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jimmyca
Community Member

Reviews as research

I have a client who thinks Amazon customer product reviews are a good resource to validate a product. I NEVER use Amazon reviews because too many posts are misleading. As a shopper, I've been offered upgrades and discounts to say something good about a product even if I haven't used it. My inclination is to tell them to find another writer. This is after I 'thought' I clearly explained why I do not do that. Instead, I use research from data about the company through other resources. Has anyone else encountered this issue? How did you handle it?

18 REPLIES 18
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Jimmy C wrote:

I have a client who thinks Amazon customer product reviews are a good resource to validate a product. I NEVER use Amazon reviews because too many posts are misleading. As a shopper, I've been offered upgrades and discounts to say something good about a product even if I haven't used it. My inclination is to tell them to find another writer. This is after I 'thought' I clearly explained why I do not do that. Instead, I use research from data about the company through other resources. Has anyone else encountered this issue? How did you handle it?


Not sure what your question is and how it pertains to the upwork community forum. 

kbadeau
Community Member

Show them some of the 5736 reviews for the banana slicer and say you won't use it, but only if you haven't accepted an offer yet.

 

November 5, 2017

Verified Purchase
I was sitting on the couch and my doorbell rang. I leapt off the sofa and ran to the door screaming, “My banana slicer!” I opened the package and immediately snatched a banana to slice. Without instructions included I did not realize I had to peel the banana first. It was a gooey mess and I had to grab another. This time I peeled it, but my banana was too small. It didn’t fill the whole slicer.
I went to Walmart Customer Service, “Do you have any giant bananas?” I questioned. The attendant turned away. I think he was laughing. He called for another attendant, they went to the back, and brought out the biggest bananas I’ve ever seen.
I went home with the bananas. I peeled the bananas and used the banana slicer. It was so satisfying to cut the bananas. I did it all day and forgot to go to work.
I got a call from my boss. “You’re fired!” he screamed into the phone.
I cried. I am no longer Jake from State Farm. I am now just Jake.

Thanks for sending me to that banana slicer page...there is so much comedy gold there...Event the Q&A section is just filled with hillarity

I'm in tears laguing here

 

jr-translation
Community Member


Jimmy C wrote:

I have a client who thinks Amazon customer product reviews are a good resource to validate a product. I NEVER use Amazon reviews because too many posts are misleading. As a shopper, I've been offered upgrades and discounts to say something good about a product even if I haven't used it. My inclination is to tell them to find another writer. This is after I 'thought' I clearly explained why I do not do that. Instead, I use research from data about the company through other resources. Has anyone else encountered this issue? How did you handle it?


It violates the Amazon ToS to pay for reviews. Accepting a job that violates ToS (Amazon or any other website) violates the Upwork ToS. Report the client.

 


It violates the Amazon ToS to pay for reviews. Accepting a job that violates ToS (Amazon or any other website) violates the Upwork ToS. Report the client.


I don't think that's what he means. He's probably talking about a writing gig that involves writing reviews of products using Amazon reviews as research

 

At least, that's the impression I got. 

 

As to the OP, you can choose to take the job or not. You can also choose to accept the advice, or not. My clients always have some sort of advice for me. I don't usually take it, because they hired me to do a thing. They didn't hire me to give me advice. As long as I do the thing they want to the specifications they're looking for, it's all good. 

 

 

colettelewis
Community Member


Jimmy C wrote:

I have a client who thinks Amazon customer product reviews are a good resource to validate a product. I NEVER use Amazon reviews because too many posts are misleading. As a shopper, I've been offered upgrades and discounts to say something good about a product even if I haven't used it. My inclination is to tell them to find another writer. This is after I 'thought' I clearly explained why I do not do that. Instead, I use research from data about the company through other resources. Has anyone else encountered this issue? How did you handle it?


______________________________

 

Amazon had a serious crackdown on false reviews and it is also against Upwork's ToS. So if you are getting offers from clients to write them, then you ought to report them and refuse to do them. 


Nichola L wrote:

 

Amazon had a serious crackdown on false reviews 


That's their PR BS. Behind the scenes, they don't care. At best.

 

 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

If they did crack down I certainly hope someone saved the reviews for the Three Wolves shirt and the Drum of Lube.

 

If you ever need a pick-me-up just go peruse some of those. 😄


Rene K wrote:

Nichola L wrote:

 

Amazon had a serious crackdown on false reviews 


That's their PR BS. Behind the scenes, they don't care. At best.

 

_______________________

 

Maybe they don't. But you should stop acting devil's advocate, because it encourages people to write false reviews and by extension,to think that writing university course work for lazy students is also acceptable. Our moral standards should not be affected any corporate group that preaches one thing and practices another. 


 

There is a lot of talk in this thread about writing reviews for Amazon.

But keep in mind the original post is not about writing reviews.

 

As Sarah pointed out, the original poster was not being asked to write an Amazon.com product review, and the job posting in question does not violate Upwork or Amazon TOS.

 

The original poster was wondering if he could refuse to compile research using Amazon reviews. That is something that neither Amazon nor Upwork has any rule against. But of course no freelancer is obligated to follow any specific research technique.

 

Of course the answer to the original poster's question is simple: If you don't want to utilize Amazon.com product reviews as part of your research or validation reports, then explain to the client why you do not do so. Verify whether or not he wants to continue to work with you while you provide the type of research that you ARE accustomed to providing.

 

I would tell the client that he is welcome to hire other freelancers to do the type of research that utilizes Amazon.com reviews.

 

Both Amazon.com and Upwork explicitly prohibit writing fake product reviews, which means that both Amazon.com and Upwork are trying to facilitate the quality and legitimacy of Amazon.com reviews. So these companies WANT consumers to be able to trust and use Amazon.com reviews. If Amazon.com did not expect consumers to use their product reviews in making buying decisions, then the company would not invest so heavily in hosting and safeguarding the validity of their review system.

I suppose it is possible to "compile research" based on false reviews - a dodgy practice. 

re: "I suppose it is possible to 'compile research' based on false reviews - a dodgy practice."

 

The original poster agrees.

 

Amazon.com hopes that people will trust its product reviews, but the OP doesn't believe product reviews on that site are reliable enough for the type of product validation research that he conducts.

The OPs client likely hires writers for affiliate pages, where there is an "article" describing a product or family of products ("The 5 best potato slicers for 2020" or similar) which has affiliate links to Amazon. Rather than buying a number of slicers (or whatever) for the writers the idea would be that the writer finds some positive and maybe one negative point about each product.

 

Ultimately such articles are kinda fake too if the writer has never clapped eyes on the products.

 

kbadeau
Community Member

Now I keep getting emails from amazon because they think I actually wanted to buy a banana slicer. Smiley LOL

To me, the only reasonable thing to do about Amazon is to .... (your guess). If you need a good reason to get started, just read about that company in Jessica Bruder's Nomadland.

And yes, being on Upwork makes you aware of the main reason you should never trust reviews. Upwork is a eye opener about reviews, not just on Amazon.

 

 

I look at Amazon reviews, but not in the way most people might. 

If I'm looking for a tech product, I go straight to the one-star reviews to find the worst complaint someone might have come up with as a result of using the product. If it blew up, caught fire or injured an animal (human or otherwise), I usually move on. You have to read the bad reviews with a grain of salt, however, because some people seem to have outlandish expectations about what things should be able to do. I also search to see if anyone had compatibility problems when using a product with their existing setup. 

Then I look at the five-star reviews. What I look for here are the dates of the good reviews. Sometimes companies change manufacturers and suppliers. So if they had a run of great reviews initially, and then things started getting weird, it might be a sign that they changed the factory that assembles the product they're selling or they've changed something in the manufacturing process (maybe they've gone with a cheaper supplier for some component or other), meaning it's not really the same product that got the good reviews in the first place.  

I use Amazon reviews all the time. As Renata pointed out, they're a great way to suss out the situation if a product was initially iffy but improved, or vice versa. I find the answered questions most informative because so many product descriptions are vague or incomplete or downright inaccurate in some way. 

 

As for using Amazon at all, the company definitely needs to be held to account for the predatory aspects of its business model. But as someone who lives in a deeply rural area, where buying most things beyond very basic groceries requires driving at least 35 miles each way, I would be well and truly stranded without Amazon.

Phyllis, what I do is I look for the product I need to buy on Amazon. I get the name of one of their sellers and see if they have a site. If they do, I order direct from them.

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