Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in Great Britain ‘bribed’ by sellers to offer good review, poll finds
www.theguardian.com
Which? survey suggests ‘unscrupulous’ sellers bombard customers with incentives
  • tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.ukEnglish
    10·
    9 months ago

    I got offered a more expensive product for free if I’d change my review. So I changed it to 1 star instead. Judging by the glowing reviews a lot of people took the offer.

    • GreatAlbatrossMAEnglish
      3·
      9 months ago

      And Amazon tends to remove reviews that mention being bribed.

  • giant_smeegEnglish
    5·
    9 months ago

    Amazon is a cesspit now.

    I was looking for some Wera allen keys the other day. I wrote “Wera allen keys”. The top 6 items were “sponsored” that looked identical to Wera Allen Keys but were chinese rip offs.

    It’s all just designed to con people, just show me what I searched for.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    As many as one in 10 Amazon shoppers could have been offered a “bribe” in exchange for a positive review of a product in the past year, research from the UK consumer body Which?

    The organisation claimed that unscrupulous sellers on Amazon were “bombarding customers” with incentives such as gift cards, free products and refunds “in order to cheat the system”.

    said its survey of more than 1,500 adults in Great Britain carried out in July found that 10% of respondents who had bought from Amazon in the previous 12 months had received a note or card in the packaging of the product offering an incentive for leaving a five-star review.

    called on ministers to follow through on proposals to make it a criminal offence to host reviews without taking proper steps to ensure they are genuine.

    In June this year, Amazon said shoppers were being deceived because social media platforms and messaging apps were not doing enough to prevent a “cottage industry of fraudsters” soliciting fake reviews.

    This week the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Amazon alleging it used its position in the marketplace to inflate prices on other platforms, overcharge sellers and stifle competition.

    The original article contains 538 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • FatLegTedEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Me neither. I’ve never had a freebie either.

    • thanksforallthefish@literature.cafeEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Probably a combination of what you buy and how often you buy things. I’ve been offered bribes for reviews at least a dozen times. Never taken them because they weren’t worth the effort (offering gift cards for small amounts or a discount on other stiluff from them). It’'s always chinese vendors and usually stuff like torches and bike accessories that are fairly generic in my experience

  • Borkingheck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    I remember being offered a free gift if I left a positive review, this back in 2018.

    Can’t trust reviews from members of the public. Either bribed or Best product ever after 16s of using the product or one star because the delivery took to long.