One of the nicer features Amazon has implemented in recent years is the Question/Answer section. Instead of having to browse reviews for small nuggets of info from smart reviewers - like the actual length of a cord, weight of an item or attachment bolt size, among other things - you can just ask and get answers.
I’ve recently been buying workshop-repair-upgrade kind of things, and sometimes the exact width or weight or something is important. So far, I haven’t had to ask any questions because someone before me has asked and gotten exactly the answer I need.
And then… there are the “answers,” legions of them, that boil down to “I don’t know.” Sometimes these are even from owner/user/buyers who legitimately don’t know, say, the total current draw or whether a tool will do a certain odd job or whatever.
But many, too many, are from passing morons who see the question, have NO idea what the answer might be, and have to advertise both their ignorance and their uselessness:
“I don’t know. I bought another model.”
“Can’t tell you, pal. Mine only has two mounting holes.”
“I should be able to tell you, but I haven’t ordered mine yet.”
and these are the kinda-sorta-semi intelligent answers of the type. What on earth are these dimwits thinking, that they waste time answering in the useless absence of a negative?
They think that every question on the internet is directed at them specifically.
It’s a weird psychological phenomenon. You even see it on this board sometimes. There’s probably some academic study to be written about it, if someone can be arsed to do it.
I think it may be provoked by a quirk of the Amazon system; I’ve had it email me asking me to answer questions on something I bought, but I have also had similar emails for items where my order was cancelled due to stock issues and (if memory serves) items I left in my basket for a long time, but never actually purchased.
I’ve received email from Amazon to answer a question for a product I looked at but never purchased. Someone else might think an answer is required. I ignore the questions myself.
I get questions about products, but only for items I’ve actually bought. Sometimes I answer that I don’t know, but that answer doesn’t take me to their website.
Well meaning people could be answering what they think is a simple question from Amazon, and the next thing they know the answer is plastered on the product page like god’s own truth. And they’ll never know how stupid Amazon makes them look.
I’ve had a similar thing at work - a buyer asks me a technical question, and I give a small aside about the part in question, or its history, or a bit of detail only important internally*, and the next thing I know the entire email is going out to the customer.
*not any more I don’t!
Yes, that’s interesting - I wasn’t aware Amazon solicited for answers. All of that explains a lot of why there are these useless-to-counterproductive postings. Probably not all of them, but certainly the prevalence.
As a heavy Amazon buyer of stuff in many, many categories, I don’t think I’ve ever been sent a question. I wonder if it was only done to jump-start the Q&A feature.
I think it’s Amazon’s standard practice to send out emails asking people to answer questions. I asked a question the other day and was able to quickly make a purchase because I received four or five answers that same day. That wouldn’t have happened if I would have had to wait for someone to stumble across the question on their own.
I’d assume - ass/u/me - that they only send such emails to actual buyers of the product. That doesn’t explain the “sorry, mine is a different brand” answers. Maybe they send it to people who just browsed the item… which would be stupid.
I think maybe it does that now. From years-ago experience though, I think perhaps there was some bug in their system and it was mixed up with the ‘people who looked at this also looked at that’ index and the thing was soliciting answers from non buyers.
I havent had a request to answer questions for ages though, so not sure if it’s still going on (the information in the OP makes me suspect maybe it is)
Another funny thing they do is ask for reviews of seemingly inconsequential purchased items. No matter how basic. I get asked to review, not just cameras, printers, or even whole bean coffee, which I don’t mind., but I get asked to review #2 pencils, AA batteries, and shoe laces. My pencil review was 800+ words. I was just being silly.
About three weeks ago, I got asked a question about a mounting bracket for a motion controlled outdoor lamp I purchased 10 years ago. I got it for one of the 50 or so jobs I did that year as a handyman. I’m pretty sure I just mounted it with what in the package, so I ignored it. Was sent another notice of that same Q just a few days ago.
.
These are the same people that have to fill out every blank on a form, whether it applies to them or not. For “Organization” they will put none, self, --, and a dozen other things.
It’s a flaw of human nature, I call them Completionist OCD.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21,978 of 22,330 people found the following review helpful
Make this your only stock and store
By Edgar on July 8, 2008
Once upon a mid-day sunny, while I savored Nuts 'N Honey,
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