When MrConsumer is seriously contemplating buying a particular product, he scrutinizes online reviews by others who have purchased the item to see what their real-world experience with it has been. Many of you probably do the same thing.
The trouble is that some unscrupulous sellers try to manipulate online reviews to make the product seem better than it really is. They might pay people to post fake reviews, they might write and post reviews themselves, or they might selectively promote good reviews or try to bury or delete bad reviews.
As the leading online seller, Amazon certainly can be a target for fake reviews. A friend who was looking for remedies to help him sleep better, scoured Amazon looking for possible solutions. About six months ago, he came upon this product called “Sleep Patch” which was highly rated there.
He was suspicious because the product at the time had 16 reviews on Amazon and they all just happened to be five-star. What are the odds of everyone loving this product? First red flag. And all the reviews were posted on the same day – December 18, 2024 – a mere four weeks after the product was first offered there. Second red flag.
We decided to take a little closer look at this product listing and came up with some interesting additional findings. Watch out for these additional red flags.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Needless to say, there is something very fishy going on here. Amazon says, however, that they have various systems in place to help ensure that posted reviews are legitimate including using artificial intelligence. Perhaps they need to use real intelligence.
We all need to spend a little more time scrutinizing online reviews and not simply accept the posted opinions and ratings at face value.
NOTE: Due to a technical glitch, some of you were unable to post a comment last week. That function has been restored, so feel free to try again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
It’s not just Amazon. I think it’s partly human nature not to rate things too harshly. Look at all the 4+ star mediocre movies/TV show ratings on the streaming services.
Given enough reviews most things seem to average out at around 4 stars. Many reviewers aren’t even rating the actual product. “It arrived the next day, 5 stars!” And even more rate things within a day of receipt so they haven’t really had time to see if it will last.
Personally if something is less than 4 stars I assume it’s bad, 4 stars average.
LOL, right below this Mouse Print article was an ad for a hose nozzle that supposedly increased the output pressure by 15 times without requiring additional energy.
Beware of reviews by “verified purchasers” too. I know Facebook groups where you purchase their product, write a 5 star review, then they reimburse you via PayPal.
And on top of that, people often leave negative reviews for products that are fine, but the user just never made the read the manual and couldn’t figure out how to use. As we’ve seen over and over again, AI is just lazy software. It is not reliable for anything, and responsible companies shouldn’t be trusting it, and neither should we. Amazon uses it because it’s cheaper than hiring humans. If a product has only a handful of reviews, I’d steer clear
The population of reviewers at Amazon is reflective of society, too. I’ve seen glowing reviews accompanied by 1-star ratings and I have seen the reverse. I’ve also seen reviews by people who OBVIOUSLY had no idea what they actually bought and others who never read the simple instructions. The reviewer population does include its fair share of idiots.
I do not use Amazon’s reviews as sole-source. Searching outside Amazon for the item usually gives other blogs, “official” reviews, and the like.
Another trick I’ve seen is sellers swapping out products on a listing without resetting the reviews. For example, a seller might have a tube of toothpaste with a 4.7-star rating and dozens of reviews. Later, they change the listing to a completely different item—say, a frying pan—but keep the same rating and reviews. If you don’t actually read the reviews, you might not realize they’re for a different product altogether.
I always check out the negative reviews, as well.
Amazon previously listed negative reviews on the second page (“more reviews”) but lately, I noticed there is no specific spot for negative ones. You have to page down the stars to find the less enthusiastic comments.
I check for the percentage of 1 or 2 star reviews on Amazon and ignore the 5 star reviews as containing fake reviews.
I look for products that people don’t hate rather than glowingly positive.
I’ve had sellers offer to “compensate” me for a 5-star review. It’s been a long time since it happened. I was so angry that I called Amazon and gave them the details and they didn’t even care. I couldn’t believe it and have since been wary of amazon reviews.
I don’t trust reviews on Amazon.
I have tried to leave critical reviews of several products on Amazon, they have been rejected. Amazon says it doesn’t meet their policy.
One review (3 star) on a monitor said ‘the picture is great but the stand in too light and it will tip over.’ Apparently that was too extreme for Amazon.
How can anyone leave a truthful negative review?