Community Chat

[sassenach1]

@Its Me LuLuBelle2 QVC does not require you to purchase the production in order to write a review. Or at least they didn’t.; I haven’t checked lately. I’ve complained about this for years and nothing has been done. So at least Amazon has “verified purchase” on their reviews and require a a disclaimer for reviews for free products now.

[dooBdoo]

           I just did a quick internet search for the phrase "This review was collected as part of a promotion." and "QVC" -- I got nearly 5,000 results. 

            I notice that these particular reviews do not allow us to click on the reviewer name and see their history (hover the cursor over their name, and you'll see they do not contain hyperlinks the way QVC customer names do).   

            Some are accompanied by other notations, such as "Written by a customer while visiting philosophy.com" or "Written by a customer while visiting alexbrands.com" -- that sort of thing. 

            The company "Bazaarvoice" manages QVC's reviews -- they recently made changes to the system and I wonder if at that time they merged ratings on other websites with QVC's.   

           I looked at the Bazaarvoice.com site and they use the same terminology @Kachina624 noticed.   Evidently it's what they call "syndicated content:"

"...Over the next several weeks, Bazaarvoice will roll out changes to our content system designed to disclose syndicated review content collected through promotional means, such as sweepstakes, sampling, coupons, and other incentives... 

...The incentivized badge will no longer appear on reviews that meet the above criteria.   Instead, the following text will be appended to each review: 

“[This review was collected as part of a promotion.]”... "

            Also, in another part of the website they're called "incentivized reviews:"

"...Authenticity is a core value at Bazaarvoice. This means indicating, or badging, user generated content (UGC) where the author has been offered an incentive.

FTC regulations concerning consumer-generated content, as well as the Bazaarvoice Authenticity Policy, require that reviews display a notification (either as a graphic badge or plain text) any time the consumer has received or been offered material compensation for writing their review.

This includes, but is not limited to, any of the following being provided to the consumer in exchange for writing a review:

• Entry into a sweepstakes
• Coupons or Discounts
• Loyalty Reward Points
• Free products, either before as in a Sampling program or after, as a Thank You gift... "

[Q-Anu]

Yep! Just why I no longer trust or bother to give reviews most anywhere at all, including here. 

I wonder how many incentives one would receive after giving an authentic poor review or two. 😉

[Kachina624]

@dooBdoo.  Very interesting observations.  I guess we might as well quit trying to write honest, informative reviews and just let Bazaarvoice and their Mickey Mouse reviews take over the system.  It truly seems that QVC can't do a decent job of managing anything, even the most vital and straightforward aspects of their operation.

[PINKdogWOOD]

@Imaoldhippie  The reviews that bug me for clothing items are the ones who say they bought it, fits great, love the color blablabla but they never elaborate on the size they are, they size they bought, is it the regualr size they'd buy or did they size up/down. What's the point? A review like this doesn't help me out on clothing items.

The ones that REALLY bug me of course are the people who post a review but DID NOT even buy the item regardless what it may be!  And these reviews actually get posted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's up with this??????????????????????  You cannot review any item if you do not/did n ot buy it.

[lovesallanimals]

More often than not I write a review, after I receive it and have tried it.  What I do notice is that when I see a lot of reviews for a new product that are all 5 stars and are extremely positive, I click on to see what else they have reviewed.  I cannot tell you how many times I have seen most of them with just this one review, so I know something is not right or honest about this.  When I see reviews by people who have posted several reviews and see if their taste is similar to mine, I feel more confident about the product.  

[Justice4all]

For better or worse, I can no longer see qvc reviews!

                        In memory of newziesuzie

[dooBdoo]

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@itsmagic wrote:

I don’t trust the reviews that I see are part of a promotion.  I hope the Q doesn’t start posting these reviews on a regular basis. 

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            Unfortunately, it appears this will be a standard practice on QVC's site now, @itsmagic.

[dooBdoo]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

@dooBdoo.  Very interesting observations.  I guess we might as well quit trying to write honest, informative reviews and just let Bazaarvoice and their Mickey Mouse reviews take over the system.  It truly seems that QVC can't do a decent job of managing anything, even the most vital and straightforward aspects of their operation.

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             I always read the reviews with a "grain of salt," @Kachina624, but now I'm even more careful and probably cynical.    I guess all we can do is try to be informed about the way reviews are solicited, chosen for publication, and in some cases paid endorsements.

[depglass]

I write a review when I'm extremely happy or extremely unhappy with a purchase.  The vast middle group I ignore.