Mimipadv, Amazon is, in fact, cracking down on those and banning those reviewers. I'm glad! I agree - there is no way that they can be "unbiased" - the reviewer would stop getting free or discounted stuff to review if they give negative reviews!

I follow the General Help Forum and there are typically lots of posts about that very thing. General Help (Customer Forum)

Thanks, Suzieque. I'll take a look at the forum.

I look to reviews so much and wondered if others here do too. A paid review is basically worthless to me.

I completely agree. And so do many, many people.

I agree it's hard to find ones that aren't paid for these days. I do reviews often and I now specifically say in the reviews that I got no compensation or discount for my review, it's a real review. Now interestingly enough after I have done reviews the company contacted me by email (how do they get my email from Amazon?) and tell me how much they appreciated my honest review and provide a code in the email for a discount on my next purchase. I have not ordered any of these again so haven't used their code.

I also look at other sites with good reviews like Newegg and Walmart. Not as much of that going on there.

i was offered a paid job writing reviews for Yelp. i turned it down -- it is so different from the actual purpose of reading or writing a review.

ravencajun Zone 8b TX - Come to think of it, awhile ago, I was contacted by the seller (skincare product, IIRC) and offered a discount. I can't recall if I wrote a review, or if they just contacted me after I bought their product through Amazon.

I remember being surprised that Amazon allows sellers access to information that I've given to Amazon, not the end seller.

I'm not commenting on the reviews -- just on the issue of "how does a seller get my e-mail address from Amazon?"

It seems logical to me that Amazon passes along the e-mail address of folks purchasing products from third-party sellers through the Amazon web site so that the seller has a way of contacting the buyer if there is an issue with the delivery of the product -- if delivery will be delayed, for example.

All of my cases were for products directly from Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon and shipped from Amazon no other parties involved. Only people that would have needed to contact me was amazon.

There are other parties involved when products are fulfilled by Amazon. The company would want to have contact with buyers to see how well their products does.

• FBA products are sourced, purchased, and owned by a company that is not Amazon.
• FBA products will not have Amazon as the seller of record for export & warranty purposes. For expensive electronics, you may want to make sure that the FBA seller is a licensed dealer for the product.

I only trust the reviews that say "verified purchase" and even then I am skeptical. Too bad because real reviews are so helpful.

I was shopping Amazon for some lightweight hiking sticks, and the number of reviews in which the poster said they got a discounted product for an honest review was concerning.

I write reviews, but would never take a discount for writing one. It sounds like it would be nice to get that little extra money back, but I don't think I would trust that the person writing it is being 100% truthful.

>>All of my cases were for products directly from Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon and shipped from Amazon no other parties involved. >>

Amazon makes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. They are a third-party seller, an electronic marketplace. Of course there were "other parties" involved - they have thousands and thousands of vendors.

If you ever look on the items you've purchased, you will notice that there is a distinct difference between items that come within 1-2 days of ordering, vs. items that arrive shipped from the vendor, where the vendor needs a few days to process the order and THEN sends it to you from their site with 2-day shipping.

On items that reach you within 1-2 days, Amazon covers the mfg's UPC code with a sticker that has a proprietary warehouse code. This code indicates where it's stored so they can retrieve it ASAP when an order comes in. This is why Amazon has built massive warehouses in specific locations throughout the US.

Amazon's logistics process are the true marvel behind its success. Wall St. hated his long-term strategy, but Bezos was correct that fast fulfillment and e-orders were the future of retailing.

Oh yes I know that amazon does not make anything, what I referred to was the fact the items were listed as fulfilled by and shipped by Amazon. Other times I have bought items that plainly state shipping from a third party and fulfillment by a third party. This just recently started happening with the company emailing me about my purchase. Have been ordering from Amazon for years and never had this happen till recently. In fact one company emailed me repeatedly, this is not something that makes me want to do business with them. I don't want to be bothered I just want to have my purchase. I don't know what has changed to cause these actions.

Some of you are confused or misinformed.

"Fulfillment" is one of Amazon's many businesses besides retail sales. Pick, pack, ship - Amazon holds goods owned by a third party in its warehouses, picks them to fill orders received by that third party (through the amazon site), ships to the buyer, processes payment. That's what Fulfilled by Amazon is all about. The selling companies pay Amazon a fee for that service. Amazon Marketplace, when not fulfilled by Amazon, is simply sellers using Amazon's commanding web presence to attract buyers for sales. When not Fulfilled by Amazon, the seller does it's own warehouse ops and shipping.

Either way, if Amazon is handling the order as a service, the ultimate third party seller will be informed of all the buyer's information, perhaps with the exception of a credit card number. You are, after all, that third party seller's customer, Amazon is only a go-between.

Sellers who want to sell via Amazon Marketplace agree to follow Amazon's standard Marketplace terms and conditions, refund and return practices, etc. Amazon acts as the go-between for those too.