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A few months back, I bought an AKASO Keychain camera to see if it's at least a 75%-decent knock-off of the Insta360 Go. I found that it was a truly terrible pro

A few months back, I bought an AKASO Keychain camera to see if it's at least a 75%-decent knock-off of the Insta360 Go. I found that it was a truly terrible product and left a negative review detailing all my impressions and issues with it. Not long afterwards, "Tara" from AKASO (using a gmail.com account with the name "Jessica") sent me multiple requests for the following: >We sincerely appreciate your comment, which is helpful for improvement of our product and service in future. To bring you a better shopping experience, we would like to send you 30 USD gift card. Would you please help us to re-adjusting your comment rating or remove it? Thanks to the Amazon review system, companies would much rather spend money suppressing bad reviews of their shit products instead of spending money to make good products in the first place.

fma 5y ago
Anyone know how these sellers get your email address? I had a similar experience. The product met 90% of what I needed but the advertised 10% did not, and that 10% was critical for what I needed to do. I left a 2 or 3 star review (I forgot). I kept getting spammed to my personal e-mail. I was not sure if they were sending through Amazon system or directly - my guess was directly. Later on I did modify my review. I reduced it by 1 more star.
- nanliu 5y ago
  There's third party services that performs reverse lookup of bad reviews to find the buyer identity and contact info. The whole purpose is to circumvent the Amazon customer contact process. I left 1 star review for a product, and the seller tried continuously to solicit withdraw or revision of the review. I attempted to update the review calling out this behavior with screenshot of the email and Amazon wouldn't approve it. Ultimately, they replaced it with a product revision and immediately got another 20k reviews with near 5 star rating. There's very little anonymity for buyers given all our digital crumbles. The entire digital economy's purpose is to track and identify you as a consumer. On top of this, how reviewers are paid via affiliates is the wrong incentive model. I'm not sure how this could be fixed, but I would be interested in a service that flipped the information asymmetry and gave me insight on the company selling the product and their trust worthiness. Company ownership would be icing on the cake since brands change hand so frequently (see example: https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/ https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/).
  - fma 5y ago
    There's a tool called fakespot which would analyze the reviews and give the product a grade. It has the right idea but I think these professional sellers have circumvented them... Just like you, I also updated my review when I downgraded my star review. My first attempt was rejected by Amazon and I made my update more brief in order to pass their review process. I wouldn't say Amazon is turning a blind eye to it - but actually helping the cause in order to get turnover of products. If it hurt their bottom line (just like bad publicity like this would) they'd stop it.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
I got an Instagram ad for a free device from a popular product seller on Amazon. I clicked out of curiosity, expecting it to be some sort of scam. Instead, it took me to a page hidden on the manufacturer’s official .com website. The deal was that I had to go to Amazon.com, search for a specific keyword, scroll until I found their product, buy it, and then forward my receipt to the company. They would then PayPal me the entire cost and I got to keep the product. They didn’t even ask for a review, although maybe that request would come after I bought it. Up front, they were simply vying for search ranking. The margin on some of these products is so high that companies can buy their way in to high search rankings and reviews.
- loceng 5y ago
  Is there a way to prevent gaming the system like this, perhaps other than whistleblower rewards? I imagine even with whistleblower rewards companies would just employ third-parties for plausible deniability claiming it's a simply the actions of a bad actor trying to get them penalized. Edit to add: perhaps substantial whistleblower rewards for employees of companies doing the bad actions but the top one or two employees/founders might be the only ones in the know.
  - drdaeman 5y ago
    A whistleblower checkbox "seller had promised to compensate me for this review (this report won't be shown on the review or visible to the seller, and you won't be penalized for this)" may make an impact. Game the game. Collect those flags for a while without visibly affecting anything, if enough are collected - verify existence of those paid reviews (to avoid report abuse attempts to shut down legit sellers), and then take action.
    - biql 5y ago
      Bad actors would probably start using it against competitors just like the fake 5 star review attacks. It's really interesting how seller competition evolves, anything that can be used to punish a bad seller ends up being used as a way to frame a competitor.
patall 5y ago
Beside having your email, do they have your address or is that only amazon? Else, and I know that its not worth your time, but couldn't you accept their request, change your review, receive the gift card, redeem it, and change review back with a short statement of what happened. I mean, as I understand it, what are they gonna do? (I they do have your address though, I would not play games either)
- BugsJustFindMe 5y ago
  Talking about it in the review is annoyingly likely to get the review removed for being "off topic". You're supposed to report the merchant to amazon directly and only review the product.
- AnssiH 5y ago
  > Beside having your email, do they have your address or is that only amazon? Well, Amazon does not give out buyer e-mail addresses either, so the seller must've figured it out some other way (or via an Amazon bug). Unless the item was fulfilled by Amazon, the seller gets your physical address (so they can ship out the item).
- quantumofalpha 5y ago
  Yes. I got harassed by a seller for months both via emails and post for a 1 star review on amazon. It's actually pretty logical that they have your postal address since they need it for shipping. > change review back with a short statement of what happened. I mean, as I understand it, what are they gonna do? Your review will simply not pass amazon's moderation - they actively censor this stuff.
509engr 5y ago
I had a similar experience with a USB-C hub I bought from a brand recommended by wirecutter (not the exact model as it was "replaced by a newer model". I plugged it into a brand new laptop and I got a warning about it drawing too much power, which persisted when I plugged several other devices. I returned the hub and have been getting spammed by these emails ever since. That has made me very wary of buying anything from Amazon now without a good recommendation from someone I personally know.
- jon_richards 5y ago
  > without a good recommendation from someone I personally know. I’ve always thought there’s a big opportunity here for principle component analysis or other dimension reduction. The reviews you see could be filtered down to people who have reviewed other things similarly to you, like how Netflix gives different ratings for the same show depending on what else you’ve watched. It’s almost like establishing trust. If someone has rated that USB hub 5 stars, you probably don’t want their opinion on a restaurant either. It would also give a real incentive to leave honest reviews, which would help collect data from the massive group that currently just doesn’t care.
- cbhl 5y ago
  Are you saying that the hub drew more power when more devices were plugged in (expected)? Or that the hub broke the USB-C port on your laptop, such that when you unplugged it, any device you plugged in directly thereafter also reported drawing too much power? Hubs drawing too much power was an issue with USB-A hubs as well -- to mitigate this you want a hub that is independently powered (that is, has its own DC barrel plug and wall wart). You can also find hubs that charge laptops (Thunderbolt 3/4, or USB-C PD, assuming you have a compatible laptop) although you want to be very careful about the choice of charger and cable since a short can brick just about anything that's not properly protected on the USB-C port (basically most non-Macs).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- bombela 5y ago
  Recently I bought and returned to amazon around 5 different USB SD card reader. Turns out they all used the exact same USB hub/combo card reader chip. This chip burns enough power at idle to heat up almost 30°C above ambient. After enough testing I found out that on many motherboards, you can turn on USB power saving per port. This effectively get the device to consume almost nothing at idle. But this only works on those ports. Anything indirect; for example apple usb-c to USB + HDMI dongle; the device would be burning power and heating up. Same behavior on all three major operating systems. What matters is the motherboard ability to control power to a single USB port as far as I can tell.
slver 5y ago
> Thanks to the Amazon review system Why are you blaming Amazon? What would you change? You probably know before online stores had their own review systems, it was full of fake review sites (still is) and fake forum product endorsements. This is not a problem that's here "thanks to the Amazon review system".
- dnissley 5y ago
  If sellers didn't receive purchasers email addresses through Amazon, they wouldn't be able to pull back channel crap like this.
  - fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago
    I’ve purchased a lot of products where printed advertisements for schemes like this were included in the box. I haven’t noticed the solicitations in my email - maybe I don’t read those emails because they look like spam?
- Oddskar 5y ago
  Amazon must receive a ton of reports of stores doing shady things like this. I know I've sent some. They seemingly spend very little attention to these reports, because it's not like they have to care at all.
  - slver 5y ago
    This thread is literally about them caring, tho.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
fallinghawks 5y ago
I had a similar experience after writing a poor review for a down comforter. They offered to refund about 40% of the purchase price if I adjusted my review. With purchased items I've also gotten cards offering a freebie if you send them an email with your order # - some vendors are honest and just send the free item, but others want a (good) review before they send the bribe err gift.
afavour 5y ago
I bought a USB hub on Amazon and in the box was a postcard offering me a $20 voucher for a review if I “enjoy the product”. I wrote a review mentioning this and Amazon rejected it. There’s no way they don’t know what’s going on.
- yumraj 5y ago
  I had purchased a set of 10 earbuds for $10 or something. They were horrible, like really bad with muffled sound. It had a card that if I post a review they’ll give me $15 gift card. I wrote a review with how bad they were and also made a note of the $15 gift card offer. Last I checked my review was not deleted and it was available. I don’t think it made any difference though since the product is full of 5-star reviews claiming they are audiophile quality earbuds. Just curious if you had also reviewed the hub or just that it had a gift card offer?
  - Rebelgecko 5y ago
    I had a similar situation (with a pair of $25 earbuds). Amazon took my review down for "promotion", presumably because I included a picture of the card with an email address to contact if you wanted to be compensated for your review. Probably 75% of my deleted review was about the item itself.

fma 5y ago

Anyone know how these sellers get your email address? I had a similar experience. The product met 90% of what I needed but the advertised 10% did not, and that 10% was critical for what I needed to do. I left a 2 or 3 star review (I forgot). I kept getting spammed to my personal e-mail. I was not sure if they were sending through Amazon system or directly - my guess was directly. Later on I did modify my review. I reduced it by 1 more star.

nanliu 5y ago
There's third party services that performs reverse lookup of bad reviews to find the buyer identity and contact info. The whole purpose is to circumvent the Amazon customer contact process. I left 1 star review for a product, and the seller tried continuously to solicit withdraw or revision of the review. I attempted to update the review calling out this behavior with screenshot of the email and Amazon wouldn't approve it. Ultimately, they replaced it with a product revision and immediately got another 20k reviews with near 5 star rating. There's very little anonymity for buyers given all our digital crumbles. The entire digital economy's purpose is to track and identify you as a consumer. On top of this, how reviewers are paid via affiliates is the wrong incentive model. I'm not sure how this could be fixed, but I would be interested in a service that flipped the information asymmetry and gave me insight on the company selling the product and their trust worthiness. Company ownership would be icing on the cake since brands change hand so frequently (see example: https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/ https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/).
- fma 5y ago
  There's a tool called fakespot which would analyze the reviews and give the product a grade. It has the right idea but I think these professional sellers have circumvented them... Just like you, I also updated my review when I downgraded my star review. My first attempt was rejected by Amazon and I made my update more brief in order to pass their review process. I wouldn't say Amazon is turning a blind eye to it - but actually helping the cause in order to get turnover of products. If it hurt their bottom line (just like bad publicity like this would) they'd stop it.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

I got an Instagram ad for a free device from a popular product seller on Amazon. I clicked out of curiosity, expecting it to be some sort of scam. Instead, it took me to a page hidden on the manufacturer’s official .com website. The deal was that I had to go to Amazon.com, search for a specific keyword, scroll until I found their product, buy it, and then forward my receipt to the company. They would then PayPal me the entire cost and I got to keep the product. They didn’t even ask for a review, although maybe that request would come after I bought it. Up front, they were simply vying for search ranking. The margin on some of these products is so high that companies can buy their way in to high search rankings and reviews.

loceng 5y ago
Is there a way to prevent gaming the system like this, perhaps other than whistleblower rewards? I imagine even with whistleblower rewards companies would just employ third-parties for plausible deniability claiming it's a simply the actions of a bad actor trying to get them penalized. Edit to add: perhaps substantial whistleblower rewards for employees of companies doing the bad actions but the top one or two employees/founders might be the only ones in the know.
- drdaeman 5y ago
  A whistleblower checkbox "seller had promised to compensate me for this review (this report won't be shown on the review or visible to the seller, and you won't be penalized for this)" may make an impact. Game the game. Collect those flags for a while without visibly affecting anything, if enough are collected - verify existence of those paid reviews (to avoid report abuse attempts to shut down legit sellers), and then take action.
  - biql 5y ago
    Bad actors would probably start using it against competitors just like the fake 5 star review attacks. It's really interesting how seller competition evolves, anything that can be used to punish a bad seller ends up being used as a way to frame a competitor.

patall 5y ago

Beside having your email, do they have your address or is that only amazon? Else, and I know that its not worth your time, but couldn't you accept their request, change your review, receive the gift card, redeem it, and change review back with a short statement of what happened. I mean, as I understand it, what are they gonna do? (I they do have your address though, I would not play games either)

BugsJustFindMe 5y ago
Talking about it in the review is annoyingly likely to get the review removed for being "off topic". You're supposed to report the merchant to amazon directly and only review the product.
AnssiH 5y ago
> Beside having your email, do they have your address or is that only amazon? Well, Amazon does not give out buyer e-mail addresses either, so the seller must've figured it out some other way (or via an Amazon bug). Unless the item was fulfilled by Amazon, the seller gets your physical address (so they can ship out the item).
quantumofalpha 5y ago
Yes. I got harassed by a seller for months both via emails and post for a 1 star review on amazon. It's actually pretty logical that they have your postal address since they need it for shipping. > change review back with a short statement of what happened. I mean, as I understand it, what are they gonna do? Your review will simply not pass amazon's moderation - they actively censor this stuff.

509engr 5y ago

I had a similar experience with a USB-C hub I bought from a brand recommended by wirecutter (not the exact model as it was "replaced by a newer model". I plugged it into a brand new laptop and I got a warning about it drawing too much power, which persisted when I plugged several other devices. I returned the hub and have been getting spammed by these emails ever since. That has made me very wary of buying anything from Amazon now without a good recommendation from someone I personally know.

jon_richards 5y ago
> without a good recommendation from someone I personally know. I’ve always thought there’s a big opportunity here for principle component analysis or other dimension reduction. The reviews you see could be filtered down to people who have reviewed other things similarly to you, like how Netflix gives different ratings for the same show depending on what else you’ve watched. It’s almost like establishing trust. If someone has rated that USB hub 5 stars, you probably don’t want their opinion on a restaurant either. It would also give a real incentive to leave honest reviews, which would help collect data from the massive group that currently just doesn’t care.
cbhl 5y ago
Are you saying that the hub drew more power when more devices were plugged in (expected)? Or that the hub broke the USB-C port on your laptop, such that when you unplugged it, any device you plugged in directly thereafter also reported drawing too much power? Hubs drawing too much power was an issue with USB-A hubs as well -- to mitigate this you want a hub that is independently powered (that is, has its own DC barrel plug and wall wart). You can also find hubs that charge laptops (Thunderbolt 3/4, or USB-C PD, assuming you have a compatible laptop) although you want to be very careful about the choice of charger and cable since a short can brick just about anything that's not properly protected on the USB-C port (basically most non-Macs).
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bombela 5y ago
Recently I bought and returned to amazon around 5 different USB SD card reader. Turns out they all used the exact same USB hub/combo card reader chip. This chip burns enough power at idle to heat up almost 30°C above ambient. After enough testing I found out that on many motherboards, you can turn on USB power saving per port. This effectively get the device to consume almost nothing at idle. But this only works on those ports. Anything indirect; for example apple usb-c to USB + HDMI dongle; the device would be burning power and heating up. Same behavior on all three major operating systems. What matters is the motherboard ability to control power to a single USB port as far as I can tell.

slver 5y ago

> Thanks to the Amazon review system Why are you blaming Amazon? What would you change? You probably know before online stores had their own review systems, it was full of fake review sites (still is) and fake forum product endorsements. This is not a problem that's here "thanks to the Amazon review system".

dnissley 5y ago
If sellers didn't receive purchasers email addresses through Amazon, they wouldn't be able to pull back channel crap like this.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago
  I’ve purchased a lot of products where printed advertisements for schemes like this were included in the box. I haven’t noticed the solicitations in my email - maybe I don’t read those emails because they look like spam?
Oddskar 5y ago
Amazon must receive a ton of reports of stores doing shady things like this. I know I've sent some. They seemingly spend very little attention to these reports, because it's not like they have to care at all.
- slver 5y ago
  This thread is literally about them caring, tho.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

fallinghawks 5y ago

I had a similar experience after writing a poor review for a down comforter. They offered to refund about 40% of the purchase price if I adjusted my review. With purchased items I've also gotten cards offering a freebie if you send them an email with your order # - some vendors are honest and just send the free item, but others want a (good) review before they send the bribe err gift.

afavour 5y ago

I bought a USB hub on Amazon and in the box was a postcard offering me a $20 voucher for a review if I “enjoy the product”. I wrote a review mentioning this and Amazon rejected it. There’s no way they don’t know what’s going on.

yumraj 5y ago
I had purchased a set of 10 earbuds for $10 or something. They were horrible, like really bad with muffled sound. It had a card that if I post a review they’ll give me $15 gift card. I wrote a review with how bad they were and also made a note of the $15 gift card offer. Last I checked my review was not deleted and it was available. I don’t think it made any difference though since the product is full of 5-star reviews claiming they are audiophile quality earbuds. Just curious if you had also reviewed the hub or just that it had a gift card offer?
- Rebelgecko 5y ago
  I had a similar situation (with a pair of $25 earbuds). Amazon took my review down for "promotion", presumably because I included a picture of the card with an email address to contact if you wanted to be compensated for your review. Probably 75% of my deleted review was about the item itself.