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Have you ever wondered how cheap, no-name products on Amazon can amass hundreds, sometimes thousands, of near-perfect ratings, with just a handful of negative reviews?
Here’s one way: Some sellers reach out to disgruntled buyers to review or remove their negative reviews, in exchange for refunds or gift cards. With fewer disgruntled buyers, the overall average rating goes up.
Sellers who ship products through Amazon are not expected to contact customers outside of the official Amazon channel. In fact, this is a violation of the terms they agree to on the retail platform.
In March, New Yorker Katherine Scott chose an oil spray for cooking, based on nearly 1,000 rave reviews from Amazon for the product, which received an average of 4.5 stars. When the $ 10 sprayer arrived, she found the item did not perform as advertised: instead of a mist, it produced a jet of oil, she said. “It was like a Super Soaker gun instead of a spray paint spray, which defeats the purpose of the product,” she said. She left a negative review.
A week later, Ms. Scott received an email from someone claiming to be on the customer service team for the oil sprayer brand, Auxtun — correspondence that I have reviewed.
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