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Anyone got any thoughts?
I write no reviews at all. Also, take no customer service surveys. Why provide free services to billionaires? Let amazon hire a product review staff. Let Verizon supervisors monitor the quality of the phone staff. Let uber hire secret shoppers. These companies are all exploiting your good will to enrich themselves.
This makes me so mad
I have been thinking about the review problem for a long time and while I think I have a practicable solution, I am not sure if there is any money to be made. If truthful reviews cost more than fake ones is there anyone out there to willing to pay the extra cost? Customers don't appear to want to pay anything nor sellers. Anyone got any thoughts?
But it's far more lucrative for sellers to pay for fake reviews, e.g. celebrity endporsements, magazine articles, youtube videos etc.
So much content out there is just lying about products for sale that I think a for-profit model for honest reviews will inevitably decide to open itself up to fake reviews or paid content. The pressure to do so is just to great and the rewards are hard to turn down.
Wikipedia's article on "reviews" [1] is surprisingly sparse. I expected to find an overview of approaches to combat manipulation of reviews, e.g. through AI or collaboratively through reputation systems, but alas. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that bad reviews can be just as fake as good ones, as they could be written by the product's competitors. Also, if a product is popular enough, odds are that even with a great product there'll be a small fraction of people who'll just happen to get a dud, while most of the rest will be satisfied. Because of this, I tend to read both good and bad reviews, and give more weight to the longer reviews that…
For me, it's the 4-star and 3-star reviews, and distribution of them compared to the rest (this can be gamed though). I see no reason that somebody would pay for 4 or 3 star reviews, and also competition would pay for 1 or 2 star ones instead. Primitive logic, but worked +-OK for me even on Amazon.
I have also noticed the tit-for-tat reviews on Amazon between competitors. Its quite common on the cheaper products, in my experience. I've bought one or two awful things due to being caught by fake reviews, but I do tend to go back and leave a dreadful review.
There are hundreds of groups on Facebook in which the seller will ask you to buy the product give them 5 star review and they will return your money (some time with the tip) on Paypal. And you can keep the product.
I tend to ignore good reviews and rely on bad ones mostly to make my decisions. Will also never leave a good review when I'm satisfied, they are indistinguishable from fake ones anyway, I tend to rather just leave bad reviews when I'm not satisfied.
The problem is that bad reviews can be just as fake as good ones, as they could be written by the product's competitors. Also, if a product is popular enough, odds are that even with a great product there'll be a small fraction of people who'll just happen to get a dud, while most of the rest will be satisfied. Because of this, I tend to read both good and bad reviews, and give more weight to the longer reviews that…
Add that Amazon are determined to show thirty no-name brands of cheap (and nasty) copies of whatever item you searched for, sometimes making the actual market leader really difficult to find, and it becomes more trouble than it's worth. I don't have hours to micro-manage and investigate every £10 purchase for fake product, fake review or not the brand I really wanted.
As a hugely keen early adopter of online shopping, these days I just go to the shops more and more often. It's just a shame there's so many fewer of them!
I have been thinking about the review problem for a long time and while I think I have a practicable solution, I am not sure if there is any money to be made. If truthful reviews cost more than fake ones is there anyone out there to willing to pay the extra cost? Customers don't appear to want to pay anything nor sellers. Anyone got any thoughts?
Consumers will pay for reviews they believe are truthful, like Consumer Reports. But it's far more lucrative for sellers to pay for fake reviews, e.g. celebrity endporsements, magazine articles, youtube videos etc. So much content out there is just lying about products for sale that I think a for-profit model for honest reviews will inevitably decide to open itself up to fake reviews or paid content. The pressure to…
My solution actually can't be opened to fake reviews, but it is expensive and I haven't been able to find a work around for that. Unfortunately quality costs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's face it, reviews are useless. Even when they come from professional product critics. Those critics can be compromised (bribed) by big business just the same. A good example of this were reviews for 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'; most reviews either against and in favor of that movie, by critic or causal viewer, were either fake or compromised.
It's easy to declare that reviews are useless. So how do you choose products then?