6 ms·

Wait until you hear about how some people get given free products to review them. Amazon has no incentive to police their reviews, because they just want volume

Wait until you hear about how some people get given free products to review them. Amazon has no incentive to police their reviews, because they just want volume.

fairity 6y ago
> Amazon has no incentive to police their reviews, because they just want volume. Amazon, the company, has plenty of incentive to police their reviews. Fake reviews deteriorate customer trust and drive customers away in the long run. The problem is there are two parties who have large incentives to create fake reviews: 1) Merchants 2) Executives whose compensation is tied to short-term results . Right now these two parties with adverse incentives seem to be winning the battle, but it wouldn't surprise me if this changed in the near future. Yelp's battle against fake reviews and Google's battle against SEO spam both come to mind as examples where the company was largely able to get things under control and aligned with their best interests. There will always be an escalating cat and mouse game between the "company's police" and the "fakers", but Yelp and Google seem to stay one step ahead while Amazon is one step behind.
- Supermancho 6y ago
  > Fake reviews deteriorate customer trust and drive customers away in the long run. When there's no equivalent alternative, this inverts. This is why it the tweet changes nothing.
- SpaceL10n 6y ago
  I wouldn't exclude the possibility that this is being done deliberately and not merely as an outcome of the problem you described. Maybe they have the data to support the decision to allow a measured amount of fake reviews in. If well-reviewed products sell better than under-reviewed products, and the number of under-reviewed products keeps growing month after month, slowing sales growth, Amazon might see more $$$ down the road if they do allow a few blemishes into their reviews on under-reviewed products.
blfr 6y ago
Wait until you hear about how some people get given free products to review them. This has been the norm in many industries back when Amazon was still selling books (and reviewers would also get them from the publisher).
- WalterBright 6y ago
  Much longer ago than that. It was normal in the 80s for computer companies to send out free review products, and I expect this has been going on long before that, even. It's commonplace for book publishers going back to at least the 1960's. I know this because my dad had many review copies of books.
  - bluGill 6y ago
    there difference is those reviewers said they got the copy for free. At least they do now, it may not have been the case in the past (you go back a lot of years). I think disclouser is actually US law so if you are involved in these scams you might find yourself in legal trouble...
bootlooped 6y ago
To give them a bit of credit, Amazon did ban giving reviewers cheap or free products in exchange for reviews a few years ago. They also shut down 3rd party sites that were facilitating the buying and selling of reviews. https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/amazon-bans-most-users-from-writing-reviews-in-exchange-for-free-discounted-items/ https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/amazon-bans-most... https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32251698 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32251698 I bet there is more they could be doing, but you can probably never totally solve the problem.
- therealx 6y ago
  They use targed ads on Facebook to find new rectruits.
- ArtDev 6y ago
  I don't think they follow up. I just received an item that offered me a free gift for a five star review last week (I didn't do it).
Nition 6y ago
In this case they did police his review though. They removed his review that mentioned the five-star review bribe attempt.

Wait until you hear about how some people get given free products to review them. Amazon has no incentive to police their reviews, because they just want volume.

fairity 6y ago

> Amazon has no incentive to police their reviews, because they just want volume. Amazon, the company, has plenty of incentive to police their reviews. Fake reviews deteriorate customer trust and drive customers away in the long run. The problem is there are two parties who have large incentives to create fake reviews: 1) Merchants 2) Executives whose compensation is tied to short-term results . Right now these two parties with adverse incentives seem to be winning the battle, but it wouldn't surprise me if this changed in the near future. Yelp's battle against fake reviews and Google's battle against SEO spam both come to mind as examples where the company was largely able to get things under control and aligned with their best interests. There will always be an escalating cat and mouse game between the "company's police" and the "fakers", but Yelp and Google seem to stay one step ahead while Amazon is one step behind.

Supermancho 6y ago
> Fake reviews deteriorate customer trust and drive customers away in the long run. When there's no equivalent alternative, this inverts. This is why it the tweet changes nothing.
SpaceL10n 6y ago
I wouldn't exclude the possibility that this is being done deliberately and not merely as an outcome of the problem you described. Maybe they have the data to support the decision to allow a measured amount of fake reviews in. If well-reviewed products sell better than under-reviewed products, and the number of under-reviewed products keeps growing month after month, slowing sales growth, Amazon might see more $$$ down the road if they do allow a few blemishes into their reviews on under-reviewed products.

blfr 6y ago

Wait until you hear about how some people get given free products to review them. This has been the norm in many industries back when Amazon was still selling books (and reviewers would also get them from the publisher).

WalterBright 6y ago
Much longer ago than that. It was normal in the 80s for computer companies to send out free review products, and I expect this has been going on long before that, even. It's commonplace for book publishers going back to at least the 1960's. I know this because my dad had many review copies of books.
- bluGill 6y ago
  there difference is those reviewers said they got the copy for free. At least they do now, it may not have been the case in the past (you go back a lot of years). I think disclouser is actually US law so if you are involved in these scams you might find yourself in legal trouble...

bootlooped 6y ago

To give them a bit of credit, Amazon did ban giving reviewers cheap or free products in exchange for reviews a few years ago. They also shut down 3rd party sites that were facilitating the buying and selling of reviews. https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/amazon-bans-most-users-from-writing-reviews-in-exchange-for-free-discounted-items/ https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/amazon-bans-most... https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32251698 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32251698 I bet there is more they could be doing, but you can probably never totally solve the problem.

therealx 6y ago
They use targed ads on Facebook to find new rectruits.
ArtDev 6y ago
I don't think they follow up. I just received an item that offered me a free gift for a five star review last week (I didn't do it).

Nition 6y ago

In this case they did police his review though. They removed his review that mentioned the five-star review bribe attempt.