There are a whole bunch of tricks like this used by sellers to get good ratings. And don't get me started on Yelp. Buyer beware, as always.

I bought an antenna and there was a similar card packed with it. I just ignored it

Yep, had the same experience.

I so agree Sushi.

You don't know the half of it. My oldest has started selling craft kits as an add on to her business. on Amazon. She took a course that cost $2000 to understand the inner workings. But, most of all to protect her business.

Competitors will give bad reviews even if they didn't buy the product to knock out competition.

If someone gives a good review, if that person is in anyway connected through any social media to the seller, it doesn't count and might even work against your ranking.

That said, there aren't enough choices where one can sell craft kits to reach the greatest market..

Same as with professional movie and restaurant reviews before the web came into the picture I read the details mentioned in the remarks made in online product or service reviews to decide if the offering being discussed might be something for me. And assume what specifically is said can hint at whether or not a review is genuine and sincere.

Have you used Fakespot.com? I'm not saying that it's 100% accurate, but it uses some algorithm to determine validity of reviews. I use it all the time. It's primarily for Amazon reviews, but I think that there is another site they check, too.

I just read some reviews for a new company that installs granite locally. They had "fake" reviews trying to knock them down....that the owner of the company responded to. It's happening everywhere.

Fakespot appears to work for Google reviews as well, which is something else I use. However, it does not work on Firefox, and so I had to open the Chrome browser (which I almost never use - only on the extremely rare occasion that I want to look at FB or make a comment on Youtube) to install it. I will make a point to do a comparison with what I see on Amazon on Firefox.

BTW, my pool maintenance company keeps telling everyone that they have 100% five star reviews on Google, even after I gave them a 3 star review after getting tired of having to complain to them so often. I don't know if they managed to get my review removed or not, but they might have. Google only shows five reviews for this company, and I do not think they deserve it.

I often receive emails to review clothing I have ordered. I reviewed three items, one good, two bad, meaning they were not as shown

They immediately contacted me about the bad reviews and was sorry I was disappointed. They did not post those, just the good one.

Really is surprises you the businesses are COMPETITIVE!?!?! I suppose you believe reviews as a rule too. I have a bridge I am selling cheap if you are interested.

Does it need bridgework, arcy?

o j

Amazon doesn't allow this. It used to be a common practice, but Amazon put a stop to it (or tried to put a stop to it) some time ago. Unfortunately, cheating has become so common that websites exist to scan reviews on a given product to let you know how many are likely to be fakes, posted by the seller.

Just this morning I received an email from a manufacturer I'd been corresponding with about a couple of items. They had offered me a discount on one of them, and at first were going to refund it directly to my Amazon account. But they wrote this morning to ask if they could use Paypal or a couple of others instead because they didn't want Amazon to think they were paying for a review.

Unfortunately, cheating has become so common that websites exist to scan reviews on a given product to let you know how many are likely to be fakes, posted by the seller.

Amazing, Alisande; I didn't know that. Thanks for posting.

Then there is the scam where an Amazon subscriber will recieve merchandise that they did not order. I don' t really understand just what advantage it offers to the seller except that they can then say that so an so number of people have bought the product.

People will just find an unexpected Amazon box on their porch.

As far as I know, they dont get a bill for it.

Not sure exactly how it works but is has been in the local news lately.

It can be so hard to shop online sometime with having to depend on strangers to tell you about their experience and try to make a decision.

I am alway amazed at how many people will take the opportunity to review an item that they purchased on Amazon but they really have no answer. They will say something like, "I dont' know. It is still in the box",or, "I dont know, It was a gift to someone.". . To determine whether or not you know is not the reason that someone asked the question. They asked the question because they wanted to know something about it, not if you know , or not.

Reviews can be an unreliable source to make a decision from.

I find that You Tube can be valuable in reviews. At least you usually see the item in the video and see them opening it up.

"They will say something like, "I dont' know. It is still in the box",or, "I dont know, It was a gift to someone."

Amazon tried to lessen that problem by including a "I don't know the answer" option in the email.

My bigger complaint is how they by default sort reviews by "Most helpful". I prefer to sort by "Most recent". (although I might try both ways)

I think people are more apt to review if they have a bad experience than a good experience. Then when folks are reading reviews, looking for problems, a reason not to buy, they tend to upvote negative reviews, even when the reviewers negative review has nothing to do with the quality of the product. I'll read negative reviews, sometimes they're enough to persuade me not to buy, oftentimes not.

For instance, the little air compressor referred to in the above image has a 4.8 out of 5 star rating with 7,133 ratings.

Yet the most helpful (Top review) that peculates (due to folks clicking the Helpful button) to the top is a very negative review due solely to unreasonable expectations. (Someone thinking they can inflate giant RV tires with a little six gallon compressor without it being plugged in)

Amazon seems to have also removed the ability to comment on a review. I don't know if that was a good move or not. Sometimes folks will dis a review/er when the reviewer is honestly relating their experience with the purchase. (item wasn't sufficiently protected to survive shipping, etc.) I appreciate those type reviews and think they should not be discouraged. Other times though, as with the above review, I think it would be nice to be able to clear up a misunderstanding. :-)

Possibly/hopefully the reason Amazon disabled commenting on reviews was because I kept seeing offers (to the sellers) to "down?" negative reviews. Possibly by upvoting or writing positive reviews? They were definitely offers to (for a price) cheat the review system to help the seller while making the reviews less helpful to the buyer. Since it was dishonest, I'd click "Report abuse". I don't know if Amazon ever took time to remove them. Maybe they were becoming so numerous they found it easier to just disable commenting?

I'll still read a review or two but mostly I'll just go by rating if there's a sufficient number to be meaningful.

Another problem is folks rating right after they take it out of the box. Or right after trying it a time or two. Which of course says nothing about longevity/durability.

I agree, Youtube can sometimes be more helpful.