Amazon cracking down on fake reviews - Aukey Delisted

The system is broken and Amazon can't fix it
from the link that @Nigel provided

Amazon has been working for years to fight the problem, having banned “incentivised reviews” since 2016.
In its 2020 Brand Protection Report, released on Monday, Amazon said it had spent over US$700 million and employed more than 10,000 people to crack down on fraud and abuse.

Last year, it prevented “six million attempts to create new selling accounts” and “blocked more than 10 billion suspected bad listings”, according to the report.

Despite those efforts and numerous lawsuits filed against businesses that paid for fake reviews and individuals who wrote them, the problem persists on Amazon and other online retail platforms.


I think that demonstrates how big a problem it is, the likelihood of them being able to eliminate the problem altogether seems like wishful thinking at best

the sad thing is it's not just bad actors flogging rubbish products, quite often there are decent products that deserve good reviews and they still use the fake review system to bully their way into top seller status so that they steal market share, that's nothing more than greed, in my opinion they deserve to lose everything when they don't compete in an even playing field
 
You've made my point on the problem being unfixable with the system as it is now.

Something I've learned over time is that intentions are everything in matters like this, and that the more rules you make to eliminate the problem, that harder the losers will work to circumvent those rules. Those who try their best to be fair and honest are treasures, those who don't do that need to be trashed ;)

Phil
 
After they fix the problem of incentivised good reviews, they will then have to solve the problem of incentivised bad reviews being given to the competition!

Maybe Amazon should take the reviews process in house and employ their 10,000 fraud and abuse staff in a positive job, instead of leaving it to customers. Still a difficult job, but the result might be of more use than their current review system.
 
Either that or eliminate product reviews and ratings while keeping the ratings for seller performance.

Phil
 
After they fix the problem of incentivised good reviews, they will then have to solve the problem of incentivised bad reviews being given to the competition!
those are generally done by the sellers own staff, I know of a few brands that participate in that behavior
 
I don't get why you can leave Amazon reviews whether you've purchased or not. Other UK retailers send you an invite and a link to review if you've ordered online.

As mentioned, some reviews are laughable - "5*, it arrived early"

I had issue with an office chair company I bought from via Amazon. They sent me 3 emails asking for a review within a few days of arrival. I told them I'd review it only after having used it for at least a month to see how comfy and durable it was. They didn't like that reply and kept on. In the end I marked them down to 3* based on their spamming, which I included in the review. they didn't like that either.
 
I do hate those subsequent " you got something from us, please rate us at trust pilot,,,, or some other place"

Why would i ? if i have gotten what i have ordered and am entitled to, i see no reason to celebrate that normal occurrence, on the other hand if i have been cheated or gotten bad service, then i dont need a invite to tell that, i will make sure to do that on my own, so other people have a chance to decide if they dare risk experiencing what i have.

If you get what you deserve or have paid for,,,,,,,, thats normal and should not be celebrated

Its the same here at cross walks ( none light regulated ) when i stop as there is a person wanting to cross ( as the law dictate i must ) then when that pedestrian get all happy for that it annoy the hell out of me.
CUZ in my world that just indicate what i just did are not normal, so some times i roll down my window and say "dont thank me its the law, if someone dont stop yell at them and flip them off, that is what you should do".

It is like participation medals,,,,,,,,, just blow my mind.

Just know your rights, and fight for them - insist on them, if you dont do this, your world will go to hell, and you will be standing there as a fool liking that.
 
Just saw this piece on one of the tech blogs I read and came here to post about it, particularly as I’ve bought Aukey dashcams and have posted positively about my experience. I strongly suggest everyone read through the original SafetyDetectives report and how they scoped this out (link inside op’s article and below).

Can’t say what they and others are accused of surprises me (as rarely anything surprises me these days), but it’s definitely disappointing to see it — both for the sellers to offer it and for the “customers” to knowingly participate in it. I don’t know whether I should be offended or flattered that they never offered it to me. Maybe they did and I didn’t see, as every email I get from an Amazon seller gets summarily relegated to my junk folder, then purged to never be heard from again. The cooking supplies people are the absolute worst with those emails. Judging from Aukey’s website, it seems they sell far more things besides dashcams, so maybe this particular practice didn’t involve dashcams. Who knows. Whatever the case, their entire product line has been removed from Amazon, which afaik, was the only place they sold, though seems today they have their own website.

I generally have three rules when it comes to buying anything from anywhere online: never trust a single review, good or bad; if you’re the platform or the seller, never reach out to me unsolicitedly with advertisements; and always remember: caveat emptor. Those have served me well in tempering expectations and/or disappointments. I also have no problems returning products that don’t meet my expectations and/or are defective, but you’ll never see me complain about anything I bought. In rare cases, if the experience was surprisingly positive and I think it may help someone on the fence, then I may post about it, though not usually on the site I purchased it from.

I purchased an Aukey DR02 for a little over $52 in 2017, then after using it for a couple days, quickly bought another for the same price. Almost 4 years later, they’re still running and functioning as they did when I bought them. The thing that initially sold me was their customer service’s prompt replies to my initial queries and the 2 year Amazon warranty. To boot, the surprisingly better image quality than my Viofo A119 (also bought in 2017 for $75), which I also posted about here, was an added bonus. I also have a Mobius (bought in 2013 for $70, then later added a $20 modified lens). It’s truly been a set-it-and-forget-it experience with all four of them, as they are all running well and humming to this day. I have no regrets about buying any of them to this day. Eight years for the Mobius!

4 cams. 2 cars. Countless miles. Zero issues. Less than $270 combined. Not bad.

Are ridiculously over-priced cams really worth it? Not in my experience.

SafetyDetectives original piece: https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/amazon-reviews-leak-report/
 
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from the link that @Nigel provided
.... that's nothing more than greed ...
... speaks volumes about how greedy they are


Greed. Lol. Aren’t we ALL?

One of my favorite quotes: “don’t judge others just because you choose to sin differently.”

I recall you frequently calling out or accusing other companies for this, that, or the other thing. And I always respectfully asked you whether you were speculating, or whether you knew from actual facts. And you never gave straight answers to what I truly felt were genuine and polite questions. Years later, that has always stuck with me about you (and obviously your brand).

You’ve now stated multiple times that Aukey and their ilk are driven by greed. How do you know? Now, I’m not denying they are or aren’t driven by greed (they very well could be — wouldn’t surprise me — nothing does). But how do you know to repeatedly assert so vehemently? We all now know for a fact that they are at least driven by deception. To what end for what purposes, I don’t know. How do you assert and repeat such a claim with so much conviction? Greed for what? Money? Market share? Hegemony?

Do you know why I have never even CONSIDERED purchasing a single SG camera? Because I always felt it was a grossly overpriced product that, to me at least, seemed to be primarily driven by greed. Now, I would never claim such a thing or accuse you of such a thing because I don’t know you nor have I asked you explicitly. But I’ve always felt that way. And you never said or did anything to change my mind (nor, by any means, were you obligated to). But I hope you see the irony here (something about glass houses ...)

I remember the days where a single SG cam was over $300 (may still be, haven’t checked). I have 4 cams that cost me less than that, COMBINED, and they’ve all more than served their purposes admirably and continue to do so.

So, let me ask you what I’ve never asked you before. Do you use exceptionally unique components, rare earth minerals, or have some proprietary technology that others don’t to justify such prices? Or maybe it’s your great customer service that justifies it? Is that worth a 4-6x premium than the others who presumably don’t? What if I never use the customer service part of your product? Is it fair me for me to “prepay” for it? In my eight years of dash-camming, I’ve used customer service exactly once, and that was to ask a couple questions BEFORE I even bought the product. Am I pre-paying for your future R&D? Or maybe it’s for the constant firmware tinkering and IQ improvements? I have two cams that are still on their original firmware as the manufacturer simply doesn’t do or offer updates. Hasn’t posed a single problem for me.

Some or all of those things may justify your prices. I’m simply asking what. Seriously, genuine question: what justifies your prices — at least when compared to similarly spec’d cams like, say, Viofo’s latest line of products? Are SG products 2-3x the quality of Viofo? Or, is it, as you say — greed? Maybe a little greed? Is that better than a lot of greed? Is Aukey more greedy than, say, Blackvue, or Thinkware?

I remember buying Dropcams in 2012 when they first came out (well before Google acquired them and Nest). Those camera were $200 each. And I gladly paid for them because there was nothing like them on the market. Years later, I eventually bought several Wyze cams for $25 each, while Google was still pricing theirs at or near $200 (+/- $25, and much cheaper now). What justified that? They’re certainly better cameras, but were they 7-8x better, and with today’s prices, 5x better? I suspect it would be futile for me to even ask.

Greed? Probably. Lol.
 
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we don't cheap out on components but primarily economy of scale and our operating costs are what dictate our prices, it's not lucrative I can assure you of that, things are tight
 
has been a frustrating experience to do business legitimately on Amazon while these scammers have been gaming the system for so long

Still don't know how Amazon is going to crack down on the Buy and Refund if given a good review scam. As a lot of companies now game the system by promising people who buy the camera a FULL refund for a 5 star review. In order to build up enough "good feed back" to then sell it to unsuspecting customers who believe the product is "Fantastic".
 
Personally I would be quite happy to use a failed product to decelerate a brick. The image would be worth it!
 
It is hard to judge a product from feedback. I found that there are a lot of fake reviews as mentioned above. Some online sites only publish high rated reviews rather than honest ones, as I found out. My honest review of a dodgy product was never published. So I believe sites that include low rated reviews may tend to be more reliable. That is what led me to forums like DashcamTalk to get the real picture :happy:
 
I eventually bought several Wyze cams for $25 each
There are decent dashcams sold for such prices, but it is an obvious price dumping strategy and not a sustainable business model. The components alone will cost more.
 
There are decent dashcams sold for such prices, but it is an obvious price dumping strategy and not a sustainable business model. The components alone will cost more.
For the Chinese they get big tax rebates from their government once they export over a certain quantity, it allows them a huge price advantage
 
There are decent dashcams sold for such prices, but it is an obvious price dumping strategy and not a sustainable business model. The components alone will cost more.

Interesting.

When do you postulate this “obvious price dumping strategy and not a sustainable business model” will come to a crashing end for Wyze? I mean, their cams have only been at the exact same sub $25 price for every single day since they debuted 3 years ago, with millions upon millions sold since. Are you suggesting it will be in their 4th year of success? Maybe their 7th year?

Thanks to the wild success of the original Wyze cam, the company has now grown to a dizzying array of products and services (none of which interest me, personally), and all priced far below comparative products and services. They can’t seem to hire enough qualified people or keep their newest version of the cam in stock for long (those sell for $30, apparently due to a number of factors, ranging from covid to component shortages to inflation). Now, nobody expects them to NEVER raise prices, or introduce new versions at slightly higher prices, but the evidence shows and likely will continue to show contrary to what you claim.

Of my nine $25 V1 and V2 Wyze cams, all but one have been running literally 24/7 for nearly 3 straight years without even as much as a hiccup — some outdoors in all sorts of inclement weather. The one that crapped out did so after constant attack and abuse by multiple birds (it may be salvageable; I just haven’t bothered to take out the ladder and climb my roof again to find out).

Time will tell on the others, but one thing’s for sure: there’s no need to pay $200 (8x!) for a marginally better cam. I know for a fact because I have and I speak from experience. And my experience tells me that while there’s zero credible evidence of any impending significant price increase, I’d pay double their current price because they have more than earned plenty of credibility and room for error with me, if need be.

That is unless they get ... GREEEEEEEEEEDY. ROFL.
 
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They didn't grow from selling cameras, that's a recent addition, they have been doing a lot of other products for several years before they started doing cameras
 
They didn't grow from selling cameras, that's a recent addition, they have been doing a lot of other products for several years before they started doing cameras

Facts ... pesky, inconvenient things, aren’t they?

This is getting old. YAWN



Entire company history: https://wyze.com/wyze-history

Milestones

Getting Wyzer​

Our journey the past 3 years...
1620985665496.jpeg

10/2017

Launched Our
Very First Product​

The journey began with Wyze Cam v1

1620985689777.jpeg
Wyze Labs, Inc. (formerly Wyzecam) also known as Wyze is a U.S. company based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in smart home products and wireless cameras. Wyze Labs is a small start-up, formed by former Amazon employees. The company was incorporated on July 19, 2017. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyze_Labs
 
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Was referring to Aukey, not Wyze

No one claimed or stated anything about how Aukey grew from selling cameras. The post you replied to was clearly talking about how Wyze grew from selling cameras into a wide range of products.

Quotes matter.
 
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