There are many consumers out there basing their product choice on reviews, but how reliable are these reviews after all? The latest proof that some of the reviews are inaccurate is the Belkin scandal, which broke not long ago.

 

As it appears, the company’s products miraculously obtained positive reviews despite complaints from consumers that their quality is actually poor. The ‘miracle’ is in fact a scheme played by Michael Bayard, Business Development Representative at Belkin, who paid people to rate their products as high as possible.

 

Leaving aside the indignation some might feel while reading this, Mark Reynoso, Belkin President, wrote that it was with great surprise and dismay when we discovered that one of our employees may have posted a number of queries on the Amazon Mechanical Turk website inviting users to post positive reviews of Belkin products in exchange for payment.

 

The follow-up was the company removing the posts from the Mechanical Turk website, and remove all fake reviews. They also promised they will work earnestly to regain the trust (they) have lost.

 

Doubting that this will be an easy process, there’s another aspect that needs to be mentioned here. According  to a Belkin employee, the unofficial policy of the company is to make all its employees do whatever is needed to get good product reviews and good press. Not only that, but employees who did good (with achieving most positive reviews) were rewarded by the company.

 

The scheme seems to have been going on for years, the employee says, and it’s no wonder Belkin is now in a downward spiral, since employees are forced to release products at a faster rate, with lower production costs, while ignoring the quality factor. I wonder what Belkin has to say now…