Remember how Michael Bayard, a Belkin Business Development representative, was apparently
hiring people from Mechanical Turk to post glowing reviews of Belkin products on Amazon and elsewhere? Well, we just received an apologetic letter tucked firmly between the quaking legs of Mark Reynoso, President of Belkin -- a man clearly fearful of a
consumer backlash. Reynoso expressed "surprise and dismay" that one of his employees "may have" (er hem, may have?) invited positive reviews for payment. While Belkin isn't admitting fault, it's at least taking responsibility to "re-instill trust" through the following actions:
"We've acted swiftly to remove all associated postings from the Mechanical Turk system. We're working closely with our online channel partners to ensure that any reviews that may have been placed due to these postings have been removed."
Hit the read link for the full, ethical grovel.
posted Jan 19th 2009 6:23AM
A company will lie, steal, cheat, destroy the environment, or whatever else it takes to make a few extra dollars. The government's role is to stop them doing this, though government's are all in the businesses back pockets so ultimately the consumer and environment get screwed.
Everything you see around you is a result of the capitalist system and the progress made through it. Don't knock it just because someone broke the law.
I concur.
Rather, I should say, I concur with BobTurbo.
I think to re-instill the trust, they should accept back all my Belkin gear that I've purchased in the past few years with a full refund.
Every time I spoke out about their design flaws or quality issues my comments/reviews where down-ranked.
BobTurbo: Ahhh, the lazyman liberal, who wants everything perfect and fair but doesn't want to do anything for or about it.
In a free society (or rather, as free as we have left), govt can't prevent companies from lying, cheating, or stealing any more than police can prevent murder. The govt can provide oversight and punishment after the fact, but that's about it. I mean, you don't want tools like wireless wiretapping so they can prevent crimes before they take place, do you?
What you can do though is far more effective: don't support companies who lie, cheat, or steal.
And there's where it's hard, isn't it BobTurbo? That means that you're going to have to do some work (diligence, research) and maybe even sacrifice a bit (not buy that cool product from companyX - like Belkin - because they're a bad company). Instead, you'd rather just "let the government do it for you [us]". I mean, that's what it's there for, right?
Fanman: You need to differentiate capitalism from free market system.
Engineers like having fun and producing cool products and devices, and exploring ideas in mechanical things. Business people like to make money. Greed is inherent in both capitalism and the free market, but, as in any dynamic system, a certain homeostasis needs to be present or the system will careen off in one direction or the other in some chaotic way. Ethics, and external monitoring are what prevents ambition from becoming greed. The Belkin boys did something wrong. I bet the president, or at least the marketing boys superiors knew what was going on. We here on engadget love gadgets. Money is the means to buy toys, and not the scorecard for many of us. For business people, money is the scorecard.
Pwease government, save me from nasty belkin... they hurtz me.....
notYou: Don't be ridiculous, there is no way that private citizen have enough access to information to decide whether a company is lying, cheating or stealing, I mean its not like the company is just doing it in the open for everyone to see. That's like saying that individuals should be diligent and do research to find out if their neighbour is murdering people rather than the police doing that.
Second, you mention surveillance and preventing crimes before they take place- while surveillance raises significant privacy concerns for individuals, a business is *not* a person, the only problem with intrusive surveillence is the potential for industrial espionage. You would be opposed to publicly disclosing all your personal financial details, yet public companies already do this. They are not comparable situations, so the same privacy conditions don't apply.
But surveillence or not, there *should* be consequences for companies that act unethically beyond loss of sales, and thats precicely what role the government plays. In fact, that's why we pay taxes, so the government can act collectively representing us.
notYou is a belkin shareholder. lolz!
@fanman
"Everything you see around you is a result of the capitalist system and the progress made through it."
So the public school I attended for 12 years and the highway that brought me there are all the result of capitalism? Gee, Thanks Capitalism!
@facebookfake
What you describe is a result of socialism; the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in capitalism.
Incidentally, socialism rocks for this very reason. Communism does not. ;)
@E71
Did you consider maybe not buying Belkin problems after the second time you had problems. I'm assuming you kept buying since you said "all my Belkin gear." Either you weren't smart enough to stop buying their stuff since you repeatedly had issues or you exaggerating.
Gee the last time I read a Belkin manual it didn't adhere to the first guideline for their "reviews". But that was a long time ago since I learned quickly not to buy Belkin (hmmmm guess they're not going to pay me for this).
oh I see what you did there...cleaver one.
Can we please put an end to 'I see what you did there' replies. Please, please, please. It's like a virus popping up everywhere and it needs to be tossed into the First! post pile.
As for this Belkin biz, yeah every company does it but it's not excusable. Since they were openly busted I think it's only fair to backlash some. I do most of my electronics shopping online. Much of it based on online reviews. I will NOT be buying Belkin after this.
Awww, company pays people to add positive spin to its product? How unexpected. Hint: don't be gullible.
This is the weirdest thing, because Belkin products aren't that bad where they should be to the point of paying people to write positive reviews for them. Kodak on the other hand should be paying through the teeth for this unethical service.
Exaclty, I only hear good things about Belkin stuff - outside Amazon.
And now you know why... fake reviews!
Shocking really. This is a PR disaster for them and serves them right for trying to dupe people who aren't computer savvi. Its people like our parents who take these fake reviews in to account when purchasing products and when they fail its us who get the calls to fix them.
I'll never buy another Belkin product again and urge you to advise all of your family to do the same.
(I wonder if Belkin will try and get their review army to game the comments here on Engadget?)
How do we know you weren't paid to say that?
Yeah I don't know what the atmosphere is like on your planet, but here on Earth, Belkin products tend to suck in our atmosphere.
I'm a long time user of Belkin products and I think that they're an outstanding company when it comes to business ethics.
If I could rate this company on integrity, I would give them 5 out of 5. Full marks.
I will be down-ranking anyone who says negative things about them.
+1, Funny
Your check is in the mail
I'm downgrading you. I'm aware that you're joking, but there are a lot of stupid people out there who will read your post and think you're being honest.
Ian, I'm downgrading you. I'm aware that you're stupid, but there are a lot of people out there who will read your post and think you're joking.
What?.... Mercy is for the WEAK!
Everybody's chasing 100% positive, especially on the Internet, with anything negative suppressed or dismissed under an image of perfection. This doesn't wash with anybody, and I think if people were a little less fearful of that one bad review and trusted consumer's intelligence, we'd be better equipped to make good decisions.
Nice to hear this, but I doubt if they'd found out themselves privately that they'd be removed. And you know it's common practice.
just like chasing highly ranked comment
How long will it be before Amazon is sued for fraud? They are knowingly selling many products that have fake reviews.
And it's Amazon's fault... how?
I'm seriously going to consider not buying any more Belkin products in the future. Not because they're unethical corporations -- all corporations are unethical. But because Belkin was dumb enough to get caught.
Et tu, Belkin, then fall customers.....
How long before Belkin's stock is at $0.65?
Belkin is a privately held company so they don't have a stock price, or stock.
So, quite a while then!
I noticed, in their statement, Belkin didn't say they were firing or disciplining Michael Bayard. WTF??? To me, this proves that Belkin was behind the actions of this employee, and Belkin can't fire/discipline him, because he would sue them, since he was just carrying out Belkin's wishes.
Or maybe the employee said he didn't do it so they're waiting for something like IP address verification before lowering the ax.
I still say this looks like the aciton someone wanting to HURT Belkin would do - post a fake "from Belkin" note...
Well, you make some interesting points. Maybe Belkin is waiting to verify this is the guy... However, I looked into this service, and it's somewhat difficult to pretend you are someone you are not. It's not easy, like placing a comment on Engadget.
Also, the tone of the letter from Belkin doesn't sound like they think this was a fake, or I would assume they would mention it, as that sure would be damining for Belkin.
So while what you say seems possible, from what I see, I think it's highly unlikely that the post was fake, and that Belkin isn't confident it was posted by their employee.
Of course they were behind it, you think that 'a wayward employee' was going to pay people for fake reviews from his own pocket? That kind of thing must be approved by management and then accounting has to be alerted and taxpapers drawn up etcetera.
They should not have admitted anything, now they are thoroughly exposed to everybody except for the clinically naïve.
My God whats next ? Will Apple give everyone on staff at Engadget a macbook ? oh wait .....
+1
The thing is, don't you all tend to assume that at least some of the reviews are posted by the company? Sometimes it's even obvious. Look at the reviews for Le Creuset stuff (Amazon). It's nice that they supplied additional information, but they should not be allowed to rate their own goddamn products.
"And there's where it's hard, isn't it BobTurbo? That means that you're going to have to do some work (diligence, research) and maybe even sacrifice a bit (not buy that cool product from companyX - like Belkin - because they're a bad company). Instead, you'd rather just "let the government do it for you [us]". I mean, that's what it's there for, right?"
and if all they are doing is skewing the responses upward by writing their own glowing reviews and burying the bad ones... how do you do research? Buy a piece of their equipment? kinda defeats the "research before you buy"...
On the other hand, actual teeth in the fraud laws might be incentive to avoid that kind of practice.
Seriously? Reading user comments at online stores constitues research? Like reading Wikipedia entries constitutes research for an academic paper, I assume. Why not go to a site that reviews products? You still have to take it with a grain of salt sometimes, up until the Core 2 Duo slaughtered AMDs line-up, you would be hard pressed to find a positive Intel review on Tom's Hardware. Caveat Emptor.
I paid girls in high school to tell their friends that I had an enormous penis. Was that unethical?
not at all...sally told me that you had to pay her 50 bucks to tell that huge lie though
I don't know why you guys try to discredit Belkin. Belkin is a great company that makes great product...I try to buy belkin if I can. I think I'm naming my kid after it also.
Take them out and shoot them! We have enough gadget makers so "they" wont be missed.