Yes to the second question, and to the first, it exacerbates the problem, but the problem already exists, so create it? No.
I think Amazonâs toleration of scamming for fictional âverifiedâ reviews creates its own credibility problems, especially where it would be so easy to fix. Amazon needlessly puts itself in pari delicto with the scammers. Buyers will learn that âverifiedâ is meaningless, and the reviews untrustworthy.
Yes, due to a shipping snafu I ended up with two trailer hitch-style car bike racks. One is still in its box in the basement - we were thinking it wouldnât hurt to keep it in case the first one rusted out or something, but it seems to be built like a tank.
I also received a lovely set of gratin dishes from Nordstrom once, addressed to me at my address but not ordered from my online account or charged to my credit card. I called Nordstrom and they werenât able to locate the order or figure out what happened, so they told me to keep them. I didnât have a gift registry or anything in my name, either - Iâm guessing it was aome sort of return scam gone awry.
Most of us already know this.
Sorry, I was unclear. I knew many of the reviews were suspect. I meant to say that Amazon granting âverifiedâ status to scammers renders the entire review system untrustworthy.
Or maybe you and others already knew that?
I did. I have a deep distrust of anonymous reviews, generally, although Iâm somewhat more forgiving about consensus reviews, i.e. a preponderance of 4 star ratings. Amazonâs been âverifyingâ all the way back to its early days as a bookseller, claiming that only people who had actually read a book got to review it. As someone who got pretty good at writing book reports based on the back cover descriptions, I call bullshit on THAT.
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Youâre further along the dis/mistrust curve than I am. I knew to discard the very best and very worst reviews and focus on the midline ones, where perspective and useful information live.
It never occurred to me Amazon was a crooked umpire.
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Iâve received a couple of weird items from Amazon that I assume were part of a brushing scheme. One was a pool float for a beer can 
.
Recently I ordered a dorm sized fridge from Target and after about 10 days, it didnât arrive although my card had been charged. They re-shipped one
and told me to keep them if they both arrived. Behold, I now have 2 dorm sized refrigerators. I could make a few bucks, but my conscience tells me to donate it. Target has been in the news as having a lot of excess inventory.
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With my luck, living in Texas in the midst of increasing and lengthening summer heat, if I were mistakenly given an expensive stove, I would get an AGA.
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So beautiful ⌠move to Northern Maine, then try to find someone qualified to do the install 
. I save pics of Agas. I donât care how they now work; Iâve always been entranced. Many Two Fat Ladies episodes find them lurking in the kitchens. The older, the better.
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My beach house cries out for an AGA (or a Woodburn).
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Wow. Desperate
It doesnât seem like a great business plan to me, but itâs not like I have enough money to buy Twitter (yet!) or anything, so what do I know.
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