Note that the most helpful review is someone who did not buy one. Same with the second. And the third.
> Sample provided for review.
> Got this at no cost for unbiased review.
> *I received a sample product from Ivation.
Reviews are much more scattered if you filter by "Verified purchase only". It's interesting that this drops the number of reviews from 165 to 104 for a product which is designed for and presumably sold only on Amazon.
I'm not necessarily suggesting these reviews are shady, but given the other aspects of Amazon that this company tracks, it would seem reasonable to suggest they've figured out a way to track influential reviewers likely to give them a positive review.
From what I can remember, Amazon has always been full of mostly useless reviews. Disclosing that products were provided for free does little to change that. About the only thing that does is let the parties involved "white wash" their hands of ethical issues.
Occasionally, there will be a shining star. Recently I ordered an AIO printer and a reviewer had a fairly comprehensive reviews on multiple models, almost at a short article length.
Music seems to be one category where I sometimes find value in the reviews. It seems like people are more forthcoming about their music tastes, even though subjective, than what they think about utilitarian products.
Since you asked, I'd say you're probably being downvoted because the fact that the creator is Jewish is irrelevant to the comment you replied to. OP was having a balanced discussion about the ethics of providing review products whereas your comment declares the creator a scammer without any explanation or supporting evidence.
IMO I don't think religion, even if its "super-duper" is really on topic in a discussion about the quality and ethics of Amazon reviews. I hope this doesn't come off as critical, I'm just trying to explain where your donvoters may be coming from.
Thank you. Maybe the problem is I replied in this specific thread after reading the other threads were the religion is discussed. And also where the scamminess of Amazon reviews is discussed.
Does it bother anyone else that the three customer reviews on the product page all give five stars, and all three reviewers received the product for free in exchange for an 'unbiased' review? (And that fact is only visible if you click each 'see more' link at the end of the truncated review). I just have a hard time believing this practice doesn't create bias, even if unintentional.
I'm finding I have to work harder to parse meaning out of Amazon reviews than I did a few years ago. I don't see how this benefits Amazon, but I also don't see them doing much to fix it.
Some companies will provide the product "for free" but then -- and here's the kicker -- require the product to be returned or they'll charge you for it. I can realistically see an unbiased review coming from that process, but not one where the reviewer gets to keep the product for free.
It is typical in the "Private Label Business" to generate the first reviews using this technique. And Amazon only allows this in their TOS if the product was provided for free.
I would be interested to build a tool which tries to analyze the reviews e.g. using Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Machine Learning techniques to get the "real" picture for a given product. NLP could help to identify the most criticized aspects for a given product so a potential buyer does not have to go through any single review.
I am not an expert in NLP/ML though. Any ideas how this could be done?
Yeah, all the ones that start with "I received the complimentary product" in some form.
That's a bogus review, it's paid. You might argue free product is not payment but the IRS would then like to have a word with you (ask the people who got "free" cars from Oprah).
This is fairly anecdotal, but I've read some people's experiences with free products for reviews. They received products while they were giving good reviews. The products stopped once a bad review was posted.
Amazon also gives free products for review (Amazon Vine) but these are made very clear with a banner above the review, and will remain part of the program so long as they continue to receive a high number of 'helpful' votes on their reviews.
"Do you have any data to back up the claim that most of the recent reviews are bogus?"
Yes, after buying numerous products with great ratings and discovering that the people who rated the product negatively were often right about their complains.
From what I have seen people don't put to much effort to praise products, however they take the time to complain when they feel unsatisfied or burnt by a product.
I'm not trying to convince you or anyone but this methods has worked rather well for me.
> Sample provided for review.
> Got this at no cost for unbiased review.
> *I received a sample product from Ivation.
Reviews are much more scattered if you filter by "Verified purchase only". It's interesting that this drops the number of reviews from 165 to 104 for a product which is designed for and presumably sold only on Amazon.
I'm not necessarily suggesting these reviews are shady, but given the other aspects of Amazon that this company tracks, it would seem reasonable to suggest they've figured out a way to track influential reviewers likely to give them a positive review.