Ancestors

Toot

Written by Yvan on 2025-01-17 at 10:57

So this is rather blatant.

I left a 2-star review for this product a week ago - because one of the microphones simply died, doesn't charge (I've not investigated). Yesterday in the post I get something offering me a £30 voucher (about twice the value of the item) if I show them I have left a 5-star review.

LOL at "Attention: For your account's safety, please don't attach this card to your review."

Are Amazon sellers permitted to basically buy 5-star reviews?

Partly I'm tempted because thirty quid is thirty quid, but mainly I don't think it is something I can do, I'd feel the guilt of it for years.

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Descendants

Written by Yvan on 2025-01-17 at 11:03

The "163.com" caught my attention, it's just some sort of Chinese free-email/content/etc company "NetEase"... so basically Chinese HotMail.

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Written by Yvan on 2025-01-17 at 11:25

I have now submitted a review compensation violation report as per: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GLHXEX85MENUE4XF#GUID-41F496FE-6F93-4D98-B9CE-0F6DD5522C9E__SECTION_0124717E5C2A43019FB5D697A309A93E

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Written by ahnlak on 2025-01-17 at 11:01

@yvan it's extremely against Amazon rules, and will result in the seller getting booted.

(it would only risk "your accounts safety" if you actually left a 5 star review as a result)

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Written by Petra van Cronenburg on 2025-01-17 at 11:23

@ahnlak This! @yvan

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Written by Mike on 2025-01-17 at 11:35

@yvan It's not uncommon - or at least it wasn't a few years ago, I thought this had all stopped.

One of my family members with a suspect moral compass used to do very nicely out of the chinese who would offer them free stuff in return for a 5 star review of the 'gift'.

Amazon never rumbled them and thankfully they no longer do this - as far as I'm aware.

It's one more reason why I don't trust 5 star Amazon reviews.

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Written by Yvan on 2025-01-17 at 11:36

@MikeFromLFE absolutely right in not trusting reviews!

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Written by Lu 🇦🇲 on 2025-01-17 at 11:11

@yvan Considering nobody should trust these reviews anyway, I'd be tempted. Considering lots of people do trust them, I wouldn't do it.

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Written by Yvan on 2025-01-17 at 11:16

@luppano yeah, I mean, I left the negative review in the first place for the sole reason of warning others about the product quality... it'd be pretty remiss of me to change that to 5-stars just for 30 quid... the price on foregoing my own ethics and responsibility to others is much higher than that.

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Written by Tommaths (he/him) on 2025-01-17 at 16:01

@yvan @luppano

There is another option which I'm not going to comment on the ethics of: bump your review up to 5 stars, take the £30, spend it, then whack it down to 1 star, possibly recounting the tale of how they offered you £30 for a 5 star review.

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Written by Yvan on 2025-01-17 at 16:02

@TeaKayB @luppano you're not the only devious bastard to suggest this... and I do like your thinking. 😅

I was very tempted by this. But I simply reported them already and I'm leaving it at that.

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Written by Lu 🇦🇲 on 2025-01-17 at 16:57

@TeaKayB @yvan Oh yes. That's good.

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Written by Alfred Chow - Maker of Things on 2025-01-17 at 11:57

@yvan

I'm wondering how much Amazon cares, so long as they keep getting sales transactions.

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Written by Yvan on 2025-01-17 at 11:59

@Maker_of_Things no idea, they care enough to have a form specifically for reporting this particular violation... but what happens to the reports... who knows! I'll report here if I get any feedback from it, or if I notice the seller vanishes from the marketplace lol.

IMO they have so much crap listed that taking a hard line on eliminating reported shit is likely to do them more good than harm. Sellers like this are a dime a dozen, and ultimately it is just a setback to a dodgy seller, what's the bet they operate 10 other seller accounts anyway, and they can just start a new one any time one is shut down.

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