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OMG.....glad Amazon has put a stop to this. A few months back I responded to an ad on Craigslist to be a product tester. The product would be shipped to me, I'd try it out and then leave reviews ($10 for positive, $5 for a negative). They sent only one product. I tried it, left a review and thought this would be a source of easy money. After that, they wanted me to give 5 star ratings to items that were never sent and I had no idea of how good they were. To have someone buy a crappy item because of my glowing reviews just seemed wrong, and I wanted no part of it.
Another ploy was to give negative reviews to competitors. They offered to pay $10 for each negative review given. The whole experience has made me much more leery of depending on reviews when purchasing online.
Amazon is heaven for criminals. I read today that a tech magazine ordered a dozen supposedly original Samsung cell phone batteries from various sellers. Guess how many of them were fake/pirated? All 12 of them, not a single original Samsung battery
Yelp is useless has its used by so many fake or people who like to give even bad reviews. As far as rechargeable batteries there are so many fake and old battery sellers out there including store fronts. One thing about Amazon is their standing behind any return so well compared to most.
I focus on:
- negative reviews, I rarely read the positive ones
- replies to reviews because replies are often written by people who really know the products and notice false claims
- the numbers: when there are few reviews of a product, those are much more likely to be manipulated, while when there are hundreds or thousands, many of them are authentic
I focus on:
- negative reviews, I rarely read the positive ones
- replies to reviews because replies are often written by people who really know the products and notice false claims
- the numbers: when there are few reviews of a product, those are much more likely to be manipulated, while when there are hundreds or thousands, many of them are authentic
Excellent advice. I select "lowest rating" to see why people do not like a product rather than why they do. However, if there are 500 positive reviews and only 2 or 3 negative reviews, I'm usually swayed by the 5 star opinions.
One thing I notice on many sites (not just Amazon) is that buyers post comments immediately after receiving an item. That's usually because they're encouraged to do so in an email from the vendor or website. One thing I've always liked about Amazon's reviews is that the buyer can edit his/her comment months after posting it. I've returned to a comment after a year to follow up on my first review if I'm still using a product.
Sometimes people don't read the label on an item correctly. For example, if you see "400mg" per serving on a supplement bottle, it might mean you need to take four 100mg capsules, so a bottle of 120 is a 30 day supply. I think it's up to the buyer to carefully read the label. I recently read a complaint about a multivitamin I take daily. It said, "contains magnesium oxide which gives me diarrhea" Magnesium oxide 40mg (10%) is clearly listed on the label.
It's just my opinion, but I think people who post within a few days of getting an item are more likely to post a positive review. For example, if you buy a laptop, you might tell everyone it's great, but then it dies in 6 months and your 5 star review is still posted. In other words, some 5 star comments might be real, but unintentionally misleading.
Then there are the reviewers who don't read directions and trash an item in a review. Last year I rented a home for a few months that didn't have a toaster. I went to Walmart and spent $10 on a Rival toaster, so I didn't expect too much, just toast. Several reviewers complained that there was no cancel button. One person said he had to unplug the toaster and another said his toast was burning and he couldn't get the damn toaster to pop. So I finally wrote my own review and in it used the 4 letters "RTFM" A simple 2 page instruction guide enclosed in the box clearly stated "to set, turn dial from 1 to 6. to cancel, turn dial all the way to the left to the off position." I'm sure that happens on Amazon too.
Amazon has filed a first-ever lawsuit claiming fake product reviews were being bought online by some companies to enhance their products with five star ratings.
Amazon claims that this amounts to deceit and damages its repuation. The suit also claims trademark infringement, unfair practices and deceptive acts.
Amazon has filed a first-ever lawsuit claiming fake product reviews were being bought online by some companies to enhance their products with five star ratings.
Amazon claims that this amounts to deceit and damages its repuation. The suit also claims trademark infringement, unfair practices and deceptive acts.
More on the story here: [URL="http://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-files-first-ever-suit-over-fake-reviews-alleging-calif-man-sold-fraudulent-praise-for-products/"]Amazon files first-ever suit over fake product reviews, alleging sites sold fraudulent praise - GeekWire[/URL]
Oops - wish I could edit my earlier post.
I was reacting to other comments posted and misunderstood the article which I should have read more carefully.
I recently saw an ad on TV for a service to protect a company's reputation by deleting negative feedback which made me wonder how ethical it is. It advertises "We'll even write reviews for you."
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