Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: mrxempire on July 17, 2013, 02:37 am

Title: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: mrxempire on July 17, 2013, 02:37 am
Theoretically, if I was a vendor, could I create a new account, and use that account to buy my own product, and flood my profile with 5 out of 5 ratings? Obviously it would cost money to do this, as you would still have to pay the commission fees each time, but if you had the money, could you do this enough times to skyrocket your rating? The reason I am asking is because I recently had an issue with a vendor who is in the top 1% of sellers and had a 100 rating(99 now, take that bitch!). The feedback on his profile painted a completely different picture in comparison to the service that I received. Unfortunately i had finalized right when i got the package, instead of waiting until i had tested the wares, so unfortunately i was uneligible for a reship or refund. However I did go onto his vendor forum page and leave a nasty review, and i'm pretty sure i convinced at least a couple people not to buy his product, so balance has been restored to the universe  ;)


I'm not holding a grudge or anything (i'd include his name if i was), I am just curious if vendors would be able to do this to get a better rating
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: acidicmonkey on July 17, 2013, 02:52 am
Who is the vendor? I am sure that vendors can create multiple accounts under different buyers and purchase their own product.
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: mrxempire on July 17, 2013, 03:00 am
it was Nod, one of the top rated domestic cocaine vendors. If you want to see the problem i had check his review page

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=94234.0

you are going to have to go back a few pages to see my initial review, but I made multiple posts, so read it through to the end. I'm no coke expert, but i feel I made some valid points in my argument
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: BenJesuit on July 17, 2013, 03:20 am
Yes they can. But it's a generally waste of their time and money and if caught, they get banned. Top 1% sellers get so many orders per day, there's no need to attempt that silly strategy.

The other thing to consider is that your feedback will be several pages back in a few days and no one will read or care since it will look like a fluke and the ding you caused to their rating will probably be undone in the same amount of time. Worse, you may end up getting blacklisted (vendors don't like the picky buyer who uses feedback score to express their displeasure). Nature of the game.

A new seller that didn't have a promo sale or sample giveaway might try this. But it's fairly easy to tell if they did. Such as, they were a vendor for a day or two yet have something like 5 feedback scores. How is it possible for a buyer to receive so quickly?

Anyway, reading your posts in the thread you linked... All I'll say is you might want to have more realistic expectations. Best way to approach things is, WWMSDD? AKA, "What would my street dealer do?" So if you went to a street dealer with the same kind of complaint, how would they react?

Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: mrxempire on July 17, 2013, 03:56 am
well if it was coke they might stab or shoot me. Thats why I love the internet!  :P Anyway, yeah I see your point, I was just upset that I didn't get any response from him when I asked if there was a problem, which led me to believe that I may have been ripped off. If he had just sent me a message saying "hey i think you might have had unrealistic expectations" or something i would have ended it there. And the fact that there were a few other complaints besides mine raised some flags for me as well. Anyway, It's not an issue anymore. I was just curious if it was possible for a vendor to do that, but I suppose even if he did do that, there still would have been a lot more complaints
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: mojorizen on July 17, 2013, 04:02 am
LOL. WWMSDD? Damn that's funny. :D
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on July 17, 2013, 05:19 am
Feedback padding/tampering will cost the vendor their seller account as it is against the rules.
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: flaxceed on July 17, 2013, 05:58 am
Feedback padding/tampering will cost the vendor their seller account as it is against the rules.

But how can anyone prove it?  Seems impossible.
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: mrxempire on July 17, 2013, 07:07 am
I'm also curious to know how SR staff would go about proving this. If you were already an established vendor, you could hire people to sit on computers all day and buy the product so you could get good ratings in order to drown out the bad ones, and people would be none the wiser. But i'm not making accusations, just curious. When I read shit like "Wow what a friendly guy responded to all my messages within a few hours", and then I send a friendly "hello, how much of your product do you recommend a newbie take" message and get zero response it seems a little strange. On another note, I feel I have the right to leave a lower rating if I am displeased. I gave him a 3/5 too, which isn't even that bad. If the entire SR coke community would blacklist me for something like that, then thats ridiculous. Out of 30 transactions this is the only time I feel i've had a problem. I'm a fair person too. Other people who feel they had a poor transaction will leave 1/5 and yell "FAAAAAAAAAAKE" no matter what their problem is. Anyway, this whole thing is behind me now, I was just seeing if feedback padding could be used as a legitimate strategy, as that was one of my theories as to why I had a shitty experience
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: mrxempire on July 17, 2013, 07:17 am
send me all the negative karma you guys want. Speaking your mind is much more valuable than invisible numbers on a computer screen
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on July 17, 2013, 09:13 am
Feedback padding/tampering will cost the vendor their seller account as it is against the rules.

But how can anyone prove it?  Seems impossible.

Well I can't comment of what tools and methods the admins have at their disposal but I do know of situations where vendors have been demoted for giving themselves fake feedback. I doubt an admin will be open to sharing their methods of investigation but trust me when I say it happens.
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: goldenone on July 17, 2013, 03:50 pm
I think one obvious method is look for  accounts that only buy from one seller, or that make orders with others vendors but with very low prices.. Then you correlate the % of this kind of clients a vendor has.. if its very high % this vendor is creating shill accounts to buy from himself... But if the shill accounts spend big money with other vendor is much harder problem..
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: Datgurlgo on July 17, 2013, 09:13 pm
Its hard to work your way to the top, but I'd rather wade it out then to take the unnecessary time to create a bunch of phoney accounts....oh well to each its own :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o....



Looking for a good smoke.......check me out!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: can vendors "buy" their own product?
Post by: bluedev1 on July 17, 2013, 10:57 pm
I think one obvious method is look for  accounts that only buy from one seller, or that make orders with others vendors but with very low prices.. Then you correlate the % of this kind of clients a vendor has.. if its very high % this vendor is creating shill accounts to buy from himself... But if the shill accounts spend big money with other vendor is much harder problem..

+1