O.T. Dishonesty

Don't tell me. Tell Santa.

Was it from Amazon or from the distributor or maker? Never heard or anyone getting such a notice. They usually sell many versions of a product so would not care what the rating of a specific brand was.

Sounds fishy to me.

This is from 6 years ago but I think it still applies, maybe more so.

The compensated-review process is simple: Businesses paid to create dummy accounts purchase products from Amazon and write four- and five-star reviews. Buying the product makes it tougher for Amazon to police the reviews, because the reviews are in fact based on verified purchases. The dummy accounts buy and review all sorts of things, and some of the more savvy pay-for-review sites even have their faux reviewers pepper in a few negative reviews of products made and sold by brands that aren’t clients to create a sense of “authenticity.” In fact, for extra cash, a company can pay one of these firms to write negative reviews of a competitor’s product. Wirecutter contributor Brent Butterworth has written about this practice as well.

Super shady, we know. And Amazon has a history of trying hard to deal with offenders and shut them down. In fact, in April, Amazon sued another round of companies that are accused of selling fraudulent reviews. But by the time those companies are caught, their clients have already made a bunch of sales, and the fraudulent reviewers will likely pop up again under new names to repeat the process......

It says to go to the Amazon site and sign in.

And browse order history. Find our product...

Click a rating and leave review. Leave a 5 stars positive review.

Then it goes on to say how to earn the $30 amazon gift card.

Screen shot of 5 star review sent to one of two email addresses.

Wait 2-3 business days for your free gift card to come.

Both Ama... and the vendor stand to gain from a 5 star rating whether or not the rating is honest or not.

Andy

I bought something on Amazon about 6 months ago and the seller sent me a card identical to what AK described above. I still have it right here. I didn't want to be that guy, the guy who writes reviews for money.

Key words: Amazon and the vendor

If it is a third party vendor it is not Amazon.

Yes, a third party vendor may be sleazy and Amazon has been trying to control fake reviews.

Give 'em 5 stars and in your reviewlet everyone know it's bought and paid for and the company is sleazy and the product is junk -

Kinda like the guy I fired who used me as a reference at his next job application and I told the prospective employer the truth - "You can consider yourself lucky if you can get Dave to work for you"

No, he didn't get the job - - -

I've never heard this directly from Amazon, but I did have one of their vendors contact me by email and offer me a free different version of his product -- if I would change my review.

He did send the product, and it was much better than the other product. So I changed my review: to say that the other product sent to me was better. I did not change the stars (1) or the original review.

At all does make you wonder about the validity of Amazon reviews. I totally discount those that indicate they received a free or test sample of the product. But those"reviews" still affect the percentage ratings whether they are read and believed or not, and thus are still misleading those who may buy the product,

-dan z-

I do read some, especially the one star. You question their validity bit I also question the validity of the writer.

Some of the low rating have nothing to do with the product. The driver left the package by the door and it rained. The box was dented when it came. The color does not match the curtains, blue would have been better.

I sometimes wonder about Amazon's math. The header will show 4 1/2 stars but as you scroll through the reviews there are a lot that are three or lower.

Maybe Amazon uses a dominion star tabulator?

I don't know about other computers, but on a Mac you can hover your cursor over a link and the full and actual URL is exposed before you click on it. They hardly ever point to a legitimate URL, especially if there's "free" anything involved.