To accept a bribe?

[smellyhouseelf]

Last week I bought a gift for my niece online. Then I received an email promising me another free one if I gave them a good review. Anyone had this before? Would you give a good review? It has to be before midnight tonight and I won’t be giving the gift until next week so I have no idea if it’s any good. I generally don’t review anything or pay much attention to reviews when I buy. How much do you believe reviews?

TroubledLichen

major lols? Do you realise how many people from all sorts of areas of expertise and how much money is spent on trying to regulate the market? As you type there would be people working away trying to work out how to regulate "how advertising works this day" so people don't get ripped off and also so that the market operates as efficiently as it can.

Obviously the OP isn't going to bring down the economy - but when lots of people do it, it will create very real problems.

I get that there are legitimate concerns about regulating this type of advertising and whether it’s transparent and fair to the consumer is something that deserves worthy debate. But this has been going on for years, and in many ways is better regulated than it’s ever been, use of the #ad for instance, or amazon’s stricter policy on sponsored ads. Does it need to be more regulated? Maybe. But I really don’t understand how you’re linking a very important debate on advertising regulation to an economic crash. I’ve been involved with work looking at whether the millions brands spend on ‘influencers’ is money well spent and from a valuation perspective it’s very difficult to measure. Please by all means educate me to contrary, but all I’m seeing is a changing advertising landscape, regulatory challenges and possibility of unwise spending by brands chucking money at online influencers. The jump from sponsored posters to ‘bringing down the economy’ does seem laughable as it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

I'd do it! However, I also nab tables in cafes while my DH queues for drinks so I'm apparently satan in a skirt.

I bought a kitchen item from Amazon and the seller sent me a message offering me £10 if I left a review. In all fairness they didn’t say it had to be positive or complimentary (but that was obviously what they were hoping for).

I leave reviews on 90% of my Amazon orders anyway so it made no difference to me. I gave an honest review and emailed them the link to it. They refunded £10 to me within a few days.

I’ve seen lots of 1star reviews because people didn’t read the item descriptions and were upset when they got exactly what they ordered! I think most people take reviews for what they are: one person’s opinion.

Hope your niece enjoys her present.

TroubledLichen - I said it can all add up and be damaging to the economy as a whole? I didn't say it was going to bring down the economy? How on earth did I "link an important debate on advertising regulation to an economic crash"?

(although nb: a core reason for regulation is economic - the latest economic crash was because of poor regulation of activity by lots of people who I'm sure justified their dodgy bond ratings as not hurting anyone... )

Anyway - this post is really not the time and the place for this. But I stand by my point - this type of low level stuff when done by lots of people can screw with the market - being both unfair to consumers but also potentially having a detrimental impact on the economy...