Buzzillions Blogs

It’s been reported by a number of websites (CrunchGear,  Slashdot) in the past few days that Belkin, maker of audio, video and computer cables, wireless networking devices and similar products has been paying people to write favorable reviews of their products on Amazon.  A Belkin employee used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service to pay people .65 cents to write positive reviews and discount negative reviews.   Did writers of the reviews actually have to own the product?  No.  Have used the product?  Again, no.  In fact, looking at the instructions to those willing to lie for .65 cents, fiction was highly encouraged.  “Tell a story of why you bought it and how you are using it.”  A story indeed.  Not only did the instructions include giving products a 100% rating but also encouraged writers to mark other negative reviews as “not helpful”.   Yikes.

This scandal of course caught our eye because here at Buzzillions, we are in the business of product reviews.  Inauthentic product reviews would kill credibility, with our company’s death sure to follow.  It’s particualrly troubling that Belkin, instead of reading honest complaints about their products, and then using those reviews to make product improvements, they instead chose to try and kill the bad reviews.  Surely this is a bad long term strategy.

You may be asking at this point  how Buzzillions can be sure no manufacturers are gaming our system.  While nothing is foolproof, this scandal has been a reminder to us how valuable our “Verified Buyer” system is.  Verified Buyer reviews on Buzzillions, are reviews that have been tagged as being from customers who actually bought the product.  How do we know this?  Our retail partners generally send follow-up emails to purchasers of their products, asking them to write a review.  When customers follow this link in an email, our system knows they actually bought the product and used it.  Imagine that, reviews from people who actually own the product.

Further, we have actual moderators (real live people) looking at every review that passes through our system.  And we are always on the lookout for suspcious reviews (those that might have come from manufacturers or seem to be consistently knocking competitor products.)  While nothing is foolproof, we’re absolutely committed to reviews that are honest and authentic.  It’s unfortunate when a company like Belkin, and by extention, Amazon, tolerates such shady practices.