Amazon Might be Finally Doing Something About Fake Reviews - Apeman Delisted

[CaptureYourAction]

Looks like Vantop is gone now.

Still listed on Amazon.com.

 

[kamkar]

Today you can order your Rolls Royce or for that matter Ferrari in pink,,,,,,,,, something that rightfully would have been out of the question years ago.
CUZ you should not enable people like that, they need to learn to conform.

 

[DrekiTech]

Still listed on Amazon.com.

This seems to be a bit different, as the listing for VanTop products are still there, but the seller VanTop Direct has no more products listed for sale.

It is not like the Apeman cam I bought where now I only see an "*" on my invoice from them.

Amazon.ca Seller Profile: VanTop Direct

 

[HonestReview]

Whenever I read about a product, I try to look for two things.

1. Images of the products performance. A lot of general reviews rave about greatness, but if there isn't proof, then words mean nothing.

2. I always read the worst reviews first. Gives me an idea of what to look for when reading other reviews.

Glad Amazon may be finally stepping up and policing the realm of bought and faked reviews.

 

[HonestReview]

I'm not sure if Anker still does fake reviews. About 5 years ago I got kicked off of their "early reviewer" program for leaving a negative review on a product that was not exactly up to par with the expectation. I think now they have enough brand loyalty they don't need to do it but I wouldn't be surprised if they do to get the ball rolling on sales. They might not even need to ask for reviews, just get people to buy and refund by PayPal and the reviews will naturally flow in.

It's hard to compete when EVERYONE except you is doing it, and maybe organically you'll get 1/10 the reviews, so one 1* review because Amazon shipping was delayed or someone didn't understand how to use the product or because someone just had a bad day will ruin your chances of competing. I can understand why brands that are "good" relative to the competition will do it just to stay in the game, but I definitely don't think it's right to do.

One person on Reddit said "who cares, it's just reviews" without realizing that, well, there's a lot of competition at the $100 price point, and the crap quality cams are going to buy reviews. Psychologically will the buyer go for the **** camera that has 1,000 fake reviews and 4.5 star, or the good camera that has 55 real reviews and 4.1 star. The reviews are meant to help buyers weed out the garbage but Amazon sellers as a platform has turned them into merely a marketing tactic.

1. Dashcams that use Lithium Batteries vs. SuperCapacitors are always inferior quality. As Lithium batteries degrade over time and are less versatile in inclement weather.

2. Reddit and Paid YoutTube reviews are Garbage. Here's the free product sample I got. Watch me test it out for 5 minutes. Powers On, Records, must be reliable! Everyone go spend money so I can get more free product samples.

3. This is why DashCamTalk is a great resource. Anytime I've bought a product, I put the thing from rigorous testing. Most people on DCT aren't shills who get a product (free or purchased) and simply go raving about it until the camera is properly tested.

Good example is Zenfox T3. I first noticed a lot of problems with it. Course Redditors raved and ranted. But over time, my complaints of overheating became more and more substantiated, even by a silent minority of people on Reddit. Of course, Zenfox vanished off DCT when they realized we weren't shills just going to write a review.

Unfortunately, DCT isn't to the caliber of Amazon, so a majority of people never get past the 1000s of fake "Great Product Reviews" and start digging deeper into enthusiast channels like here.

 

[Kremmen]

DCT is an excellent resource.

I won't mention the name but there is a manufacturer who seems to get almost daily support posts and seems to blame all these issues on not using specific overpriced own brand sdcards.

My view is that there is a design/quality issue and I would not buy one.

 

[SawMaster]

Though sometimes it's through a 3rd party (seller) and sometimes through owners, I like seeing how manufacturers respond to questions and issues. Who you're dealing with matters a lot when you need assistance

Phil

 

[Lothar]

DCT is an excellent resource.

I won't mention the name but there is a manufacturer who seems to get almost daily support posts and seems to blame all these issues on not using specific overpriced own brand sdcards.

My view is that there is a design/quality issue and I would not buy one.

Which manufacturer is that and why can't you say their name?
I can't imagine a dashcam not working with SanDisk or Samsung cards...
If there is such a thing, then it is a design/quality issue like you mentioned and should clearly be pointed out prominently on reviews here and YouTube video reviews so that new users can be aware and avoid such products, similar to how there is the "Fake 4K" dashcam list or whatever that I saw here sometime ago.

 

[DrekiTech]

1. Dashcams that use Lithium Batteries vs. SuperCapacitors are always inferior quality. As Lithium batteries degrade over time and are less versatile in inclement weather.

2. Reddit and Paid YoutTube reviews are Garbage. Here's the free product sample I got. Watch me test it out for 5 minutes. Powers On, Records, must be reliable! Everyone go spend money so I can get more free product samples.

3. This is why DashCamTalk is a great resource. Anytime I've bought a product, I put the thing from rigorous testing. Most people on DCT aren't shills who get a product (free or purchased) and simply go raving about it until the camera is properly tested.

Good example is Zenfox T3. I first noticed a lot of problems with it. Course Redditors raved and ranted. But over time, my complaints of overheating became more and more substantiated, even by a silent minority of people on Reddit. Of course, Zenfox vanished off DCT when they realized we weren't shills just going to write a review.

Unfortunately, DCT isn't to the caliber of Amazon, so a majority of people never get past the 1000s of fake "Great Product Reviews" and start digging deeper into enthusiast channels like here.

There's very few times I've thought, "I'll find an enthusiast forum to check real reviews" for most of the cheap stuff I bought off of amz, only for things I care about like headphones and dashcams. It's hard to overcome the psychology of 4.5 star vs 3.5 star even if the 4.5 would be more like a 2 organically and thr 3.5 is accurate :/

 

[mentadent]

A competitor of Govee paid for fake reviews just to get Govee banned from amazon LOL

 

[jokiin]

A competitor of Govee paid for fake reviews just to get Govee banned from amazon LOL

I know of a couple of brands that have staff employed just to generate the fake positive reviews on their products that also spent time getting fake negative reviews done on competitor products, the Amazon system was too easily manipulated

 

[HonestReview]

I know of a couple of brands that have staff employed just to generate the fake positive reviews on their products that also spent time getting fake negative reviews done on competitor products, the Amazon system was too easily manipulated

Amazon could easily mitigate this through a few different means.

1. Put a hold on new accounts being allowed to review products.
2. Make accounts be active at least 6 months before posting a review
3. Require accounts to have purchased at least 10 Verified Products before reviews can be posted.
4. Flag any account for review where all ratings are 5 Starts

AI could easily resolve these issues. Sure you might piss off a a few new customers and legitimate reviewers, but it beats the hell out of Amazon being the Wild Wild West of Fake Product Reviews. While the above wouldn't eliminate the problem, it would help mitigate the issue. As most of these sham accounts are newly created, don't have a purchase history, and making them wait 6 months to post would impede setting up new accounts just to post.

Amazon has sat idle too long, and they let this happen.

 

[Kremmen]

Almost identical to what some car forums are doing.

You can't post a for sale until you have been a member for x months and/or have over xx posts. It stops the first post 'sale' where they often PM the buyer for a bank transfer or Paypal friends & family then disappear after payment received.

 

[BTV]

Looks like Vantop is gone now.

That would be a bit of a shame. I have a VanTop Moment 6S, and it is a decent camera. Not perfect, but it was terrific for the price. Of course, the price is now almost double the $150 I paid for mine on promotion.

I'm quite happy with mine, but I don't think I'd pay almost $300 for another one.

 

[HonestReview]

Almost identical to what some car forums are doing.

You can't post a for sale until you have been a member for x months and/or have over xx posts. It stops the first post 'sale' where they often PM the buyer for a bank transfer or Paypal friends & family then disappear after payment received.

The above is going to be the only way Amazon will cut down on "Paid Reviews". You can't blame the manufacturers for gaming a system Amazon, up until now, has taken no interest in policing.

Sadly, a lot of people see 5 star reviews and assume the product is great. Not knowing those reviews may be promotional, refunded, or plain dishonest.

 

[SawMaster]

A woman I know bought a Rexing without consulting me, even though she knew I was heavy into dashcamming, and all because it had an affordable price and tons of 5-star reviews. She wanted it for parking recording and didn't get a HWK, didn't realize her tiny car battery wasn't going to give her more than a few hours anyway, and she was trying to run it on a 4GB card I gave her my newest 64GB Samsung card, did the install, and told her the bad news about parking protection, bot offered to do a HWK if she bought one. I don't think she even uses the cam anymore Lotsa tales like this where people didn't know, didn't look deeper, but just bought based on the stars they saw in their eyes From what I've heard that company was playing the review game as recently as 18 months ago, dunno if they still are, but I've been waiting to see their name and a lot of others pop up in this thread.

There's hardly any way to fix the problem and keep a review system; whatever measures are taken will be met with counter-measures to get around them in a never-ending game of cat and mouse Semper Caveat Emptor.

Phil

 

[mentadent]

I get paid to do some reviews on various sites. I troll them back by returning the item and deleting my review after they have paid me.

 

[HonestReview]

I get paid to do some reviews on various sites. I troll them back by returning the item and deleting my review after they have paid me.

For Dash Cams or?

 

[HonestReview]

A woman I know bought a Rexing without consulting me, even though she knew I was heavy into dashcamming, and all because it had an affordable price and tons of 5-star reviews. She wanted it for parking recording and didn't get a HWK, didn't realize her tiny car battery wasn't going to give her more than a few hours anyway, and she was trying to run it on a 4GB card I gave her my newest 64GB Samsung card, did the install, and told her the bad news about parking protection, bot offered to do a HWK if she bought one. I don't think she even uses the cam anymore Lotsa tales like this where people didn't know, didn't look deeper, but just bought based on the stars they saw in their eyes From what I've heard that company was playing the review game as recently as 18 months ago, dunno if they still are, but I've been waiting to see their name and a lot of others pop up in this thread.

There's hardly any way to fix the problem and keep a review system; whatever measures are taken will be met with counter-measures to get around them in a never-ending game of cat and mouse Semper Caveat Emptor.

Phil

Per the above suggestions, you'll never eliminate but there are plenty of ways to mitigate problem.

It's the whole reason I google a product and try to read reviews elsewhere, too. And I almost always start with the negatives to see if there's a pattern.

Fake Reviews - everyone raves about the same thing without proof.
Real Reviews - most people complain about a consistent problem in detail with descriptive language. And hunting down further reviews validates these concerns.

 

[Kremmen]

Here in the UK there are quite a few 'professional' dashcam reviews and one make allways seems to come first.

Having had long term experience of this make, not my current one, I fail to understand their reviews. It's almost as if they've powered it up in the office or in the car park then compared clarity across the dashcams on review.

They obviously haven't installed and driven over various road surfaces or activated parking mode as their reviews don't match my experience or posts here.