long-term and create space for a competitor. At this rate, Amazon will be on its way to becoming Yelp -- untrusted, irrelevant, ultimately deserted.

I think it's a question of incentives. For scammers, 100% of their success is dependent on beating the review system. For Amazon, losing the battle will cost them much less than 100% of their profits.

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#186

Post by bagacrap » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:35 PM UTC

I try to only buy things with recognizable brand names on Amazon. The premium you pay to an American intermediary for crap that was ultimately produced in China anyway is the cost of quality control.

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#187

Post by deadpannini » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #71

timmytokyo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the short term Amazon may benefit from this. But the fake reviews, throw-away brands, and counterfeit items are gradually corroding Amazon's credibility and brand identity among customers. This is the first year I've heard family members (who are frequent Amazon customers) complaining about these kinds of issues.

But the fake reviews, throw-away brands, and counterfeit items are gradually corroding Amazon's credibility and brand identity among customers. Amazon are very good at making money. This is not a problem for them; it's an opportunity. Before Amazon lose all their credibility they'll introduce something like "Amazon Assured" that sells customers a guaranteed real item. They'll charge sellers for the privilege of havin…

I don't get the implied scorn. Isn't reliable information valuable? Worth paying for?

It sounds like you think this information should be priced in. I'm accustomed to that as well, since it has mostly been the commercial default for most of my life, but maybe unbundling it is worth a shot.

After all, "Consumer Reports" isn't free either, and caveat emptor has forever been the law of the market.

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#188

Post by bagacrap » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

amluto wrote: post #40

> Machine learning algorithms are getting sophisticated enough to figure out whether a batch of 100 reviews is mostly talking about can openers or garlic. This barely needs ML. Amazon knows, a priori , what product the reviews were for. The fact that garlic reviews can be repurposed for can openers, regardless of their actual text, is the problem. The real underlying problem is wrong incentives. Amazon makes money wh…

how do you clarify a valid product update? Aeropress changed the plastic used at some point in ~2013 but didn't publicize it widely. Should the Amazon listing start over from scratch for that type of change?

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#189

Post by wheels » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

yawaworht1978 wrote: post #183

wheels wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has had a significant impact on my buying habits as well. For luxury items, I tend to order them from a large department store chain, which is pricey, but more predictable quality, and for cheap knock offs, I just go to the source and get them from AliExpress for 1/3 the price they are on Amazon. Nowadays, you see almost the exact same stuff there without some rando brand I've never heard of attached to it.

Does that work consistently with AliExpress or are there many scammers? I have read pretty bad stories, am curious.

I haven't had any scams, and I've done maybe 100 orders from there. I've had some things that are crap, and not worth the effort of returning, but that's significantly true with Amazon too. I originally started using them for ordering electronic parts, and eventually also started getting household goods there. Things do often take a few weeks to arrive though.

Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews

#190

Post by handrous » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

maeln wrote: post #103

noduerme wrote: post #56

I wish I could say I stopped buying things off Amazon for ethical reasons, but the truth is, I stopped buying because if you look closely at the reviews, you realize that almost everything for sale there is now a scam or a knock-off. This was a slow creep for awhile, but now the problem has grown exponentially. Amazon is what Canal Street was in the 90s - somewhere to buy fakes, stolen goods, and electronics that mig…

What start to really annoy me is how it as become almost impossible to buy quality product anymore. And the issue is not even limited to Amazon. Recently, at work, we had to make a bunch of RJ45 cables. So we bought some cable, terminals and a crimper and a tester. The crimper was so horrible, we add to cut and re-crimp new terminals 2-4 times before having a working cable. So we said fuck it, lets go buy another one…

Our economy seems really good at producing cheap garbage that's hardly worth even their low prices, expensive shit that actually works (expensive in part because the cheap garbage eats into its economy of scale by taking market share), and, for some product categories, super expensive shit that exists for the sake of being expensive (as in, conspicuous consumption).

Absent is any ground between cheap garbage and expensive shit that actually works. Some products are in that middle-ground price range, but they're actually cheap garbage that's been marked up to rip you off.

This seems to have increased over time, especially as factories became better able to produce goods that use barely enough material to work at all, without a too-high defect rate. I wonder sometimes how much inflation this is masking—goods stay the same price or even get somewhat cheaper, but are significantly worse than before.