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In the past year or two, I've noticed a dramatic rise in the number of counterfeit products. If you buy directly from Amazon, it generally seems ok, but all bet

by freyr 11y ago

In the past year or two, I've noticed a dramatic rise in the number of counterfeit products. If you buy directly from Amazon, it generally seems ok, but all bets are off when you buy from a third party. I've also noticed the increased gaming of the reviews system. If you read reviews of many of the highest rated products, you often find that most are shills who are given products for free in exchange for "fair and unbiased reviews." Funny how many of their unbiased reviews award five stars. It's getting pretty bad.

Klathmon 11y ago
For me it's the amount of spam i'm getting asking for reviews. One of the big reasons i shop with amazon is so i know that i don't need to deal with making another account, giving someone else my CC info, getting relentless spam email every week telling me to buy more. But now sellers are using the "contact customer" system to beg for reviews, and it's starting to get annoying enough that i want to avoid amazon. Just a few months ago i ordered about 20 separate things for a project i'm working on, and over the next 2 weeks proceeded to get 30+ emails asking for reviews of the products, reviews of the sellers, asking if i'm satisfied with their products, etc. All of these coming straight from the sellers themselves right above the warning from amazon that this system is only to resolve problems with the product/shipping...
- devicenull 11y ago
  And Amazon's answer to all this seller spam is "oh, just unsubscribe from it". Completely missing the point that I'd have to do this once per seller.
- PixelB 11y ago
  I tend to give negative product reviews when harassed by the sellers like this. In my opinion, the review should also be reflective of the company making/selling the product.
  - Klathmon 11y ago
    I've actually started giving negative seller reviews for this. If you go to http://www.amazon.com/feedback http://www.amazon.com/feedback you can review the sellers instead of the product.
    - PixelB 11y ago
      Good idea, I'll be sure to do that too! To be fair though, I believe people are much more likely to see a product rating than a seller rating. As evidenced by the number of "unbiased" 5 star reviews.
  - fnayr 11y ago
    I did that once and the review got removed for "not appropriate" or something. I'm sure the seller flagged it for review for amazon knowing since I reviewed the seller and not the product, he could get it removed. (Which doesn't really make sense, because in buying the product I got harassed by the seller, so it affected my enjoyment of the product).
  - emodendroket 11y ago
    The same product is often sold by multiple sellers, though.
CydeWeys 11y ago
Amazon is seriously undercutting their reputation thanks to the resellers that they allow on their site, many of whom have problematic product quality, authenticity, and accuracy of item description (to say the least). You really have to be careful that you aren't getting ripped off or buying junk. Most retail establishments protect their brands better.

by freyr 11y ago

Klathmon 11y ago

For me it's the amount of spam i'm getting asking for reviews. One of the big reasons i shop with amazon is so i know that i don't need to deal with making another account, giving someone else my CC info, getting relentless spam email every week telling me to buy more. But now sellers are using the "contact customer" system to beg for reviews, and it's starting to get annoying enough that i want to avoid amazon. Just a few months ago i ordered about 20 separate things for a project i'm working on, and over the next 2 weeks proceeded to get 30+ emails asking for reviews of the products, reviews of the sellers, asking if i'm satisfied with their products, etc. All of these coming straight from the sellers themselves right above the warning from amazon that this system is only to resolve problems with the product/shipping...

devicenull 11y ago
And Amazon's answer to all this seller spam is "oh, just unsubscribe from it". Completely missing the point that I'd have to do this once per seller.
PixelB 11y ago
I tend to give negative product reviews when harassed by the sellers like this. In my opinion, the review should also be reflective of the company making/selling the product.
- Klathmon 11y ago
  I've actually started giving negative seller reviews for this. If you go to http://www.amazon.com/feedback http://www.amazon.com/feedback you can review the sellers instead of the product.
  - PixelB 11y ago
    Good idea, I'll be sure to do that too! To be fair though, I believe people are much more likely to see a product rating than a seller rating. As evidenced by the number of "unbiased" 5 star reviews.
- fnayr 11y ago
  I did that once and the review got removed for "not appropriate" or something. I'm sure the seller flagged it for review for amazon knowing since I reviewed the seller and not the product, he could get it removed. (Which doesn't really make sense, because in buying the product I got harassed by the seller, so it affected my enjoyment of the product).
- emodendroket 11y ago
  The same product is often sold by multiple sellers, though.

CydeWeys 11y ago

Amazon is seriously undercutting their reputation thanks to the resellers that they allow on their site, many of whom have problematic product quality, authenticity, and accuracy of item description (to say the least). You really have to be careful that you aren't getting ripped off or buying junk. Most retail establishments protect their brands better.