- Joined
- Aug 21, 2019
I know this has been alluded to in numerous posts in other threads and Youtube videos, but I thought it might be nice to have a thread specifically dedicated to Amazon's bullshit.
I live pretty far off the beaten path. My town is big enough to have things like a Wal-Mart and a few grocery and hardware stores, but not a Costco, Staples or a dedicated electronics store. Due to this, my family and friends have become pretty reliant on Amazon for getting anything other than the absolute most basic stuff you can find in our town. Lately, the Amazon shopping experience has been getting steadily worse.
First off, most of the small electronic items such as SD cards, cables and chargers are just being drop shipped from Ali Express. Once upon a time when you'd look for SD cards on Amazon, brand name items such as Lexar and Samsung would be pushed to the top. Now when you search for "Micro SD Card", the first dozen or so results are no name shit being drop shipped from Ali with a significant markup. You may get them a week or so faster buying them on Amazon, but items are often less than half the price on Ali Express and are of dubious quality anyway.
It's long been know that they fuck around with reviews, but I believe even this has gotten more brazen. For example, I bought a pack of plain white cotton t-shirts this past fall. These were a regular brand you'd buy at Wal-Mart like Fruit of the Loom or Haines. When they arrived, they were poorly stitched and full of holes in places where the seams come together like the armpits. I left a one star review, saying I didn't think they were authentic as the quality was so poor. Amazon removed the review, stating, "We investigated your concerns about product authenticity, and the information we have indicates that the product you received was authentic." So I left another one star review, this time simply stating that the shirts were of poor quality without calling the authenticity into question. Once again, it was removed by Amazon. I was told "This ensures that customer reviews remain as accurate as possible for the benefit of future customers."
I've also noticed the numbers being fudged in weird ways with ratings. For example, I was looking for a replacement part for a fairly obscure electronic component. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I hit up Amazon instead of Ali. The item in question only had five ratings. However, the average and percentage of the ratings make no sense and would be impossible to get with five reviews. Look at this shit:
It's something you wouldn't notice on an item with thousands of reviews, but it's glaringly obvious with only a few ratings. If you click the little "How are ratings calculated?" thingy under the ratings, Amazon claims it analyzes reviews to verify "trustworthiness." So basically, they're not allowing certain one star reviews to be posted at all, and they are tipping the scale toward the more positive ratings because they do not deem the negative ones trustworthy.
Finally, the wife and I were looking to get a couple of security cameras recently. We specifically wanted something with local storage that didn't require the cloud or a subscription to review footage. We found a couple different cameras we liked and decided to sleep on it. When I logged onto Amazon the next day, in the little "Pick Up Where You Left Off " box was not the cameras we had been interested in, but a variety of Ring and Blink cameras; brands that are owned by Amazon and require a subscription.
Again, the biggest issue with this is if you are in a smaller area without many options, you come to rely on online shopping. Walmart, Staples and Best Buy have far more reliable online storefronts at this point, but they lack the selection of items Amazon has.
I'll cap this off with louis Rossman's excellent video about the subject:
I've found this kind of thing has gotten more and more blatant over the last year or so. What has your experience been? Have you run into things as blatant as I have?
I live pretty far off the beaten path. My town is big enough to have things like a Wal-Mart and a few grocery and hardware stores, but not a Costco, Staples or a dedicated electronics store. Due to this, my family and friends have become pretty reliant on Amazon for getting anything other than the absolute most basic stuff you can find in our town. Lately, the Amazon shopping experience has been getting steadily worse.
First off, most of the small electronic items such as SD cards, cables and chargers are just being drop shipped from Ali Express. Once upon a time when you'd look for SD cards on Amazon, brand name items such as Lexar and Samsung would be pushed to the top. Now when you search for "Micro SD Card", the first dozen or so results are no name shit being drop shipped from Ali with a significant markup. You may get them a week or so faster buying them on Amazon, but items are often less than half the price on Ali Express and are of dubious quality anyway.
It's long been know that they fuck around with reviews, but I believe even this has gotten more brazen. For example, I bought a pack of plain white cotton t-shirts this past fall. These were a regular brand you'd buy at Wal-Mart like Fruit of the Loom or Haines. When they arrived, they were poorly stitched and full of holes in places where the seams come together like the armpits. I left a one star review, saying I didn't think they were authentic as the quality was so poor. Amazon removed the review, stating, "We investigated your concerns about product authenticity, and the information we have indicates that the product you received was authentic." So I left another one star review, this time simply stating that the shirts were of poor quality without calling the authenticity into question. Once again, it was removed by Amazon. I was told "This ensures that customer reviews remain as accurate as possible for the benefit of future customers."
I've also noticed the numbers being fudged in weird ways with ratings. For example, I was looking for a replacement part for a fairly obscure electronic component. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I hit up Amazon instead of Ali. The item in question only had five ratings. However, the average and percentage of the ratings make no sense and would be impossible to get with five reviews. Look at this shit:
It's something you wouldn't notice on an item with thousands of reviews, but it's glaringly obvious with only a few ratings. If you click the little "How are ratings calculated?" thingy under the ratings, Amazon claims it analyzes reviews to verify "trustworthiness." So basically, they're not allowing certain one star reviews to be posted at all, and they are tipping the scale toward the more positive ratings because they do not deem the negative ones trustworthy.
Finally, the wife and I were looking to get a couple of security cameras recently. We specifically wanted something with local storage that didn't require the cloud or a subscription to review footage. We found a couple different cameras we liked and decided to sleep on it. When I logged onto Amazon the next day, in the little "Pick Up Where You Left Off " box was not the cameras we had been interested in, but a variety of Ring and Blink cameras; brands that are owned by Amazon and require a subscription.
Again, the biggest issue with this is if you are in a smaller area without many options, you come to rely on online shopping. Walmart, Staples and Best Buy have far more reliable online storefronts at this point, but they lack the selection of items Amazon has.
I'll cap this off with louis Rossman's excellent video about the subject:
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