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Comment by DanielleMolloy | Hacker News Reader

I check Fakespot, and click on some reviewer profiles. The idiots doing full-time positive product reviewing are so easy to spot by their hilarious review history that you start to assume that Amazon doesn’t do anything against them on purpose. They also mainly flock on the crap within a single month or so (but this is one of many Fakespot metrics).

I tried buying a new bicycle light last week and literally every product was crap with fake reviewing. After wasting an hour on this I ended up not buying from Amazon. Rolling out the red carpet for the Chinese crap and counterfeit industry on their platform is likely to become Amazon’s death if they don’t admit their mistake and turn the wheel now.

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While this could be seen as off topic, I don’t think it is: I strongly recommend purchasing that bike light from your local bike shop. If you have a local bike shop, it is likely struggling. But it is also likely that the lights they have on offer there are specifically selected for their utility, particularly their utility in your locale. Perhaps it will be a few dollars more than Amazon, but you will reap the benefit.

Plus, bike shop employees are usually very passionate and genuinely interested in your best interest, at least around here, which is not the norm with other businesses. If you're happy with your bicycle, you'll keep using it, and that's more business.

I got a bike light on ebay and after a few months the battery failed. Even though legally I have 1 year warranty I just can't be bothered arguing with a seller for days and then having to pay return shipping which is almost as much as the light is. I ended up getting a light at the store. Cost me a little bit more but the quality is soooo much better and the battery can be replaced rather than having a sealed plastic casing.

If I ever have a problem with this light its only a 3 minute ride back to the store to return it and I know they won't try and dispute it.

It might be worth reaching out to Ebay and asking for a return—they have ridiculously consumer-friendly return policies, and even if the merchant doesn't want the return, Ebay can force it and hold it against their PayPal earnings.

Indeed. This is part of the reason why stuff on eBay isn’t actually that cheap considering what many people expect

Yes, every time I have complained about something bought on Ebay it has been resolved in my favour.

My local bike shop sells bike accessories for like 10x a fair price. Myabe they're struggling, maybe they have expensive rent to pay.

But at some point it's just much too much.

Depends on the shop, I guess. My local bike shop carries quite a lot of cheap garbage too, but at high markup. I also have trust issues with many such shops. I know some where at least one person working there seems competent, but in most I've been, I get the distinct vibe of employees being domain-clueless salesmen paid to push things (similar to what's typical in electronics/home appliance stores).

Such hit and miss are a reason brand loyalty exists, and a reason why people stick to a (certain) shop be it local or a big one.

I use Google's reviews to check that, always sorting by worst grades first. Saved my ass a few times, especially as an expat.

A good local bike shop is invaluable, especially if they have a good workshop.

I just looked for a headphone splitter for an iPhone. Every result on the page had pretty high reviews, but when you click on the results and look at the reviews you see weird five star reviews like "great planner with a great cover" and "this was the perfect organizer for my daughter's drawers" at the top of the reviews for a highly rated headphone splitter. I don't know what's going on with Amazon, but I ended up going to best buy to look for peripherals.

It is sellers abusing product variation feature on amazon. Basically it works like that - they find out of stock product with high number of positive reviews, add it as a variation to their own product. Since this product is out of stock, it would not show up on the product page as an option to select, yet they gain all reviews/stars from that product. This needs to be reported to Amazon.

That's very interesting and completely believable. If I may ask, how'd you find this? Do you work at Amazon (is this known at Amazon, I would assume so)?

I am a seller and have to scan daily for competitors pulling this trick. From communication with seller support, it appears that Amazon is on the way to stop reviews from one variation to propagate to all product in the "family" as a way to stop it, but when it happens - who knows. More pressure from both sellers and customers should push Amazon towards it.

Amazon rolled out the carpet for counterfeit when they mixed their inventory with seller inventory. Do not buy common automotive parts from Amazon. Really good chance you will get a knockoff part.

They have to clearly separate between Marketplace and Amazon again. Everything used to be fine when people knew from whom they bought at any time. They are removing the line in multiple ways right now (one of the worst being comingling).

Well said.

Amazon is either going to clean their house or someone is going to do it for them.

Completely agree. I think a better way to get reviews now is just to type "(product name) review" into youtube. Seems more honest review. Stay away from anything that is Chinese product. Most of it is so sloppily made.

These are also paid - the barrier to entry is just higher because the reviewer needs to have a little equipment and be able to speak cogently for five minutes.

Personally, I start with ensuring I know the correct "(product name)" I want. I start with going to Wirecutter if they do reviews of a given category of products, or otherwise trawl through domain-specific subreddits.

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