The problem with reviews on these sites in general is that they're not written like editorial reviews. You've got to take them with a grain of salt whether they're incentivized or not.
The negative reviews can be useful only if they identify specific problems, but I see a lot of negative reviews by people who just didn't spend time reading the manual.
In terms of the "purge", some people on the reddit product testing forums have noted that many of their incentivized 3 star reviews were deleted while their 5 star reviews were not.
The new rules also don't ban reviews on products that were received for free. The catch is that there must be no obligation to write a review at all, and that the sample provider does not try to influence positive votes by making future samples conditional on those reviews.
You'll notice that the "I received a sample/discount in exchange for an honest review" has been replaced by "I received a test sample with no obligation to provide a review here. I am doing it on my own, bla bla".
There are a lot of honest incentivized reviewers out there. They may slant toward positive reviews, but if you read the text of their reviews, you can tell if the product is good or not. Full disclosure, I've done my share of incentivized reviews. Having said that, I spent way a lot of time writing those reviews (and doing photos/videos for them) than I did for my verified purchases. Mainly because I wanted to dispel any notion that my reviews were complete BS.
I actually look at other incentivized reviews for the products I've written, and about half are honest, and the other half are hyperbolic BS. I always do disclosures, but the #1 ranked reviewer in Amazon in my country does not disclose his incentivized reviews (he has gotten the same samples as me around the same time) and does not appear to have been penalized for that. I'm sure I get downvotes on reviews just because of my disclosures in my reviews, but I'm not going to leave out the disclosures just to boost my rank either.
In terms of "positive" reviews. I accept only stuff I want that doesn't look like it's crap in the first place. That already tilts me towards a positive review. Next, I always ask myself "is this good for the price". Most of the stuff I get is very low priced compared to their competition. Am I supposed to treat a $20 set of Bluetooth earbuds with the same critical ear as a $150 pair? I don't think so. So yeah, my bsr to hit 5 stars is pretty low. As long as it's well made and performs well for the price, I'm not going to be particularly harsh.
Finally, I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon and have a Prime subscription. How do I evaluate products I want to buy? I look at all the reviews, including the incentivized ones. I read them carefully to determine if the reviewer knows what he/she is talking about and whether they bring up any insights that the other reviewers don't mention.
One star - Amazon screwed up the delivery.
I can buy the complaints about Search (though really it's a problem of having too much selection). However, I've had universally positive return experiences, so I have no idea what you're on about there.
a. If Amazon sells a 64 GB Sandisk card
b. Merchants A and B also sell the same card
c. Merchants A and B have opted into the fulfilled by Amazon program.
Question: You purchase the 64 GB Sandisk card and pick Amazon as the seller. Whose inventory did the card come from?
Answer: Undefined.
For semantic purposes we can think of the following mental model - For a given SKU Amazon takes the memory cards from its own inventory and inventory from all other resellers who have opted into the "Fulfilled by Amazon" program (in our example A and B) and puts it together in a giant heap in its warehouse. When a order comes in a card is picked at random from the heap and shipped out to you.
No. Sellers have to opt-in to co-mingle, so it's certainly not "all other resellers".
Besides, I think co-mingle only applies to resellers's stock, ie Amazon stock and 3rd party sellers' stock aren't put together in the same basket -- although I could be wrong about that.
If you buy the one that's sold by Amazon it will come from the stock that's bought by Amazon.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/on-amazon-pooled-merchandise-ope...
Do you have any sources which specify that Amazon treats it own inventory seperately?
So for Sandisk specifically this isn't a concern, although your comment applies to other, unrestricted brands.
This listing came up in the top 10 when searching for "Sandisk 32GB": https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDHC-Package-Extenders-A...
The seller is "VP Distributor" and the brand is "Sadnisk" (sic). I don't see any links to see more info about the seller.
98% positive and 2250 lifetime feedback ratings means it's probably a good seller, just not authorized for sandisk and listed there to get around the rules. If someone took the time to report them the listing would be removed.
OTOH the same seller lists https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M55C0VU, which I've confirmed on my account is restricted. So maybe they are authorized, and just listing on any ASIN they can find that matches the product? I've done that sometimes.
It doesn't look like customers are being harmed in this particular case, it's possible some unauthorized seller created the listing and VP distributor simply jumped on it at a later point, the first seller could be suspended now.
I always use the "Amazon Prime" filter when I search, and I've never had any issues with those items. Sellers have to share a little more profit with Amazon to be listed as Prime, but I think that's enough of a bar to eliminate the fraudsters.
The only times I've had problems were with non-Prime sellers, but luckily those were just long-delays rather than outright fraud.
a. Their search is broken.
b. Same item is listed by different sellers as different SKUs.
c. You cannot rely on reviews anymore.
d. You cannot filter by merchant and rely on receiving an item that is genuine since Amazon will comingle inventory from multiple merchants for the same SKU. Ie buying a product from Amazon has no guarantee that it is actually an item stocked by Amazon.
e. Their price competetiveness appears to have eroded. Best Buy etc no longer feel like a complete rip off in comparision.
f. Other retailers (Macys etc) have much more hassle free return policies.
Prime is the single thing that Amazon gets right in the whole selling experience - which is why I now think of Amazon as more of a logistics company than I do as a retailer.