Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is getting a bad rep today as NPR put out an article yesterday stating that there are paid Amazon reviews out there. Some companies with merchandise on Amazon are paying for false positive reviews on products. Yes, that’s right, not all reviews on Amazon products are real.
NPR Investigates
NPR radio spoke to a Travis, a teen living in a small town in the northeast of the United States, who ordered a trigger lock on Amazon. Travis bought the lock based off its cheap price point and glowing reviews on the site, but when it arrived, it was nothing like what the reviews stated.
“The reviews were great, five-star reviews,” says Travis. “[They] said it worked great, locked perfectly, the combination system worked great.”
When it arrived at his house, he realized that the combination portion of the lock didn’t even matter because it just opened. Travis enjoys hunting and shooting, and he purchased the trigger lock to secure his rifles from firing, as he has younger siblings in the home.
Luckily, the teen realized this immediately and went to the store to purchase a proper trigger lock. Travis told NPR that he feels those who wrote the reviews on the products have probably never even seen the lock or if they did, didn’t even open the packaging.
Paid Amazon Reviews: Fake, Fake, Fake
We’ve all fell victim to those fake Chinese sites that give glowing reviews on terrible products. Now, it seems, Amazon is no safe haven from faulty product reviews. According to outside auditors like ReviewMeta and Fakespot, more than half the reviews for certain extremely popular products on Amazon are questionable.
We’ve all seen it; most of the espresso machines on the first page of Amazon have around 50 reviews, but Amazon’s choice espresso machine one has over 1,000.
Amazon has commented on these claims and states that less than 1 percent of reviews on the site are unauthentic. Sharon Chiarella, VP of community shopping at Amazon told NPR:
“We have built a lot of technology to assess whether or not we think a review is authentic. The star rating, a lot of people think that’s an average … it’s actually much more intelligent. It’s a weighted calculation that gives more weight to reviews we trust more and less to reviews we trust less.”
The company seems fully aware of the suspicious activity and is actively monitoring it on the platform. In the past, Amazon has sued more than 1,000 sellers for buying reviews.
Solution? Customers can use outside review sites like CNET and Wirecutter to find transparent information on a product before deciding to purchase it via Amazon.
What do you think about paid Amazon reviews? Is it a problem?
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