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

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

#51
post #48

If you leave a bad review on a high priced item often you will be contacted and offered a refund for removing the review.

I have been fighting with Amazon on a review for a product I bought and returned for weeks now. The manufacture is trying to bribe me to remove my review (offering me multiple times what I paid for it at this point). I have been trying to update my review to reflect that but it keeps being denied but I am not being told why. It is very frustrating that these companies are able to deceive customers through reviews.

I had the same experience when I received a gift card with my item imploring me to leave a good review. Mentioning this "incentive" in the review got it blocked by Amazon.

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

#52

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.

What do you use as an alternative to Yelp for finding restaurants?

I go to every restaurant in a geographical area. Right now I'm going through all of the City Heights district of San Diego: 65 down, about 25 to go...

I've also done Del Mar (110 restaurants), Downtown SD (around 80 before I stopped) and 30th Street (maybe 35 or so?).

Oh, and I've been in a group for the last 10 years that goes out to eat at a new restaurant every couple months.

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

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yelp -- untrusted, irrelevant, ultimately deserted. Is that true of Yelp? People I know still use it (I don't).

What do you use?

It depends on what I'm looking for. People I know, local news, objective data, just trying different places until I find one I like. There are no great answers.

Yelp does serve as a sort of index of shops.

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

#54
post #9

Personally experienced this. I bookmarked a keyboard I was interested in purchasing in a month or so. When I went back it was a completely different item with the same reviews. Just today in fact, I was looking for an office chair seat cushion and found a very telling reddit comment from 3 years ago[1]. I know Amazon has a bulletproof return policy for the most part but I don't want to be hassled with returning every…

You don’t have to return it. Print the return label and attach it to whatever you want.

You’re not on Reddit. We actually frown upon dishonest and unethical behavior here.

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

#55

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.

Ensuring a competitor can’t arise in other ways? Unlike Yelp, Amazon has oodles of expensive and difficult-to-replicate physical infrastructure, hordes of low-level staff, exclusive supply contracts aplenty, enough cash reserves to price-dump anybody into oblivion, and probably many other things I don’t even know I don’t know about. Competition only works when barriers to entry are absent, small, or at least surmount…

I’m sure the brick and mortar stores felt similar before Amazon came and ate their lunch. Expensive and difficult to replicate infrastructure is a protective measure until it suddenly becomes a millstone around your neck due to its cost and inertia.

On the other hand customer trust is also a great moat to protect you from being usurped, and no company will ever come to rue having too much consumer trust. Amazon is foolish to spend this consumer trust down for increased profits.

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

#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 might catch fire.

Amazon has no interest in fixing this problem, because they know that well over half their "inventory" is now from knockoffs, IP theft and/or bait-and-switch scams. it's almost impossible to find items there anymore that are not fake, whether it's re-packaged hard drives or "pyrex" bowls that explode in the microwave.

One way to look at this, and the way I think Amazon must look at it, is that it's not any worse than a third world night market. The attitude of vendors in, e.g. Phnom Penh or Mexico City markets is that the very fact that stupid Americans think they're going to get "real" goods just proves how much they deserve to be scammed. Amazon is actually helping baffled Americans to finally understand what the third world has always known - unboxing is going to be disappointing. Everything you think is affordable is probably fake, and you can't trust the packaging. Only the rich get actual brand products. As America degrades, people will start to get more savvy and more cynical about this, but right now it's still a newish phenomenon and people are shocked, shocked! to find out the kids toys they bought are full of toxic chemicals that we ourselves shipped overseas for burial or "recycling".

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

#57

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.

> Yelp -- untrusted, irrelevant, ultimately deserted. Is that true of Yelp? People I know still use it (I don't).

Indeed. As much as few I know trust Yelp, there really isn't anything close to an effective alternative, except for maybe the Uber Eats ratings.

This is why this is not a problem for Amazon. Removing Amazon from my life would require substantially restructuring it and losing a lot more time procuring goods. Have I been burned a few times by shoddy goods? Yes, the alternative is spending time in stores or spending days waiting for packages. I can order something in the morning and have it delivered by the evening.

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

#58

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.

Ensuring a competitor can’t arise in other ways? Unlike Yelp, Amazon has oodles of expensive and difficult-to-replicate physical infrastructure, hordes of low-level staff, exclusive supply contracts aplenty, enough cash reserves to price-dump anybody into oblivion, and probably many other things I don’t even know I don’t know about. Competition only works when barriers to entry are absent, small, or at least surmount…

Amazon is now directly chartering cargo ships: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/10/technology/amazon-cargo-s...

They don't even have to spend cash to price-dump. Wallyworld and the membership warehouses get cheap prices by dangling huge purchase orders in front of companies. "We can always go to your competitor" is the unspoken threat.

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

#59

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.

Same for YouTube. they allow blatant crypto scam videos to run (such as videos impersonating famous people like Michael Saylor) yet none of their hundreds of highly paid engineers are able to do anything even though it is such a blatant fraud and people are losing a lot of money. It's like "who cares if users are being ripped off. sucks for them. not our responsibility." Unless a law is passed holding these companies…

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? Fine, go ahead…

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

#60
post #48

If you leave a bad review on a high priced item often you will be contacted and offered a refund for removing the review.

I have been fighting with Amazon on a review for a product I bought and returned for weeks now. The manufacture is trying to bribe me to remove my review (offering me multiple times what I paid for it at this point). I have been trying to update my review to reflect that but it keeps being denied but I am not being told why. It is very frustrating that these companies are able to deceive customers through reviews.

There are certain things you're not allowed to mention. For example, anything related to shipping speed or delivery issues. Even if the item was shipped direct by the seller.

Hope this helps.

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