Reviewing Amazon Products

Discussion in 'Online Retailers' started by Yvonne Smith, Jul 1, 2016.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    As some of you might remember; I have been getting products from a website called Elite Deals, that come with a discount coupon which makes testing the product almost free. Every day, they have a lisst of products online, and you just look through the list and see if there is anything that youu would like to try.
    Our last adventure was a water purifier system that lists at a little under $200; but Amazon has for under $50.
    With the coupon discount, we got ours for $15 , and now they have them for only $10.

    Anyway, here is my question, and I am hoping that someone here might have an answer for me. Since I started buying these coupon items and writing the reviews on Amazon, I have also started getting emails that appear to be from other amazon sellers , asking me if I would like to try their product and write a review.

    As an example, today, I just received an email asking if I wanted to test a set of solar motion-activated yard lights. They show a link to their company on Amazon, which lists the light at retail $60, Amazon price of $18. I can get the lights for $2 , to test and write a review.
    I am going to write to Amazon and ask if these offers are legitimate or if they are some kind of scam; but I also thought that maybe @Ken Anderson , or someone else who buys a lot from Amazon might have had some experience with this.
    If this is actually legitimate, then I would like to get some of these products and review them. One of the links that I checked out for a backpack did say "be the first to review this item"; but I am not sure if that was asking for product testers, or just for someone who purchased the item to write a review.
    Does anyone know about how this works and whether it is legitimate or not ?
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have no experience with it, but I do know that people are often offered products at large discounts in return for a review on Amazon.com. I have also seen that these reviews do not have to be complimentary.
     
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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Here is a screenshot of one of the offers that I just received today.
    I have been getting these kinds of emails for a month or so now, basically since I joined the Elite Deals . At first, I just thought that someone was trying to "sell" me their ED coupon code, and one offer asked me to pay them for the product, if I remember right. I think they said I had to paypal them the $2 (or whatever) and then they would send me the discount code.
    This looked pretty fraudluent to me, and I have been deleting all of the similar emails since then.

    After writing my first post here, I also emailed Amazon and asked them if sellers do legitimately ask people to test the products, via an email.
    I also wrote to the purported seller and asked them to send me the tester discount code. If they send me the code, then I will use it and see if it works to purchase the product. If they ask me to send money, then I am still going to believe it is a scam !

    image.png
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I can't speak to any particular offer but have come across several reviews that stated that the reviewer had purchased the product at a substantial discount for the purpose of writing a review, and have also noticed some of these reviews were nevertheless uncomplimentary. There may be scams claiming the same thing, but there is also a legitimate way to do this. My impression though, was that it was done through Amazon.com, and that it was offered to people who had high ratings on reviews that they had done.
     
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  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Here is my update thus far. I heard back from Amazon customer service, and they really didn't address the question at all. they just said that sellers are allowed to give discounts for reviews, which we already know is true. People who order with the Elite Deals website do just that, we get huge discounts, and write a review.
    So anyway, the seller (?) wrote back to me with a discount code for the solar lights, and I used the code and bought the solar lights. The code worked fine; so I paid $2 for a nice set of solar lights and we can put them out in the yard or in the driveway.
    I received another one that was for a set of virtual reality glasses, and that one came with the code to buy them, and the email was the same as the seller; so I am sure that one was legit. It is looking like the offers are real, and not scams.
    I don't have any need for VR glasses, so I am skipping those; but if anyone here wants to try them, I will give you the discount code.
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    So, I keep getting these amazing offers every day now. I have finally learned why I am getting them !
    One of the companies which wrote to me with a discount offer mentioned that I am in the "top 10,000" Amazon reviewers.
    Now, that doesn't even sound really great to me; but I am not sure where in that list I am at.
    Apparently, it is high enough up on the list that the sellers now want me to write reviews for their products.
    Some of the items are things that we don't need, so I will not waste money buying them even at a discount, and some of the discounts are only 10-20% off, so not that great of a savings in any case.

    However, it did motivate me to spend this evening writing more reviews on all of the products that we have purchased recently, in hopes that some of those sellers will ask me to review their products.
    I figured that the things that we buy and review should be the kinds of products that sellers would ask me to try, although I do not know if that holds true , or not.
    But, at least now I know why I have all of the offers, and that it is not some sort of a scam. Now, I am actually looking forward to reading through the possibilities each day to see what new things are being offered !
    What started me having such an interest in reviewing products was wanting to be invited to Amazon Vine, which is where Amazon actually offers you products to try. You have to qualify as a good reviewer before they will invite you to the program, so I have been trying hard to write a review for each item we purchase from Amazon.
     
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  7. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I just got an email that today is Amazon Prime Deal Day where new deals pop up every 5 minutes I think.

    https://www.amazon.com/ref=pe_319940_199978960_btn

    I didn't even look at what's offered because I just don't need anything, only time I look on Amazon is when it's Christmas or Birthday time for the grandsons.
     
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  8. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I used to read reviews before I bought anything but lately I'm seeing on Amazon where after a review it says "verified" purchase, so that means on other reviews people maybe haven't bought it are just doing a review for money. I've seen where people can do that.

    I'm not saying this about you Yvonne, I know you try something and give it an honest review but many don't.

    Now I just kind of look at how many stars and read a few pro and con reviews and that's about it. I can always usually return something if it sucked.

    Half the time I notice on restaurant reviews, the negative reviewer had an axe to grind for some reason.
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    You are exactly right about some of these reviews on Amazon, @Chrissy Page . I have looked at reviews where one person had copied and pasted another person's review, word for word !
    Obviously, they were only doing it for some benefit to themselves, and not because they had something to say about the product, good or bad.
    Mostly, I do about the same as you, I will read a few of the reviews, both the good and bad ones, to see what they are saying to expect from this product.
    You can expect that some people are going to get one that doesn't work right, or falls apart right away; but if several people are giving the same complaint, then I tend to think that this could be a definite problem with this item.
    On the other hand, I also understand the sellers wanting to give some people a good buy in exchange for getting reviews. I have seen products that have no reviews, and I am sure those do not sell as well as ones that people are buying and reviewing.
    Since we order from Amazon all of the time, and I love saving money on things we use and need; I am happy to keep writing reviews and getting discounts on products. My email is a lot more interesting now ! !
     
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  10. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I agree on the no reviews products, I seldom will buy it. I'm actually talking more about the way my daughter shops because I'm not a big shopper anymore.

    She's big on reviews and won't buy anything until she's researched it plus compared prices everywhere.

    I remember Christmas shopping with her for the boys. Whatever she see's, she gets her ipad out of her purse and checks reviews and where it's the cheapest.

    She spends a lot of money at stores but she's also a very smart shopper.

    Although she would be considered a millionaire if you include all their assets, I bet she will get something for a better price than anyone. Well, maybe not you Yvonne. :)
    An example is the juicer she wanted. She did research on which type is the best for getting the most nutrition out of veggies and then when she decided she wanted a masticator, she watched all the stores that carried it and she has alerts set up with this and with everything she buys, after about a month she finally bought it for what she considered a good price.

    I can't even explain the research that goes into her shopping method but it's
    Quite amazing. I think she enjoys this more than dentistry....in fact I'm 100% sure she does.
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have done some reviews on products that I bought elsewhere, and then came across the same product on Amazon.com but I do give more weight toward reviews from verified purchases.
     
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  12. Mari North

    Mari North Veteran Member
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    Same answer for me. I used to check reviews before buying anything at all... if it didn't have at least 4.5 stars, I looked for something that did. When I started reading about paid reviews and deep discounts for reviews, I just stopped looking. It didn't appear honest to me. Sure a paid or discounted reviewer is free to give bad reviews, but I have also heard around the blogosphere that people wouldn't generally give bad reviews even for lousy products because they were afraid it would lessen their chances for more free or cheap products. Ruined the whole concept for me.

    What I do now is look for reviews on what I want to buy *elsewhere*.... I still buy at Amazon, but if Sears or Lowe's or another retailer has vastly different reviews, I'm always glad to be aware of that.
     
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  13. Mari North

    Mari North Veteran Member
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    :D Smart lady, that daughter! My best friend is mega wealthy, too, and he's the same way. I teased him once about it saying "good gracious, millionaires don't need to worry about picking up nickels on the ground and shopping around for lowest prices!" He said "Ask Warren Buffet about that... multi millionaires wouldn't *be* rich if they *wouldn't* do those things!" It stuck. And he was right.
     
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  14. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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  15. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    She's not mega wealthy :) and she still spends money but at least it's a lot less than she would normally spend had she not done her research.
     
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