4 ms·

This rant is not well written. The first issue looks like a bug on Amazon's side. I'm not going to assume malice without something pointing in that direction. T

This rant is not well written. The first issue looks like a bug on Amazon's side. I'm not going to assume malice without something pointing in that direction. The author writes "What would have happend if I had left a more positive review? Would that be allowed?" Well, would it? I see no indication it would. Those reviews are indeed suspicious, and Amazon should do a better job of detecting fake review accounts. The third issue is the author complaining about the shipping in a product review. An understandable mistake, but Amazon is right not to publish it. When trying to learn about a product it's annoying to scroll past shipping reviews like "Arrived quickly, five stars!" In total, I see no dark pattern at all.

ashelmire 8y ago
I can actually verify and tell you why. Amazon will not allow you to criticize Amazon or their platform in a review (they said as much). Only the product. They probably do automatic sentiment detection for negative phrases containing Amazon and don’t allow them to be posted. The platform and shipping are relevant in a product review.
- carlmr 8y ago
  To a certain degree. There really should be two ratings. Shipment rating and product rating. I don't want to get a TV that gets shipped badly, sure. But if the only problem with shipping is that it is slow, maybe I'm still interested in the product because I don't get it anywhere else and I can wait. In that case I'm mostly interested in the product review.
  - ashelmire 8y ago
    Which is why you, as a human, can read the review and ignore the part where a reviewer says “the shipping was slow”. I recently ordered a poster through Amazon. They sent me the wrong item 3 times. I gave up. And I can’t post a negative review despite it clearly being Amazons fault (not the shipper). I tried. Couldn’t. At least they have excellent customer service, they didn’t jerk me around and each resolved the issue as best they could.
    - MadWombat 8y ago
      > you, as a human, can read the review Yes, you can, if you ever get to the review page. The ratings on reviews average out into the product rating. If there is a zillion one star "shipping is slow and Amazon customer service sucks" reviews, the product (which might be of very high quality otherwise) will have a one start rating. So you are not likely to see the product, since it will not make it into any sort of rating based list and even if you do see it you are likely to ignore it based on its one star rating.
      - ashelmire 8y ago
        It sounds like you think there are more products hidden by one star reviews on shipping than boosted by fake 5 star reviews. The former is not presently a problem on amazon (because they block shipping comments). The latter is a real problem that you will face every time you search for any product where there is any competition.
  - joemi 8y ago
    > To a certain degree. There really should be two ratings. Shipment rating and product rating. Amazon does actually have a system for that, but it's only applicable to third party ("Marketplace" in Amazon lingo) sellers. For third party sellers, you can review products with the usual Product Reviews, and then for things like shipping issues (and customer service issues, and anything else that isn't the product itself) you'd mention that in your Seller Feedback. When you buy from a third party seller, there'll be a "leave seller feedback" button when you view your order. You can view a seller's feedback by clicking on their name when you see it in the product listing. There's no "leave seller feedback" button when you place an order from Amazon though.
- cthalupa 8y ago
  I want Amazon and Amazon fulfillment reviews separate from my product reviews. I've ordered enough stuff from Amazon to know how I feel about the shipping and platform. The only thing I care about in reviews is the product itself. A product shouldn't be penalized if Amazon stuffs up the shipping.
- coryfklein 8y ago
  > The platform and shipping are relevant in a product review. Totally disagree! The product should be the same every time, but each customer is going to have a completely different shipping experience based on stock levels, warehouse proximity, carrier selection, and even based on whether the warehouse employee packing your order had enough sleep last night. You saying the shipping was good, bad, fast, or slow, tells me virtually nothing about what my shipping experience will be. It would be cool if there was a meta-item in Amazon inventory to represent Prime or the "Amazon experience" where you could leave reviews like this, but they don't belong on individual item listings.
daveFNbuck 8y ago
It's a weird omission because it would have been so easy to increase the star rating and try to post the review again.
hannasanarion 8y ago
Yeah, I wish the author looked into the first issue more. What if you review it from your "past orders" page instead of searching for it in the store?

ashelmire 8y ago

I can actually verify and tell you why. Amazon will not allow you to criticize Amazon or their platform in a review (they said as much). Only the product. They probably do automatic sentiment detection for negative phrases containing Amazon and don’t allow them to be posted. The platform and shipping are relevant in a product review.

carlmr 8y ago
To a certain degree. There really should be two ratings. Shipment rating and product rating. I don't want to get a TV that gets shipped badly, sure. But if the only problem with shipping is that it is slow, maybe I'm still interested in the product because I don't get it anywhere else and I can wait. In that case I'm mostly interested in the product review.
- ashelmire 8y ago
  Which is why you, as a human, can read the review and ignore the part where a reviewer says “the shipping was slow”. I recently ordered a poster through Amazon. They sent me the wrong item 3 times. I gave up. And I can’t post a negative review despite it clearly being Amazons fault (not the shipper). I tried. Couldn’t. At least they have excellent customer service, they didn’t jerk me around and each resolved the issue as best they could.
  - MadWombat 8y ago
    > you, as a human, can read the review Yes, you can, if you ever get to the review page. The ratings on reviews average out into the product rating. If there is a zillion one star "shipping is slow and Amazon customer service sucks" reviews, the product (which might be of very high quality otherwise) will have a one start rating. So you are not likely to see the product, since it will not make it into any sort of rating based list and even if you do see it you are likely to ignore it based on its one star rating.
    - ashelmire 8y ago
      It sounds like you think there are more products hidden by one star reviews on shipping than boosted by fake 5 star reviews. The former is not presently a problem on amazon (because they block shipping comments). The latter is a real problem that you will face every time you search for any product where there is any competition.
- joemi 8y ago
  > To a certain degree. There really should be two ratings. Shipment rating and product rating. Amazon does actually have a system for that, but it's only applicable to third party ("Marketplace" in Amazon lingo) sellers. For third party sellers, you can review products with the usual Product Reviews, and then for things like shipping issues (and customer service issues, and anything else that isn't the product itself) you'd mention that in your Seller Feedback. When you buy from a third party seller, there'll be a "leave seller feedback" button when you view your order. You can view a seller's feedback by clicking on their name when you see it in the product listing. There's no "leave seller feedback" button when you place an order from Amazon though.
cthalupa 8y ago
I want Amazon and Amazon fulfillment reviews separate from my product reviews. I've ordered enough stuff from Amazon to know how I feel about the shipping and platform. The only thing I care about in reviews is the product itself. A product shouldn't be penalized if Amazon stuffs up the shipping.
coryfklein 8y ago
> The platform and shipping are relevant in a product review. Totally disagree! The product should be the same every time, but each customer is going to have a completely different shipping experience based on stock levels, warehouse proximity, carrier selection, and even based on whether the warehouse employee packing your order had enough sleep last night. You saying the shipping was good, bad, fast, or slow, tells me virtually nothing about what my shipping experience will be. It would be cool if there was a meta-item in Amazon inventory to represent Prime or the "Amazon experience" where you could leave reviews like this, but they don't belong on individual item listings.

daveFNbuck 8y ago

It's a weird omission because it would have been so easy to increase the star rating and try to post the review again.

hannasanarion 8y ago

Yeah, I wish the author looked into the first issue more. What if you review it from your "past orders" page instead of searching for it in the store?