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Amazon reviews

Sue Pertwee-Tyr

Sue Pertwee-Tyr

Accuphase all the way down
In the market for a new pair of, accurate, bathroom scales (one can only be in denial for so long...) I did as you do and took a stroll through Amazon's offerings. A nice, simple, digital scale came up, at a sensible price and claiming great accuracy, and with 5 reviews, all 5*.

Reading the reviews, two of them looked quite similar (not by any means identical) and of the five, three had 'disclaimers' at the bottom stating that the writer had received the product at a discounted price in return for an honest review. Now I approve of the transparency, but it did make me wonder. If there had been more reviews, and a smattering of 3 and 4 stars I don't think I'd be bothered, but a clean sweep of 5 stars, albeit only a small number of reviews, did give me pause.

Has anybody else come across this 'discount for honest review' phenomenon? Can you shed any light on the Amazon review process at work, here? Is this common? My guess is this is a Chinese product, and I'm not a great fan of their business practices so am a little suspicious from the outset. Can I buy with confidence (it's under £30, so not a big deal at all but the point is to get something fit for purpose from the get-go)?

Finally, please can we try to avoid this becoming an 'all reviewers are shills, especially hifi journalists' thread? ;)
 
I've not noticed that before on anything I've looked at, though it would not surprise me if it went on, and went on without any mention!

For scales I'd highly recommend the Seca 761. Not cheap, but they are what the NHS uses, so they are accurate and last forever. I've had mine for years now and it's one of those products I just know I will never need to replace.
 
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I always take low numbers of "ace" reviews on items (from any online website) with a pinch of salt. Just how hard is it for an employee of the manufacturer to take 2 mins out to put up something positive?
 
I've noticed this practice on a lot of reviews. To the extent that some of these shills now 'bury' the 'disclaimer' in the middle of a lot of text.

I'm only jealous because no-one has offered me a free product to review :)

Can we believe internet reviews anyway? It's getting like ebay feedback - nobody gives feedback until they've had positive first. no-one really says what they think, they are just covering their backs
 
I've seen it a few times with health supplements and a few people have actually said that the company offers the next packet at a heavily reduced price if they give them a decent review... :(
 
There's a whole sub-industry of third-party Amazon review sites - you sign up, and apparently get products at a discount or even free, in return for (cough) 'fair and honest reviews'. I've not done this myself, but wouldn't be against participating in the Amazon Vine programme, but I think it's probably closed to new participants.

I've taken to reviewing most of what I buy on Amazon, but nobody has given me anything in return :) 130-odd reviews, all honest as well..... some of us are!
 
Funny. I noticed this for the first time just yesterday. The reviewer, obviously an upright citizen, declared their interest and gave the product 1 star!
 
You do realise asking this question was akin to asking if big foot existed

The "all out to get me" crowd will roll in
 
I gave a 2* review for a bike light that broke not long after purchase. I was later contacted by the company who offered a free light if I changed my review to 5*. I demurred.
 
Tony L said:
I've not noticed that before on anything I've looked at, though it would not surprise me if it went on, and went on without any mention!

For scales I'd highly recommend the Seca 761. Not cheap, but they are what the NHS uses, so they are accurate and last forever. I've had mine for years now and it's one of those products I just know I will never need to replace.
Click to expand...

Bought the same ones last year and they are excellent, wouldn't bother with digital scales, those Seca ones are certified, they're not class 1 but they're good enough.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
I know for a fact that a lot of 5 star reviews on Amazon are fake, or induced by freebies. Worth reading the 3 stars and below to get a more balanced view.
 
What happens if you get the scales and they stupidly say you're overweight? They must be wrong and deserve a 1* review!
 
I like Amazon reviews in the music area, especially classical. There are often a lot of very knowledgeable reviews there and always interesting to see folk arguing for one performance/recording over another etc.
 
I'm going to write an Amazon review that contains the words "all Amazon reviews are lies, including this one" just in case science officer Petrik beams a malignant machine intelligence aboard pfm that needs to be defeated by an eternal logical loop.

We can then recrystallise the dilithium using the power from the hand phasers and get out of here on impulse power.
 
Standard process and used by Amazon third party sellers to move their product up the Amazon search engine. The disclaimer has to be put on there as Amazon get tetchy if it's not a review based on a verified purchase. I know because I was asked by a good friend to put one on recently and I refused (bit awkward actually!) until I'd actually seen and tested the product myself.
 
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