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> And yet Amazon has no real interest in solving its counterfeit problem I don't get this Amazon hate. Weren't they the ones who originally came up with the id
by ColanR 6y ago
> And yet Amazon has no real interest in solving its counterfeit problem
I don't get this Amazon hate. Weren't they the ones who originally came up with the idea for putting purchaser reviews with the product, and the 5-star rating system? It seems like their solution was to 'crowdsource' the problem. Now people have learned to game the system, but I buy plenty of electronics from amazon and from ebay, and I'm careful enough that I've never ended up with a counterfeit.
Edit: I've noticed that ebay gives seller ratings, and amazon does product ratings. I guess that belies the different focus they each have. It would be cool (and probably a big improvement) if amazon put both product and seller ratings in equally prominent positions.
- reaperducer 6y agopurchaser reviews with the product No. Companies have been doing this for as long as there has been advertising and mail-order catalogs. Did Amazon do it on the web first? Unlikely, but cannot be proven. and the 5-star rating system Also unlikely. The five-star system has been around for at least a century. In digital form, I had it on one of the first web sites I built, around the same time that Amazon.com launched, and even that was cribbed from online review systems that existed before the web.
- ColanR 6y agohttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2009-10-15/amazon-turning-consumer-opinions-into-gold https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2009-10-15/amazon-tu... As I linked elsewhere, Bloomberg seems to think they were the "first successful online retailer to embrace consumer views".
- reaperducer 6y agoToo many qualifiers to be meaningful.
- ColanR 6y agoWhich qualifiers make it unsupportive of the point? Given it was already specifically talking about customer reviews, I think it's plenty meaningful.
- MattGaiser 6y agoI routinely get offers to buy a review from me inside the actual Amazon product itself. The system is being gamed under the nose of Amazon.
- ColanR 6y agoYeah, it took me a while to track down a cheap bluetooth headset recently. When there's >50-100 reviews, usually someone mentions if the reviews are being bought.
- xmprt 6y agoHow often are you buying stuff from Amazon that this happens? I probably buy something at least 1-3 times a month and have never gotten a counterfeit or review request. I almost want to get one just to see what it would look like to be honest.
- freeAgent 6y agoAll the time. They’re super common in electronic accessories (phone chargers, cases, etc.), for example.
- MattGaiser 6y agoSeemingly every time I purchase cables or accessories.
- xmprt 6y agoI can see that happening (most of my returns are cables or accessories). But how do you know whether it's a counterfeit when you buy it? Most of the time, I'm not even looking at the brand that I'm buying.
- coldtea 6y ago>Weren't they the ones who originally came up with the idea for putting purchaser reviews with the product, and the 5-star rating system? Were they? I doubt it...
- ColanR 6y agohttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2009-10-15/amazon-turning-consumer-opinions-into-gold https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2009-10-15/amazon-tu... It doesn't say if they were the first, but it looks like they were at least one of the first. Edit: yep, Bloomberg says they were the first to do it.
- reaperducer 6y agoMaybe first on the web, but not the first online.
- JoshTko 6y agoThe mental overhead spent checking if the order could be counterfeit or choosing a more reliable seller is exhausting.
- wyxuan 6y agoOh gosh, the purchaser reviews are even worse. Either they're for a different product, or as I found out when I ordered a pair of earbuds and found a small leaflet claiming to provide a free gift card for a 5 star review, paid for.