Amazon reviews - getting ridiculous

robatwork

I have always loved Amazon's reviews - but the shills are so widespread now it's always worth checking them, or just ignoring.

For example I'm looking for a windscreen frost cover.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KEPLIN%C2%AE-Magnetic-Windscreen-Windshield-Protector/dp/B0776W1WNW

is called a shill here https://www.fakespot.com/product/keplin-magnetic-windscreen-cover-frost-windshield-snow-all-weather-cover-with-dust-protector-pouch

Harry Middleton - yeah course with your one review

Louis Boyle - nice pic Louis, just like https://www.istockphoto.com/gb/photo/why-not-use-this-copyspace-its-free-gm181086342-25507320?esource=SEO_GIS_CDN_Redirect

And somehow I don't expect an April Duckworth to look like that.

Dox

They used to be worth reading, but the advent of that ridiculous review site a year or two back meant everyone started to write overlong and overenthusiastic reviews to ensure they got more free items to review.

RFW

Dox wrote: »

They used to be worth reading, but the advent of that ridiculous review site a year or two back meant everyone started to write overlong and overenthusiastic reviews to ensure they got more free items to review.

Amazon have changed their policy on free items to review.
I do have a competitor that has flooded their items with reviews. Most of the genuine ones are 3 stars and below it's fairly easy to see the fake ones. Ultimately they'll pay for it as it increases customer expectation and is more likely to end up with lower reviews from new customers.

It would help if reviews were more easily removed by Amazon only profanity seems to get them removed. I recently had a one star review on a product that said something along the lines of "Sorry for the low review but I purchased this item by mistake and it wasn't what I wanted".

mrcol1000

Amazon reviews are pointless whether people are being paid to or not. Most people only leave reviews when they are unhappy. Even then sellers will try and bribe them to remove them.

I left a poor review of an item I brought, the seller sent me an e-mail every day asking me to remove and improving the bribe each day. I complained to Amazon about the harassment (after two weeks of daily e-mails) and they said sellers were allowed to follow up feedback. I left a review of the seller complaining about the harassment, Amazon removed this as they said you can't leave seller feedback when it is fulfilled by Amazon.

Having reviews from a wide range of people who are following guidelines and are subjective are far more useful than someone who hates something because they didn't read it needs a different kind of batteries to what they have. Amazon give out free stuff in return for reviews. They could easily manage third parties to allow this. with a warning added that it was given to a person free in return for a review.

robatwork

I did report this item to Amazon - will see what they do

RFW

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Amazon reviews are pointless whether people are being paid to or not. Most people only leave reviews when they are unhappy. Even then sellers will try and bribe them to remove them.

There are quite a lot of people leaving higher reviews on products. It is the case that negatives are more likely to be left than positives. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to it, but some products attract more reviews than others

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I left a poor review of an item I brought, the seller sent me an e-mail every day asking me to remove and improving the bribe each day. I complained to Amazon about the harassment (after two weeks of daily e-mails) and they said sellers were allowed to follow up feedback. I left a review of the seller complaining about the harassment, Amazon removed this as they said you can't leave seller feedback when it is fulfilled by Amazon.

It depends on the wording of the feedback but buyers can leave reviews for customers on Amazon fulfilled items. I know because I've had a couple of negatives that Amazon won't remove. If they do remove the rating they usually leave the comment and strike it through rather than removing it totally.

mrcol1000 wrote: »

They could easily manage third parties to allow this. with a warning added that it was given to a person free in return for a review.

It's mostly not allowed now, apart from media. Amazon tend to give freebies to high rated reviewers.

FatVonD

Does having reviews help your ranking at all?

I am a new seller and only have four reviews from 84 sales, I did wonder whether to message any of the buyers asking them to leave a review but should I just leave well alone?

RFW

FatVonD wrote: »

Does having reviews help your ranking at all?

I am a new seller and only have four reviews from 84 sales, I did wonder whether to message any of the buyers asking them to leave a review but should I just leave well alone?

I can't really answer either of those questions with any accuracy and I'd guess others would have different experiences. However from experience good reviews seem to have some effect on rankings. I have had a product that was a really good seller for over 18 months with no reviews at all.

As for asking, some seem to do well at it. I always think it's going to annoy the customers. I know I get fed up of companies asking me for reviews.

forgotmyname

Bought a few things off Amazon recently and one seller has sent several messages for me to leave a review. Its made me more suspicious (a clone battery for a tool). I know its a clone and expect the Ah rating to be overstated, at the price i expect that and have no issues. But its made me want to test it and the first charge didnt go well. Ran the battery down a bit and charged it up, thought that charged really quickly but after leaving it in the charger its now flashing up as a bad battery.

Just because he pushed to me leaving feedback he may get some that states its a poor product and a return to boot.

Art_Vandelay_2

Fake reviews are certainly big business on Amazon (and elsewhere).

I follow a lot of true crime cases, quite a few times I have seen highly organised efforts on private forums, to manipulate the reviews. Few years ago with one high profile case, some people were paying significant amounts of money, well over £15-20 per hour, to anybody who wrote 5* positive reviews slanted to one side of the story, and 1* reviews (and attacks in comments) to any books that had a contrarian view.

robatwork

FatVonD wrote: »

Does having reviews help your ranking at all?

I am a new seller and only have four reviews from 84 sales, I did wonder whether to message any of the buyers asking them to leave a review but should I just leave well alone?

I missed this. The answer has to be yes, as I tend to always change the order I display results by ranking. I discount items with 1 review....so if your 4 are 5* then that's still better than 80 3* reviews.

You should run your reviews through the review checker I referred to in post 1