This is such a solve-able problem that it can only be purposeful.
Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
61–70 of 238 posts
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#62I 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 mig…
Scamazon, Wak-Mart, and Turget likely facilitate the sale of shoddy goods because consumers need to repurchase them when they break and overall that makes them higher profits. I've had to buy room fans almost every year because that's really the only local option I have now at big box stores near me, The smaller shops are all closed now.
This is why we can't allow the concept of mom-and-pop shops to die off... Quality of consumer goods should always outrank price in terms of importance, that's also possibly why many of the largest outlets are resorting to enabling fake and misleading reviews.
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#63I 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.
These companies are probably hiring more psychologists and marketers than product quality testers... It shows.
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the short term Amazon may benefit from this. But the fake reviews, throw-away brands, and counterfeit items are gradually corroding Amazon's credibility and brand identity among customers. This is the first year I've heard family members (who are frequent Amazon customers) complaining about these kinds of issues.
By the time the negative long term effects are felt, the executives responsible for the short term juicing will have extracted massive personal wealth.
Every empire declines eventually. And I think they really earned that wealth.
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#65I 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…
> yet none of their hundreds of highly paid engineers are able to do anything
Moderation doesn't scale well, so hundreds of engineers don't go very far even if you put them all on moderation. Google doesn't like to put money on anything that can't be automated (even when it's the appropriate, like customer service), hence you see only ML filters that of course can't tell the difference.
Also, careful what you wish for. As we've seen, one man's moderation is another man's 1A violation. I'd much more prefer comments, downvotes and user defined filters to do the accountability, than a guaranteed-shitty DOA moderation/truth keeper team. I worry much more about YT's slow creep towards a fully auto-play, advertiser friendly TV equivalent.
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#66Internet companies and their defenders sometimes insist that this kind of problem is impossible to solve—that the scale of the web makes a certain amount of bad behavior impossible to stop.
Impossible? Which Internet companies have made such a claim?
And who is their “defenders” that feels so compelled to step for the likes of Amazon?
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#67Amazon has now removed the reviews from the first link, but I found one where the reviews are for glassware. Every review has a 'report abuse' button, but there is nowhere for me to report the product on the page.
I use ReviewMeta but unfortunately it doesn't appear to be working for these.
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#68I 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 mig…
Scamazon, Wak-Mart, and Turget likely facilitate the sale of shoddy goods because consumers need to repurchase them when they break and overall that makes them higher profits. I've had to buy room fans almost every year because that's really the only local option I have now at big box stores near me, The smaller shops are all closed now. This is why we can't allow the concept of mom-and-pop shops to die off... Qualit…
Yeah, the problem is Mom-and-pop shops just can't survive on the customers who are willing to spend extra to make sure they get a quality product. It's not just that there aren't enough people in this country who're willing to pay extra... it's that you can't even get those quality products anymore. Stuff made ten years ago in every category from mattresses to washing machines is more durable and will last longer than stuff made today. A mom & pop shop has to find and source stuff that's not garbage, and hope people are willing to shell out extra for it, but where can they even get the inventory? Most of the quality manufacturers have been put out of business by the tidal wave of Chinese-made garbage, and the few that haven't still source most of their parts from China, which makes them less reliable than they were even a few years ago.
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#69I 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 mig…
> 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.
That sounds very much like they'd have an interest in fixing the problem. Short-sightedness does not appear to be one of Amazons issues.
Re: Amazon still isn't doing enough to stop bait-and-switch reviews
#70I 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 mig…
Scamazon, Wak-Mart, and Turget likely facilitate the sale of shoddy goods because consumers need to repurchase them when they break and overall that makes them higher profits. I've had to buy room fans almost every year because that's really the only local option I have now at big box stores near me, The smaller shops are all closed now. This is why we can't allow the concept of mom-and-pop shops to die off... Qualit…
> Scamazon, Wak-Mart, and Turget
Are those nicknames for major retailers or are they knock offs themselves? After shopping at Wu-Mart in Beijing, I really can’t tell anymore.
> This is why we can't allow the concept of mom-and-pop shops to die off
In Beijing, I was much less likely to get scammed at Walmart or Carrefour than at the many local mom and pop shops.