i don't really see the problem with this. if i had a poor experience, $5 will not change my submitted score. If it was spectacular, $5 is a bonus. And if it was so-so, I'd give them a 10/10 for the credit instead of the 7/10 otherwise. You can call it a bribe if you want. It think it's part of the service.

This blows - I research 99% of my electronics online at forums and websites - now I can't trust them?

US1Camera included a free lens cleaning kit with my purchase and encouraged me to rate them. I didn't.

@Elcheecho: You don't? The whole point of these reviews is transparency. Anytime that is compromised, the review becomes useless. If there are 10 reviews, think of the impact that changing a few (1)'s to (10)'s would make.

It's circumventing crappy service, while making a good service reputation.

y'ever type swear words n stuff in an email cuz that's what you would really like to say to the other party? maybe they forgot to delete?

First of all let me say I love newegg.com (send me a $50 spot).
I had an issue with them 2 years ago and they were being stubborn about it.

I went to resellerratings.com and wrote an accurate assessment of the situation. One day later my problem was fixed and I was $50 the richer on my next purchase, if I agreed to change my review.

I am a whore, so I did.

I feel silly. I've bought things from them before. When I saw their company name in the article at first, I panicked, then I thought, "OHHHHHH, just a bribe. Wow that could have been draastic."

hahaha - i am sorry that you don't like the world you were born in.. i'd shoot my own mother to get a good review..

I don't really have a problem with this, although something in the back of my head says I should.

As with most everything, I am of two minds on this practice. One, I think it poor corporate management to have to bribe people after the fact when a mistake occurs to have them change a review.

From the other side, I have to hand it to a company that does actually attempt to make some amends for thier mistake, and allows for some grievance money to exchange hands.

I guess its really no different than complaining to the manager of a restaurant that your soup was cold, and then they give you a free desert or a free bowl of soup the next time you come in.

@zenpoet:
I am thinking that the suckiness happened when the seller said that the purchaser should lie and give a review that did not befit the service... that's a bit different than offering 'soup' compensation for a screw up. The res. manager is not requesting that the complainer 'change' the original complaint.
Bribe + Lie about Review -does not equal- Right

They should make a new column on Amazon's reseller ratings: total value of bribes for reviews
Then we can all see where to go, get crappy service, and then get a cash payout - provided you're ahead after all is done...

@zenpoet: "I guess its really no different than complaining to the manager of a restaurant that your soup was cold, and then they give you a free desert or a free bowl of soup the next time you come in."

Respectfully, I suggest that it is significantly different. In your example, which I would agree is a reasonable practice, the manager is acknowledging that you believe you received sub-standard service and offers to make it up to you the second-best way s/he can, i.e., a discount on your next visit, no strings attached. You may or may not, at your discretion, continue to offer a public review of the restaurant and still receive the discount. (Of course, better still would be to simply reduce your current dinner charges, but a future-use discount is still a good-faith measure.)

By contrast, in these reported examples, the business is(was) offering compensation only after you first agreed to coverup your own publicly-stated dissatisfaction. If you chose not to censor yourself, you would not receive any compensation. That kind of conditional sequencing of events is indeed a bribe.

@jdhuck: Are you serious? I give a lot of weight to the user reviews at NewEgg. That really makes me not want to shop there... which means they should get their $50 back.

@bosskev: I can see the difference you point out, and would offer that I would change my original statement slightly.

I agree that completely changing a review to state that everything went perfectly would be dishonest. To change a review to state that there were problems but that the company made amends for the hassle, that does not bother me.

@weatherman: The reviews at newegg are legit as far as I know. I rated on resellerratings.com.

This is worse than paying people for good reviews. It's paying people to pretend there was no bad review.
"you didn't see anything" *jedi hand wave*

@Darrone: reread what I wrote. it's not a matter of changing a 1 to a 10. My whole point is that it won't won't affect a crappy score, but it might bump up a meh score cause you're getting a little bit more. You might be confusing this article with the previous one where the person was asked to change a score.

@weatherman: [www.resellerratings.com]

This is the posting I referred to. As I said, I love newegg.com and use them all of the time. Everyone has an off day.

Well if they actually do an excellent job, they could get 10/10 for free.

I just want to know how I can get in on it_

I would totally change my review for money. And my review would read: "I'm very happy with this company because they gave me money to rate them highly, and money makes me happy."

Okay, I probably actually wouldn't do that because I also rely heavily on user-reviews. I even try to read them to see if they sound like real reviews or manufacturer reviews. When I see a really sterling review, I try to look for other reviews by the same user to see if it all "Company X is totally awesome while Company B (their rival) is SATAN."

Kind of like Giz reviews of Apple and Microsoft stuff. Zing!

People that cheat reviews, or companies that try to pump their up and unfairly rate down competitors, should be shot. Yes, the entire company should be shot.

I'm makanai, and I approve this message of a shooting for everyone.

Every so often I see a review that is almost word for word, repeated at another site (Amazon, Crutchfield, Target...) and then figure, well, maybe it was sold through Amazon from one of these (still, it seems duplicated).

Then I got an email from ANTonline asking for me to leave positive review for some items I bought. Why the shill?

Look, if your prices, lack of junkmail, service and inventory are outstanding, my (repeat) purchases should be enough. I'll spread the word at my leisure, on sites that take me and my word as credible. If many are unsatisfied with your item or service, then so be it.

(i.e. Buy.com has this MASSIVE exit page...and popup of bizratings... YES in big print and no, thanks in small image)

@zenpoet: Well spoken. Agreed.

wouldn't money/discount be a good way to resolve an issue? I get why people might be angry about a company saying 'i'll give you $5 if you post a good review' but asking people to change a review in exchange for a monitary gift, that's just resolving issues.

@zenpoet: Yeah, it'd be no different, if the restaurant manager told you "You can have a free bowl of soup next time you come in, but in exchange, you have to tell everybody that your meal was awesome here and this is your favorite restaurant." That'd be no different: it'd still be a bribe.

Whatever happened to building relationships with customers? Stupid companies, trying to buy their way to the top...

@Captain Angry: If it's a conditional offer, it's not resolving the issue. It's bribery. End of story.

It's one thing if they are trying to make up for their poor service by offering a discount. I love Newegg, but they once messed up bad. I left appropriate feedback. The next day, I had an email from customer service that apologized and offered a discount on the next item as a show of good faith. That's fine.

This is bribing people to get good reviews. Especially since it was available to all people, but only if they gave a favorable review. Their "correction" is BS...it's definitely not a miswording as they stated since they even said you have to give a 10/10 score in the original email.

@Elcheecho: It might very well be changing a 1 to a 10. Why not? You're saying someone's desire to rant is worth more than $5? I disagree. All you can say for sure is they are paying $5 for every Lie.

TheCellShop is really really great. Boy are they great. What a great little Cell Shop that CellShop is!!!

(OK CellShop, I kept my end of the bargain, now where's my 5 bucks?)

@Darrone: I don't think it's about a desire to rant. It's about the validity of somebody's word on their review, and the credibility of review website.

It's crap like these that forces people to spend hours instead of minutes researching the stuff they are buying.

I'm paying $5 bucks for anyone to go and rate that store 0/10 (no I'm not. But you're doing it anyways, ain't you?)

I have to be honest, when I saw the first story about this I was surprised to see it was a "story" at all. I thought that this kind of thing was standard operating procedure among smaller online merchants. I can't even begin to tell you how many Amazon affiliates have approached me about reviews that, I thought, weren't even all that bad. I guess they want nothing but perfect scores. I have also experienced this with a camera vendor I used from PriceGrabber. Except that one was way worse because the "owner" of the company called me on the phone in the middle of dinner and wouldn't take no for an answer.

Call me foolish or call me principled, but I've yet to take the bait on any of the bribe attempts. I probably do have a price, but I seriously doubt any of these people are going to meet it.

@RogueSpear: "I probably do have a price, but I seriously doubt any of these people are going to meet it."

When I was a child, my grandmother would tell me, "Honey, your integrity is your most prized possession, it's who you are. Never compromise your integrity. Unless it is for a million dollars, then sell out." True story.

Pragmatic lady, my grandma.

I've actually bought several things from Cellphoneshop. That is pretty funny, but I think we all know that reviews are liberally sprinkled with insiders that sway the curve towards the positive. That is why it's nice to have Giz giving us good, honest, off-the-payroll reviews that we can trust (how's that for @$$ kissing?!).