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Is there a reason Amazon doesn't limit reviews to verified purchasers? I always assumed unverified purchase reviews were fake or else biased reviews in exchang

Is there a reason Amazon doesn't limit reviews to verified purchasers? I always assumed unverified purchase reviews were fake or else biased reviews in exchange for a free product.

amf12 8y ago
I agree with you however it's much more than that because verified reviews can also be fake. There have been incidents of sellers creating bot accounts and buying products and shipping them to random addresses so that they can give themselves a verified review. The random person gets a free product (usually something very cheap, not the actual product). There was an interesting podcast about this. I generally look at the number of reviews, their distributions and the reviews posted by people with 1*.
- bogomipz 8y ago
  Yeah and I have to wonder if company's are reaching out to purchasers who leave negative reviews and offering them incentives to "update" their negative product reviews. I came across a review from a person who bought a Jackery Bolt phone charger who claimed the company did this after she wrote a negative review on Amazon of their product. >"There was an interesting podcast about this." Do you happen to remember what podcast this was?
  - amf12 8y ago
    > Do you happen to remember what podcast this was? Found it. Here you go. It's a Planet Money podcast and is very interesting. They actually interview people in China who do this. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=606517326 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...
    - bogomipz 8y ago
      Thanks for the link! This is indeed very interesting. Cheers.
Mediterraneo10 8y ago
> Is there a reason Amazon doesn't limit reviews to verified purchasers? When the Amazon review system was created back in the 1990s, there was no requirement to purchase the item. That led to people often reviewing books they got from the library, or books that they already owned in their home library before Amazon existed. There were no scammers around to ruin things yet, and even if people weren’t buying every book from Amazon, they were still drawn to the site by these social features, the very vibrant "community" of book fans. Over the past few years, Amazon has already removed various community discussion forums. Apparently, now that the site has reached a dominant market position, it feels that social features are no longer necessary to attract or retain customers. As part of these changes, Amazon has also reduced the visibility of non-verified purchase reviews on many listings. Still, its efforts are gradual, maybe it feels that completely limiting the review system to verified purchases would be too drastic a step.

Is there a reason Amazon doesn't limit reviews to verified purchasers? I always assumed unverified purchase reviews were fake or else biased reviews in exchange for a free product.

amf12 8y ago

I agree with you however it's much more than that because verified reviews can also be fake. There have been incidents of sellers creating bot accounts and buying products and shipping them to random addresses so that they can give themselves a verified review. The random person gets a free product (usually something very cheap, not the actual product). There was an interesting podcast about this. I generally look at the number of reviews, their distributions and the reviews posted by people with 1*.

bogomipz 8y ago
Yeah and I have to wonder if company's are reaching out to purchasers who leave negative reviews and offering them incentives to "update" their negative product reviews. I came across a review from a person who bought a Jackery Bolt phone charger who claimed the company did this after she wrote a negative review on Amazon of their product. >"There was an interesting podcast about this." Do you happen to remember what podcast this was?
- amf12 8y ago
  > Do you happen to remember what podcast this was? Found it. Here you go. It's a Planet Money podcast and is very interesting. They actually interview people in China who do this. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=606517326 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...
  - bogomipz 8y ago
    Thanks for the link! This is indeed very interesting. Cheers.

Mediterraneo10 8y ago

> Is there a reason Amazon doesn't limit reviews to verified purchasers? When the Amazon review system was created back in the 1990s, there was no requirement to purchase the item. That led to people often reviewing books they got from the library, or books that they already owned in their home library before Amazon existed. There were no scammers around to ruin things yet, and even if people weren’t buying every book from Amazon, they were still drawn to the site by these social features, the very vibrant "community" of book fans. Over the past few years, Amazon has already removed various community discussion forums. Apparently, now that the site has reached a dominant market position, it feels that social features are no longer necessary to attract or retain customers. As part of these changes, Amazon has also reduced the visibility of non-verified purchase reviews on many listings. Still, its efforts are gradual, maybe it feels that completely limiting the review system to verified purchases would be too drastic a step.