Fake reviews on large online shopping site?

Joface_2

patman99 wrote: »

Anyway, if you read-up on Hama, you will see from their company history that they have a range of guest brands such as Samsonite and Sandisk. They don't make the product or even own the company, they just have worldwide distribution rights.

That makes more sense.

redpete

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I had a reply from Amazon about the fake (allegedly!) reviews. They said

These reviews are within our posted guidelines. We won't remove the reviews in it in their current format, and we aren't able to consider the removal of these reviews any further. I'm sorry for any additional concerns this may cause. Please take a look at our Review Guidelines for information about acceptable review content:

The last statement was rather pointless as I had quoted a condition from these guidelines that were infringed.

I am surprised that the pattern of reviews is not considered suspicious. Some 90 out of her 121 reviews are of Hama products, all 5*s, others (e.g. Koss, Muse and Sandisk) are distributed by Hama and again all these branded products received 5* reviews.

I do like Amazon and use them a lot but their response has disappointed me.

Mindless_Clone

That makes me sad. How damaging to the integrity of Amazon that they won't deal with an obvious fake reviewer like this.

dacouch

Why don't you use the link I provided further up the page and report her to her local Trading Standards and let them deal with it

redpete

dacouch wrote: »

Why don't you use the link I provided further up the page and report her to her local Trading Standards and let them deal with it

I have, found the HAMA UK address, went onto the Hampshire Trading Standards website and filled in the consumer complaints form - unfortunately this goes to CAB but we'll see if it gets forwarded to the right place.

crazy_crow

Good work RedPete. I am going to do the same thing. When this issue first came up I also complained and got the same response. If you speak to Amazon Reps on the general info line they can obviously see that the reviews are 'odd' but once the allegations get forwarded to the review department then the response is always the same flat denial.
I have tried complaining several times. I also tried adding comments to the hama's reviews and despite the fact I was careful to write them in a neutral way, ie I just suggested checking out the reviewers other reviews. They were all deleted and I think I have now been effectively 'banned' from commenting on these Hama's products.
I know there will always be fake reviews but It is really disappointing that these large scale and 'professional' fake reviews are still there.
I will contact Hampshire trading standards today.

crazy_crow

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

That makes me sad. How damaging to the integrity of Amazon that they won't deal with an obvious fake reviewer like this.

It is also extremely damaging to the reputation of a company like Hama (UK) limited. It's illegal to post fake reviews and whilst we don't know who posted the reviews I imagine most people would assume that it was sanctioned by the Company involved.

crazy_crow

redpete wrote: »

I have, found the HAMA UK address, went onto the Hampshire Trading Standards website and filled in the consumer complaints form - unfortunately this goes to CAB but we'll see if it gets forwarded to the right place.

Did you ever hear back? Livvy Couch's dodgy reviews are still there :(:(:(:(:(:(:(

Amazon are obviously still happy for misleading and fake reviews to be posted on their site.