
Bad reviews for Taser documentary seem to come from Taser employees - coloneltcb
http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2015/12/bad-reviews-for-taser-documentary-on-amazon-itunes-seem-to-come-from-taser-employees/
======
CPLX
_The Guardian asked Steve Tuttle, Taser 's vice-president for strategic
communications, if he felt that staff should disclose their employment when
reviewing reviews of the documentary. He told the newspaper, "Are you fucking
joking? It's a free country and they can do what they want."_

I can only imagine what the VP for impulsive communications might have said.

~~~
nether
He has _people_ skills. What the hell is wrong with you?

------
alexandercrohde
Two thoughts--

1\. I'm not at all surprised, I've known this kind of thing has been going on
and I'm sure it's largely underreported. Heck, the previous place I worked
constantly asked employees to give five star reviews to the app we wrote.
Multiple places I worked have asked us to write good glassdoor reviews.

2\. It entirely undermines the integrity of rating systems, as only a couple
extreme reviews can do major damage to a rating. This is the marketplace's
problem as much as it is the community's, and some marketplaces (e.g. Amazon)
have taken up suing fake/paid reviews.

So I'm not surprised, but I think it's abhorrent and does huge damage to the
marketplace as a whole (I'll watch fewer movies if I can't trust ratings).

~~~
ryandrake
> It entirely undermines the integrity of rating systems

Huh? I didn't know online rating systems had any integrity to begin with. Who
actually believes these things anymore? Between the "paid reviewer" cottage
industry, competitors (and the reviewed company) trying to stuff the ballot
box, and filtering shenanigans from the ratings sites themselves, there
doesn't seem to be any reason to believe that an online ratings have anything
to do with actual customer feedback.

For every company (and their competitors) whose products get rated online, you
should assume their marketing department is all over all of the high-profile
ratings sites (Yelp, Amazon, etc.)

~~~
CaptSpify
I'd say both of you are correct. Sure, it undermines the integrity of the
system, but you should take all reviews with a grain of salt. There are
countless Amazon reviews saying "I ordered this, and haven't it yet, but I'm
excited, 5 stars!"

~~~
Wingman4l7
I feel like some kinds of misleading reviews could be limited by automated
systems. Package tracking indicates that the product is still in transit and
you haven't actually received it yet? You can't post a review.

Also, it's frustrating to see reviews where, say, the customer complains about
the late delivery or the packaging of an item provided by a third party seller
-- completely irrelevant to the quality of the item itself.

------
smsm42
The most astonishing aspect of it is even not that salespeople thought
trashing critics is a good sales tactics, but that they did it under their
real names apparently not expecting anyone to discover they have a conflict of
interest. I mean, shouldn't people already start thinking about "your name and
employment on Linkedin + your name under review = major embarrassment waiting
to happen"? And looks like the management encourages them.

~~~
fredkbloggs
Why would they be concerned? Their customers are cops. Cops have decided they
want Tasers, and cops do whatever they want whether you like it or not. The
response to the flap is just good business; posting the reviews in the first
place was simply a waste of time because no amount of public outrage is going
to change what cops do. That's been about as thoroughly demonstrated over the
past 24 months as any theory of basic science has in the last 500 years.

------
Yver
Over the years, I saw the language in the Taser article on Wikipedia go from
"less-lethal" to "less-than-lethal" (shortly) to "non-lethal" (current) when
describing the weapon. In retrospect I wonder if the Taser company was
involved in that change too.

------
profquail
I was curious to read the reviews that'd been left but didn't have links, so:

[http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Them-Safely-Rick-
Smith/dp/B017...](http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Them-Safely-Rick-
Smith/dp/B017V4J0M6)

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/killing-them-
safely/id1053...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/killing-them-
safely/id1053690244)

------
greenyoda
Given how easy it is to post fake reviews on Amazon, I don't put much faith in
reviews unless they have the "Verified Purchase" tag. The big flaw in the
system is that unverified reviews affect the overall rating as much as
verified reviews. It would be nice if Amazon had an option to display an
overall rating based only on reviews from verified purchasers.

~~~
nathancahill
Oh, don't get me started on Amazon reviews. Even the "Verified Purchase" tag
is gamed by sellers. There's an entire cottage industry of providing products
in exchange for good reviews. For example, look at the reviews on the "#1 Best
Seller in Pepper Shakers"[0]. Most of the reviews (even the ones with the
"Verified Purchase" tag will say "Product provided for review courtesy of
sponsor" towards the end).

I'm researching and scarping reviews to write a thorough article on gaming the
#1 spot in Amazon's many categories, and it's looking like it's much more
valuable than the famous "Buy Installs" industry for #1 spots in the App
Store. I don't believe there is much incentive on Amazon's part to crack down
on fake reviews, since they are selling products either way.

[0] [http://www.amazon.com/Salt-Pepper-Mill-Set-
Adjustable/dp/B00...](http://www.amazon.com/Salt-Pepper-Mill-Set-
Adjustable/dp/B00TQ8520K/)

~~~
username223
It's kind of mind-blowing that "gaming the reviews of a dispenser for a spice
worth less than $10/lb on a shopping site" is a paying thing.

------
Semiapies
But how many reviews are from Taser, and how much are they affecting ratings?
There are always bullshit reviews (and whole blogs making fun of them). Is
this just a few execs being petulant little shits, or is this part of a
significant, organized effort by Taser?

