It’s probably also relevant that it’s highly unlikely that if you think your copy of of a given book is ‘defective’, that sending you a second printing will be any better. (And if it is, you’re probably an editor.)
I watch a lot of video reviews for upcoming (dubiously legal) third-party transformers toys, and it’s extremely common for the reviewer to have been sent a free copy of the figure for review. It’s often a pre-production copy that has the potential to be revised further before the official release. Like sending out free copies of books to reviewers, this isn’t a bribe, because the reviewer doesn’t really consider the product to be a payment for his service. It’s a way for the producer to get information out to the public when their product otherwise wouldn’t be reviewed as quickly. (And the reviews aren’t always complimentary - sending the product doesn’t buy a good review.)
And of course, if you are offered a second copy of something to ‘review’ after you’ve already returned a defective product, this would really just be the company hoping to satisfy you from a customer service perspective. In that case I would consider it appropriate to amend your review to say that the seller made things right, without completely removing the fact that shopping there is at best a crapshoot.
I started to wonder about the economics of the deal they were offering me (I just got another email upping it to $50). There are a total of 280 reviews on this product, and about 45 (16%) were 1 star (like mine). Let’s say they did this for all 1-star reviews, which would cost $2250. That represents about 150 units in sales (if we disregard shipping costs). That’s sales, not profit. I don’t know what the break-even point is for them but I am guessing these are so cheap to manufacture that adding 150 units by buying off bad reviews is well worth it.
Interestingly, the most recent 1-start review was as recent as three days ago; stopped working within a week. A review from May 2020 said it overheated and wouldn’t charge at all. It closed with, “After that I recieved[sic] tons of emails begging me to delete my review. Do not buy!!!”
So I see why they did not want to send me a replacement.
Here is the product but I am posting it as a spoiler because I am not recommending this product, and am providing the link for amusement purposes only.
When I am looking to buy a product, I look at the negative reviews first. A product should do whatever it’s supposed to do; therefore, a five-star review stating it does what it said it would isn’t earth-shattering & I always take them with a grain of salt; it that from a ‘real’ customer or an insider or paid reviewer? The negative reviews are the ones that tell me to stay away from that product. Had you taken the bribe to remove your negative review I might have brought that product because I don’t see any problems with it. Especially in these times with such high unemployment I’m not going to fault someone one for doing something to get some extra money but absolutely you are doing a disservice to other potential customers if you eliminate your review because the rest of us won’t see how bad it really is.
As someone who’s read a ton of online reviews (and posted quite a few myself), I think consumers are kidding themselves if they believe all such reviews are worthless, or that 5 and 1-star reviews can be disregarded, or that only negative reviews are worth reading etc. etc.
There are always going to be efforts to game any system*, but if you check out products with a lot of reviews and read them with care (for instance, do they reference specific problems or good features?), you have a better chance of making an educated choice. And Amazon has a liberal return policy anyway.
*one example: the Amazon reviewer of a controversial book who is gushingly positive but awards only three stars, which Amazon classifies as a negative review. The trick here is that if enough fans of the book “like” this review, it will be prominently featured as the most popular “negative” review.