Amazon Stands For Freedom!

[PoliticalChic]

Love that company attitude....it understands the importance of customer reviews of the products it sells.....
...and free speech.



1. "Company That Threatened to Sue Negative Reviewer Just Lost Its Amazon Account

2. Earlier this week, a man took to Reddit asking for legal advice, saying a law firm was threatening to sue him for writing a negative review about an Internet router.

3. ....Mediabridge, through the law firm, claimed that the review contained several assertions that were "false, defamatory, libelous, and slanderous." The reviewer claimed the company faked positive reviews and stole the design of their product from another company.

4. Companies have been able to successfully sue over false online reviews in the past.

5. Leaders at Mediabridge now say that Amazon has revoked the company's seller account, preventing the sale of Mediabridge products on Amazon.com—....

6. Mediabridge still defends the actions it took against the Amazon user, who had originally claimed the company was bullying him and threatening to sue for a simple negative review.

7. "This was done in the most public forum, and in the very spot where our products are displayed," the company continued in a statement. "It would be like seeing a sign at a Ford dealership, right next to a Mustang that says, 'This car was made with child labor.' "

8. For Mediabridge, it is "within our rights to take steps to protect our reputation" when "an army attacks us on the Internet."

But that "army" might have just cost Mediabridge its future."
Company That Threatened to Sue Negative Reviewer Just Lost Its Amazon Account - NationalJournal.com




Mediabridge.....Sounds a lot like the efforts of a certain political party.....

And, remember this attempt to silence opposition voices:

"Sources: White House told insurance execs to keep quiet on Obamacare"
Sources: White House told insurance execs to keep quiet on Obamacare - CNN.com

 

[Zander]

I think Amazon did the right thing.

Mediabridge totally overplayed their hand. Why threaten a legal action when a simple refutation or response to the negative reviews works just as well or even better? Have you ever read a negative review on Trip Adviser? I have. The way that the Hotel responds to the negative review can easily offset the bad review. In fact, in one case, the hotels response made me want to visit the hotel! T

Mediabridge could have turned this into a massive PR win, but instead turned it into massive FAIL. That's what happens when you use a hammer to drive in a thumbtack........

 

[PoliticalChic]

I think Amazon did the right thing.

Mediabridge totally overplayed their hand. Why threaten a legal action when a simple refutation or response to the negative reviews works just as well or even better? Have you ever read a negative review on Trip Adviser? I have. The way that the Hotel responds to the negative review can easily offset the bad review. In fact, in one case, the hotels response made me want to visit the hotel! T

Mediabridge could have turned this into a massive PR win, but instead turned it into massive FAIL. That's what happens when you use a hammer to drive in a thumbtack........

Maybe they're Liberals and couldn't help it.

 

[DGS49]

A lecturer in an MBA class of mine once use Amazon as a classic example of corporate flexibility. The original business model was a total failure. They intended to sell only books, only by mail order. They believed that by not having to pay for "bricks and mortar" they could outperform Barnes & Noble, and that the overhead savings would be sufficient to cover the higher handling costs of individual books.

But it didn't work. they lost money like crazy. And had to change their business model.

Worked out pretty will, didn't it?

 

[PoliticalChic]

A lecturer in an MBA class of mine once use Amazon as a classic example of corporate flexibility. The original business model was a total failure. They intended to sell only books, only by mail order. They believed that by not having to pay for "bricks and mortar" they could outperform Barnes & Noble, and that the overhead savings would be sufficient to cover the higher handling costs of individual books.

But it didn't work. they lost money like crazy. And had to change their business model.

Worked out pretty will, didn't it?

Actually, I was focused on a single aspect of Amazon's business: the consumer reviews.

I frequently buy from Amazon, and always us the reviews in my buying decisions.


Sometimes a review prevents a purchase.
I assume Amazon know this....yet they would not allow the company in the OP to pressure buyers from offering opinions of their products.

I love it.


It evinces a transparency that the current administration can only lie about.

 

[Chuckt]

I found some of the reviews and I believe the company was being unfairly and maliciously attacked. What do you do if a crazy person attacks your company in online reviews? You can't see the crazy person. All you can read is what they wrote.

Sellers can suffer from bad reviews. I was researching a generator and one reviewer said that the company shouldn't use plastic parts in their carburetor because the carburetor melted in their generator. I contacted a place that refurbishes them and the representative said they most likely put their generator in a box which made it overheat. People don't like the noise so they do things like use the product in a way that it wasn't meant to be used and it breaks as a result.

We have a baby monitor in the house that got bad reviews. It uses a digital signal but it works way better than the noisy analog baby monitors. A lot of the things people said about the monitor are true but it outperforms the other monitor we had.

Try this. Employ people and if you can't make a living, you have to pay unemployment because one of your avenues of revenue was shut down by some crazy person. It doesn't matter if you owe your creditors or have a bank loan and there is no peer review on bad reviews which means that every customer has a right to do a hatchet job on whomever they don't like.

I indirectly know a person who was a seller on Ebay. He told us about all the problems he had selling because the buyers gave bad reviews and were such problems.

 

[Chuckt]

I believe this was the product in question.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Medialink-Wireless-N-Broadband-Internal-Antennas/dp/B00A3YN0Z0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399983174&sr=8-1&keywords=medialink[/ame]

If you look at the oldest reviews, there wasn't a problem. What gives?

 

[PoliticalChic]

I found some of the reviews and I believe the company was being unfairly and maliciously attacked. What do you do if a crazy person attacks your company in online reviews? You can't see the crazy person. All you can read is what they wrote.

Sellers can suffer from bad reviews. I was researching a generator and one reviewer said that the company shouldn't use plastic parts in their carburetor because the carburetor melted in their generator. I contacted a place that refurbishes them and the representative said they most likely put their generator in a box which made it overheat. People don't like the noise so they do things like use the product in a way that it wasn't meant to be used and it breaks as a result.

We have a baby monitor in the house that got bad reviews. It uses a digital signal but it works way better than the noisy analog baby monitors. A lot of the things people said about the monitor are true but it outperforms the other monitor we had.

Try this. Employ people and if you can't make a living, you have to pay unemployment because one of your avenues of revenue was shut down by some crazy person. It doesn't matter if you owe your creditors or have a bank loan and there is no peer review on bad reviews which means that every customer has a right to do a hatchet job on whomever they don't like.

I indirectly know a person who was a seller on Ebay. He told us about all the problems he had selling because the buyers gave bad reviews and were such problems.

Why wouldn't every customer do the same due diligence that you did?


Are you suggesting that the 'crazy' customer be silenced?

 

[Chuckt]

I found some of the reviews and I believe the company was being unfairly and maliciously attacked. What do you do if a crazy person attacks your company in online reviews? You can't see the crazy person. All you can read is what they wrote.

Sellers can suffer from bad reviews. I was researching a generator and one reviewer said that the company shouldn't use plastic parts in their carburetor because the carburetor melted in their generator. I contacted a place that refurbishes them and the representative said they most likely put their generator in a box which made it overheat. People don't like the noise so they do things like use the product in a way that it wasn't meant to be used and it breaks as a result.

We have a baby monitor in the house that got bad reviews. It uses a digital signal but it works way better than the noisy analog baby monitors. A lot of the things people said about the monitor are true but it outperforms the other monitor we had.

Try this. Employ people and if you can't make a living, you have to pay unemployment because one of your avenues of revenue was shut down by some crazy person. It doesn't matter if you owe your creditors or have a bank loan and there is no peer review on bad reviews which means that every customer has a right to do a hatchet job on whomever they don't like.

I indirectly know a person who was a seller on Ebay. He told us about all the problems he had selling because the buyers gave bad reviews and were such problems.

Why wouldn't every customer do the same due diligence that you did?


Are you suggesting that the 'crazy' customer be silenced?

There is no avenue to correct bad reviews.

We read the health warnings on one medicine for someone. In a study, one woman said the medicine made her spit up coffee grains. Well maybe if she didn't drink coffee grains, there would be nothing to spit up but because the reviewers are honest, they have to put everything down.

I buy things off a site that sells computer products and has sales. If you read the reviews, there is nothing without problems. The problem is that people don't know how to use the product. I know a guy from computer school that knows how to fix computers and he goes to these store sales where people return products because they don't know how to use them an he gets a good deal.

If there is a manufacturing issue and manufacturing affects 2 out of 25 and you read a bad review, does that mean that it won't be a good product? The other confusing thing is that I bought a product with good reviews and a product blew as I turned it on so not all reviews are statistically representative of the truth.

Sometimes reviews are retaliation for other actions or inactions by a company.

Ask your UPS driver if he has ever delivered anything that the customer claimed has been stolen. It is called insurance fraud and lying on a review is no different than fraud and people play a lot of games.

I asked one computer seller online about the bad press they get. They said that customers steal and give them bad reviews because they make them pay for the product.
I've never had an issue with them before.

 

[Roudy]

I found some of the reviews and I believe the company was being unfairly and maliciously attacked. What do you do if a crazy person attacks your company in online reviews? You can't see the crazy person. All you can read is what they wrote.

Sellers can suffer from bad reviews. I was researching a generator and one reviewer said that the company shouldn't use plastic parts in their carburetor because the carburetor melted in their generator. I contacted a place that refurbishes them and the representative said they most likely put their generator in a box which made it overheat. People don't like the noise so they do things like use the product in a way that it wasn't meant to be used and it breaks as a result.

We have a baby monitor in the house that got bad reviews. It uses a digital signal but it works way better than the noisy analog baby monitors. A lot of the things people said about the monitor are true but it outperforms the other monitor we had.

Try this. Employ people and if you can't make a living, you have to pay unemployment because one of your avenues of revenue was shut down by some crazy person. It doesn't matter if you owe your creditors or have a bank loan and there is no peer review on bad reviews which means that every customer has a right to do a hatchet job on whomever they don't like.

I indirectly know a person who was a seller on Ebay. He told us about all the problems he had selling because the buyers gave bad reviews and were such problems.

Although there is a law against it, the issue of fake reviews is one that cannot be resolved in my opinion, and is here to stay.

As a business owner, you can do your best to flag the reviews that are suspect and have the search engine or website remove it, but if they don't, there isn't much you can do except for writing a "business owners response" after the fake review.

As a customer, you have to look at the general trend or pattern. If you see two or more people saying the same positive or negative thing about a business or product, then chances are that it's true.

I have found reviews to be exceptionally helpful on travel sites such as trip advisor, when choosing a hotel for my vacations.

 

[Roudy]

I found some of the reviews and I believe the company was being unfairly and maliciously attacked. What do you do if a crazy person attacks your company in online reviews? You can't see the crazy person. All you can read is what they wrote.

Sellers can suffer from bad reviews. I was researching a generator and one reviewer said that the company shouldn't use plastic parts in their carburetor because the carburetor melted in their generator. I contacted a place that refurbishes them and the representative said they most likely put their generator in a box which made it overheat. People don't like the noise so they do things like use the product in a way that it wasn't meant to be used and it breaks as a result.

We have a baby monitor in the house that got bad reviews. It uses a digital signal but it works way better than the noisy analog baby monitors. A lot of the things people said about the monitor are true but it outperforms the other monitor we had.

Try this. Employ people and if you can't make a living, you have to pay unemployment because one of your avenues of revenue was shut down by some crazy person. It doesn't matter if you owe your creditors or have a bank loan and there is no peer review on bad reviews which means that every customer has a right to do a hatchet job on whomever they don't like.

I indirectly know a person who was a seller on Ebay. He told us about all the problems he had selling because the buyers gave bad reviews and were such problems.

Why wouldn't every customer do the same due diligence that you did?


Are you suggesting that the 'crazy' customer be silenced?

There is no avenue to correct bad reviews.

We read the health warnings on one medicine for someone. In a study, one woman said the medicine made her spit up coffee grains. Well maybe if she didn't drink coffee grains, there would be nothing to spit up but because the reviewers are honest, they have to put everything down.

I buy things off a site that sells computer products and has sales. If you read the reviews, there is nothing without problems. The problem is that people don't know how to use the product. I know a guy from computer school that knows how to fix computers and he goes to these store sales where people return products because they don't know how to use them an he gets a good deal.

If there is a manufacturing issue and manufacturing affects 2 out of 25 and you read a bad review, does that mean that it won't be a good product? The other confusing thing is that I bought a product with good reviews and a product blew as I turned it on so not all reviews are statistically representative of the truth.

Sometimes reviews are retaliation for other actions or inactions by a company.

Ask your UPS driver if he has ever delivered anything that the customer claimed has been stolen. It is called insurance fraud and lying on a review is no different than fraud and people play a lot of games.

I asked one computer seller online about the bad press they get. They said that customers steal and give them bad reviews because they make them pay for the product.
I've never had an issue with them before.

Sometimes the bad reviews are written by competitors or their employees / friends.

 

[SteadyMercury]

There is no avenue to correct bad reviews.

There certainly is, the seller can respond to them if they are correctable or at least offer clarification.

I've seen reviews that go something along the lines of:

Reviewer: Don't stay here every day there is too much noise outside early in the morning every day
Hotel: We apologize for the disturbance. The property next door is undergoing renovation to the front of their building and expect to be completed in early May, normally the surrounding streets are very quiet

Reviewer: This game doesn't work with nVidia video cards, I have Windows 7 and an nVidia <whatever> card and all I get is a driver unsupported error
Manufacturer: Game is compatible with all nVidia cards that support DirectX 9.0, so very old video cards will not work, see our list of compatible cards here.

etc.

 

[Roudy]

There is no avenue to correct bad reviews.

There certainly is, the seller can respond to them if they are correctable or at least offer clarification.

I've seen reviews that go something along the lines of:

Reviewer: Don't stay here every day there is too much noise outside early in the morning every day
Hotel: We apologize for the disturbance. The property next door is undergoing renovation to the front of their building and expect to be completed in early May, normally the surrounding streets are very quiet

Reviewer: This game doesn't work with nVidia video cards, I have Windows 7 and an nVidia <whatever> card and all I get is a driver unsupported error
Manufacturer: Game is compatible with all nVidia cards that support DirectX 9.0, so very old video cards will not work, see our list of compatible cards here.

etc.

Most hotels will give you a meaningless boiler plate response from the hotel manager supposedly. Its up to the user to decide.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Both parties should keep Amazon's action in mind.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Most hotels will give you a meaningless boiler plate response from the hotel manager supposedly. Its up to the user to decide.

Maybe so but in example I gave I might have given second thought to booking there, but seeing their explanation for loud noise and knowing I'd be there after construction next door completed my fears would be assuaged.

Seller responded in a reasonable manner to a fair criticism, neither one is wrong but the feedback to the negative review can make a difference.

 

[Roudy]

Most hotels will give you a meaningless boiler plate response from the hotel manager supposedly. Its up to the user to decide.

Maybe so but in example I gave I might have given second thought to booking there, but seeing their explanation for loud noise and knowing I'd be there after construction next door completed my fears would be assuaged.

Seller responded in a reasonable manner to a fair criticism, neither one is wrong but the feedback to the negative review can make a difference.

That is true. Each case is different. But usually Hotels will respond with a "we appreciate your comments and we are sorry that blah blah blah, and we will look into it to remedy the situation...blah blah blah".

The pendulum is pretty drastic, some people will have had the best time of their life, and some people sound like miserable assholes who can never be made happy, that are complaining about meaningless things. Hotels also recruit people to write fake positive reviews as well.

But it's usually pretty obvious and easy to spot a real review from one that could potentially be a fake.

 

[SteadyMercury]

The pendulum is pretty drastic

Yup, you ever seen the review history where some guy is defending having purchased the $85 monster gold plated 3' HDMI cable by saying completely impossible things about how the colors are so much more vibrant now on his TV? No matter how many people try to patiently explain how digital signals work nobody can convince that guy that otherwise, he's convinced he got a great deal and the gold plating made his digital picture look better. It would be a blow to the self esteem of one who considers themselves a videophile to admit to themselves they could be wrong, so these cables are getting five stars dammit.

 

[Chuckt]

The pendulum is pretty drastic

Yup, you ever seen the review history where some guy is defending having purchased the $85 monster gold plated 3' HDMI cable by saying completely impossible things about how the colors are so much more vibrant now on his TV? No matter how many people try to patiently explain how digital signals work nobody can convince that guy that otherwise, he's convinced he got a great deal and the gold plating made his digital picture look better. It would be a blow to the self esteem of one who considers themselves a videophile to admit to themselves they could be wrong, so these cables are getting five stars dammit.

Yup.

Why all HDMI cables are the same

Expensive HDMI cables are a rip-off and offer no difference in picture quality over cheap ones. So when a salesman tries to up-sell, politely tell him he's wrong and move on with the sale.

The two dollar HDMI cables you buy off of Amazon work just as good as the gold ones.

Why all HDMI cables are the same - CNET

 

[DriftingSand]

Love that company attitude....it understands the importance of customer reviews of the products it sells.....
...and free speech.



1. "Company That Threatened to Sue Negative Reviewer Just Lost Its Amazon Account

2. Earlier this week, a man took to Reddit asking for legal advice, saying a law firm was threatening to sue him for writing a negative review about an Internet router.

3. ....Mediabridge, through the law firm, claimed that the review contained several assertions that were "false, defamatory, libelous, and slanderous." The reviewer claimed the company faked positive reviews and stole the design of their product from another company.

4. Companies have been able to successfully sue over false online reviews in the past.

5. Leaders at Mediabridge now say that Amazon has revoked the company's seller account, preventing the sale of Mediabridge products on Amazon.com—....

6. Mediabridge still defends the actions it took against the Amazon user, who had originally claimed the company was bullying him and threatening to sue for a simple negative review.

7. "This was done in the most public forum, and in the very spot where our products are displayed," the company continued in a statement. "It would be like seeing a sign at a Ford dealership, right next to a Mustang that says, 'This car was made with child labor.' "

8. For Mediabridge, it is "within our rights to take steps to protect our reputation" when "an army attacks us on the Internet."

But that "army" might have just cost Mediabridge its future."
Company That Threatened to Sue Negative Reviewer Just Lost Its Amazon Account - NationalJournal.com




Mediabridge.....Sounds a lot like the efforts of a certain political party.....

And, remember this attempt to silence opposition voices:

"Sources: White House told insurance execs to keep quiet on Obamacare"
Sources: White House told insurance execs to keep quiet on Obamacare - CNN.com

I'm a huge fan of Amazon. I buy 85% of everything I guy through Amazon. Most of it is tax free and is shipped in a timely manner. They always address issues in a professional manner and have no problem with me returning items (not that I've had to often). I buy so much that I'm a Prime member that affords me even more discounts and free shipping on many items.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I use Amazon, in part, with my collectibles and memorabilia sales and buying.

The company has the right to bar you if the management thinks you are acting stupidly.