Maybe VP staff can look into IP addresses or something.  I don't know if they track that, but if they do, that would be a way to go.  If all the reviews come from Santee California, for example, that would be highly suspicious.

We'll look into this... thanks for the heads up. Ultimately, we are fine with people reviewing their business or product as long as they note their affiliation so readers can decide how they feel about it.

There's at least a couple of listings for various Bed in a Box products. One that received three reviews yesterday (8/26/08) was:

http://www.viewpoints.com/bedinabox-com-PacDown-Plus-reviews

This listing received 16 reviews in less than two weeks, all five stars and gushing about the product. There's even a summary already. I find it hard to believe that these are simply grassroots people leaving random reviews. The really funny thing is that these reviews are longer and better reasoned than lots of other reviews... if it was only one or two reviews, I'd be impressed with both the reviews and the product. It's almost like the manufacturer told these people that they could earn $50 if they wrote a 500-word review.

These reviews have got to have been organized by the manufacturer -- no $1,000 product is this perfect.

--Bob

bkovacs said…

There's at least a couple of listings for various Bed in a Box products. One that received three reviews yesterday (8/26/08) was:

http://www.viewpoints.com/bedinabox-com-PacDown-Plus-reviews

This listing received 16 reviews in less than two weeks, all five stars and gushing about the product. There's even a summary already. I find it hard to believe that these are simply grassroots people leaving random reviews. The really funny thing is that these reviews are longer and better reasoned than lots of other reviews... if it was only one or two reviews, I'd be impressed with both the reviews and the product. It's almost like the manufacturer told these people that they could earn $50 if they wrote a 500-word review.

These reviews have got to have been organized by the manufacturer -- no $1,000 product is this perfect.

--Bob

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Viewpoints is featured on BedInAbox.com's website. Check out their testimonials page: http://www.bedinabox.com/testimonials.php. Cool huh!

Very cool. Now, I think they should send all Viewpoints members free Bed in Box to check out. Just kidding. But if they or any car companies want to - that's really super. In the meantime, links rock.

Meredith said…
Viewpoints is featured on BedInAbox.com's website. Check out their testimonials page: http://www.bedinabox.com/testimonials.php. Cool huh!

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I went and looked at BedInABox and there is a huge page of highly positive testimonials. I also saw there were links to read reviews on both Epinions and Viewpoints. Like the reviews on Viewpoints, almost all Epinions reviews of this product have been posted in August and all are effusive with praise.

Please forgive me for being cynical but I smell a rat somewhere. I've been doing this review thing for a long time and first-time reviewers almost never post well-thought-out reviews of 500 words. Sure, the occasional reviewer does but not one after the other for 15 in a row. It defies the odds -- the overwhelming majority of first-time reviewers post three or four sentences that barely make a coherent thought, and we don't have to look far to see evidence of this. Almost everyone reading this is a damn fine reviewer... but what was your first review like?

Sure, it's cool that the company posted a link to Viewpoints -- it's great to see Viewpoints get that kind of recognition and to be placed on an even standing with its much older rival. However, I think that thoughtful consumers will spot the pattern of frequent gushingly positive reviews and question their veracity. And it's just a short trip from there to question the veracity of other reviews on Viewpoints.

[/cynicism off]

--Bob

Incidentally, the link I posted above for one BedInABox product now has 38 reviews, more than 10 of which came in the past three days. All are five stars and extremely positive (Best! Great! Unbeatable! Nothing like it! Etc!) It's hard to imagine that anyone will think these are genuine.

--Bob

I took a peek and the first 5 reviewers that I checked out had written only one review... for the bed carton device. 

I read a bed in a box review just now. It just came in. Looks like all the rest. I have seen waves of this type of thing many, many times before elsewhere. I have yet to see a negative review. That usually means there is an incentive to write a positive one or that there is an employee working overtime....

But I digress. I have no proof of that and shouldn't be making accusations.

I am the CEO of BedinaBox and can see that our testimonials are creating some confusion as to their reliability. First, let me say that they are all real and were written by actual buyers of our mattress.

BedinaBox began selling its new and improved BASF memory foam mattress in late January, 2007. In fact, on January 27, we spent $50 on a Google ad and sold one mattress. Today we have over 14,000 customers and we have grown from a 7000 square foot facility in Johnson City to a 150,000 square foot facility just ten miles up the road in Piney Flats. We are growing fast due the popularity of our mattresses and our reliability as a company. We only sell online and we hold ourselves to the highest standards. We have never had a complaint registered against our company and have had less than 1% returns in our history.

Now, about the sudden influx of reviews...

A few months ago, we hired Kim who is the new "voice of BedinaBox" when folks call in. She decided one day a few weeks ago that it would be a good idea to check in with our customers to see how they liked their mattress. Great idea!

(We have been planning for a good while to get back in touch with our customers to do an initial follow-up. We planned to use the opportunity to tell them about our revolutionary new pillows we created and offer them a discount but-the new pillows have taken A YEAR longer to create than we expected and the sales/customers keep piling up and so the follow-up had yet to happen-that is until Kim started a few weeks ago...)

Here is an example of one of the hundreds of letters Kim sent, each starting with a personal greeting to the buyer: 

Hi Robert,

I see that you've received your mattress and have had a chance to give it a try.  Please feel free to let us know how much you love it.

Call or email if I may be of any service. Thanks,

Kim

Here's the whole e-mail from Kim and Robert's response:

From: Robert Levin [mailto:r.levin227@private.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:26 PM
To: Kim Crowder
Subject: Re: from BedinaBox

Dear Kim:

Thanks for your inquiry regarding my recent purchase of a mattress from bedinabox. First, let me tell you that I did quite a bit of research on memory foam mattresses before deciding to buy one from your Company. I already own one Temperpedic, but was not prepared to spend the high price of purchasing another one. So, off I went into cyberland to find the "bargain". Lots of 'pretenders' out there telling tales that just dont live up to close inspection and comparison. I came back to your site often and sought out reviews from other purchasers, blogs, etc., in other words...anywhere I could get information. Finally, I decided to order. And despite some trepidations regarding delivery and set up, I was looking forward to receiving the mattress. I had read more than a few online postings regarding the difficulty in removing the bed from the box and setting it up. I was a bit worried about building the foundation. Both were unnecessary concerns as both building the foundation was easy given the explicit instructions and getting the bed out of the box was not at all difficult and it was rather fun to hear the hiss of air escaping and watch the mattress completely and quickly expand to its full size. It is comfortable, provides a good nights sleep and I feel like I caught quite a bargain by purchasing the Bedinabox mattress versus another Temperpedic. Truly, I cant sense the difference, in fact I find the Temperpedic I already own overly firm when compared to the Bedinabox.

A happy customer here!

Yours truly,

Robert Levin

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 11:36 AM, Kim Crowder <kcrowder@bedinabox.com> wrote:

Hi Robert,

I see that you've received your mattress and have had a chance to give it a try.  Please feel free to let us know how much you love it.

Call or email if I may be of any service.

Thanks,

Kim

 

The result of this letter from Kim has been nothing less than astonishing. We have received over 1000 testimonials in the last month and have sent this note from Kim to only a fraction of our buyer list. I got excited. I said, let's ask these customers to go on global review sites and post their testimonials. I asked Kim to write the folks back and offer them a free pillow if they would be willing to take time to register on either e-pinions.com or viewpoints.com and post their reviews.

So here we are. Our goal is to spread the news of our wonderful products and good company as far and wide across the web as possible. We are good people who are grateful for our jobs and the opportunity to offer high quality mattresses at amazing low prices.

Hey. That's neat that you took the time to check in. I had been thinking the mattresses sounded really nice. Your customers do seem excited.

CyndiA said…
Hey. That's neat that you took the time to check in. I had been thinking the mattresses sounded really nice. Your customers do seem excited.

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Call me a curmudgeon, but I think it's a little less neat. The company is offering an incentive that has cash value (a free pillow) to post testamonials on Viewpoints. I'd be willing to wager that someone who contacts the company with a complaint is not offered this same incentive to post a review.

Curmudgeonly yours,

Bob

Hi Bob,

These customers have created a review without any incentive. We simply ask that they take and post it on your site or on e-pinions.com to help us grow our business. The whole Internet is available for our customers to report any negatives about our company or our products.There is nothing wrong here.

Making an honest living, 

Steve

Stevenice57 said…

Hi Bob,

These customers have created a review without any incentive. We simply ask that they take and post it on your site or on e-pinions.com to help us grow our business. The whole Internet is available for our customers to report any negatives about our company or our products.There is nothing wrong here.

Making an honest living, 

Steve

 

Having been on the other site for over seven years and here since its early days, I do see a flaw in your idea, even though I don't see intent to defraud. Unless you also sent a suggestion to the 1% who returned your product with the same offer and to anyone with negative responses you are skewing the results of your testimonials. Most people are a little leery of a flood of reviews in a short time and have a belief that an honest set of reviews will come in more slowly over time and will contain a wider range of opinions. I clearly recall a similar encouraged review writing campaign on Epinions from another bedding company that seriously backfired. Of course their product may have been poorer than yours.

In my years of monitoring products in the Home and Garden arena, I have only seen the pattern your customers represent when it is caused by an incentive from the supplier. Those products that have caused a strong review response, including mattresses, because of their innate ability to motivate consumers are more likely to be bad products. Good products that naturally cause an outpouring of reviews always occur over a longer period and have a range of opinions from great to poor.

What Bob is saying, I think, is that this type of incentive won't buy you many friends on review sites and will likely be dismissed as bogus by consumers. It certainly was when the last mattress folks tried it.

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 Hey, I'm not calling anyone names (-:

Just saying hi to someone who took the time to join and post here at the message boards.

I figure the site owners can police the site. They see the reviews. They take emails from members. They see the notes here. They can step in if they think this is not "neat." That's fine.

I don't think it hurts to tell the guy hi and to find his product interesting.

Bob said:

Call me a curmudgeon, but I think it's a little less neat. The company is offering an incentive that has cash value (a free pillow) to post testamonials on Viewpoints. I'd be willing to wager that someone who contacts the company with a complaint is not offered this same incentive to post a review.

Curmudgeonly yours,

Bob

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