It's ridiculous. Practically every item on Target.com has near perfect reviews, including products that get 1,2, and 3 star reviews on Amazon.com.
It makes their review system practically worthless.
Not only that, but I just reviewed a screwed product they sell on their website, and they promptly removed my 1 star review.
They sell a Graco stroller - carseat combination box (exclusive to target) where the carset attaches to the cupholder tray instead of a metal bar.
Most graco strollers you'd use with a carseat have a metal bar that is horizontal and the carseat latches onto, and then higher up there are two little shelves that the carseat rests on so there is virtually no "play" between the carseat and stroller after you attach the two little black elastic "hooks" into the notches.
This cupholder on this particular graco stroller that the carseat attaches to is horizontal, but asymmetric because of the cupholder goes straight down into the tray, but the other "wide bowl" side dips very shallow and at an angle, so the carseat cannot sit level on top of it. Absolutely no way does it sit level. It simply wobbles with at least 1 inch of play, no matter how tight you latch it down with the black elastics up top. Its further exacerbated by the fact that there are no "shelves" or anything else on the main bars of the stroller for the carseat to rest on. The lip on each side of the stroller just rests on a 45 degree angle bar of the stroller, and slides back and forth, there is no natural resting point, the carseat simply slides back and forth a good couple of inches because of the "play". As a result, even with the black elastic fasteners slid down or up or anywhere, the carseat has a tremendous amount of "play between it and the stroller.
the instructions clearly show it attached exactly where I'm describing and its just unsafe and just not confidence-inducing to attach a carseat to a flimsy plastic tray which is snapped to the stroller frame, and which the carseat will not even sit level on.
I wrote a review on this on target.com, and it was shortly removed from their reviews. No explanation, no email from target explaining it. They just removed the review.
I see this review as inherently unreliable anyway. It's not an independent site and there's a clear conflict of interest actually. If they don't want your review, stuff them. Feel better, man.
I strictly observe 3rd party sites, where available. But, I still wonder at times if manufacturers or other interested parties have some kind of control in such sites. I have heard stories about workers being encouraged to write in and rank up certain products.
I can understand how this might be frustrating. I don't like to trust online reviews where anyone and everyone have a say, and I don't like to listen to overwhelmingly positive reviews in these places either. I use them for a general consensus, but there are websites that show more realistic reviews like consumer reports.
Sorry to hear you are having trouble with Target. I'm honestly not a fan of Walmart or Target, because of how they do business, and this is just another example of why.
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Modern:
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Legacy:
Cheeri0s
Burn
Target is a brand that is rapidly falling in my book. Walmart.com's online returns is hassle free, and they are not afraid to leave honest negative reviews of products on their web site.
Target is unusual for a "reputable" online retailer to do that.
We purchased this stroller combination partially based on the glowing reviews (because this combination box is not sold on other sites, its a Target exclusive, there are no reviews on other sites that point out the incompatibility of the included carseat and stroller).
Amazon.com's reviews are overall quite reliable. Its how I figured out not to by that stupid SLAP CHOP (that I almost got in a store on an impulse purchase... how bad could it be for that price? Well Amazon users showed me) and most of the "as seen on TV" products.
Amazon.com's reviews are overall quite reliable. Its how I figured out not to by that stupid SLAP CHOP (that I almost got in a store on an impulse purchase... how bad could it be for that price? Well Amazon users showed me) and most of the "as seen on TV" products.
For some reason they must think that stuff reflects negatively on their brand. If they were smart they would realize that people are rating the products and their purchasing agents should get a clue and not stock that stuff.
I don't buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, but on large purchases I would pay for those reviews. They stopped me from spending $300 on a vacuum that would have broken in a couple years.
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For some reason they must think that stuff reflects negatively on their brand. If they were smart they would realize that people are rating the products and their purchasing agents should get a clue and not stock that stuff.
It's an odd kind of marketing logic, really. Obviously, no one wants people to spread "this product is crap" around about whatever product you make, but at the same time, it's horrible PR to silence consumer voices. In Target's case, it looks like some executive shortsightedly considered the former without the latter.
Assuming target is like most places certain words will flag and remove them automatically and there's no humans involved in the process, FYI.
Even if that's the case, then it's still Target's fault for having inadequate IT controls to prevent some kind of abusive review system from flagging false positives.
Amazon.com's reviews are overall quite reliable. Its how I figured out not to by that stupid SLAP CHOP (that I almost got in a store on an impulse purchase... how bad could it be for that price? Well Amazon users showed me) and most of the "as seen on TV" products.
Hey, Amazon said the same thing about the mini slider station burger thing. I bought it (also via impulse at CVS) and it's alright.
I don't buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, but on large purchases I would pay for those reviews. They stopped me from spending $300 on a vacuum that would have broken in a couple years.
What a funny choice of words... There are companies which will flood Amazon or other online retailers with positive user reviews of your product. Other companies cut out the middleman and solicit the reviews directly.
Here is an article about Belkin doing that, getting caught, and backpedaling: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10145399-92.html
Fake positive reviews of Belkin products were actively solicited by one of its employees, the company admitted on Sunday.
Belkin, a networking and peripheral manufacturer, apologized for the worker's actions, which sought to artificially boost Belkin's status on Amazon while denigrating existing bad reviews.
On Friday, The Daily Background Web site revealed how someone, apparently Belkin business development representative Mark Bayard, had used the Mechanical Turk service to ask users to write positive reviews of a Belkin product at a rate of 65 cents per review. The requests made it clear that writers need have no experience of, nor even own, the product in question. Mechanical Turk is an online clearing-house for small jobs that cannot be done by machine, such as writing product descriptions. It is, coincidentally, run by Amazon.
In a letter posted on the company's Web site on Sunday, Belkin President Mark Reynoso said the solicitations had been "an isolated incident."
"It was with great surprise and dismay when we discovered that one of our employees may have posted a number of queries on the Amazon Mechanical Turk Web site inviting users to post positive reviews of Belkin products in exchange for payment," Reynoso wrote.
"Belkin does not participate in, nor does it endorse, unethical practices like this. We know that people look to online user reviews for unbiased opinions from fellow users and instances like this challenge the implicit trust that is placed in this interaction. We regard our responsibility to our user community as sacred, and we are extremely sorry that this happened."
Reynoso said Belkin had "acted swiftly" to remove all the review requests from the Mechanical Turk system, and was "working closely with our online channel partners to ensure that any reviews that may have been placed due to these postings have been removed."
"It's also important to recognize that our retail partners had no knowledge of, or participation in, these postings," Reynoso wrote. "Once again, we apologize for this occurrence, and we will work earnestly to regain the trust we have lost."
According to The Daily Background, the product for which the positive reviews were requested was Belkin's wireless F5U301 USB2.0 hub and dongle, listed on Amazon.com. On Monday, the listing for that product on Amazon.com showed a rating of one and a half stars out of five.
It makes sense for companies to do this. Instead of spending however much it costs to produce an ad, then spend a lot more to get it out to an audience which may or may not even be in the market for whatever is being sold, they get to spend less money to tout their product to an audience which is in the market.
Is this legal? I know actors portray happy customers in ads, but they are not hiding the fact that they are being paid by the advertising company. False customer reviews are different in that there is an active attempt to deceive customers. I wish it were illegal, but I doubt it. Even if it were, how would it be enforced?
It makes their review system practically worthless.
Not only that, but I just reviewed a screwed product they sell on their website, and they promptly removed my 1 star review.
They sell a Graco stroller - carseat combination box (exclusive to target) where the carset attaches to the cupholder tray instead of a metal bar.
Most graco strollers you'd use with a carseat have a metal bar that is horizontal and the carseat latches onto, and then higher up there are two little shelves that the carseat rests on so there is virtually no "play" between the carseat and stroller after you attach the two little black elastic "hooks" into the notches.
This cupholder on this particular graco stroller that the carseat attaches to is horizontal, but asymmetric because of the cupholder goes straight down into the tray, but the other "wide bowl" side dips very shallow and at an angle, so the carseat cannot sit level on top of it. Absolutely no way does it sit level. It simply wobbles with at least 1 inch of play, no matter how tight you latch it down with the black elastics up top. Its further exacerbated by the fact that there are no "shelves" or anything else on the main bars of the stroller for the carseat to rest on. The lip on each side of the stroller just rests on a 45 degree angle bar of the stroller, and slides back and forth, there is no natural resting point, the carseat simply slides back and forth a good couple of inches because of the "play". As a result, even with the black elastic fasteners slid down or up or anywhere, the carseat has a tremendous amount of "play between it and the stroller.
the instructions clearly show it attached exactly where I'm describing and its just unsafe and just not confidence-inducing to attach a carseat to a flimsy plastic tray which is snapped to the stroller frame, and which the carseat will not even sit level on.
I wrote a review on this on target.com, and it was shortly removed from their reviews. No explanation, no email from target explaining it. They just removed the review.
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Have you read the T&C and Review Writing Guidelines? Do you comply with them for starters?
I see this review as inherently unreliable anyway. It's not an independent site and there's a clear conflict of interest actually. If they don't want your review, stuff them. Feel better, man.
Edit: Are we talking about this Graco carseat/stroller item? That item has low-number-star reviews.
Also, congrats on the bun in the oven!(?)
I guess word of mouth still is the best resource.
Sorry to hear you are having trouble with Target. I'm honestly not a fan of Walmart or Target, because of how they do business, and this is just another example of why.
EDH:
Zur, The Enchanter
Modern:
Burn
Legacy:
Cheeri0s
Burn
Target is unusual for a "reputable" online retailer to do that.
We purchased this stroller combination partially based on the glowing reviews (because this combination box is not sold on other sites, its a Target exclusive, there are no reviews on other sites that point out the incompatibility of the included carseat and stroller).
Amazon.com's reviews are overall quite reliable. Its how I figured out not to by that stupid SLAP CHOP (that I almost got in a store on an impulse purchase... how bad could it be for that price? Well Amazon users showed me) and most of the "as seen on TV" products.
http://www.amazon.com/Ontel-SLAPC-MC6-Slap-Chop/dp/B0023SNDYC/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1346164842&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=slap+chop
The reviews are hilarious:
"Slap me for purchasing this"
"ummmmmmmmm..........no"
"not even worth the 1.00 i paid for it in the thrift store"
B...But it pops open like a butterfly for easy cleaning!
I usually check reviews on more than one site, especially for big purchases. Amazon tends to be pretty reliable.
Removing reviews really concerns me, but I guess I know not to trust their site... not like I used it in the first place.
I don't buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, but on large purchases I would pay for those reviews. They stopped me from spending $300 on a vacuum that would have broken in a couple years.
It's an odd kind of marketing logic, really. Obviously, no one wants people to spread "this product is crap" around about whatever product you make, but at the same time, it's horrible PR to silence consumer voices. In Target's case, it looks like some executive shortsightedly considered the former without the latter.
Re: People misusing the term Vanilla to describe a flying, unleash (sometimes trample) critter.
Re: People misusing the term Vanilla to describe a flying, unleash (sometimes trample) critter.
Even if that's the case, then it's still Target's fault for having inadequate IT controls to prevent some kind of abusive review system from flagging false positives.
Because many people would catch on and give 1s and 2s without saying much, when products suck.
Target simply doesn't seem to allow low reviews to slip through.
Hey, Amazon said the same thing about the mini slider station burger thing. I bought it (also via impulse at CVS) and it's alright.
Because we care about facts.
What a funny choice of words... There are companies which will flood Amazon or other online retailers with positive user reviews of your product. Other companies cut out the middleman and solicit the reviews directly.
Here is an article about Belkin doing that, getting caught, and backpedaling:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10145399-92.html
Fake positive reviews of Belkin products were actively solicited by one of its employees, the company admitted on Sunday.
Belkin, a networking and peripheral manufacturer, apologized for the worker's actions, which sought to artificially boost Belkin's status on Amazon while denigrating existing bad reviews.
On Friday, The Daily Background Web site revealed how someone, apparently Belkin business development representative Mark Bayard, had used the Mechanical Turk service to ask users to write positive reviews of a Belkin product at a rate of 65 cents per review. The requests made it clear that writers need have no experience of, nor even own, the product in question. Mechanical Turk is an online clearing-house for small jobs that cannot be done by machine, such as writing product descriptions. It is, coincidentally, run by Amazon.
In a letter posted on the company's Web site on Sunday, Belkin President Mark Reynoso said the solicitations had been "an isolated incident."
"It was with great surprise and dismay when we discovered that one of our employees may have posted a number of queries on the Amazon Mechanical Turk Web site inviting users to post positive reviews of Belkin products in exchange for payment," Reynoso wrote.
"Belkin does not participate in, nor does it endorse, unethical practices like this. We know that people look to online user reviews for unbiased opinions from fellow users and instances like this challenge the implicit trust that is placed in this interaction. We regard our responsibility to our user community as sacred, and we are extremely sorry that this happened."
Reynoso said Belkin had "acted swiftly" to remove all the review requests from the Mechanical Turk system, and was "working closely with our online channel partners to ensure that any reviews that may have been placed due to these postings have been removed."
"It's also important to recognize that our retail partners had no knowledge of, or participation in, these postings," Reynoso wrote. "Once again, we apologize for this occurrence, and we will work earnestly to regain the trust we have lost."
According to The Daily Background, the product for which the positive reviews were requested was Belkin's wireless F5U301 USB2.0 hub and dongle, listed on Amazon.com. On Monday, the listing for that product on Amazon.com showed a rating of one and a half stars out of five.
Is this legal? I know actors portray happy customers in ads, but they are not hiding the fact that they are being paid by the advertising company. False customer reviews are different in that there is an active attempt to deceive customers. I wish it were illegal, but I doubt it. Even if it were, how would it be enforced?
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=557874