Before becoming an Amazon seller I had the impression that Amazon provides the best of all products. If I was after a juicer and I wanted a high-quality juicer I would go to Amazon. The products were more expensive but the reason is... the better quality. Well at least that is what I thought because of the reviews.
When I got on board after signing up with an Amazon selling coaching program I found all about the dirty tricks that Amazon sellers do. Fake reviews, fake giveaways, fake 50-60-70%(!) off coupons, removing bad customer-seller feedback and removing 1-start, 2-star and 3-star reviews. There are other ways as well but I want to focus on these main ones.
So let's take them one by one.
Fake reviews: There are many agencies, groups, companies and individuals selling fake reviews to listings. In fact, Amazon is at war with them and removes fake reviews from time to time. However, they still find a way around. For example, someone can use Amazon's hall of fame reviewers and ask top reviewers to review their product. These reviewers are most of the time honest. Some are just about putting 5 stars to every review and you can check this by checking their review history. Then as a seller, you select such reviewers that just want free products in exchange for a 5-star review.
Fake coupons: Simple. The sellers raise the price and give it a huge discount. Gladly users started to use tools like Amazon Price Trackers and spot such cases. Next time you see a coupon on Reddit or any other place for Amazon products check it on a price tracker. You will be shocked.
Removing bad customer-seller feedback: The technique is simple. Amazon allows the sellers do remove customer-seller feedback if it says anything about the product (it as a review). Most of the Sellers use FBA and as a result, they end up with perfect customer-seller feedback. Something that does not mirror their customer service for example.
Removing 1-start, 2-star, and 3-star reviews: Again the technique is easy. The sellers buy or request fake reviews covering all aspects of their products. Then when a customer makes a review about an aspect of the product that is faulty or not great they have a network of colleagues and friends that report it as abuse/spam by a competitor, using the other reviews as support and get the bad reviews removed.
The above reasons are why I would never buy from Amazon again. Most of the products, especially the small ones come from China and can easily be found on other stores or marketplaces online and cheaper.