Here’s a story from my own life.
You might not believe this, but sometimes I shop at sites besides Solid Signal. I know, it’s tragic. But sometimes I want something that Solid Signal doesn’t carry. And so, in this case I went to Amazon.
I was looking for a product I really didn’t know about, and so I read a lot of reviews. I know you do the same. I picked the one product that had the best reviews. And, I bought it. It’s … fine … but given the reviews I was expecting so much more.
And then, I found out why the product had so many good reviews. I got a little card in the box saying that the seller was offering a $30 gift card in exchange for a verified good review.
Can sellers pay for reviews?
The sad thing is this happens all the time. Amazon, specifically, doesn’t allow paid reviews. But, it’s so common that they can barely keep up with the number of sellers who do it. Besides, they have to know about the practice. Given the choice of getting $30 for a few seconds work or turning a seller in, who’s going to turn anyone in? So it goes on. [Spoiler alert: I turned them in.]
It’s hard to trust the review system when you know it’s rigged. And it’s rigged pretty often. I’ve learned my lesson that I should avoid buying something if the reviews are so good they’re hard to believe. This is especially true if there are a lot of very similar products and only one has incredibly awesome reviews.
Does Solid Signal pay for reviews?
Solid Signal does not pay for reviews on our site or any other. All the reviews you find at Solid Signal are the honest opinions of our customers. We never offer coupons, deals, or anything like that tied to writing a positive review. We’re looking for honest feedback, and if a product gets a lot of bad reviews, we’ll stop selling it.
Now, we do moderate reviews. We remove bad reviews that have nothing to do with the product. We take out profanity, because you shouldn’t have to deal with that stuff. But we don’t block bad reviews that are generally accurate. If you bought an antenna and it didn’t work for you, we want to know. We want to know why it didn’t work, and so do other people. Those sort of reviews don’t often happen (because we try to match the right antenna with the right person) but they do happen.
If you don’t know, ask
We’re not afraid of questions. If you see mixed reviews on a product, or not enough reviews, call us at 888-233-7563. Our techs really want to match you with the best products. They don’t work on commission and there’s no reason for them to try to “sell” you on something. Their only job is to make sure you have the part you need.
And we never, ever pay for your reviews or sell your information. Period.
