Barry Collins is infuriated by the increasingly murky world of “customer reviews”
Nothing hurts a company like a bad review. In the years I’ve spent editing and writing for tech magazines, I’ve had tears, threats and full-on tantrums from company reps who reckon we’ve unfairly trounced their products. Reviews can make or break a product, which is why companies are increasingly reluctant to leave such matters to chance.
Companies know they can’t buy good reviews off reputable publications such as Web User. However, they can guarantee five-star verdicts on key sites such as Amazon, TripAdvisor and the various app stores if they write their own glowing reviews – or pay others to be their shills.
Amazon is currently embroiled in a legal battle with four websites, including the unashamedly named BuyAzonReviews.com, which offers companies “unlimited 4 and 5 star reviews” of their products. “All reviews will be posted by established Amazon accounts,” the site promises. “There is no need to worry about it looking fake or sketchy. You have final say on what the article will say and if it is posted or not.” Amazon insists such “sock puppets” only post a small proportion of reviews on its site, but the retailer clearly thinks it’s a big enough problem to try and stop them.
Other cheats are more subtle. Last year, I bought a perfectly good USB 3 hub from a no-name Taiwanese company that sells its wares in the UK via Amazon. A few weeks later, the company sent me a letter offering a free USB drive in return for a positive review. All I had to do was the post the review, send the link to a heavily masked email address and wait for my bribe to arrive. I didn’t bother (I don’t get out of bed for a USB stick, darling), but I dare say plenty of “satisfied customers” did. That innocuous USB hub currently has 496 customer reviews at the time of writing, with an average rating of four stars. The Xbox One console only has 193 reviews.
Amazon clearly doesn’t want companies to cheat its system, but even its “legitimate” reviews are suspect. The store lists its “Top Customer Reviewers”, including their contact details, at www.amazon.co.uk/review/top-reviewers, but to call these people “customers” is a bit of a stretch. They clearly aren’t just reviewing products they’ve bought, but items they’ve been sent for free by companies desperate to get their endorsement.
One of the top-ranked reviewers at the time of writing was a chap called John. Every review of his that we found said he was “delighted” to receive the product “in return for an independent and unbiased review”, but everything he’s reviewed has a four- or five-star rating. Are these companies sending John all this kit (tablets, headphones, solar panels) for his impartial verdict? Or are they sending it in the knowledge that they’ll almost certainly get a positive rating? And John’s far from alone – most of the top reviewers seem to be supplied with a regular stream of freebies, and rarely do they dislike what they receive.
Accepting a “free product in exchange for your review” is perfectly acceptable under Amazon’s rules, as long as you “clearly and conspicuously disclose” the gift. So is there really much difference between that and BuyAzonReviews.com? I’ll let you be the judge.