Customer Ratings on Amazon/Ebay

[Frys Girl]

Ratings for e-commerce sites matter a lot to me because I buy a TON of yoga shit online. I usually buy it before I try it, so I rely on reviews. I heard about this dude from belkin? who was paying people on amazon to put up positive reviews on amazon for their products.

That sounds douchey to me because these people haven't had the chance to even TRY the product much less have HAD to buy it before rating.

BUT, let's be honest. THis kinda thing is common with non-internet selling too, right? Bacardi girls....are not just hot, they are creative awesome marketing tools. Nice movie reviews on shitty movies.

Whacha think?

[MV/Liberace!]

i know amazon does (or at least did) allow people to review products regardless of whether or not they've bought it from amazon using the amazon account they're posting with.  that does seem douchy to me.  however, i have to praise the amazon rating/review system because if they required us to buy the product we're reviewing, i wouldn't have been able to help pioneer the effort to slam snoory's dumb book on amazon right under his nose.

yes, i fancy myself a pioneer in the anti snoory movement.