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I purchased the same webcam for my high school sophomore in September 2020, as school restarted (all online for him). The box contained a $20 "gift card" if I e

I purchased the same webcam for my high school sophomore in September 2020, as school restarted (all online for him). The box contained a $20 "gift card" if I emailed proof of my 5-star review. It looks identical to the one I received (including the email address). Only the reward is different. I didn't try to write a review, I notified customer service in an attempt to report the seller. I documented everything including photos, my exchange with Amazon customer service, and the confirmation from the seller that they would pay me $20 for a 5-star review. I did not take the money offered ... I was appalled at the situation and more than a little angry that I had been tricked by bogus reviews. Here's what happened when I reported the seller: Me: Hi. The box for this product contained a card that says “Amazon $20 gift card” and looks like a gift card, but the back says I have to give a 5 star review and send my order information to an outlook email address. Is this legitimate? Is it really a $20 Amazon gift card? Amazon: Thank you so much for your information on this, I will certainly pass it along here so that we can check this promotion or offer directly with the seller. Because I am not seeing that advertised on the item at all And would not be capable of confirming if that is a legit Amazon gift card because, I do not see that offer on the item Me: So what should I do? Amazon: My best suggestion would be to contact the seller directly for this through this link [redacted] So that you can confirm directly with them if this is legit or not Certainly giving away gift cards for good reviews is not professional And I have to report the seller for that Me: I thought this type of offer was forbidden by Amazon’s own policies for sellers. But I will contact them using the link you sent to ask them if that’s what you recommend. Even though the CSR reported the seller, and I confirmed with the seller through Amazon's own communication system that they were paying $20 per 5 star review, nothing happened to the seller. The item (a webcam) is still for sale on Amazon, with thousands of additional 5-star reviews - more than 12,000 now, compared to 3,266 when I let Amazon know how they were gaming the reviews in September. Once again, the good guys (in the case, customers and honest sellers) lose out while the bad guys win, with no repercussions.

jandrese 6y ago
This is really common, although it's not often a straight up Amazon gift card. I've seen offers for Steam bucks for a favorable review for example.
turtlebits 6y ago
Or they got penalized, and have stopped doing it. There is now way as outsiders we can tell what's going on. I don't think it's reasonable to expect that a single reported case is going to result in visible action. (competitors/griefers can easily abuse this).
- ardy42 6y ago
  > I don't think it's reasonable to expect that a single reported case is going to result in visible action. (competitors/griefers can easily abuse this). In this case it's quite reasonable to expect prompt, visible action. The grefier problem is easily solved with a modicum of due diligence by Amazon. All it has to do is conduct an investigation to confirm the complaint, which is as easy as ordering the item in question and confirming it contains the offer reported by a single customer. If it's too onerous for Amazon to spend $20 our of its billions to conduct and investigation, it could even write in terms to its contracts saying it reserves the right to inspect any seller inventory for compliance.
  - pc86 6y ago
    You're not saying Amazon needs to spend $20. You're saying Amazon needs to buy one of every product on Amazon that gets a complaint.
    - ardy42 6y ago
      > You're not saying Amazon needs to spend $20. You're saying Amazon needs to buy one of every product on Amazon that gets a complaint. Amazon, being one of the largest and most successful companies in the world, can afford to do that and then some. Yeah, it won't be exactly $20, but it will still be a tiny amount for a company that size. I mean, "inspecting the products you sell for compliance" shouldn't be an optional thing, but a basic function of a retail business.
      - zentiggr 6y ago
        And we're back around to the quote "It's very difficult to make someone understand something, when their salary depends on their not understanding it." Unless Amazon loses because of these misrepresentations, they're not going to care. Cash flow and sales volume up, and they'll let anything go unless it somehow causes lost sales at scale. Always, always, buyer beware.
bryanrasmussen 6y ago
how was the webcam?
blacksmith_tb 6y ago
I also have gotten fake "Amazon Gift Card (if you submit a good review)" promos with items and gagged. I wonder though if you "innocently" took a photo of the contents of the package, showing the phony giftcard, if then the review would remain up, unless Amazon has non-automated systems (aka humans) who would notice it.
- notahacker 6y ago
  Better still, innocently take a photo of the package, leave a five star review with the photo including the gift card pledge saying you really enjoyed the product's innovative approach to marketing and claim your $20 gift card
- gnicholas 6y ago
  Just make an unboxing video and feign surprise/confusion when you get to the gift card bribery part.
dheera 6y ago
What I would do is write the 5 star review, get the gift card, and then edit the review.
- morganvachon 6y ago
  Interesting take, and who would the seller complain to about the modified review? Amazon? "Yes Amazon, we paid this customer $20 for a five star review against your policy, and they changed the review to be more honest after they got our money!" The only problem might be if Amazon decided you were affiliated with the scammy seller and penalized your account or blocked you from buying.
  - appehuli 6y ago
    Well the complaint is that one-star reviews get deleted.
- 0-_-0 6y ago
  ...with a picture of the bribe offer
Buttons840 6y ago
Leave a 5-star review, get your $20. Resell the item on Amazon for $10 less than what the original seller was selling for. Earn $10 dollars profit. Repeat for other such products. Earn more profit. Make a blog about your antics; earn more profit, and help others profit the same way. Exploit the system until Amazon has to fix it. EDIT: I guess at no point is Amazon actually harmed by this scheme. However, the companies trying to buy 5-star reviews are themselves exploited to the extent that people do this. The cost to the original company is a lost sale, a lost product, and $20 [lost] in exchange for a legitimate looking 5-star review (from someone who is not a bot). That may well be worth it for the company, so I'm not sure this scheme would actually stop dishonest reviews, only make it worse.
- pc86 6y ago
  Write an ebook on how to make money on Amazon, sell it for $297, and post a Show HN about it.
  - toxik 6y ago
    ... and give away $20 gift cards to people who leave 5-star reviews!
    - jrockway 6y ago
      There is something about how the human brain works that makes us hate this. It happens in games a lot; the community will complain that a certain character is broken and that they hate playing against it... but won't actually go play the character themselves to exploit the brokenness for their own gain. Seems silly to me. (Buying reviews might actually be illegal though, so that's a strong argument to not do it.)
      - dvtrn 6y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium
      - 6y ago
inetknght 6y ago
You might be intested to learn how sellers on Amazon utilize this type of review fraud to perpetuate further frauds. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25038734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25038734
scorpionwin 6y ago
Throwaway because of my suspect behaviour. I have actually emailed the people on these cards out of curiosity. The range of rewards has been refunds, steep discounts and free products. I am now on some lists and I can get regular free stuff. Sometimes I just write the review and give the product away to friends and family. Sometimes they ask you to mark certain reviews as helpful. While unethical, the few types of things I’ve done this for have been ... kinda good actually. Even if I paid for them. So I don’t feel so bad recommending the product.
croes 6y ago
Amazon doesn't really care about customers like the rest of FAANG. It's all about money, data and power. Everything else is just PR and advertising.
- inetknght 6y ago
  > care about customers like the rest of FAANG I think of the five FAANG companies only Apple and Netflix have even a remote semblance of caring about the customer. Google and Facebook certainly don't and that was known since before the announced antitrust lawsuits.
  - namdnay 6y ago
    I don’t know about Facebook, but Google is reasonably customer friendly, at least with big accounts. I worked at a large firm, Google assigned a very competent and dedicated account executive to look after us. Unless you’re talking about end-users? In which case that’s like asking if McDonalds look after their cows well :)
    - pestaa 6y ago
      On this fine day I did not expect an internet stranger to call me a cow.
    - ikiris 6y ago
      Google has the worst customer service by far of any of the tech majors unless you're a big cloud customer.
    - slavik81 6y ago
      I bought a Pixel 4a and a case direct from Google a couple months ago. For some strange reason, they shipped the case immediately, then the phone a few weeks later. When I got the phone, I realized that the case had never arrived. Google refused to do anything, citing a 2-week limit on disputes. They told me to take it up with the shipper, but provided no guidance on how to do so and never responded when I asked. Given that the cases are clearly high margin items, I was blown away by how terrible their customer service was.
hbosch 6y ago
I have to assume you meant the Amazon product with the url suffix "dp/B087NN41JH/". This seems to be the highest reviewed result for search term "webcam", at least on my page. Here on HN, we have a savvy audience that understands the problem on Amazon with counterfeits, fakes, and low-quality items. I don't usually have this problem myself, because I go out of my way to buy things from sellers that I recognize, such as Logitech for instance, which owns the top results for "webcam" even though they have fewer reviews and higher prices. In your case, I think there are warning signs for the product in question. An unknown seller hawking a cheap knock-off looking webcam with a fake sale price... I really do not enjoy being the devil's advocate but, come on. Amazon might reprimand the seller. They might even ban them. But if so, they will just pop back up over night with a new name. Their cheapo products are unlabelled, unbranded and modestly packaged for exactly this benefit.
- whimsicalism 6y ago
  They won't pop back up with 12k 5 star reviews immediately? I'm honestly shocked by this comment - warning sides aside, paying for reviews should cause a ban. I am as unconvinced by this argument about "popping back" as I am by people who say that raising taxes is useless because people will just hide their money.
  - hbosch 6y ago
    > They won't pop back up with 12k 5 star reviews immediately? No, they will pay for those and have them soon enough. Even the OP says the product was sitting at >4,000 reviews at time of purchase and now is over 12,000. The reviews are easy to come by, of course. I am not pointing out that the seller here is right by any means. I fully agree that paying for 5-star reviews is reprehensible and unethical, and it's similarly unethical for ANY marketplace to feature items that have paid for positive reviews. But now we've arrived at a part that is beyond Amazon itself, haven't we? The concept of "paid positive reviews" is not confined to Amazon, naturally. This is why it's important to be a "literate consumer". That is to say, keen and discerning and aware. Like I said in my post, the buyer (in this case, OP) absolutely CHOSE a product that was visually an unbranded "knock off" of a webcam that Amazon actually featured HIGHER in their own search results. You can see which camera I am talking about being the "knockoff" and which is the "original", I hope. A person with high "consumer literacy" will not just pick the cheap option with a bunch of 5-star reviews. Not in 2020, and not on Amazon.com -- these plain facts mean nothing about the seller's reputation or the product's quality. Every "literate consumer" should already know this! It doesn't mean it's OK for the seller to do what they do, but it's important that we all know the reality is that they DO do it.
mancerayder 6y ago
I wrote a negative review for glass that broke by itself in the fridge 5 times (out of 6 pieces). Amazon removed it. I asked why and was sent a link by a bot-like sender. Some months back I gave a so so review on AirBNB and had it removed. I asked why, I was sent a link and cut and pasted guidelines. Responding using Reason led to being completely ignored. Then I discovered a reddit subgroup where hosts tell each other tips to easily get reviews removed. The whole review system has become corrupted. The complaint is that only motivated people put positive or negative reviews, which is only partially true. It's actually gaslighting by marketing people. Not surprised by Amazon. Fakespot helps somewhat it seems... as does not ordering from Amazon where possible. I just ordered a jacket with a 20 pct coupon from a sporting goods store that sells the same item on Amazon.. without the 20 pct discount. The trick is to remove negative reviews that violate guidelines, but for positive reviews that violate common sense and ethics, nyet.
- o_____________o 6y ago
  > Then I discovered a reddit subgroup where hosts tell each other tips to easily get reviews removed. What subreddit is that?
  - mancerayder 6y ago
    AirBNB! Do a search for Review and along those lines.
- robotnikman 6y ago
  The best place to find reviews it seems is through subscription paid independent reviewers. Consumer reports is one that comes to mind (they are also non-profit), as well as rtings. If you are looking for reviews for more niche products though, your pretty much on your own when it comes to finding out if its good or not.
  - gowld 6y ago
    "non-profit" just means there are no investors. It doesn't mean management isn't taking home money for running the operation.
lhorie 6y ago
Sometimes, I semi-seriously wonder if it isn't better to just buy things from aliexpress.com. The products themselves mostly come from China anyways and many classes of items consistently seem to be marked up on amazon. And now we are left to wonder if the price deltas are helping middlemen retailers fund these review manipulation shenanigans, so why not just cut out the amazon exploit portion out of the equation?
- capnheim 6y ago
  Many of the sellers on Aliexpress are the same sellers on Amazon. The FBA model makes it easy to cut out the middleman.
- aembleton 6y ago
  The delivery takes longer but if I don't mind that then I just buy straight from Ali express.
- LoSboccacc 6y ago
  Careful with battery and always connected devices, local market items and export market items are likely to run trough different lines with different markup targets and fault tolerances
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Guest19023892 6y ago
I've seen this take place with all sorts of things. Restaurants where you get free dessert by leaving an online review. Hotels where you get some type of upgrade. Stores where you leave a review and get a chance to win a gift card.
- notahacker 6y ago
  I even had a guided tour in Vietnam including a cybercafé stop to leave a review! (I didn't mind, the tour was very good)
thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago
I wrote a negative review for a projector recently. The projector was so bad and had such good reviews I questioned this directly in my review. I later got a direct email (not an amazon message) from the seller asking if I would take down the review if they refunded me and let me keep the projector.
- newsbinator 6y ago
  How did you proceed?
  - wpietri 6y ago
    I would have been very tempted to take the refund and then put up another bad review, adding on about the bribe.
- GordonS 6y ago
  Here in the UK I had this happen once, but with much cheaper items: light bulbs. I ordered bright LED bulbs (I forget the purported lumens figure), but they where clearly nowhere near as bright as advertised. I gave a balanced 3-star review and was contacted the seller saying they'd refund me and let me keep the bulbs if I removed my review. I obviously declined, as I had no use for the bulbs in any case!
jasonhansel 6y ago
The same thing happened to me a few years back. I got a product that came with an invitation to a secret Facebook group, with promises of further discounts. I joined the group, and it turned out to be a system where they would send you Amazon gift cards to buy specific products in exchange for five-star reviews. Apparently a large number of ordinary customers were involved, given the size of the group in question (all people using what appeared to be their real Facebook accounts). I reported it to Amazon customer service, and they gave me a $5 account credit for making the report. Not sure if any action was taken against the seller.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
rufus_foreman 6y ago
Believe me, this webcam is awesome. Unbelievable quality. Low price. Light years ahead of the competition. Seriously the best webcam in its class. Help yourself out and buy one today. I would give this SIX stars if I could. Trust me.
la6471 6y ago
Can you please post the link of the webcam here with the paid reviews.
momokoko 6y ago
Wait until you learn that people frequently extort the sellers by threatening bad reviews for perfectly good products unless they receive a significant refund of the purchase price.
maerF0x0 6y ago
Stop shopping on Amazon
intricatedetail 6y ago
So if a seller does something sketchy they ask customer to ask the seller if this is true? Wow.
vidarh 6y ago
Makes me feel like a chump for actually following Amazon's rules when soliciting reviews for my novel (no payment or discount of any kind is allowed in return for completing a review for most products; for books only you may provide the book itself in advance as long as there is no actual obligation to complete the review and no attempt to influence it)

jandrese 6y ago

This is really common, although it's not often a straight up Amazon gift card. I've seen offers for Steam bucks for a favorable review for example.

turtlebits 6y ago

Or they got penalized, and have stopped doing it. There is now way as outsiders we can tell what's going on. I don't think it's reasonable to expect that a single reported case is going to result in visible action. (competitors/griefers can easily abuse this).

ardy42 6y ago
> I don't think it's reasonable to expect that a single reported case is going to result in visible action. (competitors/griefers can easily abuse this). In this case it's quite reasonable to expect prompt, visible action. The grefier problem is easily solved with a modicum of due diligence by Amazon. All it has to do is conduct an investigation to confirm the complaint, which is as easy as ordering the item in question and confirming it contains the offer reported by a single customer. If it's too onerous for Amazon to spend $20 our of its billions to conduct and investigation, it could even write in terms to its contracts saying it reserves the right to inspect any seller inventory for compliance.
- pc86 6y ago
  You're not saying Amazon needs to spend $20. You're saying Amazon needs to buy one of every product on Amazon that gets a complaint.
  - ardy42 6y ago
    > You're not saying Amazon needs to spend $20. You're saying Amazon needs to buy one of every product on Amazon that gets a complaint. Amazon, being one of the largest and most successful companies in the world, can afford to do that and then some. Yeah, it won't be exactly $20, but it will still be a tiny amount for a company that size. I mean, "inspecting the products you sell for compliance" shouldn't be an optional thing, but a basic function of a retail business.
    - zentiggr 6y ago
      And we're back around to the quote "It's very difficult to make someone understand something, when their salary depends on their not understanding it." Unless Amazon loses because of these misrepresentations, they're not going to care. Cash flow and sales volume up, and they'll let anything go unless it somehow causes lost sales at scale. Always, always, buyer beware.

bryanrasmussen 6y ago

how was the webcam?

blacksmith_tb 6y ago

I also have gotten fake "Amazon Gift Card (if you submit a good review)" promos with items and gagged. I wonder though if you "innocently" took a photo of the contents of the package, showing the phony giftcard, if then the review would remain up, unless Amazon has non-automated systems (aka humans) who would notice it.

notahacker 6y ago
Better still, innocently take a photo of the package, leave a five star review with the photo including the gift card pledge saying you really enjoyed the product's innovative approach to marketing and claim your $20 gift card
gnicholas 6y ago
Just make an unboxing video and feign surprise/confusion when you get to the gift card bribery part.

dheera 6y ago

What I would do is write the 5 star review, get the gift card, and then edit the review.

morganvachon 6y ago
Interesting take, and who would the seller complain to about the modified review? Amazon? "Yes Amazon, we paid this customer $20 for a five star review against your policy, and they changed the review to be more honest after they got our money!" The only problem might be if Amazon decided you were affiliated with the scammy seller and penalized your account or blocked you from buying.
- appehuli 6y ago
  Well the complaint is that one-star reviews get deleted.
0-_-0 6y ago
...with a picture of the bribe offer

Buttons840 6y ago

Leave a 5-star review, get your $20. Resell the item on Amazon for $10 less than what the original seller was selling for. Earn $10 dollars profit. Repeat for other such products. Earn more profit. Make a blog about your antics; earn more profit, and help others profit the same way. Exploit the system until Amazon has to fix it. EDIT: I guess at no point is Amazon actually harmed by this scheme. However, the companies trying to buy 5-star reviews are themselves exploited to the extent that people do this. The cost to the original company is a lost sale, a lost product, and $20 [lost] in exchange for a legitimate looking 5-star review (from someone who is not a bot). That may well be worth it for the company, so I'm not sure this scheme would actually stop dishonest reviews, only make it worse.

pc86 6y ago
Write an ebook on how to make money on Amazon, sell it for $297, and post a Show HN about it.
- toxik 6y ago
  ... and give away $20 gift cards to people who leave 5-star reviews!
  - jrockway 6y ago
    There is something about how the human brain works that makes us hate this. It happens in games a lot; the community will complain that a certain character is broken and that they hate playing against it... but won't actually go play the character themselves to exploit the brokenness for their own gain. Seems silly to me. (Buying reviews might actually be illegal though, so that's a strong argument to not do it.)
    - dvtrn 6y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium
    - 6y ago

inetknght 6y ago

You might be intested to learn how sellers on Amazon utilize this type of review fraud to perpetuate further frauds. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25038734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25038734

scorpionwin 6y ago

Throwaway because of my suspect behaviour. I have actually emailed the people on these cards out of curiosity. The range of rewards has been refunds, steep discounts and free products. I am now on some lists and I can get regular free stuff. Sometimes I just write the review and give the product away to friends and family. Sometimes they ask you to mark certain reviews as helpful. While unethical, the few types of things I’ve done this for have been ... kinda good actually. Even if I paid for them. So I don’t feel so bad recommending the product.

croes 6y ago

Amazon doesn't really care about customers like the rest of FAANG. It's all about money, data and power. Everything else is just PR and advertising.

inetknght 6y ago
> care about customers like the rest of FAANG I think of the five FAANG companies only Apple and Netflix have even a remote semblance of caring about the customer. Google and Facebook certainly don't and that was known since before the announced antitrust lawsuits.
- namdnay 6y ago
  I don’t know about Facebook, but Google is reasonably customer friendly, at least with big accounts. I worked at a large firm, Google assigned a very competent and dedicated account executive to look after us. Unless you’re talking about end-users? In which case that’s like asking if McDonalds look after their cows well :)
  - pestaa 6y ago
    On this fine day I did not expect an internet stranger to call me a cow.
  - ikiris 6y ago
    Google has the worst customer service by far of any of the tech majors unless you're a big cloud customer.
  - slavik81 6y ago
    I bought a Pixel 4a and a case direct from Google a couple months ago. For some strange reason, they shipped the case immediately, then the phone a few weeks later. When I got the phone, I realized that the case had never arrived. Google refused to do anything, citing a 2-week limit on disputes. They told me to take it up with the shipper, but provided no guidance on how to do so and never responded when I asked. Given that the cases are clearly high margin items, I was blown away by how terrible their customer service was.

hbosch 6y ago

I have to assume you meant the Amazon product with the url suffix "dp/B087NN41JH/". This seems to be the highest reviewed result for search term "webcam", at least on my page. Here on HN, we have a savvy audience that understands the problem on Amazon with counterfeits, fakes, and low-quality items. I don't usually have this problem myself, because I go out of my way to buy things from sellers that I recognize, such as Logitech for instance, which owns the top results for "webcam" even though they have fewer reviews and higher prices. In your case, I think there are warning signs for the product in question. An unknown seller hawking a cheap knock-off looking webcam with a fake sale price... I really do not enjoy being the devil's advocate but, come on. Amazon might reprimand the seller. They might even ban them. But if so, they will just pop back up over night with a new name. Their cheapo products are unlabelled, unbranded and modestly packaged for exactly this benefit.

whimsicalism 6y ago
They won't pop back up with 12k 5 star reviews immediately? I'm honestly shocked by this comment - warning sides aside, paying for reviews should cause a ban. I am as unconvinced by this argument about "popping back" as I am by people who say that raising taxes is useless because people will just hide their money.
- hbosch 6y ago
  > They won't pop back up with 12k 5 star reviews immediately? No, they will pay for those and have them soon enough. Even the OP says the product was sitting at >4,000 reviews at time of purchase and now is over 12,000. The reviews are easy to come by, of course. I am not pointing out that the seller here is right by any means. I fully agree that paying for 5-star reviews is reprehensible and unethical, and it's similarly unethical for ANY marketplace to feature items that have paid for positive reviews. But now we've arrived at a part that is beyond Amazon itself, haven't we? The concept of "paid positive reviews" is not confined to Amazon, naturally. This is why it's important to be a "literate consumer". That is to say, keen and discerning and aware. Like I said in my post, the buyer (in this case, OP) absolutely CHOSE a product that was visually an unbranded "knock off" of a webcam that Amazon actually featured HIGHER in their own search results. You can see which camera I am talking about being the "knockoff" and which is the "original", I hope. A person with high "consumer literacy" will not just pick the cheap option with a bunch of 5-star reviews. Not in 2020, and not on Amazon.com -- these plain facts mean nothing about the seller's reputation or the product's quality. Every "literate consumer" should already know this! It doesn't mean it's OK for the seller to do what they do, but it's important that we all know the reality is that they DO do it.

mancerayder 6y ago

I wrote a negative review for glass that broke by itself in the fridge 5 times (out of 6 pieces). Amazon removed it. I asked why and was sent a link by a bot-like sender. Some months back I gave a so so review on AirBNB and had it removed. I asked why, I was sent a link and cut and pasted guidelines. Responding using Reason led to being completely ignored. Then I discovered a reddit subgroup where hosts tell each other tips to easily get reviews removed. The whole review system has become corrupted. The complaint is that only motivated people put positive or negative reviews, which is only partially true. It's actually gaslighting by marketing people. Not surprised by Amazon. Fakespot helps somewhat it seems... as does not ordering from Amazon where possible. I just ordered a jacket with a 20 pct coupon from a sporting goods store that sells the same item on Amazon.. without the 20 pct discount. The trick is to remove negative reviews that violate guidelines, but for positive reviews that violate common sense and ethics, nyet.

o_____________o 6y ago
> Then I discovered a reddit subgroup where hosts tell each other tips to easily get reviews removed. What subreddit is that?
- mancerayder 6y ago
  AirBNB! Do a search for Review and along those lines.
robotnikman 6y ago
The best place to find reviews it seems is through subscription paid independent reviewers. Consumer reports is one that comes to mind (they are also non-profit), as well as rtings. If you are looking for reviews for more niche products though, your pretty much on your own when it comes to finding out if its good or not.
- gowld 6y ago
  "non-profit" just means there are no investors. It doesn't mean management isn't taking home money for running the operation.

lhorie 6y ago

Sometimes, I semi-seriously wonder if it isn't better to just buy things from aliexpress.com. The products themselves mostly come from China anyways and many classes of items consistently seem to be marked up on amazon. And now we are left to wonder if the price deltas are helping middlemen retailers fund these review manipulation shenanigans, so why not just cut out the amazon exploit portion out of the equation?

capnheim 6y ago
Many of the sellers on Aliexpress are the same sellers on Amazon. The FBA model makes it easy to cut out the middleman.
aembleton 6y ago
The delivery takes longer but if I don't mind that then I just buy straight from Ali express.
LoSboccacc 6y ago
Careful with battery and always connected devices, local market items and export market items are likely to run trough different lines with different markup targets and fault tolerances
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Guest19023892 6y ago

I've seen this take place with all sorts of things. Restaurants where you get free dessert by leaving an online review. Hotels where you get some type of upgrade. Stores where you leave a review and get a chance to win a gift card.

notahacker 6y ago
I even had a guided tour in Vietnam including a cybercafé stop to leave a review! (I didn't mind, the tour was very good)

thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago

I wrote a negative review for a projector recently. The projector was so bad and had such good reviews I questioned this directly in my review. I later got a direct email (not an amazon message) from the seller asking if I would take down the review if they refunded me and let me keep the projector.

newsbinator 6y ago
How did you proceed?
- wpietri 6y ago
  I would have been very tempted to take the refund and then put up another bad review, adding on about the bribe.
GordonS 6y ago
Here in the UK I had this happen once, but with much cheaper items: light bulbs. I ordered bright LED bulbs (I forget the purported lumens figure), but they where clearly nowhere near as bright as advertised. I gave a balanced 3-star review and was contacted the seller saying they'd refund me and let me keep the bulbs if I removed my review. I obviously declined, as I had no use for the bulbs in any case!

jasonhansel 6y ago

The same thing happened to me a few years back. I got a product that came with an invitation to a secret Facebook group, with promises of further discounts. I joined the group, and it turned out to be a system where they would send you Amazon gift cards to buy specific products in exchange for five-star reviews. Apparently a large number of ordinary customers were involved, given the size of the group in question (all people using what appeared to be their real Facebook accounts). I reported it to Amazon customer service, and they gave me a $5 account credit for making the report. Not sure if any action was taken against the seller.

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rufus_foreman 6y ago

Believe me, this webcam is awesome. Unbelievable quality. Low price. Light years ahead of the competition. Seriously the best webcam in its class. Help yourself out and buy one today. I would give this SIX stars if I could. Trust me.

la6471 6y ago

Can you please post the link of the webcam here with the paid reviews.

momokoko 6y ago

Wait until you learn that people frequently extort the sellers by threatening bad reviews for perfectly good products unless they receive a significant refund of the purchase price.

maerF0x0 6y ago

Stop shopping on Amazon

intricatedetail 6y ago

So if a seller does something sketchy they ask customer to ask the seller if this is true? Wow.

vidarh 6y ago

Makes me feel like a chump for actually following Amazon's rules when soliciting reviews for my novel (no payment or discount of any kind is allowed in return for completing a review for most products; for books only you may provide the book itself in advance as long as there is no actual obligation to complete the review and no attempt to influence it)