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Amazon reviews now unreliable: negative reviews filtered (Anker example)

79 points by MaysonL 8y ago

mprev 8y ago
I received my first fake from the UK site recently; a microSD card. I too was prevented from leaving a review due to “unusual review activity” for that product. Checking the reviews I saw that many people had also received fakes and left one star reviews. Most reviews were five star, so I guess there’s some commingling or similar. They’ve sent a replacement but, rightly or wrongly, I feel not only was my time wasted but that I’m subject to a minor coverup.
- dfcowell 8y ago
  Amazon’s entire model is flawed in this respect. Products on the platform are “deduped” by merging listings from multiple sellers of the same product under a single master listing, where the price for the item is the lowest price available from all sellers. This leads to counterfeit sellers targeting high-quantity items, creating and selling fakes for just under MSRP and making out like bandits. It’s impossible for Amazon to police, and they can’t avoid merging listings unless they want a million duplicate products in their search results.
  - jiveturkey 8y ago
    it’s possible to police. audit the products. if it’s only the top few thousand hottest items this is possible. at least for the top items it’s valuable even if the second tier is still difficult.
  - dpwm 8y ago
    I'd have thought that even when items are commingled there must be some way for Amazon to determine the origin and deal with it appropriately. However, I would have also thought that it was in Amazon's interest to fix this before the items go the customer as it does have a detrimental impact on both Amazon and the counterfeited brand.
    - adetrest 8y ago
      Apparently, Amazon has no idea which seller sent in the item amazon is selling you. I don't know how they can get away with it, or how this is even allowed. What if the item is so shitty that it causes injury or death? Wouldn't amazon like to know which of its sellers is responsible? Anyway, one more reason to dump amazon, if their appalling treatment of people isn't enough maybe the time wasted in buying then returning fake items (if you can tell at all, if you're buying a product for the first time you can't always spot a fake) is.
  - rincebrain 8y ago
    IIRC isn't another part of that problem the commingling of stock for the "same product" from different Fulfilled by Amazon sources all in the same bin (unless the vendor pays Amazon more to keep it separate), so you can't tell which vendor fakes come from sometimes?
  - gowld 8y ago
    It's quite possible to police. Amazon needs to admit that (many of) their products are NOT substitutible commodities, and they need to separate listings from different sellers. Sellers should earn the right to be commingled with Amazon.com and other high-reputation sources by showing a track record of low return/complaint rates and high review score.
  - adetrest 8y ago
    Amazon can do things. For example, why not tie each product to the seller that sent it? They would very quickly find who sends the fakes and who sends the genuine items. But I suspect they wouldn't be good for amazon's growth numbers so they don't do it.
snaky 8y ago
"Censored Amazon Review of Sandisk Ultra 32GB Micro SDHC Card" discussed a month ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18017676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18017676
gnulinux 8y ago
In my experience, whenever I want to find useful, unbiased reviews of a product and a discussion around this category of products, reddit is much better than amazon reviews. If you can find the right subreddit, you can extract a lot information out of reddit comments and buy the best product.
kbumsik 8y ago
What if the OP writes a 5-star review? Will Amazon accept it? It’s not clear Amazon filtered the OP’s review because it is negative.
arintoker 8y ago
Fakespot.com
gmiller123456 8y ago
Ebay is even worse. Now, if you contact the seller about an issue in any way, you lose your option to leave any type of feedback about that seller. I had switched to leaving feedback first, then opening a dispute, but I noticed in a handful of situations my negative feedback was deleted.
xster 8y ago
Even 'niche' markets of enthusiasts like reverb.com uses this dark pattern where you can't leave a non-positive review unless you first try to work out the issue with the other party directly.

79 points by MaysonL 8y ago

I received my first fake from the UK site recently; a microSD card. I too was prevented from leaving a review due to “unusual review activity” for that product. Checking the reviews I saw that many people had also received fakes and left one star reviews. Most reviews were five star, so I guess there’s some commingling or similar. They’ve sent a replacement but, rightly or wrongly, I feel not only was my time wasted but that I’m subject to a minor coverup.

dfcowell 8y ago
Amazon’s entire model is flawed in this respect. Products on the platform are “deduped” by merging listings from multiple sellers of the same product under a single master listing, where the price for the item is the lowest price available from all sellers. This leads to counterfeit sellers targeting high-quantity items, creating and selling fakes for just under MSRP and making out like bandits. It’s impossible for Amazon to police, and they can’t avoid merging listings unless they want a million duplicate products in their search results.
- jiveturkey 8y ago
  it’s possible to police. audit the products. if it’s only the top few thousand hottest items this is possible. at least for the top items it’s valuable even if the second tier is still difficult.
- dpwm 8y ago
  I'd have thought that even when items are commingled there must be some way for Amazon to determine the origin and deal with it appropriately. However, I would have also thought that it was in Amazon's interest to fix this before the items go the customer as it does have a detrimental impact on both Amazon and the counterfeited brand.
  - adetrest 8y ago
    Apparently, Amazon has no idea which seller sent in the item amazon is selling you. I don't know how they can get away with it, or how this is even allowed. What if the item is so shitty that it causes injury or death? Wouldn't amazon like to know which of its sellers is responsible? Anyway, one more reason to dump amazon, if their appalling treatment of people isn't enough maybe the time wasted in buying then returning fake items (if you can tell at all, if you're buying a product for the first time you can't always spot a fake) is.
- rincebrain 8y ago
  IIRC isn't another part of that problem the commingling of stock for the "same product" from different Fulfilled by Amazon sources all in the same bin (unless the vendor pays Amazon more to keep it separate), so you can't tell which vendor fakes come from sometimes?
- gowld 8y ago
  It's quite possible to police. Amazon needs to admit that (many of) their products are NOT substitutible commodities, and they need to separate listings from different sellers. Sellers should earn the right to be commingled with Amazon.com and other high-reputation sources by showing a track record of low return/complaint rates and high review score.
- adetrest 8y ago
  Amazon can do things. For example, why not tie each product to the seller that sent it? They would very quickly find who sends the fakes and who sends the genuine items. But I suspect they wouldn't be good for amazon's growth numbers so they don't do it.

snaky 8y ago

"Censored Amazon Review of Sandisk Ultra 32GB Micro SDHC Card" discussed a month ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18017676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18017676

gnulinux 8y ago

In my experience, whenever I want to find useful, unbiased reviews of a product and a discussion around this category of products, reddit is much better than amazon reviews. If you can find the right subreddit, you can extract a lot information out of reddit comments and buy the best product.

kbumsik 8y ago

What if the OP writes a 5-star review? Will Amazon accept it? It’s not clear Amazon filtered the OP’s review because it is negative.

arintoker 8y ago

Fakespot.com

gmiller123456 8y ago

Ebay is even worse. Now, if you contact the seller about an issue in any way, you lose your option to leave any type of feedback about that seller. I had switched to leaving feedback first, then opening a dispute, but I noticed in a handful of situations my negative feedback was deleted.

xster 8y ago

Even 'niche' markets of enthusiasts like reverb.com uses this dark pattern where you can't leave a non-positive review unless you first try to work out the issue with the other party directly.