Huawei got over 100 people to contribute positive reviews for its unreleased Mate 10 Pro on Best Buy.
Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro is slated to make its debut in the U.S. sometime later this month, with the phone currently up for pre-order at Best Buy for $799 (with all purchases coming with a $150 Best Buy gift card).
That’s a decent price for what is a great phone in its own right, but Huawei isn’t doing itself any favors with its latest marketing tactic. The company asked potential “beta testers” on Facebook to contribute reviews on the Mate 10 Pro’s Best Buy listing, asking them to “tell us why you WANT to own the Mate 10 Pro in the review section of our pre-sale Beat Buy retail page.”
As spotted by 9to5Google, the Mate 10 Pro’s Best Buy listing is littered with fake praise for the device as a result.
To put things into context, an unreleased phone has an overall customer rating of 4.8 out of 5 on the retailer, with 95% of “customers” recommending the product. The contest ran from January 31 to february 9, and most of the 108 “reviews” of the device are from that time period.
As Alex noted in his review, the Mate 10 Pro has a lot going for it — including class-leading battery life and an excellent camera — so there’s really no reason for Huawei to solicit fake reviews in the first place. Some of the fake reviews even feature replies from Huawei’s customer care account, which include quotes like, “Thank you for your nice comments on the marvelous Mate 10 Pro.”
By soliciting fake reviews, Huawei violated Best Buy’s guidelines, as the retailer prohibits “advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers, or websites.” The reviews submitted during the contest window reference all of the above, so it’s likely Best Buy will scrub the fake endorsements from its listing.
Huawei Mate 10
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- Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
- Huawei Mate 10 series specs
- Huawei Mate 10 Pro U.S. review: Close to greatness
- Join the discussion in the forums
- More on 2016’s Mate 9
