Amazon removes Ravpower brand, after removing Aukey and Mpow products last month.

[Book One]

Supposedly for offering gift cards for positive reviews.

Amazon confirms it removed RavPower, a popular phone battery and charger brand

One month ago, Amazon-first gadget brands Aukey and Mpow suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from the giant online retailer's storefront, with almost all their electronics vanishing from Amazon's shelves. Today, popular battery and charger brand RavPower has completely disappeared as well — and Amazon now confirms to The Verge that it was the one that removed RavPower from its store, and that it removed Aukey and Mpow previously.

Amazon hasn't yet said why it took the action on RavPower, but it's not hard to imagine what happened here. On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal's Nicole Nguyen ran a story about how her new RavPower charger included an offer for a $35 gift card in exchange for a review, something that Amazon confirmed was a violation of company policy. Amazon banned incentivized reviews in 2016. Nguyen tweeted about RavPower's removal earlier today:

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By and large, this is exactly what happened to Aukey, Mpow, and other lesser-known electronics retailers last month — except here, Amazon has been a bit more thorough. You can actually still find a couple of Aukey listings on Amazon, while RavPower seems to have none.

Another important difference may be that RavPower has its own separate online shop that ranks high in Google search, so it may not strictly need to depend on Amazon. RavPower didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Amazon would not tell us last month if it actually removed Aukey and Mpow, merely giving us a generic statement that suggested it generally suspends sellers that violate "the integrity of our store," but it confirmed both removals to The Verge today. At the time, Aukey and Mpow didn't respond to requests for comment.

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more at the link

 

[ILikeFeet]

I have a couple of mpow products. where's my gift cards?

 

[Slayven]

I read the title and thought they were blowing up and was glad i didn't buy one yesterday. Yet the gift card for a review is pretty common, my mom buys a lot of jewelry on amazon and they come with cards telling you to do that shit

 

[krazen]

Damn, what sucks is they were actually solid manufacturers, so it was also dumb of em to try to game the system even after they got clout (that's some small time business shit). Amazon is funny because fake reviews = bad. Fake products = good.

 

[Deleted member 79451]

Oh Wow. I bought a pair of Mpow headphones. It did come with one of those scammy 'rate us 5 stars, get a gift card'. But for the cheap price they're not terrible. We actually have 2 pairs of the same model, my wife's one is perfect but mine has a small rumble defect. I use them for work.

 

[kmfdmpig]

I have products from each of them (Aukey and RavPower both purchased via Amazon). Personally, I always take the reviews with a bit of a grain of salt as I've gotten tons of "if you leave a nice review we'll give you a coupon off your next product" when buying replacement batteries, cables, etc.. over the years. With that said, I've been legitimately happy with the products from each.

Oh Wow. I bought a pair of Mpow headphones. It did come with one of those scammy 'rate us 5 stars, get a gift card'. But for the cheap price they're not terrible. We actually have 2 pairs of the same model, my wife's one is perfect but mine has a small rumble defect. I use them for work.

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Are they the 059 model? That's what I have and I like them quite a bit and see them as an insane value. Mine also came with that cheesy gift card for good review thing, which is certainly not very inspiring.

 

[jwhit28]

I use aukey and ravpower daily and have no complaints. I should have got my $35.

 

[GoldenFlex]

thats a shame, ravpower is awesome.

 

[Dekuman]

I assume they're on timeout and will come back eventually?

 

[thisismadness]

Yeah, last year I bought a Rav portable charger and it came with a little card that offered me to write a ***** review for a gift card.

 

[Auron Kale]

I have an Aukey usb-c to lightning cable and it works great. It's an 8' cable and connectors are angled so they won't wear out as easily.

Don't recall receiving an email about leaving a review for a gift card though...

 

[killerrin]

...wait? Is that seriously banned? Literally every fucking product I get on Amazon tries to bribe me with a gift card for a review.

Also it's kinda bullshit they pulled Aukey stuff, they make some amazing USB-C cables, and you can get them in a 6 pack of varying sizes for like 30 bucks. If they and get reinstated there goes my go to cable restock whenever I need more cables.

 

[C.Mongler]

I didn't realize that review incentivizing was actually banned; I get them with like 70% of my orders lol.

Not that it isn't slimy as fuck tho

 

[FearMyWrench]

It's a shame that these companies have to resort to these practices because oftentimes the products are actually very solid for the price.

 

[m_shortpants]

Someone I knew was in on these kinds of things, there where FB groups were manufacturers and sellers would give full price promo codes for items, in exchange for proof of positive reviews. He had a whole storage unit of junk he got that way lol.

 

[MobileSuitReactor]

Didn't own too many of their products. Maybe 1 or 2 headphones in the household. Used some of their bluetooth transmitters a few years ago.

 

[Mobius 1]

Ravpower had solid products. Their GaN charger is amazing.

I want to highlight that Amazon's failure here as well. Not just in competing against some of the most popular sellers by offering their own branded products, but also doing little in the way of seller quality control. There are so many sellers peddling the same products seemingly from the same factory under different (often random weird ) names, propped up by fake reviews - finding quality is increasingly difficult.

Edit - Now I remember something. One day I received a box full of Aukey chargers I never ordered. Contacted Amazon customer service, who told me "it may have been a mistake, no need to return them". Well, a week later I get a message from Aukey asking for positive reviews. Told them to piss off and gifted the chargers to friends.

 

[reKon]

My ravpower GAN charger is honestly one of the most impressive tech things I own.

 

[Grimm Fandango]

Was wondering what was going on with Aukey when I tried to look up a battery I bought a few months ago and the page went nowhere.

 

[elty]

Compete with AmazonBasic probably

 

[SinkFla]

Mpow had legit Bluetooth speakers and headphones lol. Shame.

Also the people who sold my weighted blanket to me need to be careful because totally did the incentivized review thing too lol.

 

[broncobuster]

A couple orders last month included a note saying they'd give a gift card, often more than the cost of the actual product, to leave a review. Note didn't mention a positive review, but I didn't go through with the process to see.

I think Amazon cracked down on bot reviews. Couple sites would scan product pages and determine if they were legit or not. Bribing legit customers seems like a way around that. The reviews are a mess either way. Used to be reading 4/3/2 star reviews had a better impression of the product than the 5/1 star ones.

 

[Damaniel]

They don't actually care about incentivized reviews (and those are absolutely everywhere now) - I assume they're just getting rid of brands that compete strongly against their own AmazonBasics brand.

 

[jediyoshi]

They don't actually care about incentivized reviews (and those are absolutely everywhere now) - I assume they're just getting rid of brands that compete strongly against their own AmazonBasics brand.

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So they didn't do the thing so they don't care, now they do the thing, and they don't care.

 

[Book One]

I read the title and thought they were blowing up and was glad i didn't buy one yesterday. Yet the gift card for a review is pretty common, my mom buys a lot of jewelry on amazon and they come with cards telling you to do that shit

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yeah i see those cards pretty frequently. was surprised that amazon supposedly cared

 

[Rizific]

i have mpow earphones i use when i go running and an aukey dash cam. sucks, but i dont have any issues (yet) with their products.

 

[JaseMath]

it also removed TaoTronics yesterday.

 

[mattiewheels]

I bought a pretty nice cat brush that came with one of those "review for gift card" coupons that basically paid more than what I paid for the brush.

 

[Dis]

That sucks, I actually have mpow headphones I use all the time and ravpower makes some decent stuff. I assume there is more to this and amazon is once again using an excuse to take out someone who competes with their own brand shit or whatever because that gift card thing is common as fuck all over amazon. Hell last Xmas I got a £30 gift card for amazon from my sister, I used it to buy a gaming headset on sale and when it arrived it had a card asking for a review in exchange for a £50 gift card. I reviewed the headset fairly not like a "5 stars amazing!" Review and they sent me the gift card, honestly couldn't believe I ended up with more than I spent haha.

 

[dallow_bg]

I love the Ravpower GaN chargers. Super nice quality and work well.
It did come with the scammy request for the review for a GC. My cousin did it but they never gave him the GC. Oof.

Well, they'll live and learn.

 

[TheMadTitan]

I'm a "brand ambassador" for ESR. I don't get gift cards, but I do get some pretty bomb ass discounts for phone cases and such seasonally, pretty much when Apple and Samsung launch products.

Sometimes, I wish they'd give me gift cards.

 

[djplaeskool]

Bummer to lose another purveyor of cheap and effective electronics, but these companies gotta learn that cooking the review books ain't gonna fly.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Bummer to lose another purveyor of cheap and effective electronics, but these companies gotta learn that cooking the review books ain't gonna fly.

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They're still on eBay, and Anker is still solid. And in my experience, some of the "this might set your house on fire" tier brands have been really good too.

 

[Ashhong]

Mpow has great products. This sucks

 

[djplaeskool]

They're still on eBay, and Anker is still solid. And in my experience, some of the "this might set your house on fire" tier brands have been really good too.

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Hope Anker is on the straight and narrow. Their powerbanks have been great.
Looking at the article in question, sounds like the FTC has been putting the squeeze on storefronts to take action regarding fake and incentivized reviews.
It's a really rampant practice. Every other random sundry I buy comes with a poorly translated request for a review in exchange for discounts and stuff. I know its a pretty big gray area.

 

[BubbaKrumpz]

oh man Aukey was good stuff I just thought they didn't have anything on Amazon due to the pandemic.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Hope Anker is on the straight and narrow. Their powerbanks have been great.
Looking at the article in question, sounds like the FTC has been putting the squeeze on storefronts to take action regarding fake and incentivized reviews.
It's a really rampant practice. Every other random sundry I buy comes with a poorly translated request for a review in exchange for discounts and stuff. I know its a pretty big gray area.

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That's why you sit back and wait for them to ask you to become a brand ambassador so you can hype up their products on Reddit in favor of coupons and discounts, which they apparently never vet whatsoever lol.

 

[fulltimepanda]

Now waiting for the story where amazon replaces their products with Amazonbasics from the same OEM

 

[RastaMentality]

No way any of these companies survive without Amazon. They had to be supplying 90% of their sales. TaoTronics' bluetooth to AUX that automatically turns on when the car does is an absolute game changer.

 

[Apath]

.

 

[VorpalNonsense]

aukey stuff has been good to me hope they can just knock that shit off and get back on the store
i dont think they actually need the fake reviews their stuff is typically fine

 

[Slayven]

They're still on eBay, and Anker is still solid. And in my experience, some of the "this might set your house on fire" tier brands have been really good too.

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Anker? look at the 1%er right here

 

[TheMadTitan]

Anker? look at the 1%er right here

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pfft, I have one Anker product and everything else is an OEM clone.

 

[Shadow]

I got Ankey and Anker mixed up as well lol. I got the fishing for 5 stars on a few products to get a reward, but I always ignore it since it's... fishy.

Edit: ohhh it's Aukey not Ankey. My brains getting confused.

 

[KillerAJD]

100% have done the review thing for gift cards multiple times. Have actually got maybe $40-50 back by doing it too.

Even signed up to "test future products", however, once I was actually selected to review a product, it was A) a cheap pair of Bluetooth buds that I didn't want, nor need, and B) I needed to BUY the item first, review it, and then send them an email and they'd send me the purchase price as a "refund".

I assume this is so whatever review I wrote was marked as just a confirmed purchaser vs it noting I got the product for a discounted price for review. I'm thinking this is probably the bigger issue that got the brands banned? Was wondering how they were getting away with it, but it seems they didn't!

Regardless, I was sketched out at that point (at least with the gift cards before, it was after I had already bought the thing I actually wanted/needed), so I never did the "product test" they offered.

 

[Tobor]

Anker? look at the 1%er right here

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Is Anker considered expensive? Or is that the joke?

Of these types of brands, I usually stick with Anker. I have a few hard drive enclosures and dongles from Ugreen, and had good luck with them as well.

 

[Cipherr]

I get these offers in exchange for reviews from a SHITLOAD of stuff my girl buys from Amazon, I think I've gotten one too in something I bought.

They are going to have their hands full cracking down on this. We never bothered and assumed they were scams anyway. Didn't realize they actually paid out.

 

[The Albatross]

Anker does this too. I've gotten tons of free shit from them to write good reviews, and then I gave one product 3 or 4 stars, and they never sent me anything again. I like Anker products but they obviously juice the reviews.

The biggest items they sent... this $300+ party speaker, a giant fucking bluetooth speaker, and then a $150 smaller version of it a few years later. But also numerous USB wires, GAN chargers, batteries. The giant speaker is too big, but the smaller version of it is actually great ("Anker SoundCore Rave Neo" or something).

The Genie is out of the bottle and it's too late. It's so easy to spot juiced reviews. I think people who aren't informed still trust Amazon reviews but anybody moderately on the internet or who reads newspapers knows there's massive issues. Amazon just didn't care, and now their review platform has little trust, but that's why you have this rise of 3rd party review sites like the NYT WireCutter, which are much better than what you could get from AMazon anyway... and they frequently give these products good reviews. Like I think the best USB battery review is a RavPower one.

Another trick is to refund anybody who has a less than 5 star review, if they take down or amend their review. Write a 3 star review for a competitive product and you're almost definitely going to get a response asking you yhow they can make it better, including a full refund and you get to keep the product.

You can frequently tell juiced reviews if you get a bunch of "CERTIFIED PURCHASE" reviews all around the same day, or in consistent intervals, and most are shite reviews. When companies launch a new product they'll send out a ton of free ones or paid ones, and a lot of the deliveries get there around the same time, the reviews get written around the same day. And then there will be silecne in the reviews for 3 months, and then you'll have a new wave of 5-star reviews all around the same time.

Hope Anker is on the straight and narrow. Their powerbanks have been great.

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Is Anker considered expensive? Or is that the joke?

Of these types of brands, I usually stick with Anker. I have a few hard drive enclosures and dongles from Ugreen, and had good luck with them as well.

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Yeah, I genuinely like Anker products. They're designed well, they do what they say, and they usually hold up over several years. ALso, they juice me with tons of free shit that I don't want. I take that back, I actually do what their giant power battery, the $400-$1000 one with the four plugs and a thousand outlets that can power your boiler in a pinch. I *DO* want that for free, Hello ANker if you're listening.

Their braided USB wires hold up and they don't have as many quality issues as other cheap brands.

The biggest problem I have with anker chargers (outlet ones) is that with their larger 2-outlet chargers they rarely have the tension to stay in a wall, so you have to use them on a power strip that's flat.

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

My wife bought some solar pathway lights from a company who offered her a $10 gift card for a review. Received a physical gift card like 3 days later.

I mean, I get that it's incentivized but the product itself is great and we would have given it a 5-star review regardless. I think the money incentive is to encourage people to actually make a review, not lie about how they would rate it.

 

[Surakian]

Can they do this to like 90% of all of the other companies on their site? I always get those cards from all sorts of products I buy. Always weird off-brand companies that have hundreds or thousands of reviews.