Mom0012 Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 (edited) Why do you think the reviews are so extreme one way or another on this product? Here, 100% positive reviews by 88 people: https://www.amazon.com/Scrubber-Cordless-Multi-Purpose-Replaceable-Extension/dp/B07MHKSKWQ/ref=sr_1_33?hvadid=232518652482&hvdev=t&hvlocphy=9007567&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12594674432985286760&hvtargid=kwd-385010246864&keywords=tool+for+cleaning+baseboards&qid=1551306530&s=gateway&sr=8-33&tag=googhydr-20 Again, 100% positive reviews by 89 people: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MSC1J8K/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07MSC1J8K Then, abysmal reviews by many: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FMV69NG/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07FMV69NG#customerReviews And there are other just like the last one with as many as 60% of the reviews being a 1 star. I’m assuming it is a piece of j7nk and they have just found some way to scam the reviews, but how? Edited February 27, 2019 by Mom0012 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 Looks like many of the reviewers who give positive reviews (on the last link) don't use fully grammatical English. Separately, I wonder if some people were paid/reimbursed for their reviews? (They could know the company putting the item up for sale, order the item, send the item back, get a refund (including payment or not), and write a "verified" review.) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 (edited) First link was full of reviews by "amazon customer" and not a verified purchase. Those are all purchased reviews. They aren't even clever about it since they first 10 or so are all on the same date. LOL I didn't look further to see how far back they are all the same. Ignore those reviews, they are phoney. The second link is only two reviews. The third link looks like more legit reviews. People with normal sounding names (or at least a variety of names), "verified purchase" different length of review, different format and varying dates. They could still be phoney reviews, but way more complicated to construct and they are bad reviews, so that wouldn't make sense. There are likely some phoney reviews in there too, but fewer since the star rating went down. If you ever see a bunch of reviews in a row that are C. Smith, J. Thomas, K Jones or similarly constructed names, all with 5 star reviews....be more cautious about believing they are legit. Often people who are paid to write reviews, will use similar formats for constructing names, and then when you read the review you will notice they all have similar sentence structure. One strategy I use is to sort the reviews and read the 4 star reviews. They often seem to be the most reliable. Edited February 27, 2019 by Tap 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aura Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 I didn't follow the links, but one thing about Amazon reviews is that sometimes they're not all for the same product. For instance, there can be multiple options/colors/varieties of an item and all the reviews are listed together. And I don't mean just like different colors or sizes for clothes. For instance, I've seen 3' usb cables and 10' usb cables in the same listing. I've found that the longer cables often don't hold up as well or charge as fast, so I'd expect different reviews for those. Something else is scamming done by the listing company. I've seen them replace a highly rated item with something new that is totally unrelated. For instance, I once bought a French press, then I went back to see about another one and while it says I ordered this item, the item listed was now a can opener. 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 3 minutes ago, Aura said: I didn't follow the links, but one thing about Amazon reviews is that sometimes they're not all for the same product. For instance, there can be multiple options/colors/varieties of an item and all the reviews are listed together. And I don't mean just like different colors or sizes for clothes. For instance, I've seen 3' usb cables and 10' usb cables in the same listing. I've found that the longer cables often don't hold up as well or charge as fast, so I'd expect different reviews for those. Something else is scamming done by the listing company. I've seen them replace a highly rated item with something new that is totally unrelated. For instance, I once bought a French press, then I went back to see about another one and while it says I ordered this item, the item listed was now a can opener. Absolutely! Whenever there are 500 reviews or more, skim read to see what product they are talking about. This is a common bait and switch for reviews, especially on gadgets/electronics/clothes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 Ok, so out of curiosity, the first link had 88 reviews. All "Amazon Customer" and all written on exactly the same day. LOL Not a single legit review in there. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavender's green Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 Screwy reviews are a major reason why I'm not renewing Prime this year. I am sick to death of going over reviews with a fine tooth comb to figure out if they're legit or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted February 28, 2019 Author Share Posted February 28, 2019 44 minutes ago, Tap said: Ok, so out of curiosity, the first link had 88 reviews. All "Amazon Customer" and all written on exactly the same day. LOL Not a single legit review in there. That’s pretty bad! I have been seeing this more and more and you’d think if there are 88 5-star reviews, it must be a good product, but I’m finding the reviews almost worthless anymore. Almost everything now has at least a 4-star rating, so I started making purchases only based on the negative reviews. If there were 5% or less negative reviews, and there were a fair amount of reviews overall, I’d buy. Now, this product, and others recently, have had 0 negative reviews, but clearly, that’s false, so I need to find a new system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted February 28, 2019 Author Share Posted February 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said: We should all write Letters to the Editor of the Washington Post and ask: Dear Jeff, Why does Amazon have so many scammy reviews? Don't you care about us? Sincerely, Amazon Prime Addicts Yes, Jeff! Get with the program! Lol. But, really, you’d think it would be in amazon’s best interest to do something about the reviews and the fake product sales. It has actually pushed me back into going to the store for a few things lately that I wanted to buy online. Like sheets and shampoo and cosmetics. If amazon is still planning on taking over the world, I hope they start putting a little effort into quality control. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted February 28, 2019 Author Share Posted February 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Tap said: First link was full of reviews by "amazon customer" and not a verified purchase. Those are all purchased reviews. They aren't even clever about it since they first 10 or so are all on the same date. LOL I didn't look further to see how far back they are all the same. Ignore those reviews, they are phoney. The second link is only two reviews. The third link looks like more legit reviews. People with normal sounding names (or at least a variety of names), "verified purchase" different length of review, different format and varying dates. They could still be phoney reviews, but way more complicated to construct and they are bad reviews, so that wouldn't make sense. There are likely some phoney reviews in there too, but fewer since the star rating went down. If you ever see a bunch of reviews in a row that are C. Smith, J. Thomas, K Jones or similarly constructed names, all with 5 star reviews....be more cautious about believing they are legit. Often people who are paid to write reviews, will use similar formats for constructing names, and then when you read the review you will notice they all have similar sentence structure. One strategy I use is to sort the reviews and read the 4 star reviews. They often seem to be the most reliable. I hope this doesn’t sound paranoid, lol, but when I linked it, it did have 89 5-star reviews. It caught my attention because there was one with 88 reviews and another with 89, which seemed weird. Now, the one with 89 is *gone*. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 I buy quite a bit from amazon. I agree with the others - unless the review says Verified Purchase, there’s a good chance it’s fake. And the ones that are Verified Purchase AND they uploaded a picture of themselves wearing the item? Solid Gold! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 first I sort so that I only see 4 star and above items. Then I mostly look at the bad reviews to see if there is something specific wrong with the product and if it is common. With clothes and shoes I may look at the reviews for info on sizing. Many other items I look at have thousands of reviews each so then I compare the overall reviews. Finally, I find it helpful to look at overall reviews for used books to see how many sales they have and what their tract record is like. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Similar complaints: One star reviews for late shipping. We all know Amazon’s shipping can suck; I want to know about the product. People who answer questions with “I don’t know.” When you get a question emailed, it isn’t being asked directly to you, and you’re not obligated to answer. It helps no one. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 2 hours ago, Carrie12345 said: Similar complaints: One star reviews for late shipping. We all know Amazon’s shipping can suck; I want to know about the product. People who answer questions with “I don’t know.” When you get a question emailed, it isn’t being asked directly to you, and you’re not obligated to answer. It helps no one. Seriously, why do people do that? Why would you answer a question with "I don't know, it was a gift for someone else"? It's not like it's required to leave an answer. I find that totally bizarre. I usually read the 1 star reviews, a scattering of other reviews, and then search for any articles or reviews online. I only do this for $$$ or specialty items though. I find I learn the most from 1 star reviews but, yeah some of them are pretty stupid. About shipping or other matters unrelated to the item. Or because they clearly used the item incorrectly. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said: Similar complaints: One star reviews for late shipping. We all know Amazon’s shipping can suck; I want to know about the product. People who answer questions with “I don’t know.” When you get a question emailed, it isn’t being asked directly to you, and you’re not obligated to answer. It helps no one. I hate that too. I wish Amazon would clean all this up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 (edited) This came across my feed and thought it was timely for this discussion: Buyer Beware: A Scourge of Fake Reviews hit Amazon, Walmart and others... It seems like Sephora and Steam are also having problems. The article says that 30% of Amazon reviews are fake. I'm surprised they didn't find more actually. Edited February 28, 2019 by PrincessMommy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree Frog Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 40 minutes ago, PrincessMommy said: This came across my feed and thought it was timely for this discussion: Buyer Beware: A Scourge of Fake Reviews hit Amazon, Walmart and others... It seems like Sephora and Steam are also having problems. The article says that 30% of Amazon reviews are fake. I'm surprised they didn't find me actually. The bolded is an interesting statement. Is there a story behind it? This quote from the article. I think I'll rely more irl reviews and reviews from places like here with regular contributors than on the reviews themselves. It's not only that companies are faking glowing reviews, but companies are hiring people or using bots to also post fake "bad" reviews for competitors. A sudden rash of 1-star reviews for a product could be a sign of sabotage, for instance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 7 minutes ago, wilrunner said: The bolded is an interesting statement. Is there a story behind it? This quote from the article. I think I'll rely more irl reviews and reviews from places like here with regular contributors than on the reviews themselves. It's not only that companies are faking glowing reviews, but companies are hiring people or using bots to also post fake "bad" reviews for competitors. A sudden rash of 1-star reviews for a product could be a sign of sabotage, for instance. LOL - typo!! I'll go fix it. That's funny. Maybe I'm a bit too paranoid and it's a Freudian slip 😏 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 I read an article, this week or last week, that was in my Google Feed. It was about companies paying people to write False Reviews. I am certain that occurs on Amazon and on most web sites where there are Reviews. I like to believe those False Reviews are a small percentage of the Reviews. I consider the Reviews very important, if I am contemplating buying something I know nothing about, or, for example, a hotel we have never stayed in. I always suggest to people that they read the most recent Reviews. That said, sometimes I detect a similarity between Reviews and if that's the case, then "buyer beware". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 From CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/ftc-cracking-down-on-fake-amazon-reviews.html “The FTC just prosecuted a fake Amazon review for the first time — here's what that means for users On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission announced its first-ever charges against a company that paid to have fake reviews posted online. The company in question, Massachusetts-based Cure Encapsulations, paid the third-party website amazonverifiedreviews.com to write and post positive reviews that appeared to come from consumers for a weight-loss supplement product on Amazon.com, according to the FTC. "Please make my product … stay a five star," Cure Encapsulations owner Naftula Jacobowitz told amazonverifiedreviews.com, according to the FTC. Jacobowitz's company paid for reviews falsely describing its product, the supplement garcinia cambogia, as a "powerful appetite suppressant" that "literally blocks fat from forming," the FTC says. Will it make reviews more trustworthy? The FTC "does not comment about what future actions it may or may not take," a spokesperson told CNBC Make It. But the fact that the FTC brought the case has already sparked speculation that the case sets the precedent that the federal government is now willing to bring charges against companies that pay for fake reviews making misleading claims.” 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 21 hours ago, Arcadia said: From CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/ftc-cracking-down-on-fake-amazon-reviews.html “The FTC just prosecuted a fake Amazon review for the first time — here's what that means for users On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission announced its first-ever charges against a company that paid to have fake reviews posted online. The company in question, Massachusetts-based Cure Encapsulations, paid the third-party website amazonverifiedreviews.com to write and post positive reviews that appeared to come from consumers for a weight-loss supplement product on Amazon.com, according to the FTC. "Please make my product … stay a five star," Cure Encapsulations owner Naftula Jacobowitz told amazonverifiedreviews.com, according to the FTC. Jacobowitz's company paid for reviews falsely describing its product, the supplement garcinia cambogia, as a "powerful appetite suppressant" that "literally blocks fat from forming," the FTC says. Will it make reviews more trustworthy? The FTC "does not comment about what future actions it may or may not take," a spokesperson told CNBC Make It. But the fact that the FTC brought the case has already sparked speculation that the case sets the precedent that the federal government is now willing to bring charges against companies that pay for fake reviews making misleading claims.” that seems to be moving in a positive direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 One of those links looks to be for a scrubber, but reviews I saw are about something for baking. 🙃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 In January my Amazon account was hacked and my fear of someone using my credit card was unnecessary. They changed my email to one from Russia and a started making dozens of fake reviews. I get email notifications when I post a review and within minutes I got more than a hundred. amazon was quick to shut down my account, but it was hacked again the next day, also with dozens of fake reviews. (Yeah, we figured out to use two step authentication to prevent it from happening again) anyway, Amazon was not even mildly interested in removing the fake reviews until I pitched a fit. And it took them weeks to do it. ‘The whole reason I was hacked was to enable a bot to leave fake reviews, mostly on a set of Bluetooth earbuds. It made me mad, but I was more mad that amazon didn’t seem to care about the fake reviews. Ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Kate Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 On 2/27/2019 at 5:39 PM, Mom0012 said: Why do you think the reviews are so extreme one way or another on this product? Here, 100% positive reviews by 88 people: https://www.amazon.com/Scrubber-Cordless-Multi-Purpose-Replaceable-Extension/dp/B07MHKSKWQ/ref=sr_1_33?hvadid=232518652482&hvdev=t&hvlocphy=9007567&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12594674432985286760&hvtargid=kwd-385010246864&keywords=tool+for+cleaning+baseboards&qid=1551306530&s=gateway&sr=8-33&tag=googhydr-20 Again, 100% positive reviews by 89 people: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MSC1J8K/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07MSC1J8K Then, abysmal reviews by many: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FMV69NG/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07FMV69NG#customerReviews And there are other just like the last one with as many as 60% of the reviews being a 1 star. I’m assuming it is a piece of j7nk and they have just found some way to scam the reviews, but how? I have an app on my iPhone called Fakespot. It works within Amazon and is used to analyze reviews. In your examples above, the first got an F (meaning Fakespot found the reviews to appear to be bogus), the second wasn’t able to be analyzed, and the third got a B (meaning that the reviews appear to be fairly accurate). I love this app and really really hope it’s accurate! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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