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There are other related problems with Amazon's product pages: Combining different items into one product page and review. For example take a look at the review

There are other related problems with Amazon's product pages: Combining different items into one product page and review. For example take a look at the review for the "Dell Ultrasharp U2415 24-Inch" display. There are 6 different sized monitors on that page. Some have very different technical specs. Combining products makes sense when the difference is color preference or the size of a shirt. But the 24-inch U2415 is a very different display from the 34-Inch curved screen U3415W Question and Answer section just before the actual reviews. I often see nonsense such as a question about a computer cable: Q: Can I eat it? A: I eat mine with ketchup.

uremog 10y ago
Or the ever insightful: Q: [Any question] A: I don't know.
- bobsoap 10y ago
  That boggled my mind for some time as well, but if you follow the rabbit, the answer is quite simple. Whenever someone asks a new question, Amazon sends an email to previous buyers of the product. The email is worded in a way that entices a quick reply from the user. I forget the exact language they use, but it's very straight-forward, and it seems to make some people think that someone asked them personally. It entices them so much that they actually reply to the email like they would to another person's email who is asking them directly... They are just being polite. What's funny is the irony in all of this. Amazon, a company that famously split tests nearly everything, manages to send people emails that look so genuine they get them to respond, even if they don't know an answer. And yet, the same company can't get the same people to add some genuine product reviews, which would help drown out the fakes. Of course I don't have the data to know the response rates of these emails. I also don't claim to know that drowning out fakes with more legitimate reviews is the end-all solution. But it does make me wonder why we're even having this discussion, and why we even need sites like Fakespot, while Amazon, sitting on all that data about every one of their users, somehow seems to be unable to put it to use.
  - uremog 10y ago
    That's funny, I had no idea they sent those emails even though I've had Amazon for a long time. Thanks.

uremog 10y ago

Or the ever insightful: Q: [Any question] A: I don't know.

bobsoap 10y ago
That boggled my mind for some time as well, but if you follow the rabbit, the answer is quite simple. Whenever someone asks a new question, Amazon sends an email to previous buyers of the product. The email is worded in a way that entices a quick reply from the user. I forget the exact language they use, but it's very straight-forward, and it seems to make some people think that someone asked them personally. It entices them so much that they actually reply to the email like they would to another person's email who is asking them directly... They are just being polite. What's funny is the irony in all of this. Amazon, a company that famously split tests nearly everything, manages to send people emails that look so genuine they get them to respond, even if they don't know an answer. And yet, the same company can't get the same people to add some genuine product reviews, which would help drown out the fakes. Of course I don't have the data to know the response rates of these emails. I also don't claim to know that drowning out fakes with more legitimate reviews is the end-all solution. But it does make me wonder why we're even having this discussion, and why we even need sites like Fakespot, while Amazon, sitting on all that data about every one of their users, somehow seems to be unable to put it to use.
- uremog 10y ago
  That's funny, I had no idea they sent those emails even though I've had Amazon for a long time. Thanks.