Good riddance! Amazon has finally banned the ultra-shady practice of providing free products for honest and unbiased reviews. This creepy practice was showing up in nearly every review of a second or third tier knock-off product I’d read over the past several months. It seemed especially prevalent in the smartphone accessory category.
I was personally banning my purchase of any product which had accumulated reviews based upon free or discounted items. These are pretty easy to spot because either the review disclosed the bias – “I was provided a sample for review to help product management teams understand the user experience and also to help prospective buyers make smart, informed decisions based on my own personal experience and usage.” or there were usually large numbers of photos .
My email inbox was receiving 3-6 inquiries a day from knock-off companies asking me to promote their latest cell phone wallet or fuzzy slippers in exchange for either a discount or free item code.
My guess? Amazon had to step in and ban these shenanigans before the government made them. Good riddance!