Dungeon Master Forum

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:02 pm**

This drives me nuts.

I use Amazon a lot and can't stand it when I come across crappy speculative "reviews" of products that have not yet been released.

Amazon changed their guidelines some time ago to state that this wasn't allowed, but their system still allows reviews of unreleased products.

It would be so easy to fix this by removing the Review option of any item if the release date is > current date.

Anyone else noticed this or bothered by it? Am I getting stupidly anal?

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:15 pm**

It is stupid, especially if you catch something newly released, you then have to balance the new reviews independant of the older ones.

Music is bad for that - then again, some reviews are by people who have actually listening to it illegally and are reviewing it while waiting for the release. But yeah, then you get other people who just wnt to rant about the nands direction or have heard tohe one released song and whine about it before the album is out.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:21 pm**

I find it incredibly amusing, but then again I never read Amazon reviews for anything other than the entertainment value.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:24 pm**

It's the page for Tomb Raider Anniversary that has inflamed my ire.

I've reported all the reviews as inappropriate but I doubt they will do anything about it. I've also emailed them -- again! I have emailed them about this issue twice before in the last two years and have NEVER received a reasonable response to the question.

It drives me bonkers when I see a review of a DVD which is basically a review of the movie in the cinema, not the DVD and all it's extras. If you wanna review only the film, do it on IMDB for f*ck's sake!

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:26 pm**

Oh, and yes, I'm sad and have no life.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:59 pm**

I agree with you Gambit, though I'd rather laugh about it than get mad.
But where I must dissent is about your next post to come: you're totally wrong. Besides, I don't think that will be the proper tone for such matter.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:02 pm**

Zyx, you are the most wonderful, loveliest human being with a heart as wide and open as the ocean and a mind so vast with knowledge and wisdom that it is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. Your incisive observations and cutting wit are beyond any challenge and you have the most superior personal hygiene that you awaken smelling fresher than when you took to bed. I bow down in the shadow of your vast awesomeness.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:06 pm**

Yeah, he invented Conflux III, so that's disproved your entire previous statements. And that sarcastic tone was totally misplaced.

By the way, I just know Conflux IV will be a huge disappointment to all, as the rumour is that zyx will be replacing all the characters with Care Bears, and the missions will be to do with 'spreading the love'. Moving engines would also be a big mistake, and I for one am worried about the obvious possibility of him using the 'Hobbit' engine from the old ZX Spectrum text adventure in keepign with the 'pushing of the engine' theme of the Conflux series.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:07 pm**

I told you! I don't want you to unveil your deeper feelings towards me in public! That was so wrong!
If you cannot help yourself, at least use a subtle tone.

EDIT: oh and that's the sickest idea I ever heard Beowuuf. I may consider it.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:19 pm**

It's true Zyx: I cannot help myself.

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:35 pm**

LoveALot walks into a room. There is a sickly smell and a Trolin stands with its back to him
> examine room
There is a chest in the corner and a chair by the wall.
The Trolin spots LoveALot and walks towards him swiftly, intent on harming him with his club.
LoveALot still has time to exit the room orr examine the chest. LoveALot can also (H)ug Trolin, (S)ing cheerful song, or use (R)ainbow chest power for 20hp damage.
>h
You life and mission end here.
#Twee music and pixelated drawing of Care Bear with head staved in#

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:44 pm**

Oh, why does it always have to be about killing and violence

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:07 pm**

LoveALot walks into a room. There is a sweet smell and a Trolin stands with its back to him
> examine room
There is a chest in the corner and a chair by the wall.
The Trolin spots LoveALot and walks towards him swiftly, intent on working out if its birthday has been remembered.
LoveALot still has time to exit the room or examine the chest. LoveALot can also (H)ug Trolin, (S)ing cheerful song, or use (R)ainbow chest power.
>h
The Trolin accepts the hug, but as you did not mention its birthday it makes its excuses, and leaves the room with a tear in its eye. You need to restart and make amends.
#Twee music and pixelated drawing of Troiln crying in its room#

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:14 pm**

Uhuh...

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:25 pm**

KILL GANDALF WITH ROPE....

Posted: **Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:37 pm**

OK, all off topic now, please stop!

Posted: **Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:38 am**

Gambit37 wrote:Am I getting stupidly anal?

Gambit37 wrote:OK, all off topic now, please stop!

(Too bad the forum doesn't have the little FlashChat "whistling innocently" face)

Posted: **Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:00 am**

Somehow I didn't want to hear about anyone getting anal.. just not my thing I'm afra... er oh.. he meant.. OH

... ok then. Carry on..

Posted: **Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:04 pm**

So, anyway, if anyone's still interested, I wrote this to Amazon:

I'm interested to know why Amazon STILL allows user reviews of products that haven't been released yet, despite your review guidelines stating that it's not allowed.

The site is rife with useless reviews of unreleased products that simply speculate on the product and offer no useful insight. This really undermines the credibility and usefulness of the reviewing system and is a blot on an otherwise exemplarary online shopping experience.

I would love to know why you allow this to continue as it would be so easy to stamp it out by simply not having a "Review this item" button on items that are not yet released.

I posted the same question over two years ago and never received a satisfactory answer so I would be grateful of a considered response.

Their response:

Thank you for writing to Amazon.co.uk.

We encourage all voices to respond openly in our store, both positive and negative. However, we do exert some editorial control over our customer reviews and reviews of item which have not yet been released are not posted.

Please know our intention is to make the customer review forum a place for detailed, critical and specific commentary about books.
Reviews that fall outside of these guidelines - for example, that are vague, spiteful, too short or too long, contain inappropriate information or are better suited to a chat room forum - will not be posted.

For more information about writing or submitting customer reviews, please visit the following URL;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-rev ... es/review-
guidelines.html/202-2834851-2567020?ie=UTF8&asin=B00004TXI5

We hope you find this information helpful. We appreciate your interest in submitting a customer review to Amazon.co.uk.

Same response I got before, so I wrote this back:

Thank you for your reply -- however, I have received this response before when I previously made the same observation, and it is clearly wrong: there are hundreds of items on Amazon as yet unreleased which have customer reviews.

Many of these seem to be in the video game section. Early pre-release versions of games that people may have been lucky enough to play are invariably nothing like the final version: therefore, anything written in these "reviews" is even more misleading.

Here's some examples:

Tomb Raider Anniversary (Release on 25 May) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eidos-Tomb-Raid ... 000NG59NO/

Crysis (Release 30 September)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts ... 000FN5ETO/

Medieval 2 Expansion (Release 28 September) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medieval-II-Tot ... 000P1OPF0/

It would be simple for you to fix this by not showing the "Write a review" button for unreleased items. Harry Potter 7 quite rightly doesn't have the option -- why do you allow it on other items?

Thanks in advance of your response.

I doubt I'll get any further response, but I hope my little rant will at least help get this feature cleaned up.

Posted: **Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:20 pm**

What most impresses me in Amazon's answer is that phrases 2 and 3 are loosely related to what you wrote, even if they're a denial.
Is it a sheer coincidence? Or did you actually get a human to vaguely read your concern, who after dedicating 2s of thought, chose a prepared sentence among Amazon's argumentary?
Nah, my guess is that their random answering program uses your words as seeds for the generation of text.

Posted: **Tue May 01, 2007 9:17 pm**

Well, the emails I received were personally signed by a one Yvonne C. -- she didn't refer to me by name so maybe it's a bot? I got another response today:

Dear Customer

Thank you very much for bringing this review to our attention.

Please rest assured that these comments have been removed from our database and will shortly disappear from the website.

We apologise for this situation and thank you for taking the time to let us know. Feedback from conscientious customers such as yourself helps us maintain the quality and integrity of our website.

Thank you for your interest in Amazon.co.uk.

Warmest regards

Yvonne C.
Customer Service
Amazon.co.uk

Posted: **Tue May 01, 2007 9:54 pm**

Update: they did indeed delete the user reviews on those products but the button to add reviews is still there. POINTLESS.

Posted: **Wed May 02, 2007 12:50 am**

You were that close to obtain a pertinent answer. You really went further than most of us. Congrats!

By the way, Yvonne C is an anagram of "No envy, See?", so it's just a program meant to calm down complaining clients.

Posted: **Wed May 02, 2007 2:49 am**

Amazon isn't the only site that does this. For some reason Gamespot also allows visitors to write reviews on games that are in the database, even if they don't yet have a release date. People write all kinds of poetically inane shit like "7h1s g4m3 w1ll teh r0x0rz!!11" and so forth. Really promotes the site's professionalism. Of course, most of the post-release reviews are like that, too, so I generally ignore them.

Posted: **Wed May 02, 2007 9:27 pm**

Latest. I wrote back:

Thanks you for your reply and for dealing with this issue.

However, although you have removed the reviews, the button to place reviews is still available so this is only going to happen again.

Will you be improving the feature in future so that the button is not available on not-yet-released items?

Thanks

Matthew Hill

And the final response:

Dear Customer

Thank you for sending Amazon.co.uk your suggestion.

I will be sure to pass your message on to the appropriate department in our company for consideration. Customer feedback such as yours helps us to continue improving the selection and service we provide. We appreciate the time you've taken to write to us.

If you have any other suggestions for us or would like to make a comment at another time, please don't hesitate to send us an e-mail. To do this, please visit our Help Desk at the following URL:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/contact-us

We'll look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk.

Warmest regards

Yvonne C.
Customer Service
Amazon.co.uk

Posted: **Wed May 02, 2007 9:28 pm**

So, I'm still Customer and this response is the same one I got after chasing up exactly the same problem two years ago, so I doubt they will ever actually rectify the issue.

Posted: **Thu May 03, 2007 12:00 am**

If enough people complain they will, but you're probably in a fairly small niche. Amazon is a big site, and most people I'm sure don't care. I mean, I think it's stupid, but I wouldn't bother writing in to tell them. I sort of turn a blind eye to big companies. Quid pro quo I guess. They exist to make a profit, not satisfy the whims of every customer. I'm afraid you'll probably have to bit the bullet on this one, but if they do change, you can brag about it.

Posted: **Thu May 03, 2007 9:10 pm**

If something bothers me about anything in life, seemingly trivial or important, I follow it up. *shrug*.

(Though admittedly less so as I get older. The idealism of youth is wearing off I think!)

Posted: **Fri May 04, 2007 3:13 am**

Gambit37 wrote:The idealism of youth is wearing off I think!)

Better you than me, BWAH!! Just kidding; I don't think I've ever been idealistic in a practical sense, though I still fantasize an awful lot. Failure hones cynicism, but sometimes you even get cynical about being cynical, and that's when enlightenment starts to kick in. I hope.

Posted: **Fri May 04, 2007 7:40 am**

I'm very cynical too. What does this prove?

Dungeon Master Forum

Amazon and user reviews of products not-yet-released.

Amazon and user reviews of products not-yet-released.

Re: Amazon and user reviews of products not-yet-released.