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I've received a counterfeit blender and only discovered it after a BBC article showing how they can catch fire. Amazon were very poor in handling that which wou

I've received a counterfeit blender and only discovered it after a BBC article showing how they can catch fire. Amazon were very poor in handling that which would have left it to be sold to the next person if I followed their procedures. When it comes to things like batteries and chargers which can catch fire, I always aim to buy direct from the manufacturer or a non-marketplace retailer. In addition, Amazon is unable to stop sellers gaming the system by getting 5 star reviews on one product, then swapping the listing out for a different product. So when looking for an audio cable you will see reviews saying things like "Great Waffle Iron".

zentiggr 7y ago
> getting 5 star reviews on one product, then swapping the listing out for a different product. I didn't realize that was even possible... that's a really crappy loophole to leave open. I can't imagine why Amazon would let anyone completely swap out item info that way. Edits, perhaps, but everything?
- giarc 7y ago
  It's likely an issue with the volume of items for sale. What likely happens is they upload an item with multiple variations (think colours of a shirt). One of the variations is a completely different product. They buy some reviews for the shirt and then remove those from the listing, leaving only the other random product. This happens on Aliexpress all the time. The idea is that they put up a super cheap item ($0.99 iPhone cables), get a ton of sales, some good reviews then swap it out for a more expensive item. Sales rank and reviews stay, and the new more expensive item gets that data. The new item will be much higher margin and/or will never arrive (they just take the money and run).
- martin-adams 7y ago
  Yep, the issue has been around for longer than 18 months. It's easy to spot if you're a human. I guess Amazon can't or won't address it at scale. I spotted the issue about 2 months ago. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-review-reuse-fraud https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-rev...
- bityard 7y ago
  Not only is it possible, it is very common and they've been doing it for at least 10 years. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes its not. A common tactic will be selling a cheap USB cable for well below the market rate (because a cheap-to-make USB cable tends to perform identically to a more expensive one) and then swapping the product out for something similar but more expensive like a USB hub. If you go and read the reviews, you might have to read very carefully to see the difference between a USB cable and a USB hub. Another tactic that sellers exploit is having one listing for multiple products but specifying each product as a different "color". So one "color" of the product is an SD micro-to-full adapter, another "color" is a USB SD card reader, and another "color" is an SD card, and so on. The key here is that the reviews are linked to the listing and not the separate products. So most of that 4.5 star rating could apply to only the adapter while the SD card might be garbage.
- nybble41 7y ago
  I don't know about swapping listings, but it's fairly common for mostly-unrelated products to be grouped together as "colors" or "sizes". The reviews for all the variations of the listing are grouped together, which makes sense if they're really just different colors but not if they're distinct products.

zentiggr 7y ago

> getting 5 star reviews on one product, then swapping the listing out for a different product. I didn't realize that was even possible... that's a really crappy loophole to leave open. I can't imagine why Amazon would let anyone completely swap out item info that way. Edits, perhaps, but everything?

giarc 7y ago
It's likely an issue with the volume of items for sale. What likely happens is they upload an item with multiple variations (think colours of a shirt). One of the variations is a completely different product. They buy some reviews for the shirt and then remove those from the listing, leaving only the other random product. This happens on Aliexpress all the time. The idea is that they put up a super cheap item ($0.99 iPhone cables), get a ton of sales, some good reviews then swap it out for a more expensive item. Sales rank and reviews stay, and the new more expensive item gets that data. The new item will be much higher margin and/or will never arrive (they just take the money and run).
martin-adams 7y ago
Yep, the issue has been around for longer than 18 months. It's easy to spot if you're a human. I guess Amazon can't or won't address it at scale. I spotted the issue about 2 months ago. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-review-reuse-fraud https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-rev...
bityard 7y ago
Not only is it possible, it is very common and they've been doing it for at least 10 years. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes its not. A common tactic will be selling a cheap USB cable for well below the market rate (because a cheap-to-make USB cable tends to perform identically to a more expensive one) and then swapping the product out for something similar but more expensive like a USB hub. If you go and read the reviews, you might have to read very carefully to see the difference between a USB cable and a USB hub. Another tactic that sellers exploit is having one listing for multiple products but specifying each product as a different "color". So one "color" of the product is an SD micro-to-full adapter, another "color" is a USB SD card reader, and another "color" is an SD card, and so on. The key here is that the reviews are linked to the listing and not the separate products. So most of that 4.5 star rating could apply to only the adapter while the SD card might be garbage.
nybble41 7y ago
I don't know about swapping listings, but it's fairly common for mostly-unrelated products to be grouped together as "colors" or "sizes". The reviews for all the variations of the listing are grouped together, which makes sense if they're really just different colors but not if they're distinct products.