publication date: Oct 24, 2009
According to the
YouGov survery¹, 77 per cent of online shoppers use
reviews and ratings when purchasing, yet more than 41 per cent are
unaware that some reviews online may be
not completely genuine. Almost
1 in 10 respondents who purchased items based on reviews,
felt misled and subsequently unhappy about their purchases.
Household names have already been caught and chastised for
posting fake reviews online. However, with a low level of
consumer awareness and no means of "policing" user-generated opinion,
fake reviews are still a
common occurrence.
Sellers on
Amazon Marketplace and eBay are notorious for publishing
misleading or even fake reviews in a bid to
improve their rating, said respondents.
So it's still a case of
buyer beware! And if something sounds
too good to be true, it probably is.
The
government has recently taken action in
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 which states that it is now a
legal offence to “falsely represent oneself as a consumer”. But although this law has been in place for more than a
year, it has proved
impossible to enforce and police across the internet.
The Office of Trading Standards is still heavily relying on
consumers to report the instances of
fake reviews.
Be assured that anything which is reviewed on
Parenting Without Tears is tried and tested out by a member of the
PWT panel - sometimes they are
not impressed and they say so! However
companies do use
quotes from
Parenting Without Tears on their websites and
promotional material.
If you would like to
register to join the panel, you have to become a
member of the website.
¹ commisioned by the shopping advice site Reevoo.com
