Fake reviews to be illegal under new rules

I latched on to the words "or host".
Amazon hosts a bazillion fake reviews, so they immediately fail and get fined?

Edit: Just like IMDB for tv/movies, computer game reviews are all paid too.

Edit2: +1 I also hate review merging, just makes the reviews useless.
 
The other thing I find, particularly on Amazon, is a lot of people are reviewing themselves not the product.

It's the whole, I did my research, the product arrived and works, didn't I make a good decision, 5 stars. Like a form of self congratulation.

On the other side, a lot of the one star reviews are people like, this vacuum cleaner broke when I tried to empty my swimming pool with it, etc.

I try to look at the 2-4 star reviews, normally 3 star reviews tend to give a good rounded opinion, and surprise surprise there isn't a high percentage of those.
 
I tend to read the 1* reviews on Amazon first, because that's where you get the "this is cheap trash, sent it back" or "not fit for purpose because x,y,z" comments that are all I need.

Of course Amazon puts this behind a few clicks, instead showing you "top reviews" which are top for no apparent reason, but are overwhelmingly positive.
 
Malevolence said:
What should also be made illegal is those photos of an item on Amazon that are quite clearly photoshopped.
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I bet you can find the exact same photos on aliexpress or whatever that crappy chinese tat website is.. it's what amazons became... resellers of chinese tat
 
arknor said:
I bet you can find the exact same photos on aliexpress or whatever that crappy chinese tat website is.. it's what amazons became... resellers of chinese tat
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Made Amazon a ton of money though, prior to this it required local resellers which didn't stack up but since China have been able to ship directly from mainland with virtually free shipping because of Gov subsidies it's become awash with random ****. You'll notice China have done the opposite, blocking foreign sellers.
 
Many good points in here that i agree with, or most of us agree with, it's an absolute mess.

These days, or past decade even, i find it extremely difficult to actually purchase goods now. I just feel like there's just too much rubbish out there, and now i don't even trust premium top quality brands that i'm happy to pay extra for.

I'm just not sure if i'm getting old or have unrealistic standards.

The other issue is the plain bs of the businesses. "Sorry to hear about your issues, please contact us". Copy and paste. As if the business actually addresses the issue given the reviews remain.

Hopefully Amazon gets a fine at some point.
 
The_Arbiter said:
"Sorry to hear about your issues, please contact us". Copy and paste. As if the business actually addresses the issue given the reviews remain.
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I've had a couple of instances where I've left quite scathing reviews on Tripadvisor (I'm honest, I leave positive reviews as well), only to have a reply posted by the business asking me to contact them. I had a particularly bad stay at the Tower Hotel next to Tower Bridge, posted an accurate review and when they followed up on it, they offered myself and my wife a week there at no cost, absolute top room and we were treated like minor royalty. They actually did seem to care.

Amazon reviews are a bit of a joke though, it's the consolidating of multiple reviews against a single product that is the most misleading. I'm sure I saw some YouTube exposure of this a couple of years ago but nothing was done about it. Perhaps now it'll change.
 
Feek said:
I've had a couple of instances where I've left quite scathing reviews on Tripadvisor (I'm honest, I leave positive reviews as well), only to have a reply posted by the business asking me to contact them. I had a particularly bad stay at the Tower Hotel next to Tower Bridge, posted an accurate review and when they followed up on it, they offered myself and my wife a week there at no cost, absolute top room and we were treated like minor royalty. They actually did seem to care.
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Yeah there are a few i've seen that have been edited and changed to "resolved issue and am happy". But these are in the small minority. Personally when this has happened to me i've used them again. But as i previously mentioned i just rarely seem to open my wallet now and have a somewhat negative view of most businesses, but don't go round neg reviewing cause my order arrived a day late, that isn't really an issue at all like some reviews make out. If i booked a day off for a sofa delivery for example then not really forgivable without some compensation imo.

On that topic, i noticed OCuk got serious unjustified flak during covid. My 5* review on trustpilot got slaughtered on reddit too, i was surprised i came across it randomly moreso. People thinking they were entitled to msrp GPUs despite no other shop having stock, and yet OCuk were doing deals which got ruined by some scalpers anyway, talk about unreasonable.
 
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www.bbc.co.uk

New rules ban subscription traps and fake reviews

The government's Digital Markets Bill aims to help consumers and increase competition.
www.bbc.co.uk

Buying, selling or hosting fake reviews will become illegal as part of changes planned in new laws.The bill is being introduced on Tuesday and bans people receiving money or free goods for writing glowing reviews.
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Firms will also have to remind people when free subscription trials end.
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The law is going ahead :)
 
VincentHanna said:
Sometimes companies don't pay you, but provide the item for a huge discount if you review it (or even free for smaller items) - will it stop that?
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funnily enough... Ali express sent me a free in car dash cam on the condition i wrote a review............ however they were very clear that i was free to be honest and didnt have to 5* it............... The potential for bias was there of course - i suspect those giving rave reviews would be more likely to get more free stuff in future.
 
Didn't we sign up to a trade deal recently that gave corporations the right to sue the government for losing them money?

This '10% of global turnover' stick sounds really potent until you start thinking why people gagging for golden parachutes would ever jeopardise that payday, so clearly this is meant to be clogged up in a barely functioning legal system where the government intends to give up because spending millions on fighting a case for decades to almost certainly lose (unless it was some small irrelevant SME that they hate now which they'll happily ruin for the sake of pleasing Big Bezos).

Who are they fooling?
 
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