[HN Gopher] Amazon suspends popular electronics manufacturer for...
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       Amazon suspends popular electronics manufacturer for buying reviews
        
       Author : stickfigure
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2021-06-18 19:58 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
        
       | pyentropy wrote:
       | What stops a company from buying fake reviews for their
       | competitors listings?
       | 
       | Every time I read about businesses getting banned on FAANG
       | listings due to SEO tricks, I get extremely concerned about the
       | other side: how easy it is for a third party to get someone
       | innocent banned.
        
         | dalbasal wrote:
         | Dunno about Amazon, but in SEO this message is quite common.
         | Has been from the start.
        
         | orev wrote:
         | If you read the article you would know that the issue was them
         | including offers for gift cards in the box you received after
         | making a purchase, in exchange for posting a review. This is
         | not the same thing as buying reviews posted to the product
         | pages.
        
       | client4 wrote:
       | My greater suspicion is that Amazon will soon come out with
       | similar "basics" products that cover 95% of banned products.
        
       | runnr_az wrote:
       | My TaoTronics headphones weren't amazing, but they're pretty
       | solid for the price.
        
       | adamfeldman wrote:
       | RAVPower, Vava, TaoTronics today - Aukey, MPow in May - these are
       | all brands whose names I search for when buying electronics,
       | because I've had mostly great experiences with their products.
       | 
       | TIL they operate their own DTC sites (of course). Will give those
       | a try next time.
        
         | odensc wrote:
         | My experience with RAVPower products has been great as well,
         | but last time I ordered they literally put a card in the box
         | saying "get a $35 gift card for giving us a 5-star review." I'm
         | surprised it took this long for Amazon to do anything.
        
           | adamfeldman wrote:
           | I also saw that recently from one of these brands. The review
           | prompt cards have definitely gotten more aggressive over the
           | years.
           | 
           | ~2016 I worked for an Amazon Marketplace seller - avoiding
           | the banhammer was our biggest priority, having been banned
           | once because a unisex fragrance (perfume) we sold "smelled
           | too masculine" and therefore the customer told Amazon it was
           | counterfeit.
        
         | iudqnolq wrote:
         | I bought from Aukey directly and got a box from Amazon, so I
         | went back to ordering from Amazon directly.
        
       | dirtyid wrote:
       | Wonder if they're going to rebrand. MPOW got the can earlier, I
       | was a big fan of their products. Obviously reviewing buying
       | works, but they were generally pretty fantastic with no question
       | RMAs and service.
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-18 23:02 UTC)