Are All Reviews Honest?
By Marsha
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
Midland, Michigan
October 21, 2015 8:52pm CST
Just a few minutes ago I was checking out several discussions by @Rollo1 and she was talking about waiting for some packages to arrive, one of them being from Amazon. That reminded me of something I heard on the radio recently, that Amazon I think is suing some folks for false reviews.
A little further down on the page containing AnjaP's discussions, she talks about writing for a company doing blog posts, reviews and other things.That is not the company Amazon was referring to.
They were referring to Fivver, a place some friends frequent. I checked it out once, but decided it wasn't for me. People can request specific types of writing from members, one of them being reviews. What Amazon is saying is that some of the reviews coming from that site are fake. They were done because the member was paid to write something good about a product or idea, not because the writer actually knew anything about it.
A friend and I were conjecturing later that possibly Amazon could be held accountable for false advertising if any of these reviews were done for their books or products. This would be something to keep in mind if ever you consider writing reviews for pay and you've not actually tried whatever it is you are reviewing.
Disclaimer: Anja, I'm not by any means implying that you do this. I forgot all about the announcement until I saw you were waiting for your package.
24 people like this
23 responses
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
23 Oct 15
I have heard that too. I have written many reviews there but only for places I have actually stayed and always truthful.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Oct 15
There are many magazines and sites that help those wanting to make trips and I'm sure many rely on reviews also. That probably isn't the only one receiving or even maybe welcoming fake reviews. Hopefully, if more sites find out about this practice it will be stopped before it gets worse.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40053)
• Laguna Woods, California
22 Oct 15
I am careful about believing reviews unless they are very specific and give the pros and cons. For example, this book was about blah, blah, blah and I liked it, but it contained violence and was really long, so other people might not like it. That's the kind of review I appreciate and believe is real.
3 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
24 Oct 15
I wonder whether someone that does enough research would be able to write that kind of review even if they didn't own or use that particular product? Possibly it would take a bit of scrutiny, but maybe if we weren't so quick to decide based on one or two reviews, (and I'm not saying anyone is that quick with judgements necessarily), then even if some were fake, maybe there would be enough honest reviews that we'd get enough feedback to make a viable decision.
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
22 Oct 15
That's one reason I won't write reviews for payment. There are a lot of possible repercussions to that. I would write reviews of products I received to try, though, and did do that years ago when I had a beauty & style blog. But the FTC changed so many rules about sponsored posts that it was more worrisome to do them than it was satisfying to be paid for them. I do review products on Amazon if I have purchased them, and that's it.
3 people like this
@poehere (15126)
• French Polynesia
22 Oct 15
There are some companies now who pay people to write great reviews. This is illegal and many of them are being sued right now. Personally I would rather find a person who uses this product and ask them how they feel about it. They are your best reviews on stuff not website reviews.
2 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
22 Oct 15
I've wanted to know about things before that my friends at work wouldn't know anything about. But, I've also learned to search out several places to get more than one view about things. Even bad reviews can be good because you can sometimes read between the lines. What someone doesn't like about something could be the very thing you are looking for.
2 people like this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
22 Oct 15
@MarshaMusselman
You should always check out more than one site for reviews as one person may not like something that you might want.
@PaulaKent (91)
• Nairobi, Kenya
22 Oct 15
It's a bit sad but what can we except in corrupted world? #JustSaying
3 people like this
@peavey (16936)
• United States
22 Oct 15
I agree; I think it's immoral to review a product you know nothing about, no matter who it's for. Amazon has every right to sue people who pay for someone to put good reviews on their products. It's a disservice to their customers to allow paid reviews.
2 people like this
@GardenGerty (157545)
• United States
23 Oct 15
There are other websites besides fiverr that offer a task of reviewing different products, usually for pennies. I would not write those reviews personally. I only review products I have used.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
24 Oct 15
It sounds like it would be a good idea to stay away from getting paid for reviews of any type even if we owned the product or used it. That way, no one could later question whether we did the review for the right reason or not. I'd never considered before whether it would be good or not to take any pay for reviews. although, I wouldn't have written any without at least using the product before.
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
23 Oct 15
A lot of companies have manufactured their own glowing five star reviews over the years - it is nothing new but it is good that Amazon are clamping down on it
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
23 Oct 15
@MarshaMusselman some movie companies invented fake critics quotations so the posters would carry slogans like 'best film of the year' or 'un-missable' until real critics pointed out that the people quoted never existed
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Oct 15
I didn't realize that, Arthur.
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45651)
• Philippines
23 Oct 15
when searching something online i have seen many local blogs with writeups about food, restaurants, hotels, resorts, recreational places, makeup, body products, etc. they add the disclaimer that they received the items or that their visit was sponsored, but that their evaluation were still their own. i guess just take it all with a grain of salt. enough to see/know what it looks like, how much to bring, what to expect/watch out for, but the proof of the pudding is still in the tasting, and the first might be a fluke.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38652)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Oct 15
You're right on that, disclaimers can still be not as they appear to be as some think they are being honest, but just may not be telling the whole truth all the time in this regard and think it's okay to withhold information to get the job done.
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
22 Oct 15
I think if you have actually received the product and tried it yes of course reviews are genuine. But if one has never had the product, now can one write a review?
2 people like this
@bookbar (1609)
• Sudbury, England
22 Oct 15
There are many people making a decent living on Fiverr, which has been around a very long time, and on which you can virtually buy whole hosts of underground needs, 'likes,followers,tweets, kind of 'legal spam', companies know it happens, but have yet to find the way of stopping....so no Reviews may not always be what they seem.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21737)
• Canada
22 Oct 15
I tend to read all the reviews, then try to look at the balance.
2 people like this
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
23 Oct 15
I know there are paid reviews this is why I don't trust reviews.
@inedible (768)
• Singapore
22 Oct 15
I heard about that. Makes it hard to trust reviews sometimes. I don't think Amazon could be held accountable for user reviews, but I'm guessing they want to avoid false reviews hurting the customers' faith in their site. And I doubt they enjoy having to deal with customer complaints when the products don't work as promised too.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
23 Oct 15
I would never write reviews for money. I have always objected to this kind of writing. I will only review products I have used or books I have read. I take most reviews with a grain of salt.
@Sheilamarie78 (2586)
• Canada
22 Oct 15
That's too bad people are writing book reviews for money without even having read the book. It's so hard to get your book noticed and I can imagine someone wanting to get reviews somehow. I can't imagine that a review of a book by someone who hadn't even read it, though, would be helpful.
1 person likes this
@just4him (306079)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
23 Oct 15
I heard about it too, but didn't know which site they were suing.
@vickyrose (2235)
• Cooma, Australia
22 Oct 15
I am a critical thinker and do not always rely my decisions on reviews.
1 person likes this
