long story short, recently I've observed
new stores, selling Indian made leather
sockpuppetting to promote their wares.
Understand this trend with new stores with no brick and mortar presence
but
yesterday had the same with Sirocco, which as per their website
Over the last 35 years, Siricco has grown to 15 Retail locations across the Melbourne Metropolitan area.
Where are they sockpuppeting?
here, on the deals section
Socks?
Sock puppeting is just a normal way of doing things in internet marketing.
If it's done properly it doesn't look suspicious.
You should distrust platforms where anyone can use it by default.
If it's done properly it doesn't look suspicious.
obviously he was a noob then, with three new Ozb accounts opened in 30 minutes to praise his wares
I blame the increase on the imminent release of The Happytime Murders.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1308728/
Damn Muppets… lol
Over the last 35 years, Siricco has grown to 15 Retail locations across the Melbourne Metropolitan area.
Whats sockpuppeting about that?
Nothing. The point was that it wasn't just new businesses doing it.
Maybe im misunderstanding the OP, but whats sockpuppeting about it? Thats just whitelabeling
Op did not give an example of Sirocco sockpuppeting. Op stated that he(?) could understand why a new business would sockpuppet. He believes Sirocco was guilty of recent sockpuppeting, but Sirocco is not a new business. Op wants to understand why an older established business would engage in sockpuppeting.
@josetann: yep, I got that (thanks). What I was trying to say was, thats not what sockpuppeting means.
What OP is (I think) trying to explain is drop-shipping or whitelabelling. Those are business models. Sockpuppeting is (for example) posting on OZB as a regular user without declaring association
@steff: I'm assuming Op knows what sockpuppeting means. He did not give any examples in the first post, but later he stated:
"obviously he was a noob then, with three new Ozb accounts opened in 30 minutes to praise his wares"
I'm going to assume the Op means that someone created three new accounts on this site all praising a specific store, and didn't do a good job hiding the fact that they were in fact affiliated with the store in question. That's sockpuppeting, not whitelabeling.
Everything in the garden's lovely.
Eh what you on about?
Btw found a store that does ostrich leather boots for $250US. You could write to them with your size and maybe they might do undies.
So there is still hope. Until I get a pair, I'll continue au naturel.
You sound like the old wizard in Harry Potter 4 who said he wanted a healthy breeze around his privates
There is the standard amount, you've just come across 1 company trying multiple times, and we can't tell you why he tried so much… So I dunno what you want to achieve by this post
Can I infer that it is a fairly common practice? Does nobody have time for real word of mouth anymore.
We had a rep from Paramount who was banned for sockpuppeting. His is a new business.
Why would an established business of 35 years stoop to such a practice, unless it is if you can't beat them join them kind of thing
So I dunno what you want to achieve by this post
Increase my general awareness, by talking to people online. Isn't that a purpose of a forum?
Sometimes it's by 'accident' ie an employee votes for the deal
The worlds gone mad.
It happens far more than is caught. The same people comment on the same person everytime.
Talking about those guys, Siricco and Luggage Online are actually the same business, or same person posting at least. I'm curious to know how they are allowed to have 2 different OzB accounts.
They will claim two different divisions one for luggage and the other jackets
Also interested in knowing if anyone can make tall claims (eg full grain leather but sell bonded leather) without the consumer being able to find out for real? I mean if they can sockpuppet why can't they lie?
A guy can pretend to be a chook farmer selling free range eggs as a deal, but he could be selling cage eggs instead
Each user should have their own account, it's normal for a business or businesses to have multiple accounts run by different users/employees . However if you suspect that 2 or more OzBargain accounts are being operated by the same person then this is an issue, refer to our FAQ. Please contact us with that information or use the report button if it relates to a particular deal post or comment.
Thanks
There is no indication that the amount of deals removed for sockpuppeting has increased lately, we average about 1 deal a day removed for sockpuppeting. You can see this in the monthly stats.
eg June 2018
Deals Removed: 520 (3474 published)
Reasons:
Duplicate - 273
No Bargains Listed - 47
SPAM - 34
Sockpuppeting - 32
didnt mean to imply that sockpuppeting has increased
perhaps I had not noticed it before
but thanks for the info!
while we are at it Mod, is there any way to tell if what someone is selling as as per what they are claiming
eg anyone can claim full grain leather, but is there any sort of way to ensure that claims are honest eg full grain is full grain
recently there was a poster who claimed buttersoft full grain lambskin leather, when he was actually selling vinyl jackets
Not that it is a job for the moderators, but the community as a whole becomes easy pickings for these fly by night operators
didnt mean to imply that sockpuppeting has increased
Sorry my misunderstanding. Yes it's fairly common practice and sockpuppeting doesn't just happen with new businesses, large businesses have more employees and less control in many cases. Some of the biggest retailers are perm banned from rep posts on OzBargain, usually a mix of rogue employees/franchisees and a lack of social media policy or enforcement from head office.
while we are at it Mod, is there any way to tell if what someone is selling as as per what they are claiming
Not really, we are obviously limited in any action we can take preemptively. However we do remove deals that don't have basic business details, questions about seller. In addition to certain requirements we have for marketplace websites such as eBay/Amazon before they can post on OzBargain. The comments section and negative voting also helps users make a more informed decision whether they purchase from that particular merchant or not.
For serious incidents also report it to moderators with as much information as possible, obviously counterfeit products aren't allowed on OzBargain but also banned on OzBargain is "Goods not matching their description (Items with fake specifications or highly misleading/false information)", see our banned items here. Please note however that we aren't experts in particular industries, ie leather and can only make decisions that are clear and not a matter of one parties word against the other or difference of opinion. For negative opinions/experiences you are best using the negative vote.
This deal is highly recommended.
All my family buy this fantastic product.
We are all happy family now.
You can have happy family too if you buy this excellent product.
I'd be a super sockpuppet.
Not really, we are obviously limited in any action we can take preemptively
that is sad, (not limited to Ozbargain, but also ebay etc)
Almost feels like online shopping is like the wild west in that regard
Anyone can come and make any tall claims
I guess we are so used to goods not lasting now
So if I buy a bonded leather belt (after being told it was top grain for example) and I get two years, I would think it is normal
As always Caveat emptor!
Where are they sockpuppeting?