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

DrekiTech

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Aukey got removed a few weeks back due to buying fake reviews. Today Apeman products have been wiped. Wonder what big Amazon brand is next? Rexing? Vantrue? Perhaps even Anker?

These are some 'big' names and could potentially change Amazon's entire ecosystem, if the sellers don't simply rebrand and start over.
 
That is good news. The Amazon dash cam best sellers list is plagued with these no name brands who most likely are buying fake reviews.

 
That #1 best seller is awful. 15,000 reviews and maybe 5 of them have a screenshot from an actual video sample. A cheap alibaba cam with a battery. It's almost assured most of those reviews are fake.

I hope that this isn't only Amazon trying to save face by making an example of a couple big players. It would be a nice change of pace if all these cheaters will get banned. If it doesn't keep happening these sellers will just rebrand and do it again.

Although to be fair Apeman was banned right before Prime Day, which means they likely just sent in a ton of stock...
 
Glad to see Apeman gone, crappy cams in every way being foisted onto the unsuspecting public. One of the car-crash YT channels I watch pushed them with affiliate links, guess that may hurt them since YT has defunded all the car crash channels in their advertising. Amazon should do a total re-think on all their processes, not just reviews.

If you make it possible for bad things to happen then they will happen.

Phil
 
Most big, reputable well known brands have done it too and now they need to be careful or their account can be revoked at least temporarily.
There is one in here well known (won't name the brand) that offered me to refund my money after a favorable review to them on Amazon, after I requested one of the units they where offering for sample testing. :facepalm:
 
There is one in here well known (won't name the brand) that offered me to refund my money after a favorable review to them on Amazon,
At least two who are quite active here, and at least 3 (or 4?) more you almost never see :eek: I understand business and the need to look good/ be popular/ have good reviews but in all honesty if your product is good that will happen without active manipulation :cool: I'd hate to see the two first I speak of get de-listed as they do make good cams which to me is important and worthy. But rules are rules, and nobody is above the rules.

Phil
 
What my saw wielding friend meant to say was, nobody is supposed to be above the rules.
BUT ! Many somehow find a way, and of those ( sadly ) many are successful.
 
I'm surprised to see Anker mentioned. I've got a few of their offerings and all of them are still going strong. Powerbank, fast mobile charger and USB3 card reader.
 
I'm surprised to see Anker mentioned. I've got a few of their offerings and all of them are still going strong. Powerbank, fast mobile charger and USB3 card reader.
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.


At least two who are quite active here, and at least 3 (or 4?) more you almost never see :eek: I understand business and the need to look good/ be popular/ have good reviews but in all honesty if your product is good that will happen without active manipulation :cool: I'd hate to see the two first I speak of get de-listed as they do make good cams which to me is important and worthy. But rules are rules, and nobody is above the rules.

Phil

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.
 
I bought a short 20cm USB-C cable a while ago. It broke in a few months in that the A side has to be pushed in then pulled out a bit to get it to work. Pins must be weak and have moved.

I looked on Amazon and it was still being sold and my search revealed about a dozen others, also with names I've never heard of, all the pictures very similar if not identical with the same black and white braided lead.

Homing in on the 1* reviews they were all saying the same ..... broke after a short while. But, there were hundreds of 5* reviews but mostly just saying "good" or "good value". I've added a proper 1* review with a bit more text.
 
I'm on the market for a new dashcam and would love to hear what brands are buying reviews that post here. Can anyone please pm the names so I can avoid them?
 
were they big on Amazon?

They had several listings on page 1 search for "Action Cam" both CA and US. Their high end action cams were OK - even if the ones I tested were not real 4K. Their budget offerings were about the same with the other lower end brands.

So while not as big as Akaso (who, if you include their sub brand Dragon Touch, seems to dominate action cam sales), they were a well established brand.

I remember being pissed off that a cam I bought from Akaso included one of those cards begging for a 5 star review several years back. They were way ahead of the game. That's why I wonder if they'll be sticking around, some of their items have 15,000+ reviews...
 
It looks like VICTURE is gone now too.
There will be more it seems. I do understand the problem which you explained very well. It's a race to the bottom with many things these days, but is there ever any real justification for knowingly doing wrong?

With this topic I'm not sure de-listing is going to change the events, only change how the events come to be. It will hurt those being de-listed, but as widespread as this problem is, the end result of a fair unbiased approach would mean that almost no dashcams will be listed on Amazon in the end, and that will be detrimental to everyone.

I'm not sure there is a better way or any way to resolve this problem and still have a review system intact.

Phil
 
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