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Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

arstechnica.com

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Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#181

Post by briffle »

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #111
TravisLS wrote: post #18

There's a somewhat pervasive idea that advertising and brand recognition are coercive tools that will ultimately die out, replaced by better objective information about products. I'm kind of partial to this idea myself. But increasingly we seem a long way from achieving this. Amazon reviews have become such garbage, I've fallen back to pretty much relying on name brands as my placeholder for product quality. There's…

I know my comment will be lost in a sea of voices, but I need to share my experience _somewhere_ else other than amazon reviews. I got my fiancé two Christmas presents this year - both bought off Amazon. One was an electronic keyboard that was dead on arrival, the other was a snuggie type blanket that started falling apart yesterday. Both items had thousands of 5 star reviews. I usually go somewhere (anywhere) else b…

Any time I put a less than 5 star review, i get contacted by the seller, who many times offer to send me a free replacement, a newer model, or another product I may be interested in, if I change my review. I have refused, but I imagine many others did that.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#182

Post by jimmaswell »

bombcar wrote: post #32
TravisLS wrote: post #18

There's a somewhat pervasive idea that advertising and brand recognition are coercive tools that will ultimately die out, replaced by better objective information about products. I'm kind of partial to this idea myself. But increasingly we seem a long way from achieving this. Amazon reviews have become such garbage, I've fallen back to pretty much relying on name brands as my placeholder for product quality. There's…

Amusingly enough if you trace the history of brand names ... this is why they started! And this is the strength that the major retailers have against Amazon - if Amazon won't police (and they have problems with commingling counterfeit brands, too) then Walmart and Target will jump ahead.

I get the sense this problem is massively overstated around here. My experience on Amazon is great, same for everybody I know who uses it.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#183

Post by sathackr »

ryanyde wrote: post #178

Journalists have never operated an ecommerce company. In the same year, they'll publish a story about how requiring manufacturing information enables them to steal secrets from sellers. You can't have it both ways.

If Amazon wasn't directly competing against their sellers, and doing exactly what you said, while lying to Congress about it [1], then maybe journalists wouldn't be writing about Amazon stealing secrets from sellers.

1. https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-scooped-up-data-from-its...

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#184

Post by prepend »

baryphonic wrote: post #124
mason55 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you’re describing is exactly how brands work. The garbage brands will continue to cycle because there’s no reason to keep the brand name (in fact it’s better to change it so that people who got burned don’t know it’s the same). But the good brands are investing in the brand name and so they will stick around and you’ll start to recognize them. Look at a company like Anker. They operate in spaces filled with garb…

This is on point. When I first ordered something from Anker (a USB-C dongle IIRC), I was worried it'd be knock-off trash. Their brand hadn't been established long enough for me to evaluate their reputation. But the quality was high and now I trust it. I was happy to pick up one of their MacBook Pro USB-C hubs on Prime Day, and would happily buy more Anker supplies in the future.

There’s a cycle with these brands. Monster started out not insane and then quickly just became bad stuff with a brand. I also remember when Belkin used to be consistently good and now it varies by product.

I’m afraid for when monoprice stops being an awesome brand and starts coasting.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#185

Post by lotsofpulp »

coldpie wrote: post #167
mcpherrinm wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BestBuy has added third party sellers online too: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/about/selling-on-marketplace/bl... Though they don’t seem to have many yet, I did run across it recently. In-store pickup items are still seemingly safe though.

Seems to not be on the US site, for now, but that's very discouraging to see. I don't know where to turn for electronics if Best Buy goes to crap, too. (I smell a market opportunity for a retailer that sells only quality products...)

Adding third party sellers is not a problem. Removing the ability to filter for items sold by the retailer, and commingling inventory with random resellers is the problem.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#186

Post by PaulKeeble »

rickyc091 wrote: post #99
PaulKeeble wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been the victim of multiple instances of fraudulent product, sold directly by Amazon. One was a salt grinder that had a plastic replacement where it should have been metal and was lacking the lettering but was sold on Amazon from the official page. Somewhere in their system Amazon is accepting product that isn't official and happily selling it under than companies brand. If it was a one off I might agree it wa…

Are you sure there aren't multiple variations of the same product? I made an online purchase for some oral-b toothbrush heads from Target. The item that arrived did not resemble what was on their website. I figure since it's a big retailer, it's probably legit. I checked the official manufacturer's website and the product was also different. Digging a bit deeper into the product images, I finally found one that looke…

Quite certain, it was actually a Chinese knock off of a Salters product. Salters never sold a version with a plastic adjustment bar on the bottom for the reason I saw, it breaks almost immediately.

Amazon is really muddying the waters by combining products too. They seem to be merging comments and products that shouldn't be merged and are different SKUs and that is definitely a problem, but its also participating in the fraudulent sale of knock off products and passing them off as the real thing.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#187

Post by PaulKeeble »

Bedon292 wrote: post #86
MichaelApproved wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even stuff sold directly by Amazon could be co-mingled with counterfeit inventory from 3rd party sellers.

Has this changed? My understanding is that Amazon only comingles 3rd parties and keeps their stuff completely separate. Of course my only source for that appears to be here / reddit so not sure how true it is. https://www.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/dmrri4...

I have seen it three times this year and the last time was November so I would say no its not been fixed and its still happening. If they aren't commingling third party product then they are directly sourcing counterfeit products and that is so much worse and clearly illegal.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#188

Post by prepend »

orev wrote: post #92
TravisLS wrote: post #18

There's a somewhat pervasive idea that advertising and brand recognition are coercive tools that will ultimately die out, replaced by better objective information about products. I'm kind of partial to this idea myself. But increasingly we seem a long way from achieving this. Amazon reviews have become such garbage, I've fallen back to pretty much relying on name brands as my placeholder for product quality. There's…

Given the counterfeit problem on Amazon, I have been using the retailer as a proxy instead. I feel much more comfortable buying things from a known retailer like Target or Walmart, since I can rely on them to at least do some kind of due diligence on the products they carry. I think this will be the way forward for these companies to stay in business as Amazon becomes overrun with junk.

This Christmas I used Walmart more than Amazon over 21 years of previous “Amazon christmases.”

When I filtered for Walmart only my experience was great. No searching for ps5 and seeing Xbox ads, just stuff that matched my search.

Also Walmart shipping was 1-2 days and free. So I guess logistics is getting figured out when Walmart free is beating Amazon prime.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#189

Post by hinkley »

ethbr0 wrote: post #139
coldpie wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've completely stopped ordering from Amazon, for three reasons: they have too much market power, they have serious ethics problems, and their 3rd party seller program has made the buying experience garbage. Welcome to the club.

I've come full circle and only order books (usually used) or things I don't care if they're Chinese bargain-version off Amazon anymore. Target, or occasionally Walmart, gets what used to be Amazon's business from me.

B & H photos has done right by me so far. CDW seems okay. Newegg appears to have vendors reselling stuff from Amazon with markup. And while you can filter third party out, you quickly discover Newegg doesn’t have much inventory.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#190

Post by Grimm1 »

yrimaxi wrote: post #179
Grimm1 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An older friend of mine made the observation that really before the few large news networks and papers in the last 40-50 years objective information that everyone roughly agreed upon was not the norm. Yellow journalism, hearsay and rumors dominated common conversation. He observed that with the internet we're returning to what was this "normal" state with anybody being able to post something and gain widespread recog…

Nostalgia for the days when the NYT and co. could lie the whole nation into some war (or rather the people who read the NYT).

Your words not mine bud.
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