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Huawei Got People To Write Fake Reviews For An Unreleased Phone (theverge.com)
As spotted by 9to5Google, Huawei has apparently posted fake reviews on Best Buy for its new Mate 10 Pro, which is available for pre-order in the U.S. despite not having any deals with U.S. carriers. "The fake reviews, which are exclusively on the Best Buy website, are likely the result of a contest Huawei ran on Facebook," reports The Verge. From the report: On January 31st, the company posted to a Facebook group with over 60,000 members, asking for people to leave comments on the Best Buy pre-sale page in exchange for a chance to beta test a Mate 10 Pro. The original post has been deleted, but 9to5Google obtained a screenshot before it went down. "Tell us how to why (sic) you WANT to own the Mate 10 Pro in the review section of our pre-sale Best Buy retail page," the post states. On the Best Buy site, there are currently 108 reviews for the phone, 103 of which were written on or after January 31st, the day Huawei posted the contest. Many of the comments directly reference not having any actual hands-on experience with the product itself, but give the phone a five star rating. "I can't wait to get my hands on this phone and demonstrate how amazing it is to people," reads one. "This device looks exciting and beautiful and it would be amazing to have a chance to beta test it," another reads. It seems Huawei is betting that loads of high ratings early on will make people trust the product and lead to higher sales. That's all well and good except that these types of reviews are strictly against Best Buy policy, as 9to5Google points out. "Huawei's first priority is always the consumer and we encourage our customers to share their experiences with our devices in their own voice and through authentic conversation," a Huawei representative told The Verge in a statement. "While there are reviews from beta testers with extensive knowledge of the product, they were in no way given monetary benefits for providing their honest opinions of the product. However, we are working to remove posts by beta testers where it isn't disclosed they participated in the review program."
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It is a wonderful phone. Like the Iphone X but without a notch. A+++++ would recommend.
You can be damn sure if a beta tester gave negative reviews that they wouldn't be asked to beta test again and perhaps even would be in violation of NDAs. Beta testers are expected to play along and make the company look good, that is the unwritten rule.
That said, I don't think it's illegal to post a bunch of fake reviews on a web site. At least not in the US. Not only does the buyer have to beware, the buyer can expect thousands of shills to lie to them.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
This is why you can't really believe reviews anywhere. It is a system ripe for gaming.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
If you know where to look, it's super easy to find gigs paying 25-50 cents or more for a review.
Yes, as fake reviews schemes go, this is an unusually honest one. They actually got real humans to write the glowing reviews, not a bot army.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
I've never heard of such a thing, ever, in the US.
While there are reviews from beta testers with extensive knowledge of the product, they were in no way given monetary benefits for providing their honest opinions of the product
No, you just give them lots of free phones, and only if they give good reviews.
Seriously, anybody says something on the internet, you should absolutely not believe them. Reject what they have to say. Do the opposite. Reverse course.
Or is it? Damn US hospitals and doctors always looking out for those almighty dollars.
From the summary, with my emphasis:
Huawei has apparently posted fake reviews on Best Buy for its new Mate 10 Pro, which is available for pre-order in the U.S. despite not having any deals with U.S. carriers.
"Despite"? I thought "not having any deals with U.S. carriers" was a desirable feature in a phone. It assures customers that they get a device configured as the manufacturer intends, without the compromises that carriers compel manufacturers to make, and compatible with all major carriers.
Been a while since your last trip to the middle country? This is what it's like. Fake positive reviews are all the rage. Negative reviews are removed or shouted down by shills. In China, nobody would even bat an eye. In the near future, nobody in the "democratic" west will either.
The new normal is upon you.
It's still slimy behavior that is a reflection of the company.
I got a Huawei phone as a gift in the past. That gave suffering enough to avoid Chinese electronic products like the plague for decades to come.
They asked people to write about what they were most interested in with the new phone, and to leave that as their review. They were looking to create hype behind the new device. Instead, idiots decided to write fake reviews about how great the phone they don't have is.
From the cited article: "Non-carrier sales in the US are less than 10% of the overall 170m a year total." This is, as they say on another forum, TRWTF.
The details concerning this ISSUE are much greater than is revealed thus far!!! CIA, NSA, on and on, are exposing backdoors back to Chine. This is common enough among many nation's intelligence agencies including the US but since most preprogrammed electronic devices are shipped with varried loads of undisclosed Bulkware , Bloatware, Spyware,and hacks , one never knows what one is really getting. Revealed recently in many laptops are not just bloatware and spyware but actual TOP SECRET files that could implicate the owner of said device in criminal, terrorist, illegal hacking, child exploitation, human trafficking, and on & on...New laws are needed to properly guarantee the EXACT nature of all programming on new electronic devices! With this exposure, I will sign this as Anonymous Coward XV1