You mean the 5-star reviews which state that Product X is amazing, and the reviewer would buy it again, recommend it to their friends and purchase all future products made by that company... Are fake?
Kidding aside, it's horrible. I find myself going to other sites for reviews (NewEgg is a good one), then buying on Amazon. Crappy of me, I suppose. But they've hooked me with Prime.
There are a lot of reviews i read that don't make any sense at all, like they were generated by some algorithm and the review fails to say anything even remotely meaningful. I always wonder where those reviews come from and they always have like 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful instantly the minute the review is written.
I love and use Amazon all the time. but there are so many weird things about it.
Sometimes I buy something thinking it's from Amazon, but it's not, it's from another seller, and sometimes the product is not "mint." It seems like it was opened before and put back in and there are finger prints all over it or something that is "slightly" off like a tiny dent.
I feel like there's definitely room for something better.
I doubt fake reviews could be eliminated without making everything suck. Don't believe everything you read. At least with popular items a sort of consensus emerges.
Honestly, reviews everywhere run the risk of being fake. Amazon, Target, YouTube, App Store, Yelp, Zagat, etc. Caveat emptor.
I do read the negative Amazon reviews, though. I'm also finding myself looking at their customer-submitted photos to get a better sense of size+function, and checking on YouTube for reviews as well. I'd rather get a review of a radiator thermostat from a guy that has reviewed a few of them (and posted videos of them all) than trust a bunch of 50-word reviews anywhere else.
