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Samsung called after a mediocre review
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Cold Warrior
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Apr 21, 2013, 08:56 PM
 
This was weird. An acquaintance got a non-phone Samsung product from an Amazon seller. The product was more or less ok, but she posted some cons on Amazon and gave it a middling rating. A few days later someone from Samsung called and greeted her by her real name. He offered an extended warranty if she took down the review.

Anyone else run into this? Does Amazon pass along the real name and phone info to these guys, or the seller? It was creepy getting a call like that, then the quid pro quo offer of warranty for deleted review.
     
exca1ibur
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Apr 21, 2013, 09:02 PM
 
That's not good. I haven't had any issues, but I always order from Amazon directly and not a third party. I wonder if the third party passed this along, since they would have the customer name and address at the least.
     
OreoCookie
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Apr 21, 2013, 09:06 PM
 
This is very disconcerting, and a sleazy move by Samsung. If they had asked her for her feedback and as a token of appreciation thrown in an extended warranty, fine, but to ask her to take down the review?

I thought this stuff only happens when you write reviews professionally. (My brother was working for a German PC gaming mag for a few years and his boss was called more than once because my brother meticulously pointed out downsides of certain products.)
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Cold Warrior  (op)
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Apr 21, 2013, 09:24 PM
 
Originally Posted by exca1ibur View Post
That's not good. I haven't had any issues, but I always order from Amazon directly and not a third party. I wonder if the third party passed this along, since they would have the customer name and address at the least.
The seller would have had the real info, but her amazon user name linked to the real life info? Amazon obviously needs that but it doesn't seem necessary to share with sellers. So either the seller gave the info to Samsung based off of what was sold to whom when without really linking a profile to a real identity or Amazon links user name and real info for sellers.
     
Cold Warrior  (op)
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Apr 21, 2013, 09:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
This is very disconcerting, and a sleazy move by Samsung. If they had asked her for her feedback and as a token of appreciation thrown in an extended warranty, fine, but to ask her to take down the review?

I thought this stuff only happens when you write reviews professionally. (My brother was working for a German PC gaming mag for a few years and his boss was called more than once because my brother meticulously pointed out downsides of certain products.)
She's definitely not a professional reviewer, nothing close. The take down offer came in the second call. During the first, he offered the extended warranty and she said she'd think about it. His follow up call mentioned the warranty offer again and then linked it to deleting the review. All in all really lousy.
     
exca1ibur
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Apr 21, 2013, 09:28 PM
 
When companies start bribing for 'good reviews that is a big problem. This happens often with game reviews, to the point I read the user reviews and comments, before I read an 'official' review now. Giving false information to sell a product and that should be illegal.
     
OreoCookie
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Apr 22, 2013, 01:33 AM
 
Originally Posted by exca1ibur View Post
When companies start bribing for 'good reviews that is a big problem. This happens often with game reviews, to the point I read the user reviews and comments, before I read an 'official' review now. Giving false information to sell a product and that should be illegal.
In many cases it's more subtle. For instance, my brother reviewed a top-end 200 €/$250 tower case where you can expect good craftsmanship. My brother (who is tinkering with PCs for years, has modded cases, built them from Legos, has a sophisticated water cooling system on his main machine, etc.) cut himself when installing components because the edges of the metal were not rounded off (or at least filed off properly). In the end, his boss told him to give them a few additional points in the test score, but let the review stand. Is there false information in the article? No, not really. But still, the manufacturer has had an effect on the review.
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exca1ibur
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Apr 22, 2013, 02:29 AM
 
True. The old 'just enough info, but not all the facts'. I always like to read several reviews and see the pros and cons.
     
OreoCookie
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Apr 22, 2013, 06:18 AM
 
Originally Posted by exca1ibur View Post
True. The old 'just enough info, but not all the facts'. I always like to read several reviews and see the pros and cons.
Yes, that definitely gives you a better representation of what the product is like. But I think all professional publication suffer from this defect to one degree or another. I also find reviews with overall scores quite useless, e. g. if the newest Nikon beats its closest Canon competitor buy 1 % in the final score, how much is that worth when you want to make your buying decision?
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Spheric Harlot
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Apr 22, 2013, 06:33 AM
 
One reason I like c't magazine. No scores. Just pros, and cons.

I have no idea how impartial they really are, but they've always managed to maintain that air of authority and neutrality in my perception.
     
OreoCookie
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Apr 22, 2013, 08:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
One reason I like c't magazine. No scores. Just pros, and cons.

I have no idea how impartial they really are, but they've always managed to maintain that air of authority and neutrality in my perception.
Certainly, c't is the gold standard, they have some serious test hardware and are very methodical. I still remember the explanation when they switched noise measurements from dB to Sone, because the latter more accurately represents subjective noise levels.
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P
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Apr 22, 2013, 09:04 AM
 
My favorite review site lately is The Wirecutter. No scores, just picking out the best piece of gear in each category.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
The Final Dakar
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Apr 22, 2013, 09:06 AM
 
     
Cold Warrior  (op)
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Apr 22, 2013, 08:49 PM
 
Probably not a coincidence. I wonder how widespread this is, not just financing the teardown of Apple but running the mercenaries to cold call honest reviewers and bribe them into taking down less than perfect reviews of your products. This whole experience really rubbed me the wrong way and I'm going to avoid Samsung in general if I can help it.
     
lpkmckenna
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Apr 22, 2013, 11:08 PM
 
I can't decide whose behaviour is scummier here: Amazon or Samsung.

And really, an extended warranty? If you're gonna bribe me, don't insult me while doing it.
     
Person Man
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Apr 23, 2013, 10:02 PM
 
If I was your friend, I would edit the review and write a SCATHING criticism of what they just did. Reduce the rating to poor and say "Samsung tried to bribe me to take this review down."

And then contact Amazon (or the seller) and yell at them for even DARING to share personal information with Samsung.
     
imitchellg5
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Apr 23, 2013, 11:21 PM
 
In 2009 or 2010 I left a pretty harsh review about a Sony TV on Amazon (three defective units, really?) and Sony contacted me via email and asked me to call a direct number and speak with some sort of customer service manager. They didn't mention anything about changing the review; in fact they thanked me for being thorough in my description of the problem. I was creeped out a little bit at the time, but I also thought it was pro-active on Sony's part. However, had they contacted me via phone and asked me to change the review I would have been quite furious. Sony probably hoped that I would change my review to be more favorable after my problems were fixed, but they never mentioned my review beyond saying that they read and reviewed what I wrote and thought my TV was a poor representation of their product and wanted to correct the issue.
     
OreoCookie
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Apr 24, 2013, 01:37 AM
 
Questions of privacy aside, I think that this is good customer service: someone is not happy with your product and they try to fix the issue. Did they offer you anything (an upgrade, a newer model)?
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imitchellg5
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Apr 25, 2013, 12:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Questions of privacy aside, I think that this is good customer service: someone is not happy with your product and they try to fix the issue. Did they offer you anything (an upgrade, a newer model)?
They offered to give me a newer TV, but the new model year of TVs didn't come in the size I had (32"). That wouldn't be a big deal but I keep my TV in a quite old armoir that can barely fit 32" comfortably. Instead they got me in contact with my area's "factory-authorized service provider." It sounded like a gimmick, but the guy showed up and was brilliant. He found the issue I had with that particular set and repaired it right in my living room. He had all the equipment and tools, it was very cool to watch. I haven't had an issue with it since. He said that many of the sets with this particular panel (I think it was LG, but might be wrong), had a lot of issues and I simply had the bad luck of getting multiple warranty replacements with the bad panel.

The way that Sony contacted me really didn't bother me. I think contact over email is reasonable. Had they called me over the phone and offered to send me a replacement in exchange for a good review, I would have been creeped out and angry. But they never mentioned the review other than saying they were aware of the review and said that based on my description of the problem they thought they knew the solution to the issue. I had given a detailed review, not simply the typical 'OMG THIS TV SUXORS, MY $150 SYLVANIA TV IS WAY CHEEPER."
     
Cold Warrior  (op)
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Aug 4, 2013, 11:28 AM
 
Fllu offers cash to "organically" promote Samsung's push for proprietary Android apps

And the natural pairing is to buy exposure disguised as real interest.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Aug 4, 2013, 11:43 AM
 
     
subego
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Aug 4, 2013, 07:18 PM
 
Shit. You mean someone will pay me to trash Apple?
     
Salty
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Aug 4, 2013, 07:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Shit. You mean someone will pay me to trash Apple?
Dude! That explains the stupid comments on most tech blogs by android fan bois now! They're not 12 year old westerners with poor english! They're 18 year old Asians with poor english! (Who are being paid!)
     
Shaddim
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Aug 5, 2013, 01:28 AM
 
Hint: No one needs to pay people to bash Apple, Samsung's whipping their butts without the benefit of astroturfing. The GS4 is an almost perfect phone (unless you have small hands) and Apple needs to get back into the game in a big way.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
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subego
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Aug 5, 2013, 01:34 AM
 
Samsung crapware makes me nauseous.
     
   
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