You can see some reasons why Amazon has had to do something.
Anker's Competitors were just KICKED OFF Amazon
It was about time they do something about it. There is lot’s of lost confidence among amazon users of fake products or faked ratings.
I see blame on 3 sides.
- Us. The consumer. We wish to make purchase decisions as rapidly as possible so we invite the below.
- Amazon has reviews. So invitation to below.
- Fake reviews. They were caused by the above…
The solution is us.
It would seem that ravpower is back on amazon but selling the products under a different name selling through the iSmart Store. All branding and mentions of ravepower are gone from product listing but the pictures and product descriptions look the same so I think they found a way back some how.
That happens often with such products.
Same product another brand name printed on it
and distributed by a “new” company,
Amazon doesn’t care at all.
Money counts!
iSmart has been a part of Ravpower branding since well before this, so they aren’t really trying to be sneaky about it. No idea if Amazon officially knows (or cares), since the products are new listings there are no old reviews to be an issue.
I am surprised they got swept up in the first place. They made good products and chargers, with a variety of designs (including chargers with more USB-C ports) that Anker has not chosen to do, or has done much more slowly.
They will probably accept fewer sales to avoid being in this situation again. Which is sad, because the scammers who are willing to churn brands with really fake reviews won’t be stopped.
The change to require reviewers to have spent $50 by actual cash or credit card in the last year might help more. I couldn’t review something the other day that I had actually purchased and it confused me for a bit. Realized I am not currently qualified to review - because most of my spending is via gift cards. My insurance incentive program provides Amazon GC rewards that cover most of my Amazon spend, and I have spent less than $50 on a credit card in the last year… My wife can still do it, because the prime membership is on her account, at more than $50 a year.
I do agree but I think it was laying for views like Anker did that got them kicked of regardless of how good your product is or isn’t break the rules and you’re gone. They do have a lot of usb c products that I wish Anker would make and some that are similar to Anker but at a cheaper price. I’m hoping as Anker makes more of the change to usb c completely it will get better. The $50 price point is also really annoying to be able to write reviews or not. Prevents some people who actually pay from giving an honest opinion
It doesn’t have to be spent in one transaction. Just at least $50 on a verifiable debit or credit card over the course of the last year. So it probably doesn’t hit that many regular amazon users.
Yes it’s for the year but if you but if youre like me I don’t often buy a lot on amazon every year so I don’t regularly make the $50
Is this bragging?
“I win so many competitions and do so many paid and free reviews I barely need to spend my own money, so I don’t pass Amazon’s review rules”
?
Lol more like I struggle to convince myself to buy things unless they are an absolute need. Rarely do I every buy based on want along
Now you are on the way to find “the perfect way”.
You know me I like flea markets,
many buddies can’t leave it without any purchase.
Oh, that’s dangerous.
I was the same years ago.
But now I am happy!
Nothing “useless” bought, empty rucksack.
Today I met a real collector.
He is a nice fellow, we had a lot of fun when talking about collections
and “dealing and wheeling” madness,
He knows about his obsession, but he cant “free himself”
I am free meanwhile!
No more need, no more excessive collection, only fun!
Amazon is great for hard to find items, certain kinds of gifts, and things you don’t need in a hurry (camelcamelcamel watchlists for price), but pricing is inconsistent so they aren’t my first choice for a lot of things. And the spend I have usually comes from gift cards.
Last review was going to be a microwave oven door switch, $8 part and prime shipping. Repaired the microwave, with pictures of the install. Before that a replacement heating element for my oven, and trim clips for my car. In this case I can both understand the rule, and think that this particular case is Amazon’s loss, not mine.
If I got into their Vine program I would absolutely take it. But simultaneously, I don’t trust those reviews any further than the old incentivized ones.
I can personally state that TaoTronics should be in this list. To be clear, I never accepted the money if it didn’t earn a 5 star, I would just return the item (RC cars, humidifiers, air purifiers, candles, massage gun thing…list goes on) They aggressively …still ask me to review things.
They use a third party service and the reps earn commission. They apparently sold me email and they even tracked down my Facebook. They got quite upset when I refused to give 5 stars for things. And now my account is banned from reviewing their products on Amazon haha.
I could be wrong but I think taotronics is still ravpower they are like the Soundcore for ravpower I think but I could be wrong
It is a whole family of brands under sunvalleytek: http://www.sunvalleytek.com/index.html
Hootoo, vava, taotronics, ravpower. Their branding has always been more separate though, vs anker starting everything under one name and then branching some product lines out.
I hate brands.
What makes good products is engineers and support. The brand is all the things which don’t make products - marketing. It relies on one of the weakest vulnerabilities of our species of tribal and like - we trust what is like what we already know, that drives racialism, class, xenophobia.
They are also back as RAV. I think they are slowly getting back to listing on Amazon.
I like a healthy competition. Keeps Anker on its toes.
Agree @onstar
I’ve done a quick search on amazon.co.uk and they haven’t made an appearance yet.
UGreen sells well and get good reviews here, not sure if they are available Stateside.