Integrity of Amazon Reviews

You'll recall my experience with PHI-Not so-COOL. It purported to have 128GB of storage but only had a low quality 32GB microSD card.

I guess I'm a sucker for "deals" so I kept on looking for a USB drive with USB A, USB C, and Lightning connectors. But this time, I thought I would be smarter. Instead of just looking on Amazon, I use Google to double check Amazon.

With this, I found AUAMOZ USB iOS Memory Stick Photo Stick that had several positive comparative reviews on the Internet. So I ordered it from Amazon.

Bad choice!

Here's the review I submitted to Amazon on 01/10/24:

This is a complete FAKE. I ran GRC's ValiDrive against it and it showed that it claimed 268GB but only tested as 71GB. I couldn't resist so I opened it. All this is is a microSD card in a cheap carrier.

How did this get almost 6,000 reviews with a 4.1 rating? Amazon, are you asleep at the wheel?

I even submitted pictures of the internals and the ValiDrive test results.

Amazon's response on 01/12/24:

We couldn't post your review because it doesn't meet our community guidelines.

So, I guess telling the truth doesn't meet their community guidelines.

So I resubmitted my review on 01/12/24 omitting "FAKE":

Doesn't Have Stated Capacity: This doesn't have the stated capacity. I ran GRC's ValiDrive against it and it showed that it claimed 268GB but only tested as 71GB. I couldn't resist so I opened it. All this is is a microSD card in a cheap carrier. You won't be able to read your data from this drive.

Amazon replied on 01/14/24:

Thank you for submitting a review of Flash Drive for iPhone 256GB, AUAMOZ USB iOS Memory Stick Photo Stick External Storage Thumb Drive for iPhone iPad Android Computer (Light Blue); we are sorry you did not have a positive experience. We investigated your concerns about product authenticity, and the information we have indicates that the product you received was authentic. As a result, we removed the review you submitted. This ensures that customer reviews remain as accurate as possible for the benefit of future customers.

If you go read the Amazon reviews, NOBODY mentions restoring their files from the drive.

So I resubmitted my review a third time on 01/14/24 trying to be more succinct:

Doesn't Have Stated Capacity: It only had 71GB of capacity. If you copy files to it, you can't read them back.

Amazon replied on 01/15/24:

Thank you for submitting a review of Flash Drive for iPhone 256GB, AUAMOZ USB iOS Memory Stick Photo Stick External Storage Thumb Drive for iPhone iPad Android Computer (Light Blue); we are sorry you did not have a positive experience. We investigated your concerns about product authenticity, and the information we have indicates that the product you received was authentic. As a result, we removed the review you submitted. This ensures that customer reviews remain as accurate as possible for the benefit of future customers.

I finally bought a SanDisk 128GB iXpand Flash Drive Go that tested and worked great. It cost twice as much as the AUAMOZ and had half the stated (but actual) capacity.

Caveat emptor.