[MunnabhaiMBBS]

Recently, I received an envelop from the Swiss post in my name. Curious enough, I opened it to find a letter requesting me to send an email with a positive review and the photograph of product which I had recently purchased from Amazon.

I must admit that I had shortlisted this product basis the number of reviews (~20k).

Now, I am realizing the magic behind the number of positive reviews.

The letter claimed below perks upon sending them an email:
1. Another same product (I bought it for CAD$ 20) OR
2. A 10 $ Amazon gift card

Indicators of fraud:
1. Request of emailing the review within 30 days (of what!?), Letter had no date.
2. Letter was sent to Canada through Swiss post to cover up the trail.
3. 419 fraud type email id.
4. Font, Colour and general formatting of letter were not in sync.
5. Reward value mismatch, A product worth 20 $ against a GC worth 10 $

Apparently, it is clear that a lot of people would have emailed the positive reviews irrespective of their actual experience with the product just to avail perks. I doubt if anyone in reality got the claimed perks upon sending the email to the email id mentioned on the letter.

This is one of the many ways of buying a positive review of your product. As consumers, we really need to be ahead of these guys.

How do you guys spot a genuine product online apart from noticing the "Fulfilled by" tag?

[gkveda]

I usually see how many negative points a positive review has, in addition to the positive points mentioned in the review

Based on the negative points mentioned in a 4 star or 5 star review, I decide whether the review is fake or genuine

Second point to decide whether a review genuine is, if the review has too many positive points without even a single negative point, I will consider it a sales pitch rather than review(You can easily guess, if it's a sales pitch)


On similar note, to be fair, i also see how many positive points, a negative review with one or two star has. If the review has only negative points with out even single positive point, then I consider, it to be a work of competitor.

Third point important to consider is, if there are common positive or negative points mentioned by many reviewers(say 4 or 5 people) then, i consider the point to be true since i believe many people won't write same positive or negative points about a characteristic feature or issue unless it is too real.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by MunnabhaiMBBS

How do you guys spot a genuine product online apart from noticing the "Fulfilled by" tag?

Sadly, even online ecommerce platforms like Amazon make it REALLY hard to post a negative review. I've tried a couple of times but invariably the good reviews get posted, the negative ones get mysteriously...'lost' or 'don't meet the standards for posting'.

Remember, the ecommerce platforms get more business from sellers and brands than they would from us individual buyers, so it's obvious who they will side with. Just like how a car or bike brand will inevitably take the side of a crooked dealer over a client who has been wronged by that dealer.

There is NO substitute for word of mouth or reviews on independent forums like this one. (Which is why I always wonder why people on this forum also dilute that by coming out in defense of their favorite brands when someone posts a negative review - this is only defense we have against the big boys guys- don't negate someone's negative review just because you have some self-esteem invested in a car or bike brand! Those multi-million dollar brands can take care of themselves!)

[Eddy]

Have experienced this. We ordered stuff from Amazon India, and the seller offered a 10% discount on the next order if I shared a screenshot of a positive review for my order.

[dailydriver]

Veiled paid promotion is sadly the norm these days. Offer of a gift here and an extended warranty there entices the users to post complimentary reviews. Recently, I received the following note in one of the parcels from amazon.in.



Funnily, there were five different items packed inside the same box and I couldn't find the source of the note. Had I found the exact sender, I would have posted an honest review of the product and (in case the item was substandard/unsatisfactory) included this solicitation in the end .

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Irrespective of the positive or negative reviews, I avoid purchasing a novel / innovative product online unless I have personal positive reviews from the friends / relatives.

I use online to buy known and proven products like books, mobile covers etc. And I don't keep a great performance expectations from non branded electrical / electronic items ordered online.

[haisaikat]

While purchasing a product I look at the recent reviews over last 1 month as the batch of production keeps on changing and lot level quality can vary. Of course this does not guarantee I will get a product from the good lot which garnered good reviews but its still worth giving a try.

I usually trust my judgement with reviews that have photos / videos attached to it and from reviewers who have an earned reputation.

Also, if I get to see praise for good customer service in reviews I go for it since that is a hallmark of genuine service backing the product quality. From my experience of recent two purchases from Amazon, one was a dash cam and another was a battery agro chemical sprayer. Upon receipt promptly found the whatsapp / phone contact flashed for support and I must say they were very responsive and prompt and cordial in supporting me.

And for the record, my observation of getting these paid requests are from cheaper items like screen guards, plastic chinese staff mostly, not for Made in India products, at least not to my recall.

[AZT]

Have fallen for these products with fake 5 Star reviews. Product turns out a dud and all bad reviews are drowned out by a ton of bot / fake reviews.

Amazon return policy has always been stellar so no problem there.

[mtnrajdeep]

I use fakespot app to identify fake reviews. Pretty reliable. Was searching for an electric pressure cooker on Amazon today and found one named Mealthy with 4.5 star rating. Used fakespot to analyse the reviews and it actually ranked it at 1.5 stars!!

[Wanderers]

I don’t give a damn about reviews. If I love the product I buy it and similarly when I hate it (on receipt) I return it.
Don’t buy non returnable items except when I am sure about it. e.g. specific brand underwear.

[saket77]

Currently going through the same. Bought a bookshelf about a month ago. Received a random call a couple of days ago asking about my experience. I just told him it’s all good. No issues. Asked me to rate on five. I verbally told him 4. After that I have received at least 15-20 WhatsApp messages asking me to rate them 5*.
This guy is on the verge of irritating me now.

Last time it was when I got a washing machine. The installer asked me for 5 star review. All was good so I thought why not. I posted a 5 star review. He followed up later if I had rated him 5 stars; and I told him yes. He had the audacity to ask for a screen shot of my review! That got the better of me.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by mtnrajdeep

I use fakespot app to identify fake reviews. Pretty reliable. Was searching for an electric pressure cooker on Amazon today and found one named Mealthy with 4.5 star rating. Used fakespot to analyse the reviews and it actually ranked it at 1.5 stars!!

Thanks for the tip!

Just returned a Quick Sense programmable timer (one with a socket) because it did not have a countdown feature. Was surprised to find a card that said they would pay anywhere between Rs 40 and Rs 100 depending on the review and rating!

Given the poor consumer protection laws, I think businesses are trying to discredit the review and rating system on Amazon so that they can get back to doing business the easy way, like they do on the offline stores. Amazon India does not really care and would much rather do without the review system imposed by their foreign counterparts.

I think it is time to get a genuine review site, but such sites are brought down by shills and other vested interests that have more clout than the average customer. There used to be a sidebar feature with Google where people could put notes on any site, but that was phased out.

Will try out the fakespot app suggested above.

[Bibendum90949]

It's same with Book My Show reviews on movies. Guess they're rigged too. Nothing like mother wit to measure things and people around.

[GTO]

Just glad we have Team-BHP for genuine reviews of expensive purchases like cars & bikes . Else, we'd be left with manufacturer-sponsored reviews of the car rags.

The Hustle has a nice long-form article on this menace. Also, it's not just 5-star reviews that are a problem. 1-star reviews can be misleading as hell. The only way to solve this is to manually curate / approve them (like we do for ownership review threads), but it's an impossible task at Amazon's scale.

Amazon understands this and capitalizes on it accordingly.

“The way Amazon presents reviews to you is a form of hypnosis,” says Saoud Khalifah, who runs the fake review detection site, Fakespot. “They put a glowing 5-star review right in your face. They program you to trust these stars.”

And there are a lot of stars in the Bezos galaxy: According to one e-commerce metrics firm, Amazon hosts 1.8m vendors and sellers who hawk nearly 600m items that generate ~9.6m new product reviews every month.

Amazon likes to think of its marketplace as a merchant meritocracy where the best products get the best reviews by virtue of quality and honest consumer feedback.

But the vast size of the platform, coupled with a ferocious competition among sellers to get higher product rankings, has spawned a problem: A proliferation of fake reviews.

Fake reviews have been an issue for Amazon since its inception, but the problem appears to have intensified in 2015, when Amazon.com began to court Chinese sellers.

[MunnabhaiMBBS]

Speaking of potential solution : Empowering customers!

A vague concept:

- Usage of blockchain principal : Multi-customer validation.
- Rating parameters - Quality, Reliability, Practicality, User Friendliness, Price etc.
- Only 2 rating options for each parameter - Positive or Negative.
- Once the product is sold, a product rating request is sent by the platform itself using customer X's registered email id - No risk of bots, bogus email ids etc.
- Once Customer X submits the rating, an email is sent to consumers A, B, C etc. who have bought the same product in the past.
- They validate the rating given by other customers. (Customer A validating it anonymously for customers B, C, X etc.)
- If a particular parameter is rated positively by say 90 - 95 % of customers, that parameter is then shown as positive in the product description.

Pros:

- Elimination of fraudulent reviews/ratings to great extent.
- Anonymous therefore no chance of manipulation.
- Completely controlled by the platform = Trustworthy.
- Zero involvement of sellers = Ensuring unbias.

Cons:

- Delays in obtaining the ratings. No real motivation for customers to participate against conventional $$$ lollipops.
- Not useful for products selling in very negligible numbers
- Why to fix it when its not broken (Maybe 100 out of 1,00,000 customers complain about the review mechanism) - Does it matter to platforms?
- Cost of implementation.

This is just a rough idea which has a great customization potential basis the requirement.

I am sure that Tbhpians can help in evolving this concept further.