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Amazon Introduces Tougher Rules to Fight Fake Reviews

21 points by deegles 10y ago

pmoriarty 10y ago
I really despise those "I received this product at a discount for my honest review" reviews. "Honest review" my ass. Anyone who gets any kind of compensation for their review (even if only in the form of products or discounts) can not be trusted. To compound the problem, the seller can see the past reviews of prospective reviewers, and pick those who've tended to give positive "honest reviews". This skews the reviewing even further off. I've never ever seen an "honest review" that the reviewer made of a product they got at a discount that wasn't a positive review. Never. Amazon's discount review program should be terminated. Only people who've paid full price for their products and have received no compensation of any kind should be allowed to do reviews.
- twiceaday 10y ago
  > Anyone who gets any kind of compensation for their review (even if only in the form of products or discounts) can not be trusted. A weaker statement that is still useful is that they can't be trusted similarly to people who bought the product themselves. So it's fine to have sponsored reviews but they should be segmented.
daxorid 10y ago
Obvious solution: only accept reviews from customers who actually purchased the product.
- mc32 10y ago
  Absolutely and recurring customers with a certain gained "reputation" should have more weight than new customers without much buying history. Maybe require a reviewer amass x-amount in previous purchases before allowing them to review as well as t-time before they can review to avoid fraudulent reviews. I constantly get asked to review my purchases and have yet to do so. Some people are just not into doing reviews like that, specially if it feels like you're getting badgered.
- dmoy 10y ago
  That is an obvious solution for extremely expensive items that do not sell much. It doesn't work if the seller can just pay people to buy the thing and then write a review, no?
  - mc32 10y ago
    I think they should be able to tell apart from people's purchasing history if they are "organic" buyers [normal people's consumption patterns of goods] or something organized to curry favorable reviews. Sure someone could get paid to review an item and also be an avid consumer of a product, but in that case it would seem they believe in the item. Imagine someone buys eneloop over and over, never offer a review, then purchases a no-name brand, gives rave reviews and goes back to buying eneloop again.
TrevorJ 10y ago
Amazon is a completely dishonest company. Go look at the Xfinity internet reviews on their site. fully eightfive percent of them are a single star. And YET... Xfinity has 4 stars overall. The problem isn't users creating fake reviews it's Amazon itself.
- Dylan16807 10y ago
  54 verified 5 star reviews 16 verified 1 star reviews The reason it's 4 stars overall is because of the attempt to filter out fake reviews.
  - TrevorJ 10y ago
    I don't think you are looking at the same thing I am. https://www.amazon.com/XFINITY-High-Speed-Internet-Exclusive-Customer/dp/B01B6ZI3SS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1480739748&sr=1-1#customerReviews https://www.amazon.com/XFINITY-High-Speed-Internet-Exclusive... There are over 900 reviews.
    - function_seven 10y ago
      Yeah, but if you look at just the verified ones, they break out like the parent commenter wrote.
      - TrevorJ 10y ago
        There are over 100 verified reviews, it doesn't seem like we re seeing the same thing.
        Dylan16807 10y ago
        It shows me exactly 100 verified reviews. 5: 54 4: 13 3: 9 2: 8 1: 16 Average: 3.81 stars
    - Splines 10y ago
      That's a weird situation - it's a partnership between Amazon and Comcast, and many of the 5-star reviews say "Amazon customer service is awesome". It says more about Amazon than Comcast. Some of the reviews even say "We all know Comcast sucks, this is a review about buying it through Amazon".
lutorm 10y ago
I pretty much just look at what the 1-star amazon reviews say. That's where you find the low-end tail...
charlieflowers 10y ago
Seems to me that Consumer Reports should implement a new program whereby customers that prove themselves to be trustworthy can submit a receipt and a review for a product, and if it is voted helpful enough (by other shoppers), that reviewer gets one free month of Consumer Reports subscription. The result: verified, honest, reliable, helpful reviews. It would boost CR's value and give the world something it badly needs. I suppose Amazon could do this with gift certificates or a month of free Prime or something.
- i__believe 10y ago
  I don't think that's why people buy consumer reports. At least for me it's about getting a professional review in the context of the product as well as against others in the same category from a source whose only interest is keeping the customer (me) informed. I'll admit that limits the selection of the products reviewed, but I'm OK with that trade off. I think what you're describing could work well for Angie's List though (also a customer of theirs).
sctb 10y ago
Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13055390 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13055390 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13037024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13037024.

21 points by deegles 10y ago

I really despise those "I received this product at a discount for my honest review" reviews. "Honest review" my ass. Anyone who gets any kind of compensation for their review (even if only in the form of products or discounts) can not be trusted. To compound the problem, the seller can see the past reviews of prospective reviewers, and pick those who've tended to give positive "honest reviews". This skews the reviewing even further off. I've never ever seen an "honest review" that the reviewer made of a product they got at a discount that wasn't a positive review. Never. Amazon's discount review program should be terminated. Only people who've paid full price for their products and have received no compensation of any kind should be allowed to do reviews.

twiceaday 10y ago
> Anyone who gets any kind of compensation for their review (even if only in the form of products or discounts) can not be trusted. A weaker statement that is still useful is that they can't be trusted similarly to people who bought the product themselves. So it's fine to have sponsored reviews but they should be segmented.

daxorid 10y ago

Obvious solution: only accept reviews from customers who actually purchased the product.

mc32 10y ago
Absolutely and recurring customers with a certain gained "reputation" should have more weight than new customers without much buying history. Maybe require a reviewer amass x-amount in previous purchases before allowing them to review as well as t-time before they can review to avoid fraudulent reviews. I constantly get asked to review my purchases and have yet to do so. Some people are just not into doing reviews like that, specially if it feels like you're getting badgered.
dmoy 10y ago
That is an obvious solution for extremely expensive items that do not sell much. It doesn't work if the seller can just pay people to buy the thing and then write a review, no?
- mc32 10y ago
  I think they should be able to tell apart from people's purchasing history if they are "organic" buyers [normal people's consumption patterns of goods] or something organized to curry favorable reviews. Sure someone could get paid to review an item and also be an avid consumer of a product, but in that case it would seem they believe in the item. Imagine someone buys eneloop over and over, never offer a review, then purchases a no-name brand, gives rave reviews and goes back to buying eneloop again.

TrevorJ 10y ago

Amazon is a completely dishonest company. Go look at the Xfinity internet reviews on their site. fully eightfive percent of them are a single star. And YET... Xfinity has 4 stars overall. The problem isn't users creating fake reviews it's Amazon itself.

Dylan16807 10y ago
54 verified 5 star reviews 16 verified 1 star reviews The reason it's 4 stars overall is because of the attempt to filter out fake reviews.
- TrevorJ 10y ago
  I don't think you are looking at the same thing I am. https://www.amazon.com/XFINITY-High-Speed-Internet-Exclusive-Customer/dp/B01B6ZI3SS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1480739748&sr=1-1#customerReviews https://www.amazon.com/XFINITY-High-Speed-Internet-Exclusive... There are over 900 reviews.
  - function_seven 10y ago
    Yeah, but if you look at just the verified ones, they break out like the parent commenter wrote.
    - TrevorJ 10y ago
      There are over 100 verified reviews, it doesn't seem like we re seeing the same thing.
      - Dylan16807 10y ago
        It shows me exactly 100 verified reviews. 5: 54 4: 13 3: 9 2: 8 1: 16 Average: 3.81 stars
  - Splines 10y ago
    That's a weird situation - it's a partnership between Amazon and Comcast, and many of the 5-star reviews say "Amazon customer service is awesome". It says more about Amazon than Comcast. Some of the reviews even say "We all know Comcast sucks, this is a review about buying it through Amazon".

lutorm 10y ago

I pretty much just look at what the 1-star amazon reviews say. That's where you find the low-end tail...

charlieflowers 10y ago

Seems to me that Consumer Reports should implement a new program whereby customers that prove themselves to be trustworthy can submit a receipt and a review for a product, and if it is voted helpful enough (by other shoppers), that reviewer gets one free month of Consumer Reports subscription. The result: verified, honest, reliable, helpful reviews. It would boost CR's value and give the world something it badly needs. I suppose Amazon could do this with gift certificates or a month of free Prime or something.

i__believe 10y ago
I don't think that's why people buy consumer reports. At least for me it's about getting a professional review in the context of the product as well as against others in the same category from a source whose only interest is keeping the customer (me) informed. I'll admit that limits the selection of the products reviewed, but I'm OK with that trade off. I think what you're describing could work well for Angie's List though (also a customer of theirs).

sctb 10y ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13055390 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13055390 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13037024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13037024.