Customers Fight Back Over Fake Amazon Reviews
We all know that Amazon's review system is kind of a mess. It's plagued by "professional reviewers," reviews from friends, legitimately critical reviews that get yanked after complaints by angry fan groups, and—worst of all—fake reviews, usually written by employees of the manufacturer. Adam found a new fake reviewer named David Jacob, but what really caught our eye was how real Amazon shoppers have picked up on it and left a series of comments to warn future customers to stay away from Gamenamics.
David Jacob's reviews, annotated with warnings from real shoppers [Amazon]
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Comments:
One down, only a few million others to expose...
So, "fake reviews" have become the "poor-man's advertisements?"
I rely on Amazon reviews when deciding on certain types of photographic equipment, but I only take heed when there are MANY reveiws, and I can tell when someone is bullshitting in a camera review, because their claims are usually outrageous (at least compared to other reviews both on Amazon and on other websites like BHPHOTOVIDEO.COM)
Consumer review features that I actually find useful are the ones on Target.com and Sierra Trading Post. I never even bother looking at reviews on Amazon.com; everyone seems to have an agenda.
@Dooley: I can tell when someone is bullshitting in a camera review, because their claims are usually outrageous.
You can usually spot the fakes due to how they are worded. Instead of the usual statements, the fakes are carefully constructed and sound like the come from a commercial.
What about a competing company that creates positive reviews for their rivals then calls them out using ANOTHER account? The internet is a tricky beast.
@stacye: I seldom bother with reviews. I research the product myself and purchase if I think it meets my needs. If it does not, I can usually return it following an initial trial period.
o.0
That's a scary thought. Never thought of that one. You must have a devious mind. Nonetheless, it's true. The internet is a tricky beast.
@Front_Towards_Enemy: Or at least you can spot the ones that do that. That's the problem--you don't know about the ones that you don't identify as fake.
@ElizabethD: I've seen many an online review that said "My sister said this guy sucked in concert, so don't buy this CD from a band he's not even in anymore".
Or
"Amazon wouldn't give me my money back on this when I broke it after five years of use, 1 star!"
"It hasn't even arrived yet, but I am excited! 5 stars! Omg!"
I always just scan over the reviews to see if the tone is positive or negative, and to look for any issues people might be having with a product. I never use them to choose what to buy.
I look for uniformly good reviews on a product at amazon.
If a product isn't up to snuff, SOMEONE will have posted a negative review.
I have actually done some reviewing for amazon's Vine program, where they send you free samples of stuff to review, and I must say, the amount of logrolling on display would clog the mighty Mississippi!
I was amused, for example, to see that my very negative review of a very dumb marketing book was marked with two "not helpful" comments. Would it surprise a consumerist reader to hear that NO positive reviews received "not helpful" comments?
@Wombatish: Yup, seen many of these, oh my kid LOVED this video game, yours will as well. Parents writing game reviews when they have never even played the video game they are writing about themselves..
I try to look for a common trend among many reviews, if there are many reviews describing a particular problem with an item, then I tend to believe that is true. The same goes for a good product with good reviews. You need to have a significant amount of reviews to determine this though, maybe 50-100 reviews. Its hard to determine if a product is good through a single review or a small pool of 10 reviews.
@dragonfire81: About the only reviews I really rely on are the ones over at Newegg. Even then you have to read them very carefully to sort out the people who actually know what they're talking about versus the mouthbreathers who only think they know.
Yea I pretty much don't worry about reviews when I shop on Amazon, which is all the time. With marketplace buys I just buy and if they give me any trouble I just get Amazon to refund my money. I've had to do that 3 or 4 times over the years, Amazon is always super quick to give me a refund.
When I need a review I always try to hit up message boards specifically dedicated to what I'm looking to buy. I'm constantly reading musical equipment reviews on Harmony Central.
I love his reply after being called out...
David Jacob says:
"True I had a interest in Gamenamics Products.....they are quality items that I would recommend to EVERYONE !!"
...ROFLMAO!!!
Isn't posting a one-star review to counter some shill's "review" of a product almost as bad as being the shill? Shouldn't these people be flagging the shill's review instead?
My biggest issue with Amazon's reviews is how they'll take reviews from other versions. For example: A movie on Blu-Ray will have reviews from the DVD version; which does me a helluva lotta good when I want to know if the Blu-Ray transfer is worth the extra $5.
The whole review system is borked and in serious need of overhaul. More and better pictures would be nice, too.
I just called Gamenamics and asked for 'David Jocobs' - the receptionist informed that 'he no longer works here'. I just wanted to ask him how someone can be that full of shit. :(
I love the irony that his one great review causes several negative reviews. Not much return on investment there, David!
This Consumerist article is Great !!! Premium SOLID journalism, HUGH overhead title block , Its a piece of writing that you read on !!! ITS GREAT !!!!! Take a look at "others" with these features......go ahead !! And be ready to pay $3000.00 OR MORE DOLLARS !!
This item reads in 15-20 minutes ! Make sure you have ONE helper as the unit is ROCK SOLID and VERY WORDY !. The SOLID journalism is a work of art !!! This is the "Caddy" of blogs ! I could read this article forever !!!
@Real Cheese Flavor: i always try to read low scoring reviews first, so I have an idea of the 'why' behind reviews
I used to see this problem a lot on CNET when I worked for an anti-spyware company. We'd see lots of adware vendors would posting thier apps on cnet with about 40 fake reviews of their adware ridden applications. A lot of them were windows utilites like registry cleaners, memory boosters and such that did nothing at all but load you up with adware and run a fake scan every once and a while. But of course there were 20 people claiming how it resurrected their dead hard drive and saved their lives.
Since then I've gotten pretty good at spotting fake reviews. On retail sites like amazon a sure give away is the listing of product features in a review. Typically reviewers are more concerned with performance, reliability and overall value. The fake reviews tend to be a lot of "it has this and that and this OMG!!! I want to buy 7"
> HUGH overhead scoring
Hugh? Overhead? Which Hugh? Downs, Grant, Laurie? Can you imagine Dr. House, hanging from the ceiling somewhere, yelling out the score?
Whoo, no thanks, that's just scary.
The review in question leaves me on the edge of my seat. What did the "GREAT" of "IT" do? The reviewer never says.
Also, the entire review needed more exclamation marks.
This is why you always look for aggregate trends in reviews, never for a single review. The outliers are worth noting but what user reviews really do is give you a general picture of where something falls in the spectrum.
Travel (hotel) reviews are especially prone to outliers (the extremely pleased and the extremely displeased) and seeming plants, so I like it best when I find one that has over 50 reviews and can glean a big picture.
As for this Amazon reviewer? My god, he's not even a good plant! If I were faking reviews I'd try for better ones.
@Real Cheese Flavor: Meh, you gotta be careful over there. Too many people overstating their Tech Level and bashing the product because they didn't read through the information first. I tend to favor reviews that have the "This user purchased this item from Newegg" line under it, but in any case, I've usually done enough research that I know what I'm getting.
I just love the consumerist. It is the best place to get all your consumer information. This is not a fake review of the site...
my palm is itchy mr.editor.
;)
Negative reviews are so much more informative than positive ones.
@codepage9: You just blew my mind... It's like trying to figure out what would happen if you went back in time and killed your mom before you were born.
I wonder how long it will take before some clever company starts using fake accounts and reviews to start discrediting their competition by making it look like they were the ones writing positive reviews...
I came across a publisher that is full of fake reviews. When I look at the profiles they have only reviewed the one series of books. How many people do you know that play golf, boxing and fencing lol.
I actually bought the Rugby version before noticing this, and the book is generic garbage with a different cover for each sport.
[www.amazon.com]
If I was going to pay a reviewer, I would totally pay one that could spell.
If you're ever bored, check out the Amazon reviews for David Hasselhoff's album, "Very Best of David Haselhoff."
You will die.
I was hired by an author to write reviews of his book. I posted on amazon, among many other sites. I would ask my friends to post reviews that I had written on their accounts. I felt bad, though I did genuinely think that people who enjoyed the type of book that i was promoting would like it. Luckily, I am not unemployed anymore, so I don't have to do sketchy things like that again.
@ClockOnTheStove:
Wow, that was amazing reads. I'll have to finish them later, but I definitely recommend it.
Note to self, create multiple accounts when posting fake reviews. Also, always be sure to throw in one seemingly negative thing that isnt' that bad.