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As a consumer, I am well aware of this problem. I use Fakespot Fake Amazon Review browser extension to help weed out junk reviews and find quality products. (It

As a consumer, I am well aware of this problem. I use Fakespot Fake Amazon Review browser extension to help weed out junk reviews and find quality products. (It seems almost all of them are 4.5 stars these days) Another strategy to counter bad-quality products is to buy items directly from the brand's website. i.e. buy socks from hanes.com instead of amazon. Another problem I see with the shopping experience is that I would sometimes spend 10 or 20 minutes looking for just the right product (which is absurd when you think about just how powerful modern filtering and search algorithms can be.) And then it dawned on me. Amazon is making money off of those 10 or 20 minutes of "engagement" because it gives them time to show a bunch of paid ads as I search. To counter that problem, I always filter my results with "Prime Only" and Filter: Show lowest price to highest. I use Prime Only as a proxy-variable to filter out unpopular items (they are probably unpopular for a reason) It's amazing how much money you can save doing this. Usually you can avoid paying double what the default results are.

jszymborski 4y ago
Is this still a better experience than seeking out reputable brand names that have their own online shop? I get my recommendations from user forums and YT channels I trust, and then go straight to the manufacturer.
- konschubert 4y ago
  Usually the manufacturers websites have the highest prices
  - jszymborski 4y ago
    Anecdotally, that's not my experience. In fact, I often find sales on old warehouse stock I don't find elsewhere. Shipping is usually a sticking point, though.
  - chubbnix 4y ago
    Amazon’s seller policy demands that be the case. You can have your listings removed for policy violation if you offer a price lower than amazon including sales events and discounts. The product manufacturer can have priority control on the amazon listing so there is incentive for the manufacturer to be on amazon if only for that control. I see some sellers offer discounts in their website greater than amazon sometimes but they are vulnerable to expulsion if they are reported.
    - tmaly 4y ago
      I am surprised the FTC has not raised issue with this policy.
- r00fus 4y ago
  I have one experience with Corning (Corelle) - wanted simple white square bowls straight from the manufacturer to replace some that broke. The order was more expensive (by 15%), shipping took a week (as opposed to 2 days) and one of the bowls was "warped" - still functional but definitely a factory reject. I did not want to bother complaining or returning but honestly, will never buy from them direct again. And I hate Amazon. I try to use local retailers now, sometimes with online+curbside.
flanbiscuit 4y ago
I've seen people complain on reddit about Fakespot not being good anymore. ReviewMeta is an alternative and supposedly "better": https://reviewmeta.com/ https://reviewmeta.com/ I have little experience with either, I'd probably try both at the same time.
- patwolf 4y ago
  I'm interested in trying ReviewMeta. In the past I used Fakespot quite a bit, but I started seeing cases where it wouldn't flag products with obviously fake reviews, and it would flag perfectly good products. For example, try it with any five-star LEGO set and it will give it a D rating and "real" rating of 1.5 stars. Without reliable results I had no reason to trust Fakespot any more than Amazon itself. At a quick glance ReviewMeta seems to give a much more accurate rating to the same LEGO set.
- tinyhouse 4y ago
  I don't use any third party plugin. My approach for spotting fake reviews is simple. Anything that has positive reviews that span over a short period of time is suspect. I only buy things that have good reviews that span over a few years. I think most new products on Amazon are sellers relisting products so that they can start from scratch with a bunch of 5 star reviews. Amazon could easily automate this and show the info to users but I guess they don't have an incentive. Big mistake if you ask me. I guess that l's the problem with big tech. You cannot push an idea that shows to reduce revenue in the short term. Long term impact is something that is much harder to measure.
- lenocinor 4y ago
  Just please keep in mind that the person responsible (may have?) left last year: https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/ https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/
- QuantumGood 4y ago
  This has worked well for me: 1. Sort reviews by recent; average MUCH lower than overall? Avoid. 2. Use Lustre.ai to suggest alternatives (site or browser plugin). 3. Read 1- and 2-star reviews; many re: misleading features/broken functions? Avoid. 4. Check most helpful negative review. 5. Search reviews and questions for what you've learned in steps 3 and 4. 6. Ignore short to medium reviews explaining nothing and using glowing superlatives.
silicon2401 4y ago
> Another problem I see with the shopping experience is that I would sometimes spend 10 or 20 minutes looking for just the right product (which is absurd when you think about just how powerful modern filtering and search algorithms can be.) And then it dawned on me. Amazon is making money off of those 10 or 20 minutes of "engagement" because it gives them time to show a bunch of paid ads as I search. that's a galaxy brain moment. never even thought of that, despite taking efforts to be conscious of how companies are monetizing my interactions with their products. now it makes more sense why one of the biggest companies in the world has had such a terrible website for so long
noodlenotes 4y ago
I also use "Prime Only" to filter out items shipping from China. If I'm okay waiting a month, I'll buy it from AliExpress for less.
- chaostheory 4y ago
  That doesn’t help much because 3rd parties use Amazon FBA all the time. It’s an even worse problem due to inventory commingling ie even if you buy from Amazon as a seller, there’s no guarantee that the item shipped to you is actually Amazon’s inventory unless you look at all the sellers for the item and verify that there are no other 3rd party sellers using FBA aka Prime
- tmaly 4y ago
  I have noticed certain electronics are much cheaper on AliExpress, but you do have explicit shipping costs vs that being rolled up in prime membership costs.
Lendal 4y ago
I would just like a manual filter. If I search for "rechargeable AA batteries" I get dozens of entries. It would be so much easier if I could manually click off the ones I know are not what I want. Like the multitude of AAA rechargeable batteries that always come up when I search for AA rechargeable batteries. No, I can't remove them. I'm forced to scroll through them again and again while evaluating the other options, continuously multiplying my opportunity to make a mistake and buy the wrong item. By the way, if you do buy AAA batteries by accident, because you forgot half the entries are going to be for AAA even when you explicitly searched for AA, they won't take the AAA rechargeable batteries back. In fact they'd rather give you a refund and have you fling those brand-new unopened AAA rechargeable batteries into a landfill. It's an increasingly hostile user experience, much like buying a used car used to be.
- yencabulator 4y ago
  I often put half a dozen competing products in my shopping cart, with no intent to buy more than one of them, just to be able to compare them nicely. First round is elimination by some red flags, next is a feature-for-feature spec comparison that usually leaves just one winner.
  - Terretta 4y ago
    Congratulations, you just taught Amazon ad engine to show you the ones you “almost bought” for the next two years, in hopes you’ll finally crack and pull the trigger on what you actually did not want.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - yencabulator 4y ago
      I'm going to navigate to those pages, scroll back and forth, click to expand reviews -- they would know anyway. If that's your issue, you practically can't buy things from Amazon.

jszymborski 4y ago

Is this still a better experience than seeking out reputable brand names that have their own online shop? I get my recommendations from user forums and YT channels I trust, and then go straight to the manufacturer.

konschubert 4y ago
Usually the manufacturers websites have the highest prices
- jszymborski 4y ago
  Anecdotally, that's not my experience. In fact, I often find sales on old warehouse stock I don't find elsewhere. Shipping is usually a sticking point, though.
- chubbnix 4y ago
  Amazon’s seller policy demands that be the case. You can have your listings removed for policy violation if you offer a price lower than amazon including sales events and discounts. The product manufacturer can have priority control on the amazon listing so there is incentive for the manufacturer to be on amazon if only for that control. I see some sellers offer discounts in their website greater than amazon sometimes but they are vulnerable to expulsion if they are reported.
  - tmaly 4y ago
    I am surprised the FTC has not raised issue with this policy.
r00fus 4y ago
I have one experience with Corning (Corelle) - wanted simple white square bowls straight from the manufacturer to replace some that broke. The order was more expensive (by 15%), shipping took a week (as opposed to 2 days) and one of the bowls was "warped" - still functional but definitely a factory reject. I did not want to bother complaining or returning but honestly, will never buy from them direct again. And I hate Amazon. I try to use local retailers now, sometimes with online+curbside.

flanbiscuit 4y ago

I've seen people complain on reddit about Fakespot not being good anymore. ReviewMeta is an alternative and supposedly "better": https://reviewmeta.com/ https://reviewmeta.com/ I have little experience with either, I'd probably try both at the same time.

patwolf 4y ago
I'm interested in trying ReviewMeta. In the past I used Fakespot quite a bit, but I started seeing cases where it wouldn't flag products with obviously fake reviews, and it would flag perfectly good products. For example, try it with any five-star LEGO set and it will give it a D rating and "real" rating of 1.5 stars. Without reliable results I had no reason to trust Fakespot any more than Amazon itself. At a quick glance ReviewMeta seems to give a much more accurate rating to the same LEGO set.
tinyhouse 4y ago
I don't use any third party plugin. My approach for spotting fake reviews is simple. Anything that has positive reviews that span over a short period of time is suspect. I only buy things that have good reviews that span over a few years. I think most new products on Amazon are sellers relisting products so that they can start from scratch with a bunch of 5 star reviews. Amazon could easily automate this and show the info to users but I guess they don't have an incentive. Big mistake if you ask me. I guess that l's the problem with big tech. You cannot push an idea that shows to reduce revenue in the short term. Long term impact is something that is much harder to measure.
lenocinor 4y ago
Just please keep in mind that the person responsible (may have?) left last year: https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/ https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/
QuantumGood 4y ago
This has worked well for me: 1. Sort reviews by recent; average MUCH lower than overall? Avoid. 2. Use Lustre.ai to suggest alternatives (site or browser plugin). 3. Read 1- and 2-star reviews; many re: misleading features/broken functions? Avoid. 4. Check most helpful negative review. 5. Search reviews and questions for what you've learned in steps 3 and 4. 6. Ignore short to medium reviews explaining nothing and using glowing superlatives.

silicon2401 4y ago

> Another problem I see with the shopping experience is that I would sometimes spend 10 or 20 minutes looking for just the right product (which is absurd when you think about just how powerful modern filtering and search algorithms can be.) And then it dawned on me. Amazon is making money off of those 10 or 20 minutes of "engagement" because it gives them time to show a bunch of paid ads as I search. that's a galaxy brain moment. never even thought of that, despite taking efforts to be conscious of how companies are monetizing my interactions with their products. now it makes more sense why one of the biggest companies in the world has had such a terrible website for so long

noodlenotes 4y ago

I also use "Prime Only" to filter out items shipping from China. If I'm okay waiting a month, I'll buy it from AliExpress for less.

chaostheory 4y ago
That doesn’t help much because 3rd parties use Amazon FBA all the time. It’s an even worse problem due to inventory commingling ie even if you buy from Amazon as a seller, there’s no guarantee that the item shipped to you is actually Amazon’s inventory unless you look at all the sellers for the item and verify that there are no other 3rd party sellers using FBA aka Prime
tmaly 4y ago
I have noticed certain electronics are much cheaper on AliExpress, but you do have explicit shipping costs vs that being rolled up in prime membership costs.

Lendal 4y ago

I would just like a manual filter. If I search for "rechargeable AA batteries" I get dozens of entries. It would be so much easier if I could manually click off the ones I know are not what I want. Like the multitude of AAA rechargeable batteries that always come up when I search for AA rechargeable batteries. No, I can't remove them. I'm forced to scroll through them again and again while evaluating the other options, continuously multiplying my opportunity to make a mistake and buy the wrong item. By the way, if you do buy AAA batteries by accident, because you forgot half the entries are going to be for AAA even when you explicitly searched for AA, they won't take the AAA rechargeable batteries back. In fact they'd rather give you a refund and have you fling those brand-new unopened AAA rechargeable batteries into a landfill. It's an increasingly hostile user experience, much like buying a used car used to be.

yencabulator 4y ago
I often put half a dozen competing products in my shopping cart, with no intent to buy more than one of them, just to be able to compare them nicely. First round is elimination by some red flags, next is a feature-for-feature spec comparison that usually leaves just one winner.
- Terretta 4y ago
  Congratulations, you just taught Amazon ad engine to show you the ones you “almost bought” for the next two years, in hopes you’ll finally crack and pull the trigger on what you actually did not want.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - yencabulator 4y ago
    I'm going to navigate to those pages, scroll back and forth, click to expand reviews -- they would know anyway. If that's your issue, you practically can't buy things from Amazon.