from the trying-to-sink-the-other-guy's-boat-so-yours-will-float dept.
Amazon Merchants Continue to Find Ways to Cheat
Mike Molson Hart, who sells toys on Amazon.com Inc.'s marketplace, realized earlier this month something was amiss. His company's popular disc-shaped plastic building set, called Brain Flakes, had dropped precipitously in the ranks of Amazon's best-selling toys as the critical gift-giving season approached.
He visited the product page on Amazon.com and suspected he was the victim of "sniping," when one merchant sabotages another by hiring people to leave critical reviews of their goods and then voting those reviews as being helpful, making them the most prominent feedback seen by shoppers. Freelancers in China and Bangladesh willing to do this for $10 an hour are easily found online. Even though the toy has a 4.8 star rating out of 5 based on more than 1,100 reviews, shoppers first see a string of critical one-star reviews and many may get scared away.
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Shares of Amazon rose enough to make Jeff Bezos worth an estimated $100.3 billion:
The Amazon.com Inc. founder's fortune is up $2.4 billion to $100.3 billion, as the online retailer's shares jumped more than 2 percent on optimism for Black Friday sales. Online purchases for the day are up 18.4 percent over last year, according to data from Adobe Analytics, and investors are betting the company will take an outsized share of online spending over the gifting season.
The $100 billion milestone makes Bezos, 53, the first billionaire to build a 12-figure net worth since 1999, when Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates hit the mark.
Meanwhile, Amazon merchants are scrambling to cheat each other as they peck at Bezos's scraps. Even (e-)books aren't safe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @05:16PM (3 children)
For Americans for minimum wage you assholes, I'd easily put in long days do that job.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @06:20PM (2 children)
If you polish up your English, they may hire you.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @08:07PM (1 child)
It's the fucking Chinese hacking my phone! They're taking our jobs and our words!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @09:05PM
Posting from a toy phone? They have already taken your brains!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Virindi on Saturday November 25 2017, @06:28PM (4 children)
Also "third party sellers" who attach to an existing listing, then deliver a counterfeit product.
Amazon has a huge problem with counterfeit products. From what I can tell, they have little to no care about stopping it. The only way to know you aren't getting counterfeit is to order something "sold by" them.......which maybe is the point. It's a dumb business move on their part, though.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @10:45PM (3 children)
That's the bigger problem. I tend to review some of the low ratings to see what their issue was, often times the issue is that they were shipped something that wasn't what was advertised. If the low reviews don't seem relevant, then I ignore them.
Amazon doesn't seem to care, they'll happily charge a shop more money to keep their stuff separate. But, for the customers, it just plain blows. Yet another reason to avoid Amazon if you can help it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Sunday November 26 2017, @08:38AM (1 child)
Agreed... you have to read the comment and see what the poster was really saying. Often, people hate to leave a bad numerical score, but will quite openly state what was wrong, while leaving a 3 or 4 star rank. You really have to watch the ones who leave lots of reviews. Its been my experience that those who have left hundreds, if not thousands, of reviews - are shills, and their word is about as trustworthy as a TV commercial spokesperson. As, in negative territory.
One thing we do have going for us, is that businesspeople have evolved a paralegal marketing jargon, which makes them stand out like a Bostoner in a Mississippi Corn Market. Businesspeople have developed a fine art of saying a lot, while transferring no information at all, other than you will be billed something likely far greater than the advertised price. Only pay $(stated price) plus $< array of undefined variables > each; taxes and fees extra. Some other item in bundle billed separately. That kinda talk. It rolls off a marketer's tongue faster than a kid placing an ice cream order at his friend's dad's expense.
My favorite sites are Yelp and RipoffReport.com. There are a lot of review sites out there, but they seem to be full of advertising copy and beholden to the marketer, not me. I flat do not trust most review sites as they read just like ad copy. Free*! Don't wait!!! Get yours Today!!! Call Now!!!. While nausea overwhelms me at my end.
Like you, the poorly ranked ones are the most significant to me, but I also read them to see WHY someone ranked thus. If they won't say why, I can't place much credence in it, but if they will state precisely what the issue was, and the difficulty they had in getting resolution, then that becomes a very valid consideration. We have libel laws in this country.
If someone states precisely what the problem was, and they made it up, I think the merchant has a good reason to go after them for defamation of character... but if its the truth, the merchant has his hands tied pretty good. I have posted some nasty ones myself at times, but I was sure to explain in pretty good detail WHY I was so pissed that it was worth my time to spew such venom on the public internet. I mostly post good reviews, just like I mostly upmod. I will downmod but its gotta be a helluva bad post to make me do it. Hidden goatse or something like that.
To me, that is what Yelp is for... to advertise for the little guy who is busy working for his customer. I use Yelp to vet damned near everything. A lot of the guys I have found seem to count on Yelp to drive business to them. Do a good job, and its a helluva lot more efficient than trying to run ads. Its the handiest little online who-does-what and did-you-like-the-guy's-work? forum I have yet to run into.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday November 28 2017, @07:29AM
Finally found what I was looking for as far as trying to evaluate a review.
Remember Judge Judy and that spoiled blonde brat? [youtube.com] Loserds!
Well, those very same kind of people will post on review sites too. Just keep that in mind.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Virindi on Sunday November 26 2017, @11:37AM
Worse yet, the reviews don't tell you who the seller was, so unless the reviewer says, you get no information. Quite often you will see reviews like "received counterfeit product!!" but no mention of from whom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @06:41PM (4 children)
if only people who bought items could rate them i'd give a damn,
but as is, its an amazon enabled bully play pit and the headline is completely misleading
how about "Amazon enabled gladiator pits have people get hurt and complain!"
while the enforcers of monopoly laws stand idly by while amzn looses money on every sale!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @06:47PM (3 children)
Yup, Amazon started out as bullies (when they started with book-selling, they were hell on many small specialty publishers) and the culture hasn't changed. Now it appears they have attracted other bullies to join them.
I've never knowingly bought anything from Amazon. I did buy some small item on eBay and when it arrived it came from Amazon Fulfillment -- so the eBay seller was using Amazon's warehouse instead of their own.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Saturday November 25 2017, @10:50PM (2 children)
Are you guys on a different planet to the rest of us?
Almost every "real" review I see has the words "Verified Purchase" next to it.
If it doesn't, you ignore it.
I don't think that's a UK/EU-only thing, surely?
And do you think competitors are buying competing products just to bad-review them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 26 2017, @02:29AM
> Almost every "real" review I see has the words "Verified Purchase" next to it.
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/04/10/amazon-reviews [wordstream.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by captain normal on Sunday November 26 2017, @06:09AM
"And do you think competitors are buying competing products just to bad-review them?"
Probably, yes...This is the foundation of "free enterprise" economics. Lie, cheat, steal, bribe, scam and shout loud...anything to get people to give you their money.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--