Amazon Gift Vouchers are nothing new. They’ve been around as long as, well, as long as Amazon. However, when these coupons are given away with an incentive to skew user reviews, then we’re looking at a borderline anti-consumer practice. Recently, I purchased a couple of consumer electronic products from Amazon, and got these two coupons with each:
The front of the coupons looks quite normal, and harmless. But the backside is another matter, altogether. The coupon requires the buyer to give 5-star ratings for the product, take a screenshot and then send it to the mentioned Whatsapp number for a 300 buck coupon.
This kind of thing has been going on for a while across various eCommerce platforms. But, why isn’t anyone doing anything about this? Practices like these skew the product reviews in favor of the seller, misleading thousands (if not millions) of users into buying the product. Furthermore, in the Asia-Pacific region, if you buy an electronic product, you can only get a replacement and not a complete return. So, if the product is functional, but not satisfactory, you’re pretty much screwed.
Now, you might think that this incident is limited to a single retailer on Amazon, but this was an Amazon Fulfilled product, meaning that it was packaged and the coupon was put in there by the Amazon staff, so Amazon certainly has a part in this. I’m not sure why people haven’t reported this sort of thing (I’m guessing it’s the free money), but it shouldn’t be allowed, and sellers resorting to this tactic should be penalized.
