This particular product I reviewed had all five star reviews, 39 now as I write this. In a hurry, and not having the time I normally do, I figured I’d order it since it wasn’t a high dollar item. Anyway, when I received it, I gave it a 3 star rating. It gets posted, then a couple of days later, it disappears. I think I followed their rules, but after studying the reviews some more before I posted mine, I did point out at the time in my review that I thought it highly suspicious that that item had all the five star reviews it was claiming, but at the time not one was a verified purchase, and initially nearly all were posted on the same day with each review being just a couple of simple sentences. Further looking into it, I found the reviewers following a similar pattern on products they reviewed. All seemed fake. Since I wrote that, verified reviewers started showing up which should also be suspect.
Well, evidently Amazon actually allows this for certain sponspors to let them pull reviews they don’t like, lets all the fake ones stand, and I thought at the time, Amazon should be aware in knowing about it, but I suppose Amazon is a part of the deception. I spent hours looking for somewhere on their cite to report this, but it proved futile. I understand one can find a customer service phone number for Amazon by searching on the internet, but not on their cite, or if it is there, they don’t make it easy for you. But I doubt a rep is going to get me anywhere either, and isn’t interested in hearing it. I may try that route when I do get some more free time. I don’t expect Amazon to catch all fake reviews, but how 'bout some of the companies that are the worst offenders?
I suppose all major on-line companies are doing this. I’m guessing if it is a sponspor they like, and it’s making them money, and I suppose if perhaps the supplier pays extra, one can limit the negative reviews by having them pulled themselves, or have it done for them.
So what can you do about fake reviews when Amazon and others allow them to stand, and take out honest reviews? Two cites I have found helpful are fakespot.com and reviewmeta.com
You simply go to Amazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor or Appleapp, copy and paste the link into their cite. Here is the item I bought from Amazon, e.g.:
Since Amazon pulled my review, I wrote two more reviews on this same particular item, this time with one star rating due to the amount of deception involved, wanted to see if first reviewed pulled was a fluke, but these last two were never posted. Simply copy that url, then go to Fakespot or Reviewmeta, and you’ll see despite the glowing reviews from Amazon, these two cites give it a F rating on Fakespot, and Fail on Reviewmeta. Start doing this with any item you want to research further before purchasing.
Lately, I personally have been spending about 5-10k+ a year on online purchases, but I’d like to find a more honest on-line place to go to if there is such a place. I’d rather my money go to more reputable places. I’d particularly like to find someone that makes it easier to report and pull deceptive reviews. Also, what other countermeasures can we use? What do you do?
