“After two days, the new dehumidifier no longer worked,” says Holger Ubl from Krems an der Donau, “I sent it back to Amazon and got my money back.” The buyer also gives a negative rating for the product on Amazon. Three days later, the Lower Austrian received an email from the company that sold the device. In it, almost 40 euros are offered if the bad rating is deleted.
When the buyer doesn’t respond, another email follows: “This time I was offered 30 euros to delete the post. I didn’t do it because it felt like bribery,” says Holger Ubl.
“Being duped”
The case shows that not only fake ratings are a problem on online platforms. “All other consumers are also duped in this way. I look at the reviews and assume that they are objective,” says Guido Zeilinger from the Styrian Chamber of Labour. According to the expert, if authentic, negative reviews were to be deleted, a false image of the product would arise.
Delete for money
Money against the deletion of unpleasant, negative reviews. Is this allowed?
ZIB Magazin confronted Amazon about the incident, stating: “Any attempt to manipulate customer ratings is strictly prohibited at Amazon. We invest considerable resources to protect the integrity of our reviews and to proactively prevent abusive reviews.” In this case, however, it is difficult to intervene, according to inquiries from business circles. Amazon does not have access to external emails from sellers.
“Should customers have any concerns, we urge them to contact our customer service so we can investigate and take appropriate action.” The measures mentioned go up to the permanent exclusion of the seller from the online platform.
It’s about a lot of money
Online reviews are a tricky one. The reviews influence purchasing decisions, especially negative reviews, as Philipp Pfaller, online marketing expert at the digital agency Limesoda, says: “They can do quite a bit of damage, because the Amazon algorithm may also include these reviews and then decide who is actually going to buy the button comes to the train. Accordingly, it is a big problem when bad ratings are given for products by companies.”
According to Pfaller, the present case is also not uncommon. His company would always get letters where such services are offered. “Of course, that’s not allowed,” says the online marketing expert.
Don’t accept the offer
The Styrian Chamber of Labor has appealed not to respond to the offer to delete a negative rating for money. “I’m assuming none of us would accept something like that if a company we were in contact with showed such agitation,” says Guido Zeilinger. If a product does not meet the expectations, it can be returned within the withdrawal period. “My ratings, but they cannot be bought. I don’t take them out as long as they are objective and justified,” advises the consumer advocate.
