
Ask HN: How do I find legit, quality products on Amazon? - vz8
My household avidly uses Amazon.com, but we&#x27;re finding it harder and harder to find goods that are genuinely good, rather than scam-popular.<p>We&#x27;ve tried Fakespot and Review Meta: the former frequently detects an outsized proportion of fake reviews, while the latter will be in opposition (bias promoting affiliate link purchases?). It&#x27;s getting discouraging when on a quest to buy light bulbs, every vendor is approaching a score of 60% review reliability.<p>Very often, the Amazon Top Pick has the worst reputation on review analysis sites.<p>Frequently, to short-circuit paralysis by analysis, we just buy the least worst item. Or a meaningless name brand at thrice the price (I&#x27;m looking at you, Philips) with equally dismal results. We&#x27;re finding that garden variety consumer electronics are a landmine of knockoffs with poor quality and short lifespans. Just looking for a decent outdoor timer ended up an epic rabbit hole (and we&#x27;re on a third try).<p>Is it really that bad? What has your experience looked like, and have you found tools to help? Thanks.
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FakespotCom
Thank you for being a Fakespot user. I thought I'd bring in some perspective
to your question.

Your observation of the preponderance of unreliable reviews on Amazon matches
what we see across the board. Unfortunately, ever since Amazon opened up to
3rd party sellers, the reviews have become a marketing tool by a lot of these
sellers to move ahead of other products. These sellers use everything from
pure fake reviews to gamed verified purchase reviews. This is major reason why
so many reviews nowadays are unreliable, it is truly a wild west out there in
the eCommerce world and fake reviews can mean $$$.

With that said, we just launched Fakespot Guardian as part of our new Chrome
extension which solves the 3rd party seller problem by telling you if a seller
is reliable or not. By knowing if seller and reviews are reliable, you will be
able to purchase anything with confidence.

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vz8
Once upon a time I was responsible for a high traffic site with ads as a
primary revenue source.

The constant problem was that competitors would automate clickbomb attacks --
fake traffic with click throughs that would ultimately get the site banned
from ad networks (or severely devalue CPM rates) for fraudulent traffic. The
irony was that we never used the same tactics ourselves, assuming that the
risks outweighed the rewards. The malicious bot traffic ultimately spelled the
end of the site.

I would imagine that an Amazon product/seller would suffer from high
quantities of any fake reviews, whether positive or negative:

Too positive? Amazon or Fakespot & similar services penalize them.

Too negative? Consumers penalize them.

Seems like with a modest budget and a Fiverr-like service, smaller retailers
could be harmed with relative ease.

Then, faced with these attacks, I'd imagine many companies with means might
try countermeasures, triggering a sort of review arms race.

How do you separate the signal from the noise from deliberate fake reviews (of
any kind) from third parties with malicious intent?

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barbe
I read the reviews but have seen reports that they are sometiems made-up, so I
usually look at Wirecutter (a shopping guide sponsored by the NY Times) first.
Sometimes the Wirecutter review helps me decide what features I"m looking for
and whether I want/need a higher priced product or not. I also do comparison
shopping on Google shopping and use the low-to-high price filter on Google and
Amazon. So far, everything I've purchased using this combination been a good
choice.

~~~
vz8
Thanks for suggesting another avenue, we'll give it a try.

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giantg2
I try to read the reviews and find ones that seem more personal and skip stuff
that seems generic. I either buy cheap stuff with the expectation that it will
only work for a limited time (like a single project) or I look for a brand
with a good reputation and warranty. If you buy from somewhere other than
Amazon, you can find stuff that is cheaper. Currently, some places like Ebay
have quicker shipping times than Amazon.Smaller sites may be less prone to
manipulation from review mills.

~~~
vz8
One thing we've run into is that for older products, if you sort by New vs.
Popular, the reviews can be a wildly different experience. Frequently we're
seeing quality in the older reviews, and more and more complaints in the last
year or so.

They don't build them like they used to? I want to say something about kids
getting off my lawn right about now.

So, not that a handful of responses are much to go on yet, but as I write
this, the sentiment is that avoiding Amazon is the solution, rather than
navigating its murky waters. Food for thought. Thanks.

~~~
giantg2
Yep, they are the biggest target of review mills. I've seen it go the other
way too, where the new product is better.

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a3n
Use Amazon for searching, list a few candidates, then go look at them in local
meat space and buy the one you like, locally.

Edit: Wait, what? Light bulbs? Just go to home Depot or the grocery store and
be done with it. Most other things can be bought this way. And it's same day
having.

~~~
vz8
Thanks for the feedback.

Usually can't find the price/spec/performance balance we want. Light bulbs was
just an example -- we wanted BR30 lights (and lots of them) with 3000K color.
Everything at HD/Lowes was either 2700K or 5000K. And 3x the per-bulb price.
Same issue with just about everything home-electronic: we can't find the same
thing locally and online has been gamed.

Plus with Covid-19, we're relying on delivery more than ever- we have a
immune-compromised family member so try to take reasonable measures.

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sloaken
I read the negative posts. Companies do not waste their money having negative
posts put in.

When I read them I am looking for consistency. If 4 people out of 20 complain
it broke in 3 months, well there is my sign.

It is there you will also see that a lot people are dumb. My favorite was some
advanced book on a tech topic. Title had 'Advanced' as the first word. Person
who scored it one star - 'Not a good book for a beginner. Way too complex'. I
wished you could down vote a score, or recommend it for review.

SO I do not just read the one stars, I often read the 2 stars. People posting
a 2 star are not as emotional, and just the facts.

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vz8
I think part of our frustration with Amazon is that there is a sizable amount
of clearly fraudulent behavior in their marketplace; addressing even the
lowest hanging fruit (huge upswing of 5 star reviews across narrow time
windows on a single product for one) would show good faith on their part, yet
they don't manage their marketplace.

Another issue that adds to the confusion: a combined five star rating scale on
a product that has 12 different variations is meaningless. They could treat
them individually, but choose not to.

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gshdg
Not ordering from Amazon.

There are a couple dozen sites I trust across a number of categories of goods.
I order from those, even if it means paying a bit of a premium.

Heck, maybe because it does. I’d rather pay $30 for a well made widget that’ll
last a few years than $10 for a knock-off that’ll fail in a few days.

