Door Dash more or less forces users of their app to review the last delivery they had in order to place their next order. Maybe there is a way around it but it’s non-obvious. As a result, the worst rating of a restaurant I’ve seen is a 4.2 out of 5. Because people, myself included, just tap 5 stars to get it out of the way.

I don't think I would agree to that model. I wouldn't like my money being held hostage for a review. If they give me a dollar discount, on the other hand, I would be much inclined to leave a review.

It is the same model, just semantics. Either way they are increasing the price of the product by some amount and decreasing it when you leave a review.

It's only the same model if you ignore the large psychological difference.

I remember this being used early on in WoW; in order to keep people from playing too long XP earned decreased over time.

After complains it was changed to a boost for time spent logged out which was much more popular.

Ha! Great example.

I would just get the discount then leave a 1 star review, to make up for the annoying hoop I just had to jump through.

This wouldn't stop people being dishonest in their reviews. Nothing does so far.

That will just create a shitload of low-effort noise in between useful reviews.

Nah. Better solution is removing reviews from people who get refunds. Double win by incentivizing manufacturers to refund a disgruntled customer.

I'd sure prefer to know that the product I'm about to buy frequently needs to be returned.

I would love that too! If they had some sort of stat meter next to a product saying x% of the purchases were returned, it would be great. Plus it would force the seller to up their game or die.

nah, they'd just change their name more frequently

I’d also prefer to know how that return process played out.

If all reviews are glowing positive, what's the point of the review system?

According to the article, people were getting refunded via side channel and keeping the products.

Which defeats the purposes of having reviews by removing the negative reviews...