How do I find legit, quality products on Amazon?

Question

My household avidly uses Amazon.com, but we're finding it harder and harder to find goods that are genuinely good, rather than scam-popular.We've tried Fakespot and Review Meta: the former frequently detects an outsized proportion of fake reviews, while the latter will be in opposition (bias promoting affiliate link purchases?). It's getting discouraging when on a quest to buy light bulbs, every vendor is approaching a score of 60% review reliability.Very often, the Amazon Top Pick has the worst reputation on review analysis sites.Frequently, to short-circuit paralysis by analysis, we just buy the least worst item. Or a meaningless name brand at thrice the price (I'm looking at you, Philips) with equally dismal results. We're finding that garden variety consumer electronics are a landmine of knockoffs with poor quality and short lifespans. Just looking for a decent outdoor timer ended up an epic rabbit hole (and we're on a third try).Is it really that bad? What has your experience looked like, and have you found tools to help? Thanks.

FakespotCom · Accepted Answer

Thank you for being a Fakespot user. I thought I'd bring in some perspective to your question.
Your observation of the preponderance of unreliable reviews on Amazon matches what we see across the board. Unfortunately, ever since Amazon opened up to 3rd party sellers, the reviews have become a marketing tool by a lot of these sellers to move ahead of other products. These sellers use everything from pure fake reviews to gamed verified purchase reviews. This is major reason why so many reviews nowadays are unreliable, it is truly a wild west out there in the eCommerce world and fake reviews can mean $$$.
With that said, we just launched Fakespot Guardian as part of our new Chrome extension which solves the 3rd party seller problem by telling you if a seller is reliable or not. By knowing if seller and reviews are reliable, you will be able to purchase anything with confidence.

barbe · Answer

I read the reviews but have seen reports that they are sometiems made-up, so I usually look at Wirecutter (a shopping guide sponsored by the NY Times) first. Sometimes the Wirecutter review helps me decide what features I"m looking for and whether I want/need a higher priced product or not. I also do comparison shopping on Google shopping and use the low-to-high price filter on Google and Amazon. So far, everything I've purchased using this combination been a good choice.

giantg2 · Answer

I try to read the reviews and find ones that seem more personal and skip stuff that seems generic. I either buy cheap stuff with the expectation that it will only work for a limited time (like a single project) or I look for a brand with a good reputation and warranty. If you buy from somewhere other than Amazon, you can find stuff that is cheaper. Currently, some places like Ebay have quicker shipping times than Amazon.Smaller sites may be less prone to manipulation from review mills.

a3n · Answer

Use Amazon for searching, list a few candidates, then go look at them in local meat space and buy the one you like, locally.Edit: Wait, what? Light bulbs? Just go to home Depot or the grocery store and be done with it. Most other things can be bought this way. And it's same day having.

sloaken · Answer

I read the negative posts. Companies do not waste their money having negative posts put in.
When I read them I am looking for consistency. If 4 people out of 20 complain it broke in 3 months, well there is my sign.
It is there you will also see that a lot people are dumb. My favorite was some advanced book on a tech topic. Title had 'Advanced' as the first word. Person who scored it one star - 'Not a good book for a beginner. Way too complex'. I wished you could down vote a score, or recommend it for review.
SO I do not just read the one stars, I often read the 2 stars. People posting a 2 star are not as emotional, and just the facts.

vz8 · Answer

I think part of our frustration with Amazon is that there is a sizable amount of clearly fraudulent behavior in their marketplace; addressing even the lowest hanging fruit (huge upswing of 5 star reviews across narrow time windows on a single product for one) would show good faith on their part, yet they don't manage their marketplace.Another issue that adds to the confusion: a combined five star rating scale on a product that has 12 different variations is meaningless. They could treat them individually, but choose not to.

gshdg · Answer

Not ordering from Amazon.There are a couple dozen sites I trust across a number of categories of goods. I order from those, even if it means paying a bit of a premium.Heck, maybe because it does. I&rsquo;d rather pay $30 for a well made widget that&rsquo;ll last a few years than $10 for a knock-off that&rsquo;ll fail in a few days.