Amazon's Incentivised Reviews - biased ratings on products

brevity

Said I'd post it here as lots use Amazon to gauge a products reliability.

So, and this may be a surprise to no one, many of the reviews that are posted by people who got the product for free, are biased.

This guy has developed a site/browser plugin to give the real star rating of something.

https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/53i2wo/i_analyzed_18000000_amazon_reviews_and_prove_the/

Interesting video for sure

robnet77

Even the not biased reviews end up being somewhat biased, because the user may not have researched the market before getting a product, therefore the item they received may be much more expensive than a similar one with similar performances.

For example, you can see many coffee beans are rated at least 4.5 stars, and they have very high prices but most reviewers don't mention the high price as a negative point.

I have read many such reviews and found that only 10-20% (probably) seem genuine and not biased, and 90-95% of them will give 4 or 5 stars.

crabbypaddy

Interesting you'll still have to read the filtered reviews though I guess as tons of amazon reviews are the 'just got it, haven't opened it yet, looks good' type, and lots of 4 star reviews will say things like 'its bad quality but ok for the price' the bad reviews are often the most useful when researching as they will often point out design flaws, reliability issues, missing features and suggest an alternative or higher model that is better value.

Doge

I became one of the cretins you mention last week when I got a free desk lamp for reviewing another product i bought from the same seller.

The desk lamp is feckin awesome though so I couldnt find much negatives to say about it! :pac:

beauf

Amazon reviews are full of drivel. You have to filter out the crud to find useful ones.

They should have a system of flagging useless reviews, so you can filter them out if you want to.

useless review. Bought a pen. Its not spoon. Etc.

johnny_adidas

Doge wrote: »

I became one of the cretins you mention last week when I got a free desk lamp for reviewing another product i bought from the same seller.

The desk lamp is feckin awesome though so I couldnt find much negatives to say about it! :pac:

Did they randomly contact you with it, or did you opt into something or put it in your basket? Just wondering how it works

The Wolverine

Yeah I noticed recently more and more reviews have a "As a disclaimer, I got this product for a significant discount in exchange for my honest, unbiased review"

Honest and unbiased my hole :pac:

Amazon should remove any of these reviews and give the sellers a warning or they are risking damaging their rep tbh

893bet

I only read negative reviews. You can decide if complaints are anyway legitimate. Some are but often its clear that the customer was the problem and they didn't understand the function or had too high expectations (for lower price products).

dodzy

893bet wrote: »

I only read negative reviews. You can decide if complaints are anyway legitimate. Some are but often its clear that the customer was the problem and they didn't understand the function or had too high expectations (for lower price products).

The only reviews that ever mattered in amazons history. Take a few mins and wet yourselves....

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-T-Shirt/dp/B002HJ377A#customerReviews

Doge

johnny_adidas wrote: »

Did they randomly contact you with it, or did you opt into something or put it in your basket? Just wondering how it works

The product I bought was new and only had 2 reviews a few words long.

They emailed me asking if I would leave a review and it said photographers are needed also, so I did an in depth review with lots of photos, emailed them to let them know and they asked would I like to review the desk lamp.

Greenmachine

Guessing that those, are given free item to review are more easily pleased, tend to right more positive reviews. Sometimes a seller doesn't want a wart and all review especially if it is going to lead the charge.
kind of the same with student surveys that provide competition for honest student feedback.

yoshimitsu

Not all reviews of "free/discounted" products are necessarily biased. I found some of them to be quite accurate and helpful to make a decision between different alternative products.
Same thing with unbiased reviews, they can be utterly useless... "It took 2 weeks to receive the product... so 1 star!".
I generally look at the average score and the read a couple of positive reviews and a couple of negative ones.
I myself try to be active in writing reviews for recent products or products that have few reviews. People can ask questions and comment your review which is also helpful.
I would completely bash the amazon review system, it's often better than the alternative (paid review on tech blogs anybody??).
But amazon could do a better job at filtering reviews and really highlighting the useful ones about the product and its features.

TriStar6

dodzy wrote: »

The only reviews that ever mattered in amazons history. Take a few mins and wet yourselves....

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-T-Shirt/dp/B002HJ377A#customerReviews

Off topic, but you have to read https://www.amazon.co.uk/Veet-Men-Hair-Removal-Cream/product-reviews/B000KKNQBK

snubbleste

Cá bhfuil an bargain?

myshirt

What about the reviews on the Veet hair removal cream? Does anyone want to question the sincerity of those?

If so, try the product for yourself and see whether you agree or disagree with the top 3 reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B000KKNQBK

GBX

snubbleste wrote: »

Cá bhfuil an bargain?

I think people are drawn towards the bargain alert forum to post about retailers they have previously bought from with success but to raise awareness of shill type issues?
It seems there are some threads with no actual bargains but gain residency within the BA forum not to be moved for a while.

Like would this thread be more suitable in one of the below?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=583 Online buying & Auctions?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=235 > Rip off Ireland

snubbleste

GBX wrote: »

Like would this thread be more suitable in one of the below? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=583
Online buying & Auctions?

Obviously

rustledjimmies

snubbleste wrote: »

Obviously

Get over yourself. People come here for Bargains and this is bargain related for sure.

I've never been to the Online buying & Auctions section and I'm sure many others here also haven't.

Thanks, OP.

Kenny Logins

Amazon questions are hilarious.

Q: Does this have USB 3?

A: No idea, I decided to go with a different laptop from a local shop. If you look at the pics tho, it looks like it might be USB 3. ..or 2. HTH

Satriale

dodzy wrote: »

The only reviews that ever mattered in amazons history. Take a few mins and wet yourselves....

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-T-Shirt/dp/B002HJ377A#customerReviews

Great bargain, thanks, ordered one dark green and one night blue!

brevity

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37551069

Amazon is cracking down on the practice of companies offering free products to customers in exchange for a review.
In future, such reviews can only come via the online store's own program, Amazon Vine.
A recent study suggested that those who received free or discounted items were much more likely to write a favourable review.
Having product reviews that shoppers can trust has been a huge factor in Amazon's success.
The online retail giant has always prohibited compensation for reviews but had made an exception for reviewers that disclosed that fact.