Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

What I'm curious of is how reliably people can identify fake reviews. Is it that ~30% of customers suck at distinguishing them, or is it fuzzier than that and there's an overall 30% chance the review you think is trustworthy actually isn't?

I've bought a lot of stuff on Amazon, and while I do think there's tons of fake reviews and craptacular products for sale, I've yet to come away with the same opinion of Amazon that many people have here. That is, the idea that Amazon is basically an unnavigable swamp of a marketplace. Somehow, I've avoided bad products to such an extent that I can't name a bad purchase off the top of my head. Ok, there was _one_ time I got an air filter that was used and repackaged (eww!) but it wasn't obvious and Amazon didn't know about it, and that's different than flimsy Chinese goods with fake 5 star reviews. I feel like I can spot fake reviews and other nonsense from a mile away, but I don't know if that feeling is real or not.

You are more savvy than most consumers. If you’ve been using Amazon for years you probably have sixth sense for navigating around site and content. How to interpret the reviews. All the meta data.

I suspect many on HN can too. They are likely annoyed by it and use hyperbole to express their frustration

Amazon gets away with a lot of shit because they have top notch fulfillment capability along with good customer service

There is no need to write credible reviews at the moment. When this need arises they will all be exactly the same as real reviews. Bots are already writing entire articles. Creating templates from "real" reviews is barely a challenge.

Many items from Amazon come with a “gift card for reviewing” note and they follow through (I tried it once because the item worked and was something I’d have left a review for anyway). Sometimes the gift card is worth more than the item.

Was my review a real one?

You know the practice of giving incentives for reviews was banned years ago by Amazon?

You can argue it was real but can still be used to skew the results. People are more likely to give good reviews plus review sooner before it breaks or they discover something wrong with it.

Fair enough. Though the item is still operational in its desired capacity and I’m still satisfied with it.

(I didn’t bother reviewing the subsequent one I purchased)

It definitely still happens because I received a follow up in the mail after a purchase on amazon, more than once, in just the past few weeks offering a gift card for a good review.

I would argue that paying for reviews is inherently dishonest. So is giving away items for free for reviews.

You know this practice is still going on, right?

Yes I do. I wasn't claiming the poster had somehow dreamed their experience or something, but rather that it was a overt violation of rules.

Completely fake reviews have always been banned on Amazon and this is an article about how rampant they are.

It also depends heavily on what exactly you are buying. If you are buying health supplements, expect way more than 30% fake reviews and expect a lot of products to be fake themselves. On the other hand, if you are buying something like a rice cooker, you won't run into many fake products and the number of fake reviews will be closer to 30%.

For that reason, I avoid buying supplements on Amazon unless it comes from a few brands that only use one trusted seller to push their stuff.

Funny you say that. I think I did get just that a couple years ago, a fake rice cooker. We tried to order a relatively-pricey Japanese brand and what came was clearly a no-name imitation in plain packaging. First time I think I noticed getting a fake.

Unfortunately, fake products have infiltrated just about every product segment. Even though there are relatively fewer fake products in some categories, the overall percentage of fake products is uncomfortably high and only getting higher over time it feels like.

People will happily accept fake reviews if the product is cheeper than alternatives. Spoting fake reviews is “easy” but very hard is you know the product is 20% cheaper than alternative.

My guess is that amazons algo internal flags users who accept faulty products, and reroutes returned products from opinionated users to the "garbage cans" who will swallow the returns generating profits from what should be trash.

They've made 100% of their customer base the garbage cans then. They commingle their inventory with fly by night resellers' inventory so counterfeits are plentiful. They combine products together. That indicates it's just a way to make customers feel comfortable clicking buy not actually allowing customers to share useful opinions.

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