On paper, or should I say on the screen, it looks like the Botimo Q8 Fitness Tracker has many glowing reviews. Most people are saying all the right things. Such as, oh, it's just what I need. This device is the best, couldn't have hope for a more accurate tracker, etc. But on closer inspection, especially when looking at the reviews on Amazon, you can see that ALL the positive reviews are NOT verified purchases. Not one is a verified purchase.
As of writing this, the reviews that ARE verified purchases are all negative. So, going on this, it would be safe to assume that someone has paid for people to write these unverified reviews. Perhaps a few dollars per review. For the non-aware potential buyer, seeing some excellent reviews will gain their trust and push them to actually buy the product. What, you didn't know that some sellers pay people to write fake reviews.
Oh yes. Paying for reviews is big business. And it stretches far wider than to just fitness trackers. From Apps to electrical products, right down to website hosting, it is all over the place. However, once you pick up on it and see it a few times, you soon become wise to it. Although, the more reviews a product has, the harder it can be to spot. And not so fast. The unfortunate progression of this tactic is that verified purchases are not even safe anymore.
Some sellers are even resorting to getting the fake reviewer to actually purchase the product, with all money spent by the person being reimbursed after the verified review has been written / submitted. Another way this is achieved is by dropping the price really low and / or sending the "reviewer" the money in advance. And of course, add the fee they were paying to the person to write the fake review in the first place. Usually this costs anything from $5 - $20 per post. There is even the option to just send an empty box to the fake reviewer in order to make it look like a verified purchase.
Pretty sad really isn't it. The good news is outlets like Amazon are really clamping down on this. They absolutely hate the fact that some sellers are doing this and will prosecute people like crazy if they can prove they have done this. There has been one case that springs to mind where a person selling this service has been sued.
So then, how good is the Botimo Q8 Fitness Tracker? Well really we don't know. All we know is that its a pedometer with no heart rate monitor. But if we go on what the verified purchase reviews say, it's a terrible product as they don't really have anything good to say about it. Draw your own conclusions.
