Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon is fighting it

Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by walrus01 on Friday June 11, 2021 @02:20PM (#27476777)

I recently purchased a set of full ear headphones with boom microphone from Amazon. From a 'five star' reviewed product and vendor. It came with a printed piece of paper in the box from the vendor offering a $15 gift card if I left a five star review for the product and then sent a screenshot to the company. Such shady behavior.

The headphones are only average quality.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by whoza on Friday June 11, 2021 @03:00PM (#27477213)

I had a similar experience in April. I reported the seller to Amazon, including lots of evidence (links to reviews by other buyers complaining about the same thing, etc.) They assured me that they would take care of it, but the product is still available and it seems that nothing has changed.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by ilamont on Friday June 11, 2021 @03:28PM (#27477457)

Yep. Widespread problem, as noted in this submission and thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25459434

Once again, the good guys (customers and honest sellers) lose out while the bad guys win, with no repercussions.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by oh_sigh on Friday June 11, 2021 @02:36PM (#27476961)

I got one of those once, and wrote a review saying that this seller is paying for 5 star reviews and even though the product seemed fine, be wary of 5 star reviews. Amazon removed my review as going against the terms of service.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by zentiggr on Friday June 11, 2021 @03:19PM (#27477370)

Until Amazon has financial liability for fake/paid reviews, they will never go away.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by avidiax on Friday June 11, 2021 @05:29PM (#27478743)

Maybe leave the standard glowing 5-star review, plus a picture of the headphones with the card visible.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by frumper on Friday June 11, 2021 @04:47PM (#27478270)

I had a similar event happen with a product that cost $11.99 and they offered a $10 amazon gift card if I reviewed it. I did like the product and left a review, and they emailed me a gift card a week later. I was quite surprised. How does the business side of that work?

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by avidiax on Friday June 11, 2021 @05:28PM (#27478728)

Easy, don't put that notice in every box, and don't expect that everyone that receives the notice would bother filling it out, and maybe once you are winding down that product, start delaying or just not sending the gift cards.

You only need to keep ahead of the other items in the same product category in terms of average score and review count. That's public information, so it's pretty clear how many of these gift cards you need to give out to top the category.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by missedthecue on Saturday June 12, 2021 @12:19AM (#27481495)

Lose money for the first several months, and then print money after you have thousands of 5 star reviews and a first page Amazon listing.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by paulpauper on Friday June 11, 2021 @02:59PM (#27477200)

As many have already mentioned in prior discussions, 5-star reviews are meaningless and Amazon does not care.

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Re:Legislation would unmask third-party sellers, but Amazon ... by rStar on Friday June 11, 2021 @02:35PM (#27476954)

this has been going on for years. amazon benefits, so they allow the practice.

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