Are Amazon Reviews Trustworthy?

Dashmellow said:
She seems to give everything she reviews 5 stars. Why would anyone turn down such as offer? :D
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I'd be willing to bet that the great majority of those 1200+ reviews have been on free product, sure she's not alone in this clandestine industry of 'reviews' there'd be plenty of others doing the same
 
DT MI said:
Out of curiosity I checked out her 'About Me' link. I think I'm pretty safe in saying that Dash Cam reviews are not her strong suit.
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I watched a dashcam review by Top 100 reviewer that must be getting loads of products for review and it was not technical at all.
All he did was see it records video and provided some footage of it's FOV vs his iphone's FOV.
No data on VBR, comparison, audio, etc...
What we do here takes a lot more time and effort.
 
Duck Face reviews would be under my "not credible" list. Not only because of her past history, but based on her review format or really lack thereof.
 
jokiin said:
have edited the address only because you asked, to be honest I don't think this person is any better than a spammer
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As usual you're way too nice hence you've removed the email after being criticized for mentioning it. Personally I hadn't removed the email address of that fraudulent lady at all, as you have stated she is indeed comparable with a spammer especially she have sent you an unsolicited mail. Besides she tries to gain goods in a very questionable way, to me she is just a piece of scum.
 
Just read that Amazon is suing over 1,000 people from Fiverr who are leaving fake reviews. It is a step in the right direction but not sure it is enough to stem the tide of fake reviews.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...products-best-sellers-list.html#ixzz3owE5AtkK

Seems like this is in reaction to an investigation by the Sunday Times, who got a poorly written book onto the bestseller list by purchasing reviews.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ls-hired-3-books-bestseller-lists-Amazon.html
 
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Its not Amazon related, but might be interesting. I was recently approach by a well-known brand who wanted me to review their product. All cool, however they had two conditions :
- You can review it, but you must compare it to our competitors side by side - okay, I hate when someone tells me what to do, but request seamed reasonable and beneficial for people.
- You can review it, but video and article must be first send to us. We review it, and if we approve it you can publish it. - this is how big brands and all those YouTubers work, really sad and honestly - scary. I refused to accept second condition, and never heard back from them.
Sorry for off-topic.
 
Pavle said:
Its not Amazon related, but might be interesting. I was recently approach by a well-known brand who wanted me to review their product. All cool, however they had two conditions :
- You can review it, but you must compare it to our competitors side by side - okay, I hate when someone tells me what to do, but request seamed reasonable and beneficial for people.
- You can review it, but video and article must be first send to us. We review it, and if we approve it you can publish it. - this is how big brands and all those YouTubers work, really sad and honestly - scary. I refused to accept second condition, and never heard back from them.
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Personally I wouldn't touch products of such brands with a ten-foot pole. Regrettably you don't "name and shame" so I don't know what brands I should avoid.
 
Good for Amazon for tracking down phony reviews! Deceitful and deflective "reviews" are not reviews!

A review isn't a review if:
  • The reviewer is rewarded or paid by the company whose product is being review.
  • The review is little more than a rehashing of the Press Release or other marketing detritus.
  • The review has conditions imposed upon the reviewer and requires review, editing, or approval.
Countless websites and youtube videos are full of phony reviews.

IMHO--however a Big Fat Chance it may be--each reviewer should openly and clearly state each of the three preceding items.
 
I do not think there is anything wrong with paying for a review at all though the person who has been paid should definitely state this thus taking a LOT a way from their reviews and in turn demeaning their whole purpose.

I think a lot of people now use reviews not to show off the product but to simply get it out there. Lets say you approach a website that for every post gets 500,000 views. The rough working assumption is 0.1% of those people will buy the product. So that's 500 people. Even if they specify it's been paid for, the people who are reading the website won't usually give a crap simply because they love the website. The problem appears when 'oh we picked this up and the manufacturer had no input in this review'....as they pocket 500usd plus a free gift.
 
1000 is like a drop in a sea.
There are millions of reviews in Amazon but at least it sends good warning so people will think twice.
Also, this action is not against those who get paid or get samples and review items which is perfectly fine and Amazon can't go after them since it itself has the Vine reviewers who get free items for review.

This is more towards those who never even see or handle the items and just post great reviews.
I was watching news few weeks ago and they interviewed people who posted so many seller supplied reviews daily (copy and paste) and they didn't even know what some of the items do.
 
Pavle said:
Its not Amazon related, but might be interesting. I was recently approach by a well-known brand who wanted me to review their product. All cool, however they had two conditions :
- You can review it, but you must compare it to our competitors side by side - okay, I hate when someone tells me what to do, but request seamed reasonable and beneficial for people.
- You can review it, but video and article must be first send to us. We review it, and if we approve it you can publish it. - this is how big brands and all those YouTubers work, really sad and honestly - scary. I refused to accept second condition, and never heard back from them.
Sorry for off-topic.
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Wow. I've never had any of the companies demand anything like that. I've been asked to post an amazon review but never told I had to show them the review first or been "rewarded" for good reviews. I've turned down bunch of stuff I don't think is related to my channel enough though. Although I typically don't test stuff I think will be bad quality to begin with other than that $14 dashcam.
 
hehe i wouldent even be able to make a living that way, seeing as i have to pay huge taxes and import duties, even if the items sent to me is declared as no value.
 
I recently had an interesting experience with GearBest.
Even though never before I had problems with their support or items, and I highly recommend them for that, I bought a mobile phone for my cousin, that was not as we expected. Its not retailer fault, its just not good enough product. So knowing that you get what you pay for, I left a 2 star review notifying all future buyers what to expect when it comes to the product.

However review never got published.

Think about that before you go through retailer review next time.

I contacted them and asked why it has not been published and got a reply "We will credit your wallet points for review". I never received credit, but do not give a damn about it. Problem here is that reviews in general on retailers sites are not as trustworthy as they used to be.

If we can not trust bloggers (famous ones are mostly paid to do a review), YouTubers (most of them spent 30 minute with a product before making a review) and retailers sites who do not publish reviews, or even worse, fake them, WHO CAN WE TRUST?

Internet became a tool for marketers to experiment and make customers look like idiots. There should definitely be laws when it comes to reviews. I think there already are, but they are not strict enough. People do not respect their readers/audience/customers. I am curious to see how this all will end up in a long run, when no review on the internet no matter how well written and honest cant be trusted.
 
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