Fake reviews from PRN in regards to Amazon reviews. PRN aka Product Review Network is an organization who works with Amazon sellers to connect with reviewers to review their products. I’ve been part of the network for a little while. Not too sure of what products I have reviewed from them. Most of the offers are of no interest to me. Regardless of what products I’ve reviewed, a couple days ago I received a concerning email.
Before I get to what PRN sent, I want to establish that I always provide an honest review regardless of how it’s provided. My promise to you is to bring a real user review from the perspective of the every day user. I never want to lead someone the wrong way. Integrity and honesty are way too important. So that’s why I am disturbed when I get messages like below. It’s a shame that people are willing to leave fake reviews, ask for fake reviews, or manipulate reviewers.
Put it this way, I am more than willing to work with a company if I end up getting a defective product. I’ll ask for another product to determine if the product is defective or not. However, if the product simply is not good or junk, it’s gonna get a true review.
All that said, read for yourself about what PRN is asking reviewers to do. The message is copied and pasted, but I am providing a screenshot from my Galaxy S7 Edge as well.
Fake Reviews Message From PRN
Hello PRN Reviewers,
— PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE EMAIL. DO NOT DISCARD! —
Due to a bit of misunderstanding about the review process, we have decided to take a moment to further educate you on exactly what differentiates a “good review” from a “bad review”.
GOOD REVIEW: Any review of 4 stars or more. This review helps to support a product’s ranking and image on Amazon.
BAD REVIEW: Any review of 3 stars or less. This review severely and negatively affects a products ranking and image on Amazon.
In an effort to support the positive image and ranking of their new products on Amazon, our clients have chosen to work with the amazing team of reviewers here at the Product Review Network (you!), so it is of the utmost importance that we keep that in mind when posting reviews.
These companies have spent lots of time and lots of money on the products that they choose to share with you COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE; it is imperative that the reviews posted by PRN members support a successful product launch.
NOTE 1: If you receive a product and feel inclined to give it a bad review for any reason, we respectfully request that you CONTACT US REGARDING THE ISSUE rather than posting a bad review. In a case like this, we will most likely ask you to simply refrain from posting a review (so as not to harm our client’s young product listing). A bad review can be devastating; contacting us rather than posting a bad review allows us to help the client improve their product in a way that does not damage the product or their reputation.
NOTE 2: If you have posted “bad reviews” (3 stars or less) for products received through the Product Review Network in the past, we respectfully request that you go back and reconsider those review(s) based on the content of this email.
To reiterate: our clients have entrusted you with the end result of much hard work and great expense. If, FOR ANY REASON, you are disappointed with the product you have received free of charge, PLEASE CONTACT US rather than posting a bad review. If you have ANY questions, please contact me directly by replying to this email.
Thank you!
Susan G
Final Thoughts
My intention is not to blast PRN, but to let you the customer know about what’s going on behind the scenes. NEVER should a company ask a reviewer to not post an honest review. I don’t care what the ranking is, the true review must be posted. As mentioned before, it’s OK to work with a company if there is an issue with the product. But don’t ask me not to post it if its 3 stars or less. For the record, I normally always contact the company if there’s an issue even it’s not defective. My goal isn’t to screw a company over. Companies need to provide quality products to get high ratings. Simple as that.
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Thanks for the leak, Josh. I’ve been looking at the data regarding this issue of “incentivized reviews” (any reviewer that states they got a free or discounted product in exchanged for their “honest and unbiased” review), and it seems to be the biggest issue on Amazon right now. After looking at nearly 5 million reviews, we’ve found that the incentivized reviews are 12x LESS likely to leave a 1-star review, and about 4x LESS likely to leave a negative (1, 2 or 3 star) review as well.
This email helps us further understand why that is. While there’s obviously folks who will not change their opinion just because they got the product for free or at a discount, there’s plenty of “bad eggs” who will just give everything a 5-star review to keep the free stuff coming in. It’s quite a shame since those reviewers will ruin these programs for everyone else. We’ve seen reviewer profiles with 1,000+ reviews that are ALL 5/5. It’s pretty blatant sometimes.
We’ve built a tool to let you easily detect potentially biased reviews and filter them out to see what the actual customers are saying. Just copy and paste any product URL into ReviewMeta.com and we’ll run an analysis on it.
Nice article, I have just signed up for reviewing products, we’ll see how it goes.
Do you feel that you are too good to contact a company that provided you a product free of charge to highlight the issues you are having with the product? Instead you prefer to damage their reputation publicly like some kind of vendetta for them freely shipping you a product you requested but did not like? Lack of accountability of an INTERNET had made people so jaded…
No offence meant, but the way i see it, if you paid your hard earned money and got crap, its understandable that you might be pissed and leaving a negative review is fair and square. If you are practically placing yourself on a payroll of a company as a beta tester when signing on one of those freebie site, then act like one. Now, if seller does not take steps to resolve your issue or don’t provide proper customer service, then its a different story, but there is nothing wrong with seeking a solution first.
And while email you got from the website is not with in Amazon’s TOS since they are not supposed to ask not to leave negative review, not all companies send those emails. You can go sign up on AMZ Review Trader and see. The only time they will have issue with your review there is if you don’t review product or copy someone else’s work.
I think you have a “jaded” perspective of this post. The job of a reviewer is to review products from the customer perspective. Reviewers are not quality control. Many of these companies simply buy from a warehouse and never test out the product, then assume everything will be fine.
Something else to consider about this post is that I am aiming at the companies who go against good morals and ethics.
Most of the time, if a company asks me to only leave a positive review, I will ignore the request. But if I leave a review and I am asked to take it down because they don’t like the review, that is wrong.
My concern is honesty and integrity.
If a company is worried about a bad reputation, then they don’t need to sell crappy products.