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Amazon rejects reviews that mention price comparisons

By Dan8267   Follow   Mon, 2 Apr 2012, 11:32am   2,012 views   20 comments
In Boca Raton FL 33433   Watch (0)   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike  

No where on Amazon's Review Guidelines does it say that price comparisons are not allowed, yet Amazon prevents its users from sharing this information and doing comparison shopping. Shame on you Amazon. This lowers our trust in your reviews. Cherry picking reviews is not a basis for trust.

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LRMGX2 Edge Energy Shave Gel-Vault-7 oz
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3.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced, April 1, 2012
By Anonymous (Boca Raton, FL)

This review is from: Edge Energy Shave Gel-Vault-7 oz (Health and Beauty)
$3.75 here vs $2.95 at local supermarket. That's a 26% markup. And that's excluding shipping. With shipping it's $6.52 vs $2.95, or a 121% markup. Best to buy this at your local supermarket.

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1. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 249 threads 4,739 comments

   1   11:49am Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (2)   I've stopped reading reviews, and as well as comments on News sites. Both are paid for services, and are controlled by third party systems to sanitize what is said. And if nobody sings the right song by the end of the day. They have copy writers on the payroll to oblige. http://performinsider.com/2012/03/controversy-over-blogging-for-pay/ You can not say what you want on CNN with out it being sanitized. Especially if the article was kicking a company in a positive spin. You may how ever get as colorful as you like if it is an article on GWB, or the GOP.

2. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,191 threads 6,158 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA

   2   1:34pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Can Patrick.net help? I would love for this site to be known as the source for uncontrolled and uncensored reviews for anything.

3. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

   3   2:24pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Patrick says Can Patrick.net help? I would love for this site to be known as the source for uncontrolled and uncensored reviews for anything. Any site can become a review site. The problem is making sure the reviews are legit and not some marketer trying to game the system. When looking at Amazon reviews, I only consider those that are written by people who have reviewed a wide range of products and have given both good and bad ratings. Usually marketers are easy to spot by humans, but hard to spot by automation. You could do a price comparison site. Let people submit the UPC, via photo, or URL of a product and the prices they saw and when. It would be a lot of work to set up the crowdsourcing and data entry mechanism to make it easy. I'd check to see if anyone else is doing this first though, which someone probably is, and see if you want to compete with them and offer something more useful. It's not so much the work involved, but the time. All problems are solvable if you have the time to think about them and develop a solution.

4. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 249 threads 4,739 comments

   4   2:50pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (2)   I never read reviews from etailers. I look for forum posts, in forums, and posts are engaged by other members. I would take a review written by any member here, more seriously than I would from those at comparison sites.

5. Vicente Follow Befriend (8) 204 threads 4,415 comments Davis, CA

   5   2:55pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   It would be nice to find a review site that was worthwhile. Amazon, Newegg, they are ALL untrustworthy. There are only levels of badness. I don't even look at the number of stars, I just read the text and try my best. There's a whole bunch of commercial review sites already which are garbage and pollute up web-search results also.

6. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,191 threads 6,158 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA

   6   5:33pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Dan8267 says The problem is making sure the reviews are legit and not some marketer trying to game the system. I don't mind if marketers post crap. The really valuable reviews are the negative reviews. It's hard to game the system pointing out flaws and price comparisons.

7. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,191 threads 6,158 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA

   7   5:35pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   CaptainShuddup says I would take a review written by any member here, more seriously than I would from those at comparison sites. I'm hoping the Open House Reviews forum will provide a nice counter-balance to the realtor fluff. Please consider reviewing a property near yourself.

8. elliemae Follow Befriend (25) 413 threads 6,983 comments Saint George, UT elliemae's website

   8   10:49pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Patrick says Can Patrick.net help? I would love for this site to be known as the source for uncontrolled and uncensored reviews for anything. Review for Elliemae: She is lovely to look at and amazingly great in the kitchen, if you'll discount that little accident where she attempted to dig the toast out of the toaster with a fork. Her hair is still curly, but we love the little gal. Of course, she is missing a hand after reaching into the blender to see what made it go around & around... she should have shut it off first, but she grew up in the sticks and didn't understand the whole electricity making it go whirly-whirly.... I'd buy me one of them thar elliemaes, if only she was for sale.

9. Kevin Follow Befriend 40 threads 2,652 comments

   9   11:57pm Mon 2 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Amazon is not a product review website, they're a retailer. They have no obligation to let people promote their competitors. Every online retailer that I'm aware of prohibits reviews that promote their competition, even if in vague terms. That said, Amazon's reviews are highly skewed by spammers. There are companies in China and India who will write reviews for about a dollar each. The companies who do this are clever, always staying within Amazon's guidelines, but their main goals are to steer you away from competitor's products.

10. zzyzzx Follow Befriend (9) 416 threads 4,137 comments Baltimore, MD

    10   7:49am Tue 3 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I would say that you need to comparison shop before buying at Amazon and yes I read the reviews on Amazon and do get good information from them.

11. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    11   10:56am Tue 3 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Kevin says Amazon is not a product review website, they're a retailer. They have no obligation to let people promote their competitors. And I have no obligation not to point out that their reviews are cherry picked. It's about trust. A company can reject honest reviews, but then it loses the trust of its customers. Given that word of mouth is the most important promotional tool on the Internet, companies that destroy trust in reviews might just come out on the wrong side of the cost-benefit tradeoff. Amazon went to great lengths to promote customer reviews as a means of increasing sales. But if they aren't honest in letting legitimate reviews go through, including ones that meet every standard they publish, then they should lose that avenue of sales leads.

12. elliemae Follow Befriend (25) 413 threads 6,983 comments Saint George, UT elliemae's website

    12   7:13pm Tue 3 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Hey - no one wants to buy an elliemae? clean, one owner. well, slightly used & abused, but with attitude that's sure to please.

13. drew_eckhardt Follow Befriend (1) 2 threads 324 comments Sunnyvale, CA

    13   11:15pm Tue 3 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Dan8267 says This review is from: Edge Energy Shave Gel-Vault-7 oz (Health and Beauty) $3.75 here vs $2.95 at local supermarket. That's a 26% markup. And that's excluding shipping. With shipping it's $6.52 vs $2.95, or a 121% markup. Best to buy this at your local supermarket. To be pedantic and play devil's advocate: Driving to the local Target costs me $4 at current IRS rates (grocery stores with a good selection are farther and more expensive) and my incremental shipping cost is $0 with Amazon Prime which would make the total cost $3.75 versus $6.95 locally for a $3.20 savings. At my last billable contracting rate it would be tens of dollars less expensive. I have my TP, paper towels, soap, shampoo, conditioner, Clif bars all delivered by on-line retailers. It's arguably less expensive and worth the hassle.

14. elliemae Follow Befriend (25) 413 threads 6,983 comments Saint George, UT elliemae's website

    14   8:01am Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Amazon will allow other reviews:

15. FortWayne Follow Befriend (13) 103 threads 3,764 comments

    15   8:21am Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Dan you don't make much sense here. I wouldn't let you put an ad on my shop for my competitor and their prices either. And I'm sure amazon reviews aren't meant for someone to do their free marketing. Both my wife and I have left reviews on products sold at amazon, good and bad, and they all were fine.

16. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    16   8:47am Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   drew_eckhardt says At my last billable contracting rate If you have to go to the grocery store anyway for food, it's a wash.

17. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    17   8:50am Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   FortWayne says Dan you don't make much sense here. I wouldn't let you put an ad on my shop for my competitor and their prices either. And that would be fine if they openly stated it on their Review Guidelines, but they don't. This implies that they do not censor reviews. In fact, Amazon goes out of its way to convince potential customers that it does not censor negative reviews. And so they are being dishonest. Sure, they are allowed to do this. There's no law against dishonesty. But I have the right to expose this dishonesty and make Amazon reconsider whether or not it's more profitable to be dishonest. It's hard to keep secrets on the Internet.

18. elliemae Follow Befriend (25) 413 threads 6,983 comments Saint George, UT elliemae's website

    18   9:44am Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Dan, I don't think Amazon cares whether or not you're pissed off over a few dollars. IMHO, of course.

19. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    19   9:49am Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I wouldn't say I'm pissed off, but I am disappointed in Amazon. And it's not the price, after all it's a 3rd party seller, not Amazon anyway. I'm disappointed in the lack of honesty. I'd like to be able to have some level of confidence in the review process.

20. zzyzzx Follow Befriend (9) 416 threads 4,137 comments Baltimore, MD

    20   11:33am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   http://www.amazon.com/Dremel-575-Right-Attachment-Rotary/product-reviews/B00005AXI0/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 You can get it for $19.99 at The Home Depot