Belkin rep hiring folks to write fake reviews on Amazon?
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 17th 2009 7:12PM
posted Jan 17th 2009 7:12PM
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Fail.
I always thought Belkin products were decent though.
I've always seen Belkin products as overpriced, and when you look at the reviews they seem to have the same fail rates and quality problems as other cheaper competitors.
I don't think I've ever run across a Belkin product that I actually liked or could have gotten something else better and/or cheaper.
the only belkin products I buy are their nice looking surge protectors
The rockstar is a pretty cool splitter :)
But other than that, it's overpriced rubbish. You can go into an electrical outlet and they'll be selling 1m USB cables for upwards of £15 ($25)..
A corporation acting unethically?
I've never heard of such blasphemy!!
ANYONE CAN WRITE A REVIEW TO BOOST A PRODUCTS IMAGE.
that's why I use Epinions to write/read reviews. Real people write there (I've written over 125) and its nohere near as controlled or censored as Amazon or most of these other review sites.
When you lockdown these things/previewing reviews and rejecting what you don't like - it brings the validity of your site and the question of bias into the picture.
I own a Belkin product that I use frequently and bought because it would be useful and it has exceeded my wildest expectations.
Thank you, my favorite etailer, for once again providing me with a great deal!
The other people posting here don't know what they're talking about. I downranked all of you.
(Paycheck now, pls?)
You wish they'd take the money used to write fake reviews and put it towards improving issues described in negative reviews.
and where am I?.......... China?
Failing with honor is better than succeeding while cheating.
@Techie
I'm gonna rank you down, cos educative, profound and inspiring stuff is not welcome here, more jokes please.
I bought me a 15' Belkin HDMI cable cable for 15$ - I've nothing against them.
I've bought many Belkin products over the years. There's a funny, yet touching, story behind each one of these purchases, some involving my disabled grandmother and others involving sick children at my local hospital. All the products were excellent and improved the quality of life for those that came into contact with them. And the online retailer I bought them from delivered on time and included a free selection of Belgian chocolates, Odeon cinema tickets, and a one month pass for East European lapdancers at Spearmint Rhino.
Belkin - You can donate the $0.65 cents to my PayPal account.
Why does anyone think =Belkin= placed this ad? Seems to me to have the flavor of an attack on Belkin, like from a recently-ex employee.
And before you note the "author" of the ad, if I sign this post "Barack Obama" does that mean Barack Obama posted this post?
I see your point, Mr Obama.
If it was signed Mr. Tax Totalitarian, I would know it was Obama.
In my view belkin is a dual-deal company, they make cheap not-so-great stuff but they also make expensive decent stuff, only they sell both categories under the same name for some reason, that's my impression of them.
And yeah I'd hold off judgement until some better evidence that they are 'pulling a nividia' here.
You guys don't understand!! This is just a $0.65 rebate program for satisfied customers. Silly Engadget picking on Belkin. Shame on you!!
F'ing Belkin. Just one more reason for me to actively avoid their products.
$40 for an FM transmitter that can broadcast to your choice of thee stations!!!
Ugh, this is why it should be spelled asstroturfing.
I think this idea from Belkin is 5/5 FTW! I plan on low ranking anyone who says otherwise.
Oh no they got to you too!
I happen to disagree...
Oh, and someone owes me $0.65. Thanks...
That looks like an awful lot of work for 65 cents...
I wonder if they'd mail it to you...
They figured they could pay the same as their product assembly line workers.
@morganvachon
And designers, testers, and tech support to boot!
Five out of Five Stars. Will recommend to all of my friends. A+++
I found this post to be the best I've ever read. I thought reading dribble off of other sites was all there was to the interweb. Boy was I wrong! After reading this post I lost 15 pounds and cleared my achne. My girlfriend now can't get enough of me and I made lots of friends. Thank you PM!
I take only PayPal and Zimbabwe Central Bank notes. K. Thx.
What a sad day if this turn out to be true. Like it wouldn't hit the wire. I never had a problem with Belkin products.
I was going to post a review saying how my Belkin UPS never gave me any problems.
But then I realized the irony of that.
Belkin products have been generally good for me. Phillips products on the other hand...melted wiring, etc, etc.
It's just unfortunate that a company that makes fairly decent products stoop to this level.
EVERQUEST 2 :D
I remember reading how phillips even got sued (and lost) by the US army for trying to give them lousy defective parts (back before they got rid of their parts division), amazing nerve to try to pull such a stunt with the US army, I mean you know they'd notice and then have lots of resources to get back at them.
I'm sure Belkin isn't the ONLY company that has done this.
I don't think anybody should trust any reviews. The only value they have is to give you inside information about a product that you can hopefully then test before you buy. I think the amazon stars are pointless unless they are linked to a trust system with your closest friends.
I agree completely. I'd say more, but the satellite is due overhead any moment, and I must wrap my head in tinfoil lest it consume my brain. Trust no one, neither Belkin nor Amazon.
Wouldn't this be against Amazon's terms of service? I mean Belkin is directly hurting Amazon in this process since people won't go to Amazon if they realize their ratings don't hold any value due to such practices.
Due to business reasons, I think this would be of great interest to Amazon to look into and pursue.
That's more than 50 words. No $0.65 for you!
Belkin, I do believe, is the outfit that makes equipment that intercepts your requests and redirects them to sites of their choosing.
Why the hell are you talking about WinMo? this is about Belkin, go away apple fanboy, go away to your dark cave where you worship your "god."
Why are you talking about WinMo? this is an article about Belkin. You fail. Now go away Apple fanboy to your dark cave where you worship your "god."
Belkin Products are great!
Just my $0.65...
not
You're 18 words short! No $0.65 for you!
I wish I could pay .65 for a Belkin product. That's about what most of them are worth. Wait, what was this article about.
Sorry, CleverEndeavor, but the double post is almost as bad as iEye's completely offtopic comment about WinMo.
Tbh mechanical turk postings always sound like 90% admin 10% actual job. How do you check up on this exactly?
Guess what brand I'll be avoiding now?
Apple?
I see what you did here...
And I love it :)
More seriously most brand do this, except the fanboys who write the stuff are free, brainwashed and sometimes actually think the crap they are writing !!!
They recruit them on fansite forums.
Actually Fanboys are such egoistic person they actually will lie on reviews on Amazon, to prove they are write to support the company.
meow?
DIDNT YOU GET BANNED?!?!?!?!??!!??!
iEye, Cap'n!
You don't think that shit happens here on engadget?
Everytime a new piece of crap gets airtime, I hear a slew of:
'I got to have that','where can I get it' etc. kiss my ass!
It's not just Belkin that does this. There are third party companies that hire internet schmoes to write favorable on websites like Amazon on behalf of their clients.I actually used to do that at one point till I've finally come to the realization that the whole thing is f*ing pointless.
That is just embarrassing and only 65 cents...
The really sad thing here is that 65 cents is one of the higher paying jobs on Mechanical Turk. That place is a modern day sweatshop.
That's what the reply button is for.
I used to buy Belkin routers, because they were the premium priced on the highstreet at anywhere over £30 up to £150 i have paid for some. The most expensive ones have failed on me several times and have been sent back to Belkin for replacement. I must say their Customer Service is brilliant and they replaced the routers 5 or 6 times with no troubles. But I got fed up of sending them back when they were being used under what i considered reasonable conditions. Currently I have 3 broken Belkin routers right here in front of me. I bought a cheap chinese router now and it has been running perfectly for months.
I heartily endorse this product and/or service
I can't imagine that this is real, but then again, the depths of human stupidity know no limit.
The only tech Belkin product I've used (in other words, not surge type stuff) has been the Pre-N wireless router, I believe it was called. I ended up throwing it out and getting a D-Link, since the Belkin just gave me endless problems. And yes, I went by the total number of positive to negative user reviews when buying the first router....
A gold comment! It was the second sentence that made this comment worth the time to read.
What a sad person you are.
Am I the only person that is going with the "a clever impostor looking to smear the man's good name".
To me this looks like a hoax. I mean publicly advertising for people to write favourable review using your own publicly known name. C'mon, I mean, marketing types can be stupid but this is pushing it.
However, someone who is pissed off because his router has gone tits and wants some rewenge, seems more likely to me.
me too.
Why do people insist on writing things like $0.65 cents (or $0.65 bucks)? The dollar sign up front there means "dollars", you don't need to add "cents" after it.
Why do grammar Nazis bump my comments down to the bottom of the thread with their irrelevant garbage?
I guess they could always bump your comments down with there comments, I suppose.
It ceases to amaze me how seemingly successful companies hire overpaid buffoons to publicly represent their companies. I mean, really, WTF???
Sad.............
iHasMultiplePersonalities, but all of them are equally dumb and lame.
Your right, this has been going on with other products as well. Take a look at some of the reviews for the Mitsubshi 169 series LCD on Amazon. I was looking at this TV a couple months ago because of the speaker bar, and it may me a very good tv, but the reviews on Amazon are very suspicious. Each review is at least 3 paragraphs long and sound like professional reviewers like you would read from a magazine. Very suspect.
I own a couple Belkin USB hubs, and they work as well as I could hope. However, I won't buy another one of their products until I hear of this guy being fired from the company.
iEye is too busy being a retard on a technology news site instead of doing something productive with his life. Is this what public school has come to these days?
Huh, there's a squad? Why don't you guyses get the ban hammer out and stop making comments to no one!
Meh, not really a surprise since most companies are doing this nowadays. Whether it's paying someone to do it on Amazon or on a Blog there isn't a whole lot of difference.
Some companies send you the actual product and ask you to review it and possibly pay you (and keep the product) others will just say they will pay you for leaving good reviews everywhere. It's called marketing, it's kinda a big deal.
Mechanical Turk, man what a crazy place.
Belkin stuff is ok, not my favorite to buy but sometimes the price and whats available at the local Wally allows me no choice. I'm a need to have stuff now person
I'm horrified. That is my name but in reverse.
I'm not joking.
This isn't really new.
Go through some of these sites and you'll find a lot of objectionable quests.
Programming a Youtube commenting, viewing and rating bot was one of the more popular ones. Sad that they spend their money for stuff like that.
Belkin, for years I've laughed at your prices in retail land.
As prices dropped on electronics, my laughs only increased. These days those laughs are mostly reserved for HDMI cables, but for the all-round comedy, I still pay my respects to the sheer margin witnessed on regular USB cables, firewire cables, craptastic routers, etc.
Over the years, I have always found it hard to justify the margins for your Chinese commodities.
...but with this $0.65 review gig, I'm a changed man!
I use Belkin exclusively, and frankly it's a false enconomy relying on anything else, especially in these times of financial crisis! One Belkin product will outlast at least 5 no-namers! If gold-plated, even more!
I only trust Belkin to meet the stringent technical and safety standards required of my precision electronics. Using anything else can be a very costly exercise in risk!
Great, now I know not to buy any Belkin products. Thanks for the heads up!
This is by far the lowest thing I've ever heard of a company doing. recessed headphone jacks included.
Naaaah it's not.
Do you remember Microsoft has been selling IE along with Windows for more than 10 years, although (at least in europe) it is forbidden and microsoft has already be condamned to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for this ?
And it's the same for the itunes/iPod couple. They will someday have to pay a lot too.
Shut up jobso.
iEye is back?
Haha Belkin what a failure !
Not everybody can have the huge and free of charge fanboys community Apple has xD.
Hope it works better than the WiFi rabbit. Even the homebrew folks are giving up on that peice of crap. :(
Which is it? $0.65 or 0.65 cents? Come on engadget, remember the Verizon debacle?
Every Belkin product I've ever bought has been a pain to use. I had a Belkin wireless router for about a year then one day it decided to stop working at all. I also have a Belkin USB Wi-Fi adapter and it's tempermental, sometimes it works and others it doesn't.
Oh no! Please don't downrank my comment!
I wouldn't be surprised if it's true. I've had way too many problems with Belkin products either due to design flaws or generally underwhelming performance and everytime I complain either by review or a negative comment on some blog, my voice is supressed by others. Surely I can't be the only one with these problems.
Ive got a belkin usb 8 port hub i got in the early days of USB.. i like it, its the only belkin product ive found thats any good & i got it pretty cheap at the time, useful for my printers etc.
But after those early usb days.. all Belkin products ive found have been very overpriced (everything from USB Hubs to Routers to Cabling in general)
friend has a Belkin Router, one of there flashy £120jobbys... he hates it, random disconnects & media center things just refuse to work properly, so much so hes just changed ISP (new one uses ADSL modem) simply to justify getting rid of the expensive router.
MEGA FAIL. they could have told their interns to do that crap.
lol.
I have never trusted most reviews on most websites. They were way too enthusiastic and reminded me of the car salesman who's going to tell you a "secret". Maybe I just read them before my first cup of coffee or something but when someone says: "THEY ARE AWESOME! THANKS (SO AND SO) I WILL BUY FROM YOU EVERY TIME!!! MY HUSBAND LOVED THEM!, I start to vomit.
Well my Jeep got stuck in the sand and the Belkin HDMI cable I used to tow it out snapped in two. I gave it one star.
I tried a Monster Cable and it worked. Now I know why they felt the need to sue Monster Mini Golf.
Not the first time Belkin had questionable tactics.
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1039_3-5104863.html
Funny...as I sit here looking at my failed recently purchased Belkin card reader.
A few years ago I noticed that some items on Amazon were sold below cost when I was using my WORK computer but the same items were way above the suggested retail price when I was using my HOME computer. All on the same day. Then, "the Reg",
http://www.theregister.co.uk/
had a story on Amazon using cookies to take advantage of their customers. From the browser's cookies they can determine if you are a new customer who's shopping around for something (in which case they would sell below cost to suck you in) or if you are a long established customer, in which case they would charge you more. At the time Amazon said that what they were doing was not illegal and was just "an experiment". A few months later they were caught "experimenting" again...