
Amazon full of sponsored reviews - modzu
https://www.amazon.com/gp/vine/help?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
======
dang
Please do not use the titles of HN submissions to editorialize. If you want to
comment, the way to do so is by commenting in the thread, on the same level as
others.

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arien
Vine reviews are marked in green, so you know in advance where you're getting
into if you read them. Although most of the ones I've found are actually quite
fair and honest and rather in line with the non-Vine ones.

This has been going for years, btw. Why is it now an issue/being brought
forward?

------
strickjb9

         A reviewer's ranking is determined by the number of helpful votes from other customers.
    

Then how do you prevent sellers from spamming downvotes against negative
reviews?

At least for me, Amazon has been slipping. Product prices have gone up to
close-to-retail prices. Quick shipping is great but the cost is baked in to
the price more so than the annual Prime membership fee which has been used to
extend other prime services that I don't care so much about. And now, I can't
trust reviews.

~~~
vosper
It doesn't bother me at all that Amazon prices are near to retail - for me the
convenience and ease of one online store for everything still beats physical
shopping, for most things.

The reviews are now a real problem, though. I think it goes way beyond the
Vine Voices program, too - I've seen products with page after page of 5 star
reviews, each with a note at the bottom along the lines of "I received this
product for free in exchange for my honest opinion". I don't recall these
being identified as Vine Voices, they were just "normal" users.

Whether sellers are directly contacting normal users outside of the Vine
Voices program, or whether the reviews are just straight up spam or paid
shills I don't know, though I'd bet it's a bit of both.

------
simonbarker87
All Vine reviews are marked with a Vine Voice tag to indicate they came from
that program. It's only open to people with Amazon Vendor status rather than
Seller and the reviewer is under no obligation to to leave a positive review.

For people who are looking for their first few reviews it can be a really
valuable service.

------
daveguy
I'm so confused. Yes, amazon is full of sponsored reviews. But how is this
link to a Vine Voice program that they are starting related to the fact that
there's a bunch of sponsored reviews?

Is it based on this blurb?

\--

Do Vine Voices receive products before they are released?

Yes. Some participating vendors will enroll pre-release products for Voices to
review prior to launch.

~~~
rdudek
I thought they had that program for a while now. At least, I remember reading
about it some odd years ago and heard it was invite-only type of deal.

------
modzu
i was just looking for a power bar and noticed all these 5-star reviews were
done by users who received it for free:

[http://www.amazon.com/APC-C25B-Outlet-Saving-
Filter/product-...](http://www.amazon.com/APC-C25B-Outlet-Saving-
Filter/product-
reviews/B00NTJ2QRY/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_see_all_top/187-2974287-1159157?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending)

sketchy. its like back when google's ads looked just like search results

~~~
ruffrey
It's an odd thing. Over the past year my wife has gotten a ton of stuff for
free or near free. She just posts a review, indicating she was paid to do it
(important). One example site is amzreviewtrader.com. It's so awesome to get
so much stuff for free/cheap.

However I'm not sure it is good for consumers. She is honest in her reviews.
But you are evaluated for each item you request to review, and it would be
easy for an unscrupulous reviewer to only post positive reviews to appear as a
better candidate.

At this point, it is so prevalent, maybe it's time for Amazon to offer
something similar with tighter restrictions.

~~~
wangarific
There are a lot of these sites that give you free or cheaply priced products
in return for a review, the reviews help that product listing appear higher in
the Amazon search listings. There's often no requirement to disclose you got
the product for cheap or free. I suspect this is Amazon's way of policing it.

------
throwawaylalala
Amazon seller here- Yes, it's true. Like many people said here the reviewers
must state that they're being given the product at a discount for their
review....but even according to Amazon TOS, you're not requiring that they
even leave you a review. Just asking nicely.

Amazon is a search engine for optimizing sales. Amazon's search engine heavily
ranks reviews in determining order (because listings with reviews convert at a
higher rate).

It's _hard_ to get a customer to write a review. As an example, we have a
product that we've sold literally thousands of and we have a big fat SINGLE
review. It's not a highly competitive niche, so we do well without more
reviews. Other products we need at least 5-10 reviews to get on the first few
pages. Not the first spot, the first few pages (and the first three or four
listings get the lion's share of the sales).

~~~
ascendantlogic
The problem is that most people only feel like sharing their thoughts and
feelings when something has pissed them off. Otherwise they're just carrying
on with their lives.

~~~
throwawaylalala
Completely understand (I do the same). Hence, the need for paid reviews.
Especially the less "life changing"/important it is to you.

~~~
modzu
i agree the reviews left to just the angry people would be unbalanced, but an
actual solution needs to be unbiased.

perhaps rather than just "purchasing good reviews" a vendor could encourage
[more] reviews by including a voucher or something on amazon that could only
be redeemed after leaving a review. then you're soliciting feedback from
hopefully more users, good or bad.

obv amazon and the vendors want less negative reviews in general because $$,
so perhaps a genuine solution isnt really in anybodys interest except the end
user/consumer (who might get annoyed to a point they go somewhere else, as i
have done since i now consider amazon's reviews to be worthless)

~~~
throwawaylalala
To be clear, you're not purchasing "good" reviews,or even reviews at all, if
you're following the TOS.

Amazon frowns on including anything sales related in their messaging system,
so you have to drive the person who is _likely_ to review to your product from
outside Amazon....therefore that solution, while a great idea, isn't allowed
by Amazon...

------
DanBC
It'd be interesting to see if the UK regulator wants to step in and look at
this.

In the UK promotional content must be clearly identified _before_ the user
clicks it or views it. For a promotional review that means the first sentence
should be something like "I got a free sample in return for this review".

They have regulated Youtube promotional videos.

[https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-
Centre/2014/Maki...](https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-
Centre/2014/Making-ads-Clear-The-challenge-for-advertisers-and-vloggers.aspx)

[http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-
must-t...](http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/26/vloggers-must-tell-
fans-paid-adverts-asa-rules)

~~~
rdudek
But it's not a promotional content because your reviews can be negative. It's
really based on the quality of review and how many people find it helpful.

~~~
adamc
Do they offer the same review opportunities to those who provide highly ranked
negative reviews?

~~~
rdudek
Yes, it's based on the quality of review and how helpful people found it.
Under each review, there is a voting type thing where you can click if review
was helpful or not.

------
grogenaut
Would you be mad if Benson Leung ([http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/04/google-
pixel-engineer-vs-...](http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/04/google-pixel-
engineer-vs-shoddy-usb-type-c-cables/)) was being sent cables to review? Just
based on his public review and shopping history he'd be an obvious candidate
for this program ([http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-
alias%3D...](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-
alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Benson+Leung&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ABenson+Leung)).

Also note that these reviewers only get free product, they don't get paid.
Also in some areas they have to pay the sales tax on the items they are
getting. So in fact they're Paying to review things.

------
panglott
One problem with Amazon is the large number of items for which there is no
review at all. There are a variety of reasons why there might not be a review
(it might simply be obscure). But when the site has so many reviews of other
products, it's hard to buy a product when there is no review of it at all.

------
radiorental
A little annecdote. I was backed a kickstarter project that shipped very late
and missing features. I moved on but noted this interesting 'war' between the
backers and vendor when the product started shipping on Amazon.

People were so bitter they flooded the product page with 1 star reviews. The
company responded with fake 5 star reviews. Then the backers coordinated on
the Kickstarter comments page to vote down the fake reviews.

Top 'real' review; 1 star

Bad end to end support from Lima. By Amazon Customer on August 10, 2015

Lima technologies will not respond to you about tech support questions or
questions regarding their licensing once you have the product in hand. They
will refuse to respond on any media you attempt to contact them on. It's been
very poorly handled.

Buried 'fake' review; 5 stars

Excellent Private/Personal Cloud Device ByHenry Westbrookon November 19, 2015
Color: Blue Excellent Cloud Device. It works as specified. Lima is very easy
to setup and administer. Well worth your purchase dollars!! It will be
interesting to watch the company grows this product in the future

[http://www.amazon.com/Lima-Private-Device-Smartphone-
Tablet/...](http://www.amazon.com/Lima-Private-Device-Smartphone-
Tablet/dp/B00WMKBNGQ)

