Ramblings of an old Doc
Good sites to check 'truthiness'
Published on January 14, 2017 By DrJBHL In Everything Else

 

If you buy stuff on Amazon...if you haven't, you probably will, sometime, you probably check out buyer reviews...with some it's easy to spot a fake review. Others, not so much.

So, it isn't news (I hope) that sellers like good reviews and there's a group of folks who earn money by 'reviewing' products for pay. Many sites don't do this, allowing only buyers to leave reviews, but there are 'work arounds' such as sending the 'reviewer' samples.

http://fakespot.com/ is one site which analyzes and reports fake reviews on Amazon and Yelp business reviews, and gives adjusted ratings on that basis. It won't do that for regional Amazon sites.

"Fakespot grades the product reviews of the item, displays an adjusted rating, Amazon's rating, and provides you with information on the authenticity of the ratings. It may for instance tell you that "there are indications of inauthentic/low quality reviews". The analysis digs deeper than that, as it provides you with information on the reviews.

It may give you words used to describe the product, the percentage of low quality reviews, and even information on inauthentic reviews, and why they were classified as that (automation, correlation with other fake reviewer profile data and languages). Fakespot supports only Amazon.com, but no regional Amazon sites." - gHacks

https://reviewmeta.com/ checks reviews as well, using algorithms to adjust the overall rating. It works for regional Amazon sites, though, as well.

"The service will adjust the rating and reviews based on its algorithm, display a report card that highlights checks the product reviews passed, failed or looked suspicious, and lists most and least trusted reviews.

What follows is a detailed analysis of all reviews. ReviewMeta lists the ratio of one-time reviewers to reviewers who have left multiple reviews on Amazon, the percentage of reviewers without any verified purchases, phrase repetition, and a lot more." - ibid

So, besides checking Consumer Reviews and other reliable sites, you have additional options now by just pasting the product link from Amazon into the box on Fakespot or Reviewmeta.

I'd recommend bookmarking one or both sites.

Source:

http://www.ghacks.net/2017/01/13/amazon-reviews-authenticity/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1958%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e21en

 


Comments
on Jan 14, 2017

That's pretty cool, I hadn't seen those sites before.  5/5.

 

(note: this is not a fake review)

on Feb 05, 2018

Amazon isn't the only one with fake reviews.  Wish.com seems to have fake reviews on just about every item.  What pisses me off is that fake 2TB USB drives had reviews such as: "Great product, works as described." etc, etc.  People bought those fake drives based on the fake product reviews, and many are stuck with them because they didn't discover the capacity shortfall within the 30 days refund policy.

I am one of those people!  I purchased some of those drives based on the description and 'user' reviews, and because I only added a few photos here and there for family members, I didn't realise the capacity issue existed until after the 30 days had elapsed, and I'm now stuck with useless USB drives and no refund.

I thought Wish was better than that, falsely advertising and selling fake items, but now I don't/can't trust them.  I even recommended Wish here on WC, but now I wish I hadn't.  I certainly will not be purchasing anything more from them, nor will my family members, with several friends expressing the same sentiment after experiencing similar and other issues with Wish.

Oh well, there's other places to shop.

on Feb 05, 2018

starkers

I didn't realise the capacity issue existed until after the 30 days had elapsed, and I'm now stuck with useless USB drives and no refund.

Australian Consumer Law protects you against products that are not as described...and some 30 day warranty is irrelevant.  This applies to any product purchased 'in' Australia...and that includes online.

Only difference there is the 'chase' is less likely to succeed considering effort involved...

on Feb 05, 2018

starkers

Amazon isn't the only one with fake reviews.

I can always be wrong. However I think I read about this and Amazon straightened this mess out. 

Of course this original post is over a year old so maybe what I read just about 3 or 4 months ago is correct.

on Feb 05, 2018

DaveBax

Of course this original post is over a year old

Yes, it was originally resurrected by spam...

on Feb 06, 2018



Quoting starkers,

I didn't realise the capacity issue existed until after the 30 days had elapsed, and I'm now stuck with useless USB drives and no refund.



Australian Consumer Law protects you against products that are not as described...and some 30 day warranty is irrelevant.  This applies to any product purchased 'in' Australia...and that includes online.

Only difference there is the 'chase' is less likely to succeed considering effort involved...

I have quit asking Wish to refund my money.  Every response from them blatantly ignores the facts and the situation at hand.  All I get is that the 30 days have elapsed and a refund is not forthcoming.  It doesn't matter that the drives were falsely advertised and were in fact fakes, Wish is sticking by its 30 day policy.

Okay, then, if that's the way they want to play it, then I will make it my mission to bring Wish down here in Australia.  Apart from reaching out to all my family and friends in Australia, New Zealand, The UK and US to outline what has transpired, I will be approaching several members of Federal Parliament with regard to Wish breaching several Australian consumer laws.... like charging more than double the advertised price for pairs of shoes, t-shirts, etc that are of larger sizes.... or like saying an item is free but bumping up the postage to cover more than the original price of the item PLUS postage.  For example, an item could cost $4.00 with $2.00 postage, but after the "free, just pay postage', the cost will rise to $8.00.  Free my arse.

Another slimy practice is charging, for example, $6.00 postage for one item, but if you order, say, 4 items, you get charged $24.00 postage, yet the items are bundled in the same package and delivered for the same price as the 1 item.

Yup, Wish can go fech itself.  It has already lost 50 plus customers as a result of this, and with word of mouth I can imagine many more customers will follow suit.  And if I get my way, Wish will be banned here in Australia for its breaches of Australian Trade Practices.  As whiny assed as he is, Gerry Harvey would be somebody to get on side here.  He'd be more than happy to lobby government to outlaw overseas online businesses doing the wrong thing.

Thing is, it's not just about the money.  Sure, I'd like to get my money back, but it's more the principle of the thing.  I mean, what if somebody buys a $500 phone and it dies after 31 days?  Put bluntly, they're feched!  I'm not out of pocket that much, but I don't see why a company should be able to keep my 120 bucks for something that clearly is fake and was falsely advertised.



Quoting DaveBax,

Of course this original post is over a year old



Yes, it was originally resurrected by spam...

Sorry that I drew it out further.  I don't recall seeing the thread before, and what is currently happening to myself and other Wish customers just seemed so relevant.... fake reviews on shonky products.

on Feb 06, 2018

starkers

Sorry that I drew it out further.  I don't recall seeing the thread before, and what is currently happening to myself and other Wish customers just seemed so relevant.... fake reviews on shonky products.

No need to be sorry. Write away. I may want to purchase your book one day.  

on Feb 06, 2018

DaveBax


Quoting starkers,

Sorry that I drew it out further.  I don't recall seeing the thread before, and what is currently happening to myself and other Wish customers just seemed so relevant.... fake reviews on shonky products.



No need to be sorry. Write away. I may want to purchase your book one day.  

Oh I don't know about writing a book.  A page or two here and there is about my limit.  However, some say I could talk the peg leg off an old pirate, so maybe I'll dictate and somebody else can write. 

As for purchasing my book, it'd have to be online, though.  Yup, I've picked up on a few ways from Wish to make money for doing absolutely nothing.   I might even make the books free and 'just pay shipping'.  Yeah, $29.99 for shipping sounds about right. Then I'd encourage customers to purchase two or more books: free, just pay shipping'.  That's $59.98 for two, $99.97 for three, and so on, and so on.

Yup, money for nothing and my chicks for free.