
Top Reviewers On Amazon Get Tons Of Free Stuff - gruseom
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/29/241372607/top-reviewers-on-amazon-get-tons-of-free-stuff
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crisnoble
This comes from Planet Money, who has an entire Podcast dedicated to the
subject. Quite an interesting listen (as all of their podcasts are):
[http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/25/240801871/episode-...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/25/240801871/episode-492-m-erbs-
amazon-empire)

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gruseom
It's interesting that, according to the Amazon spokeswoman, items with
negative reviews sell better than items with no reviews.

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UntitledNo4
Also, a negative review might end up being positive for someone else. I have
recently been looking at reviews of Sony noise-cancelling earphones, and made
sure to read the negative review(s) as well. One reviewer gave it one or two
stars because they thought the noise-cancellation functionality was not worth
it. Somewhere, though, in his negative review he mentioned that the sound
quality is excellent. Having older version noise-cancelling earphones and
being happy with them, I assumed he got a faulty pair and decided to buy them
anyway. (I actually ended up buying Onkyo earphones, but that because I ended
up by their booth at the last IFA, tested the headphones and fell in love)

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jaynos
These are the Amazon reviews I hate. 2 stars because they bought more product
than they needed? Put that in the same category of the 1 star reviews from
people who bought the wrong product and had no problem returning it to Amazon.

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citricsquid
The article comments are worth a read, there are experiences from multiple
vine reviewers, including multiple comments disagreeing with the NYU
professor.

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UntitledNo4
As a hibernating vine reviewer, I guess I also disagree.

I was offered mostly books to review. You sometimes get an early print full of
spelling errors, which was quite a pain to read, especially if the book was
not to your liking (most weren't to my liking). So, although I didn't pay for
the book, I have spent a few hours fighting the urge to use it as compost. No
way I will think more favourably about the book. However, I did spend some
time thinking about the books I read and did try to write useful and balanced
reviews because I felt as if I was paid to do so, and that it wouldn't be fair
not to. This is despite not having to review every item you receive.

Only once I managed to get some earphones for reviewing . they were terrible
compared to what I would normally buy, and so would have never bought them
otherwise. And that was that I wrote in my review. Would I be more negative if
I had to buy the earphones? I don't think so. I'd return them to Amazon and
probably not write a review at all.

I stopped reviewing for Vine after a short while. Since I couldn't give or
throw the stuff they sent me, I imagined me drowning in a pile of terrible,
misspelt books after going deaf by rubbish earphones. I actually don't know
how I got to be a Vine reviewer in the first place. I didn't have that many
reviews (less than 10 when I started, if I remember correctly). Anyway, to
begin with it felt like a honour (and a chance to bag free goodies) and at the
end it was a chore (and discussions with myself whether it's moral to throw
the stuff away) and I stopped.

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busterarm
> I stopped reviewing for Vine after a short while. Since I couldn't give or
> throw the stuff they sent me, I imagined me drowning in a pile of terrible,
> misspelt books after going deaf by rubbish earphones. I actually don't know
> how I got to be a Vine reviewer in the first place. I didn't have that many
> reviews (less than 10 when I started, if I remember correctly). Anyway, to
> begin with it felt like a honour (and a chance to bag free goodies) and at
> the end it was a chore (and discussions with myself whether it's moral to
> throw the stuff away) and I stopped.

This is my biggest problem with the program - the not being able to
sell/chuck/return items they've sent. I don't have permanent room for a spin
bike or a multifunction laser printer. There should be some way to keep the
stuff you like and return the stuff you don't. Honestly I would not be
surprised if some Vine reviewers ended up selling stuff.

Has Amazon actually asked people for anything back?

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discardorama
I don't mind these "paid" reviewers; but Amazon should clearly indicate
whether the reviewer is (a) a buyer who bought the product, or (b) a reviewer
who was given the product to review, or (c) some random dude. I think they do
tag reviews as "verified buyer" or something like that; it's the other two
that need to be tagged.

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kkwok
They do say if someone got it through vine.

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CrankyPants
This is correct. They also show when someone is a Vine reviewer (which is an
invitation-only program), even if the product being reviewed was purchased,
and not provided via Vine.

The conflict of interest argument will always carry some weight re: the Vine
program, but Amazon seems to be handling it quite well. Anyone who doesn't
like the program is given enough information to just ignore those reviewers.

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sehrope
I'm pretty sure Amazon would have some kind of legal agreement with the
reviewers to ensure that it doesn't happen, but reading this reminded me of
the Yelp reviewer lawsuit[1].

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6634955](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6634955)

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300bps
As I listened to this story on the radio on my drive home last night I
couldn't help thinking that Amazon's review volume is going to increase
10,000%. It's a common tactic; hype up a complete outlier and give people
false hope they can follow the same path.

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jobigoud
Are you implying they got free stuff for reviewing the review system of Amazon
so more people start reviewing ? :-)

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kumarm
If you write good and positive reviews, you can expect free stuff and its been
going on for a long time.

I remember reviewing Java & XML book in 2000. Author of the book mailed me a
free copy of the book when next version of the book is released and asked if I
can review the new version.

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jrs99
This might explain why some of the reviews make absolutely no sense at all.

