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Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

theguardian.com

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Re: Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

#21

Post by gumballindie »

Afters year of not doing so i bought something off of amazon (here in the uk). A lawn mower with a large number of positive reviews. And a heat blower. Both where atrocious when they arrived. Went back to reading the reviews and in depth i noticed that a large number of review images were obviously fake. Left then reviews stating as such and guess what? Amazon rejected the reviews.

This makes me think that all of these issues on amazon are a feature not a bug. Amazon allows this to happen to drive a wide offering. And of course no consumer protection agency taking proactive steps to prevent this. They do issue refunds, but after you’ve wasted time waiting for and testing the product and then returning or threatening them.

Re: Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

#22

Post by koolba »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #4
standardUser wrote: post #2

I would love to hear any sites that people still trust and rely on when choosing products to buy (or reviews in general).

What I like to do is just not buy stuff

It’s like war games, only way to win is not to play.

Re: Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

#23

Post by jehb »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #19
quantumsequoia wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reason being those are supposed to be reviews of the product . The same reviews will be shown if a different seller is selling the same product. Seller-specific reviews hurt completely independent sellers Amazon has suspended big sellers like Mpow and Aukey for this practice, so they do take action on these tactics

> Reason being those are supposed to be reviews of the product. I understand that, so I only leave reviews on the product if it's a single seller, selling their own product. I think "this product comes with a scam offer" is a valid review of the product . I also leave seller reviews, of the seller, on the seller's page. (Many people don't realize you can do this.) These are deleted too.

Once you realize the full scope of reviews that Amazon deletes, it's hard to take anything left behind as credible whatsoever.

I went down a long odyssey recently of trying to get a refund for a food item that was four months expired the day it was delivered. Amazon refused. I escalated it. Amazon refused again. I tried to leave a bad review. Amazon deleted it. I reviewed the seller itself. Deleted again. Kept trying over and over again for several days, making ever so slight tweaks to conform to the policy. I came to the conclusion it was simply impossible to leave a negative piece of feedback.

Re: Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

#26

Post by epistasis »

quantumsequoia wrote: post #18
LeoPanthera wrote: post #6

This happens to me (here in California) regularly. When this happens I leave a review saying so, either on the product itself or on the seller's page. Amazon always deletes these reviews. So, Amazon knows about the practice, and approves of it. Not much you can do at that point.

Reason being those are supposed to be reviews of the product . The same reviews will be shown if a different seller is selling the same product. Seller-specific reviews hurt completely independent sellers Amazon has suspended big sellers like Mpow and Aukey for this practice, so they do take action on these tactics

This makes little sense when the product is already filled with tainted reviews related to a seller.

All those fake positive reviews also go along with the new product.

Therefore the only logical thing to do is to associate these reviews of the practice with the original product, as an indication of review quality.

Re: Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

#28

Post by candiddevmike »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #6

This happens to me (here in California) regularly. When this happens I leave a review saying so, either on the product itself or on the seller's page. Amazon always deletes these reviews. So, Amazon knows about the practice, and approves of it. Not much you can do at that point.

Amazon should publish the percentage of buyers who returned the item

Re: Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in GB 'bribed' by sellers to offer good review

#30

Post by PaulHoule »

tpmx wrote: post #15
PaulHoule wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cause you keep buying. Or rather, because you haven’t canceled your Prime yet. Do it now.

I guess I'm happy to live in a country where Amazon showed up too late (Sweden). Their offering for non-Chinese brands seems like a joke in comparison to the online retail landscape here. It's good for cheap noname (weirdname?) Chinese electronics (think e.g. TPA3116D2-based amplifier boards) though.

AMZN is actually not that good in much of the U.S.

If you live in a ZIP code full of congressional staffers, sitcom writers or stock market analysts you get 1 day shipping with Prime. If you’re not so lucky (say you live in the same ZIP code as the warehouse) it could be 5 days.

I just ordered the lens that I need to shoot volleyball games, a famous camera store can get it to me one day sooner than AMZN can despite being closed for a Jewish holiday. AMZN would sell me a ‘refreshed’ lens but the last one of those I bought from them failed in six months.

All the time I see something on the shelf at Target for $45 that is $65 on AMZN. The chattering classes who are bought off with 1 day shipping wax about AMZN’s logistics network (always seems to use USPS, UPS and FedEx to reach me, maybe they get a better deal because they threaten to leave…) or payments (hmmm… Visa, Mastercard, American Express, …) but it is gaslighting end-to-end.

Once a store gets one of those membership programs they quit thinking straight (how do I make money off sales?) and wind up thinking crooked (line goes up…)

The only thing harder than canceling your Prime is making an order without being signed up for a “trial” subscription which is one more reason to shop elsewhere.

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