Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon imposes limit on reviews

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#11

Post by malnourish »

strictnein wrote: post #9
malnourish wrote: post #4

Contrary to a lot of comments I've seen lately I haven't had any issues with Amazon (is this wrong to say?). Maybe I've just not been purchasing the right (er, wrong) things but I've never had an issue with their customer service or item quality. One time I received an item a day late, got a full refund and a second item was shipped out to me next day. I've been a prime member for the past 6 years or so and I think p…

> "Interesting that this doesn't apply to books. Is that market just vastly different?" Maybe people don't return books when they aren't happy with them? They don't care about fake book reviews anyways. I noticed a "Top 100" book reviewer was just writing the same exact review for every book they reviewed. Reported that and just got their standard "We're sorry you didn't like the review" response.

Hmm, good point. Makes me wonder why that policy doesn't apply to video games then. Maybe it does.

I wonder how useful the average person finds book reviews. Regardless, that's a shame about their response.

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#12

Post by 5555624 »

It does not address my latest issue with reviews -- the reviews don't apply to the actual item in question. Looking for a copy of "Don Quixote," the first 5-star review discussed two different translators -- neither of which was the translator for the edition in question. Most of he reviews were for other translations of the book.

This is not limited to books, either, as every now and then I see a review for a different model number of a piece of equipment I am looking at.

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#13

Post by phyzome »

ruddct wrote: post #2

Great, but doesn't come close to solving the actual problem: Amazon's retail catalog is flooded with fakes, drop shippers, bots and low quality products with fake reviews. I almost entirely avoid using them for purchasing home goods at this point, the risk is too great and the customer service is too poor. For things that Amazon itself sells, the cost is often not competitive. For everything else, I can get it cheape…

My biggest gripe is that they merge the reviews of different vendors of the same product, so for heavily-scammed items like laptop batteries, the reviews are almost useless.

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#14

Post by mox1 »

malnourish wrote: post #4

Contrary to a lot of comments I've seen lately I haven't had any issues with Amazon (is this wrong to say?). Maybe I've just not been purchasing the right (er, wrong) things but I've never had an issue with their customer service or item quality. One time I received an item a day late, got a full refund and a second item was shipped out to me next day. I've been a prime member for the past 6 years or so and I think p…

I think if you stick to items sold by "Amazon.com" and items that are hard to or not economical to fake you are probably ok.

So complicated electronics, your probably safe. Unless its a premium brand:

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3133627/technology-law-...

The fact that Amazon somehow let 90% of a certain set of products (Apple Accessories) be sold as fakes is crazy. Basically, I no longer trust Amazon at all. I will still buy from them, but it just got a lot more tedious (verification required on all my purchases).

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#15

Post by bsharitt »

ruddct wrote: post #2

Great, but doesn't come close to solving the actual problem: Amazon's retail catalog is flooded with fakes, drop shippers, bots and low quality products with fake reviews. I almost entirely avoid using them for purchasing home goods at this point, the risk is too great and the customer service is too poor. For things that Amazon itself sells, the cost is often not competitive. For everything else, I can get it cheape…

I stay away from third party sellers on Amazon these days as much as possible(as in I'll look elsewhere and only come back to them if they're the only viable option) and Amazon had been getting a lot closer to regular retail for stuff they sell directly, but I still find them cheaper in a lot of instances.

I've not had problems with two day Prime shipping. They seem to have good relationship with USPS locally and things get delivered quickly and smoothly. Where I've been less impressed is their so-called "same day delivery" that has been very unreliable. The company they use here for it is Lone Star Overnight, and they drop the ball all the time, sometimes badly enough that I would have gotten it as fast with 2 day shipping. Only bright side there is that I've got lots of partial refunds and a few months of Prime for free.

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#16

Post by CmdrSprinkles »

patejam wrote: post #5
ruddct wrote: post #2

Great, but doesn't come close to solving the actual problem: Amazon's retail catalog is flooded with fakes, drop shippers, bots and low quality products with fake reviews. I almost entirely avoid using them for purchasing home goods at this point, the risk is too great and the customer service is too poor. For things that Amazon itself sells, the cost is often not competitive. For everything else, I can get it cheape…

I haven't had this experience at all. Prime ships in two days almost always. Same day prime does was it says. I've had refunds without having to ship back products, and when I did have to ship back a product (shoes) I got the refund right away and free return shipping like they advertised. I'm also in a major US metro area. Prices don't seem too bad. My latest purchase was head and shoulders. Looked up the price at W…

I recently moved from being twenty miles from a distribution center to the middle of nowhere.

After eventually getting annoyed enough to contact Amazon, it was explained that Release Date Delivery and Prime 2-Day Shipping aren't actually guarantees.

And that mostly lines up. When I lived next door they were super fast to refund instantly. Now that I don't, they are a lot less likely. A proper return and refund is the same, but just a "So... where the hell is my coffee grinder that I ordered last Friday?" exchange results in "It is on the way. You might see it Thursday" response.

I still prefer Amazon and still go for prime shipping products (it is still worth it price wise), but I am a lot less likely to buy time sensitive stuff through them anymore and a lot more likely to just go with the "I don't care when it gets here, give me some store credit" shipping.

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#17

Post by ben1040 »

5555624 wrote: post #12

It does not address my latest issue with reviews -- the reviews don't apply to the actual item in question. Looking for a copy of "Don Quixote," the first 5-star review discussed two different translators -- neither of which was the translator for the edition in question. Most of he reviews were for other translations of the book. This is not limited to books, either, as every now and then I see a review for a differ…

That or customers write reviews for things like the way the product was packed, or the shipping method that brought the product to their door.

Not only does it not have to do with the product, but same SKU is often sold by multiple sellers. So your packing/shipping experience will differ depending upon whether you bought it "sold by Amazon," "sold by $COMPANY and fulfilled by Amazon," or "sold and shipped by $COMPANY."

A rating for a book shouldn't be affected by the fact that one buyer ended up buying it from some rando third party retailer who fulfilled the order by packing it poorly and sending it media mail.

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#18

Post by Caerus »

CmdrSprinkles wrote: post #16
patejam wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had this experience at all. Prime ships in two days almost always. Same day prime does was it says. I've had refunds without having to ship back products, and when I did have to ship back a product (shoes) I got the refund right away and free return shipping like they advertised. I'm also in a major US metro area. Prices don't seem too bad. My latest purchase was head and shoulders. Looked up the price at W…

I recently moved from being twenty miles from a distribution center to the middle of nowhere. After eventually getting annoyed enough to contact Amazon, it was explained that Release Date Delivery and Prime 2-Day Shipping aren't actually guarantees. And that mostly lines up. When I lived next door they were super fast to refund instantly. Now that I don't, they are a lot less likely. A proper return and refund is the…

There is a bit of compensation available. If an item doesn't arrive in 2 days you can request a free month of Prime:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

"If you received free shipping through Amazon Prime, you may be eligible for a free one-month extension when the promised delivery date isn't met. Prime Extensions are limited to one per free trial and 12 for an annual membership. Free Amazon Student Memberships do not qualify for this extension."

Just contact support about that order and tell them the item didn't arrive in time and you'd like your free month of Prime. Since they switched to the Amazon delivery service I'm about to max out my 12 free months.

Re: Amazon imposes limit on reviews

#20

Post by falcolas »

ruddct wrote: post #2

Great, but doesn't come close to solving the actual problem: Amazon's retail catalog is flooded with fakes, drop shippers, bots and low quality products with fake reviews. I almost entirely avoid using them for purchasing home goods at this point, the risk is too great and the customer service is too poor. For things that Amazon itself sells, the cost is often not competitive. For everything else, I can get it cheape…

> Amazon's retail catalog is flooded with fakes, drop shippers, bots and low quality products with fake reviews.

I've been noticing this more and more as well. For example, searching for a manual coffee grinder results in three dozen pages of the same four items rebranded and sold by hundreds of individual sellers (and a few chair parts for good measure). All with plenty of good reviews. Finding an actual product amongst all the dreck is getting pretty damned hard.

Post reply on HN