News Belkin in "astroturfing" furore

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2009/01/19/belkin-in-astroturfing-furore/1

Belkin has been caught paying people to write fake five-star reviews of its products on shopping websites including Amazon and Buy.com.

 

Belkin = overpriced crap IMO

 

While I think it (and a lot of "PR" in general if I'm honest) is pretty digusting, I don't suppose we'll be able to stop them anytime soon.

 

tbh, I've never really bothered reading product reviews on shopping sites - they either tend be out and out praise, people complaining that they can't get the product to work or people flaming everyone else for being a retard.

I'd much rather rely on reviews from trusted sources, such as bit or TR.

 

agreed.

 

Well said. I was going to say before I scrolled down and saw your post; it's one more reason to visit a proper review site, such as Bit or TR.

 

Thirded on the not paying attention to Amazon reviews and relying on trusted sources.

Kind of ridiculous that a large manufacturer would try something like this though.

 

Sometimes they can be useful, like in cases where you are trying to buy something that has not undergone an 'offical' review somwhere, but as proved by this affair, they must always taken with a healthy dose of skepticism as well.

 

I'm not really suprised. Reviews on shops are crap anyway. I'm pretty sure www.overclockers.co.uk will delete any product review if it's negative or it's 3 stars or under.

 

Huh, why was I never offered a bribe?

 

I only ever read negative reviews, to be honest.

Fltering through the ones that are PEBKAC, I find the negative ones speak volumes more than the reviews praising it.

Unless it's from an impartial, professional reviewer/review site.

 

Damn!

I sometimes looked for these reviews when browsing for various items that I hadn't seen reviewed elswhere, I'll be more suspicious in future.

Oh and I agree that a lot of the reviews do degenerate into a flame war between people calling each other retards, I just assumed it was more likely to be pre-pubescent teenies baiting each other. Trouble is you seem to get that everywhere now.

PS Shame on you Belkin, but even Sony were caught out posting fake reviews so would it be easier to ask if there are any companies that haven't done something similar?

 

I do read reviews from sites such as amazon when I'm buying something, but i do look for professional reviews also. These kind of sites are not to be fully trusted because of things like this, but i have found that some times they tend to give you more specific details on some of the functions that you're looking for. Just keep in mind that not all you read on the net is 100% accurate and you should be fine.

 

Now how badly will this backfire, how many people will now liberally scatter 1 star reviews across amazon and mark positive reviews as unhelpful?

 

The idiocy of that sales exec beggars belief.

I mean how stupid do you have to be to post that kind of job request on the internet? Pretty stupid.

In any case, as liratheal said, the negative ones are usually worth reading, if the website gives you an option to filter them. All well and good to say just use sites like bit-tech, but opting to buy, say, a 4870 from a website, you know the card is good from reviews but you don't know what the bundle includes, how many slots the cooler is going to take up etc.

Basically, they can be useful. I'd just advise reading the 5 star ones.

 

No surprises really, and this is why I am also going to have to echo "Flibblebot"'s comment.
Proper tech review sites is where its at.

 

Ouch - named, shamed, blamed and flamed.

 

Honestly, tech review sites are useful, but only to a certain extent. If you want to know how well something will perform or ease of use, places like bit-tech are great, but if you want to know if something is going to implode after 3 months reading negative reviews is where its at.

 

100% A++++++++++++ RECOMMENDED PRODUCT I WOULD BUY 10,000 AGAIN WITHOUT HESITATION.

But seriously, I've found their stuff to be mostly okay. Everybody has to pay bills so nobody is truly neutral.

 

I always thought it's the shops faking the reviews in the shops and not the manufacturers since negative ones disapear "magically" in many shops to not impact sales.