I do a fair amount of online shopping, and I do pay some attention to reviews. If something gets Amazon 1’s across the board, well, I’m probably not going to order it. And I like to see an occasional warning about an otherwise great product. Thus, I would have liked to have gotten a head’s up that the arms on that otherwise great Helly Hansen rain jacket were designed for someone with ape arms.
I do tend to give some credence to reviews. But I’ll judge for myself whether I think that lone 1 rating (and accompanying ranting) is just someone getting stuck with a lemon, is someone who either just likes to spew or someone who is such a domain expert on the product that they can’t deal with anything short of perfection. So if someone who actually cares about woofers and tweeters, and writes a detailed and elaborate review of the boombox that I – as the last person in America who still listens to CDs – am about to buy, and goes nuts about some nuance I can’t begin to understand, I tend to roll my eyes and move on over to checkout.
Anyway, although I’m happy enough (in a casual way) to read what the masses have to say, especially when it’s a product/brand I’m not familiar with, I seldom write reviews myself. I’ve occasionally done a hotel or restaurant review, I don’t know if I’ve actually ever reviewed a product-product.
Turns out that a lot of those reviews, whether I pay attention to them or not, are bogus – and pay for play. And there’s demand for the bogus comments because they can have an impact on sales. While most (estimate: 99%+) of reviews are legit:
…a Washington Post examination found that for some popular product categories, such as bluetooth headphones and speakers, the vast majority of reviews appear to violate Amazon’s prohibition on paid reviews. They have certain characteristics, such as repetitive wording that people likely cut and paste in.
Many of these fraudulent reviews originate on Facebook, where sellers seek shoppers on dozens of networks, including Amazon Review Club and Amazon Reviewers Group, to give glowing feedback in exchange for money or other compensation. The practice artificially inflates the ranking of thousands of products, experts say, misleading consumers.(Source: Boston Globe)
Facebook, huh? They seem to be quite the source of fakery, don’t they? Not satisfied to half-wreck the world, it’s now hell-bent on ruining our lives as consumers? Come on, Marky-mark Z.
Paid reviews were allowed up until a year and a half ago.
But the ban, say sellers and experts, merely pushed an activity that used to take place openly into dispersed and harder-to-track online communities.
Some of the opportunities pay pretty well - direct payment via PayPal plus tips like gift cards. All this unlevels the selling field:
‘‘These days it is very hard to sell anything on Amazon if you play fairly,’’ said Tommy Noonan, who operates ReviewMeta, a website that helps consumers spot suspicious Amazon reviews. ‘‘If you want your product to be competitive, you have to somehow manufacture reviews.’’
This seems a bit of an exaggeration. I trust the good reviews for Asics sneakers because a) Asics is a known brand; b) they’re not cheap, so I expect them to have a somewhat decent level of quality; and c) they dovetail with my own experience. And why did I buy Asics to begin with? Because a) Asics is a known brand; and b) they’re not cheap, so I expect them to have a somewhat decent level of quality; and c) they come in the all important narrow width.
But I’m not trying to sell anything on line, so what do I know?
Sellers say the flood of inauthentic reviews makes it harder for them to compete legitimately and can crush profits. ‘‘It’s devastating, devastating,’’ said Mark Caldeira, owner of the baby products company Mayapple Baby. He said his product rankings have plummeted in the last year and a half, which he attributes to competitors using paid reviews. ‘‘We just can’t keep up.’’
I did check out a couple of the FB sites that solicit reviewers. The ones I looked at offer steep discounts in return for a review. How great to get all kinds of crap – the sites I looked at were higher on promoting callus removers, lemon reamers, and Snuggies than on high end (or even low end) electronics – and, human nature being human nature, I’m sure that those on the receiving end of discount reamers are grateful for them. And their gratitude inclines them to make their masters happy with nicey-nice reviews.
Wasn’t life a lot easier when you could just out and out ask someone you knew for a recommendation? Or – get this – just go to a store and examine an item before you bought it? And if it turns out, the product sucks, you could bring it back for a refund and/or write a customer complaint letter and get a refund?
Anyway, I don’t need any more crap, thank you. And I really don’t want to make my living writing fake reviews for that crap.
Meh all round!
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