This is the practice of attaching a new product to old online reviews and hoping potential buyers don’t read the actual reviews themselves but are more focused on the fact it has 4 or 5 star ratings.
Amazon is particular is prone to this phenomenon, but most other online retailers probably suffer the same problems with fake online reviews.
An example of Review Merging is where a supplier uploads a cheap but fairly decent product such as a pair of scissors. It is a genuinely good product and receives hundreds of genuine 4* or 5* reviews.
But then the supplier uploads a really meaty product such as a smart phone, or tablet or some other nice looking gadget but isn’t a familiar brand name such as Apple or Samsung but more like Wiota or Sanjina.
Moreover the supplier doesn’t upload this to Amazon as a separate item but they are able to merge it with their existing products (scissors in this example) and they’re able to change the title, the description and photos they go with it. But more importantly is that the existing reviews and ratings (for the scissors) also get merged with the dodgy new gadget.
The gadget in question is cheap and nasty in reality, but by “piggy backing” off reviews from the supplier’s existing reviews it will look to potential customers that the gadget is highly recommended.
It’s only if a customer actually takes the time to read the reviews will they find that the review has absolutely nothing to do with the product (in this example the reviews will be about the scissors rather than the gadget)
In fairness Amazon do try to stamp down on this kind of thing, along with other forms of fake/bogus reviews. But when one considers its sells millions of products every day across the world, along with hundreds of thousands of products and reviews being uploaded on a daily basis, it is no surprise that quite a lot of bogus reviews still remain active and thus conning potential customers.
In summary therefore, don’t just look at the ratings before you buy. Check the reviews themselves for consistency. Also make sure the reviews aren’t bogus either (usually consisting of less than a sentence, or from reviewers with only a handful of reviews against their name)
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Nominated by: Technocunt
Great nomination.
I bought some x-ray specs and you know what they worked.
But all I saw was cock and balls.
Teach me to go to a Scottish women’s prison..
22
Great comment Barry!
4
I picked up this a few years ago. When you’re buying something with variations or options it’s bloody hard to find relevant reviews.
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…picked up ON this…
3
This trend of deliberately misleading consumers is (in my opinion) more brazen now than it has been in the past and has spread beyond just merchants.
The Markles used film footage from events they didn’t even attend to illustrate how they were harassed by the media.
Footage from Obama era detention camps was used to illustrate the alleged cruelty of Trump’s immigration policies.
And fake business reviews are posted all over the net in order to discredit businesses who don’t kow tow to the woke mob.
With today’s sophisticated technology the consumer can do all the due diligence he/she wants and still be misled into thinking this is a good deal.
An obscure but pretty solid cunting.
9
True the internet is a myriad of potential problems and to get the best from it you probably need a degree in some sort of computer science or be aged 8, then no problems at all.
As I only buy golf balls, shoes and second hand clubs I sort of fuddle through the shit.
That said it can be a total cunt for the unaware
3
Good one. I’ve noticed this too, and unless the reviewer mentions the product by name, it can be difficult to know that they’re talking about something else.
Even worse are dodgy online offerings from China which imply you’re buying a product , like a chair, and they’re actually selling you just the cover.
1
Amazon are a right bunch of cunts and most likely invented this shifty piss.
Their UK website favours a Bangladeshi free for all more with each passing day.
So they can take their imaginery reviews and pay 99% corporation tax.
The daft robotic soulless cunts.
2
If I’m after a particular product, I Google it for reviews.
I might go to Amazon, to see if I can get it at a better price, but that’s never my first port of call.
One thing I really dislike about Amazon is their habit of allowing any cunt to promote their products even if you type in a specific brand name. I was searching for a particular brand of beef flavoured dog food and got every listing for anything that mentioned beef, including gravy granules, ffs!
1
Yes, you have to be damn critical of reviews. Are they of the exact thing you’re interested in? Are they written by bots, via Google Translate? Has the “local” ebay seller (whose 99.9% rating merits a LOL) actually got the item in stock or is the advertised delivery time an ingenious invention because the warehouse is in Shenzhen?
So many questions.
A Lithuanian outfit with a 99+% rating recently failed to send me an item.
Queried, they sent me a phony tracking number indicating it had been sent from a German warehouse via the Dutch state mail company.
Kudos to Ebay – they got me a refund. But I had been completely fooled.
NEVER ASSUME. CHECK.
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Merge reviews for an extension ladder with a Penis pump.
Sparky68 says “works great! Locks in place nicely and light weight. Easy to put on top of the van. Would give 5 stars but the rope slips off the pulley too easy.”
Tree guy says “one star. Pinches my fingers when getting it up”
2
Slightly off topic, but… you can only review a product on Amazon, if you have spent 40Q on Amz in the last 12 months. I hardly ever buy anything from there. And yes, they can strap that Jeff Psychozippy Übercunt to one of his dick shaped rockets and shoot him to some reeking Asteroid, for all I cunt.
1