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.
(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.
When life isn't going right, go left.