4 ms·

they should give more weight to the "verified purchase" reviews, I might even go as far as to say disallow reviews unless you actually bought the product, it wo

they should give more weight to the "verified purchase" reviews, I might even go as far as to say disallow reviews unless you actually bought the product, it would stop a lot of this, and the stupid review bandwagon that people seem to jump on

mod 12y ago
Or perhaps remove non-verified reviews once there were more than just a couple of reviews. I've never published a dishonest review, but I have reviewed a product or two that I bought somewhere else (not on Amazon), but I certainly "bought the product."
awjr 12y ago
This. This more than anything. Amazon is now in a position not to need reviews from people that currently own that book. Or better still, there is a point where there is a verified purchases threshold that triggers the hiding of unverified votes. Yes it still means a person can buy the book, then give it a bad review, then return it, however the effort to do this would be higher AND there would be a purchase pattern that begins to show itself.
- vhost- 12y ago
  You can easily detect that. If a person buys a lot of books and make a lot of 5 star or 1 star reviews, then returns them, that's clearly abuse and you ban them.
  - jessaustin 12y ago
    Or just wait until they have a lot of books and then reject every return. Their purchase history would tell a compelling story for the credit card bank.
    - testacct4 12y ago
      Or just buy the books used, perform the review, and sell them back, taking a small hit on shipping....
    - Turing_Machine 12y ago
      Amazon will in fact ban you if you have too many returns, or so I understand.
usefulcat 12y ago
Check out the reviews for the PHP book he mentions. Almost all of them are "verified purchase"! And the only negative review isn't one of them. When the purchase price is so low, astroturfing with "verified purchase" reviews looks to be quite feasible.
benologist 12y ago
Don't forget you get most of the money back, on top of which you can make your product/s cheaper or free temporarily.
mstolpm 12y ago
These ARE verified purchases. You can buy them and just have to pay the reviewer for the purchase (or set the ebook to free for a limited time and let the reviewers download/"buy" the ebook in this timeframe). However, the strategy is not sustainable: Most 5 star reviews get "not helpful" marks and the ranking honors the number of purchases as well. The ebooks in question already get newer 1 star ratings and will take a nosedive when no new fake reviews are coming in.

mod 12y ago

Or perhaps remove non-verified reviews once there were more than just a couple of reviews. I've never published a dishonest review, but I have reviewed a product or two that I bought somewhere else (not on Amazon), but I certainly "bought the product."

awjr 12y ago

This. This more than anything. Amazon is now in a position not to need reviews from people that currently own that book. Or better still, there is a point where there is a verified purchases threshold that triggers the hiding of unverified votes. Yes it still means a person can buy the book, then give it a bad review, then return it, however the effort to do this would be higher AND there would be a purchase pattern that begins to show itself.

vhost- 12y ago
You can easily detect that. If a person buys a lot of books and make a lot of 5 star or 1 star reviews, then returns them, that's clearly abuse and you ban them.
- jessaustin 12y ago
  Or just wait until they have a lot of books and then reject every return. Their purchase history would tell a compelling story for the credit card bank.
  - testacct4 12y ago
    Or just buy the books used, perform the review, and sell them back, taking a small hit on shipping....
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    Amazon will in fact ban you if you have too many returns, or so I understand.

usefulcat 12y ago

Check out the reviews for the PHP book he mentions. Almost all of them are "verified purchase"! And the only negative review isn't one of them. When the purchase price is so low, astroturfing with "verified purchase" reviews looks to be quite feasible.

benologist 12y ago

Don't forget you get most of the money back, on top of which you can make your product/s cheaper or free temporarily.

mstolpm 12y ago

These ARE verified purchases. You can buy them and just have to pay the reviewer for the purchase (or set the ebook to free for a limited time and let the reviewers download/"buy" the ebook in this timeframe). However, the strategy is not sustainable: Most 5 star reviews get "not helpful" marks and the ranking honors the number of purchases as well. The ebooks in question already get newer 1 star ratings and will take a nosedive when no new fake reviews are coming in.