September 04 2006
Is Ferrit Faking It?
posted by Ana Samways at 3:35 pm
All the advertising cash in the world obviously isn’t enough to pull the punters into Telecom’s online shopping mall Ferrit, which has published a bunch of dubious-sounding consumer reviews.
The current TV ad is plugging a pretentious toaster and the consumer reviews have the distinct whiff of PR trout.
The following are the ‘consumer’ reviews for the $499 Dualit 2 Slice Toaster, most of which remarkably appeared on the same day, appear to know the product features intimately and seem to have had life-altering effects on their purchasers.
What do you think? Fake? Or are people who love expensive toasters just really articulate and positive?
An obvious fan of the toaster, Cally Wally says:
“This toaster is so retro and really cool. The timer function allows you to cook your toast to perfection, and the little red switch is a reminder that the toaster is actually on (good for those mornings when you don’t check the power point and wonder why your toast is taking ages to cook).”
Equally gushy a ‘user’ named Danno says:
“I got pulled at a bar by beautiful twin sisters, and married one of them, all thanks to this Toaster. The wife loves it too…”.
Mazzie fakes some bad punctuation for authenticity and says:
“Yeah its a little spendy for a toaster but if you love cool appliances that work brilliantly a Dualit is worth getting. I love the fact that you can determine exactly how brown you want your toast using the timer.”
Another ferrit says:
“I really love the fact that this toaster toasts anything thrown at it, be it muffins, toast, bagels and crumpets. And I’ll tell you this, I like a bit of crumpet!”
One wag who calls himself woganlookalike (maybe after Ferrit boss Peter Wogan) says the appliance is:
”Great for those mornings when 2 people want to get toasty, as you do. Ask Danno’s wife. We got one and are about to pop, so there you have it. I believe it comes in cream and other colours”.
A day after these rave reviews, Spector chimes in with this hilarious toaster cliché:
“I loved this toaster… and I say loved because my last girlfriend took it with her when we split and it totally wasn’t even hers. I’d buy another one in a flash but i’m just waiting to see how my current relationship pans out first…because these babies are not cheap!”
And just yesterday, Mega Shopper spread it on with a trowel:
“I’ve been told that this is THE toaster to have if you want to impress prospective in-laws. It says that you care about the finer things in life and enjoy your toast in many different ways. You may find your mother in law popping in for a round of toast or two. Of course it is good for parties too, as it keeps the toast warm while you are mixing martinis.”
Who would have thought there’d be such a big market and so much excitement over an overpriced appliance? We’re expecting a toaster aficionado society newsletter to hit the site any day now…
September 4th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
The advertising is obviously working though, I checked Ferrit for the first time the other day when I was buying a printer. I stopped reading when the review said “and best of all, Epson has a great fun site where you can…” blah blah schlocky PR hype blah blah…
September 4th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
How do those people sleep at night after making up such schlock? You can just imagine him/her/them sitting there thinking it is clever and funny… Clowns
September 4th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
hahaha… it would be a little less obvious if it was a product where it was actually likely to move that many units in that many days.
I’d suggest there wouldn’t be too many owners of this type of toaster in NZ. I mean look at amazon.com, for these type of products you don’t end with that many reviews for a premium product, and thats on a massive wordlwide audience…
September 5th, 2006 at 6:45 am
Just shows you what lengths they will go to to try and sell stuff to people.
September 5th, 2006 at 9:19 am
…all the reviews sound like a load of typical ad agency arse!!!….but maybe thats how people who can afford a $500 toaster really express their egotistical selves…hahaha!
September 5th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Come on – lighten up. Sounds like you’re all grumpy because you were taken in. Sure, consumer reviews can influence choice, but really – ‘I love the fact that you can determine exactly how brown you want your toast using the timer’
September 7th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Ana – this totally rocks. You are a star
September 11th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Ferrit makes the NY Times
The story of Ferrit creating bogus reviews of the dualit toaster has made the NYTimes:
Fake Reviews Toasted The consumer reviews for a $325 Dualit toaster being sold through the New Zealand-based online mall Ferrit (ferrit.co.nz) sounded bogus…
September 11th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
[...] The recent article written on kiwi blog spareroom about Telecom’s online shopping website Ferrit faking its own product reviews has apparently now got the New York Times and New Zealand Herald interested. [...]
September 11th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
what worries me more is that even thou the cats out of the bag.. ppl will still buy it regardless of what anyone exposes…
September 13th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Isn’t it interesting that in all the advertising Telecom never mentioned that it was behind Ferrit. I wonder why – could it be they fear people would not use it if they knew it was another Telecom offshoot.
September 13th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Having now made my first visit ti Ferrit I note that Telecom do admit that “site powered by Telecom”. Is it truly owned and operated by Telecom?
It was interesting to note that only one of the 34 toasters listed was rated – 5 star of course. Of the 12+ toasters I checked only one had consumer reviews.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:43 am
[...] “Tom Hayes”:http://tombomb.typepad.com/tombomb/2006/12/trust_is_the_ne.html is doing a series of posts on trust. One thing is for certain, on the web trust is hard to gain and then hard to maintain. With the rise and rise of spam, “fake reviews”;http://www.spareroom.co.nz/2006/09/04/is-ferrit-faking-it/ and splogging, how long will it be before fake profiles are posted to push products – perhaps these will be called sprofiles. [...]
February 28th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
This is the website referred to above.
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Well, I dont know who would be stupid enough to spend so much on a 2-slice toaster. I bought a toaster from the Warehouse for $29 and its sweet as. Dualitshit