Open Discussion – How to deal with Negative Feedback
Receiving negative feedback can be a challenge, especially in the early stages of your account. In response to negative feedback from buyers, we encourage our Selling Partners to initiate contact with the buyer to address and resolve any concerns.
We would like to welcome our Community members to share their insights and experiences on strategies to effectively handle and resolve negative feedback.
Post a comment below and share your experiences of how you have dealt with negative feedback from buyers and turned it into a positive outcome through collaborative efforts. Your insights and examples are very welcome.
Please also check Resolve or respond to customer feedback for additional information.
Best,
Simon
Open Discussion – How to deal with Negative Feedback
Receiving negative feedback can be a challenge, especially in the early stages of your account. In response to negative feedback from buyers, we encourage our Selling Partners to initiate contact with the buyer to address and resolve any concerns.
We would like to welcome our Community members to share their insights and experiences on strategies to effectively handle and resolve negative feedback.
Post a comment below and share your experiences of how you have dealt with negative feedback from buyers and turned it into a positive outcome through collaborative efforts. Your insights and examples are very welcome.
Please also check Resolve or respond to customer feedback for additional information.
Best,
Simon
54 replies
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
There should be some method of getting negative feedback removed when it is for an item the seller doesn't even sell ! We see this reported often on the forum, but does not fall into any of the criteria for removal.
Seller_sg54Fq7GfBZzn
Unfortunately Simon, most times, this is dealt with by an automated script which has no human interaction.
We took most of our stock from FBA to FBM and our negative feedback declined massively. In addition our Voice of customer ratings for those products showing as FBM also vastly are higher than FBA.
Some of the feedback people see isnt even remotely related to their products. Such as "Sim card arrived with no money on it". Strange that as we sent the customer a set of sunglasses.
Previously you could request a review and someone would manually check it, now its automated and sadly, there wont be many good experiences.
Again, I strongly suggest that there should be an option to ask for feedback to be turned into a product review.
As 99 per cent of feedback left is product reviews, wrongly left on sellers profiles, a lot of it even 5 star, with no way of correctly moving it.
Seller_mxez2L8QjE6WW
Removing feedback is more than a 'challenge' - Amazon deliberately make it almost impossible to remove feedback, as no human is ever involved to bring a rational, considered opinion to a request for removal. Az also allow customers to opt out of receiving messages from sellers, so any complaint/problem cannot be addressed. It is grossly unfair to allow negative feedback when the fault lies not with the seller, but with the postal services, which is out of the seller's control
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
All you can really do with feedback is put in a polite response apologising or pointing out the feedback has been left for the wrong seller.
Getting it removed by Amazon is almost impossible. You often only get 2 attempts via feedback manager to get it removed before the case is shut and can't be reopened.
As trying to get feedback removal outside of feedback manager can lead to account deactivation then once you had your 2 attempts you have no further avenues to use.
Also it is often impossible to contact a customer through buy seller messages to try and work out the issue. Often the only options open are templated responses. If we could talk to customer to work it out then it might mean a happier customer and they might feel like removing their feedback.
Here was some feedback I received a while ago
Pretty candles. Doesn't really have a scent to them. Delivery time missed and postage box including the box containing product absolute soaked and damaged. I'm not happy as theses are a gift . Took a video with my review.
Fair feedback you might think? Well it would be if I sold candles but the customer ordered a new home card! Feedback removal was refused as it was the customers opinion of my service! Well actually it is their opinion of someone else's service!
Seller_CJAn9FclIoBJn
The insight is your system does not work - how do you not know? Its been documented time and time again. It is not isolated - negative reviews are part and parcel of any online selling system. But... we do not read any product reviews other than looking at the overall rating as there is no point in torturing yourself on Amazon. Not alot you can do and SS is not interested regardless of why the review is there or what it is for.
We have had negative feedback by someone who accidentially left it on our company reviews. They had bought from us and obviously other things and had a bad a experience with a different seller. They accidentially left the negative review on our account. We found out when they messaged us asking how to remove it!
They had tried to get Amazon Cs to remove it - zero luck. Then we opened a case to get it removed with no luck. We even had the messages from the customer asking how to remove it. No help from seller support.
This sums up everything wrong with a black and white blinkered process. The Amazon process does not work - been selling on here for years now.
The only prompt we get is to basically refund someone who has not read the user instructions or not selected/purchased the correct product for the job in the first place. Somehow we are responsible.
We do have these issues selling via a website so either Amazon customers are really unlucky or there is something wrong with your system?
The first positive outcome we will have is SS actually helping. You simply do not help to moderate reviews.
We were told late deliveries would be removed when one of your sales people rang us up - signed us up to automated shipping. We still get moans about a late delivery - we we told - QUOTE 'Its our promise as much as yours company reviews based on late delivery will be removed, its Amazons promise as much as yours' That was nonsense all reviews stand full stop -unless they swear etc.
Mind you we have a great 5 star review for a dog collar - only we do not sell dog collars....
We all expect to get some bad reviews you would hope there was a process for moderation? It does not exist - best advice is just suck up the good and bad. If you are doing a good job you will be at around 85%-95% good reviews on Amazon.
The lesson we have learned is Amazon has lots of activety and is a busy selling platform so take the rough with the smooth. Not worth interacting over reviews, just take them as they come, there is no way to do anything with them. Avoid seller support at all costs unless you want to make yourself unwell. Reply to negative company reviews in a factual way, do not be rude. Leave it at that do not dwell on it. Do not message the customer its too time consuming and ultimately goes nowhere.
If you really cannot tolerate it all you do not have to sell on Amazon. Its not easy but works well when it works.
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
Quote: " ... share your experiences of how you have dealt with negative feedback from buyers and turned it into a positive outcome through collaborative efforts.".
I'm sorry Simon, but this will NEVER happen - once a customer has left negative feedback, it is nigh on impossible to turn it into a positive outcome for the seller, because the feedback manager is simply managed by bots that have no common sense ! I have been selling here over 17 years and have seen so many cases where the feedback has been left for either the wrong seller, or for items they don't even sell, yet impossible to get a positive outcome from scenarios like that.
Seller_LVJaidBR9PT5Z
Sorry is this a joke...positive outcome? This feedback system is almost as bad as the a-z scam system, both of them need scraping and redoing and employing real humans to review and evaluate them instead of bots. Once a negative feedback is left there is no positive outcome...no matter what the situation all you can do is leave a comment.
Seller_IQo80d99W2DzP
Hello Simon,
You are slightly late for your April Fool’s – it is supposed to be on April 1st!
The Feedback system is useless, old fashioned, and should be scrapped. Buyers cannot update and alter feedback, so cannot then be positive.
Firstly: Most Buyers do not leave feedback, unless they are unhappy for some reason, and they leave a 1 star review. Or, they are ecstatic, and that is usually about the item, and give 5 stars, but that is really a Product Review, or about how fast a delivery, which is luck, as the courier was doing what should be achieved every time. We also well pack our items, which is then genuinely Seller feedback. (Buyers cannot distinguish between Product Reviews and Seller Feedback, even when pointed out to them).
Most bad feedback is due to a faulty product, late delivery (even though sent on time by a Amazon approved courier), etc, so things beyond the Sellers control. As mentioned sometimes even about an item not sold by that Seller. Those types of feedback, with proof, should be on the list to remove.
As only a few out of every 100 people leave a review, not really a fair method to decide if the Seller is good or bad. Maybe it should just be an overall Negative or Positive, and if no review after 30 days that is a Positive. With a human deciding any negative feedback, not a Robot, and more than 4 reasons for removal.
FBA Sellers also get favouritism, with feedback crossed through, so it does not count against them, but if it had been a FBM item, it would have been a defect. For Example, I have bought many items on Amazon, bought new, but the item received was a used item, clearly sent that way by the Seller to Amazon FBA (eg: no internal bag around the item, part missing, box/item marked, etc – then Customer Services say buy another, and that is the same). Lots of UK Sellers now seem to buy Retail Arbitrage to compete on price against Amazon, but are not checking, or do not care, if the items are not actually brand new. Many are very good condition, so assume they get away with it. I’m fussy, so report them, but usually the feedback gets struck through, as Amazon say their fault (which for a change, it actually isn’t).
It used to be that a human in Seller Support read the bad feedback, and decided if unjust that it would be removed. Now, only Robots and they virtually always say not 1 of the 4 rigid reasons, so the feedback stays. Even when it should be removed, eg not about an item sold by that Seller, or it should be a Product Review, etc.
Buyers can be messaged, but most ignore as no detriment to them. I know often people I know say many wanted messages go to Spam, so they are missed, perhaps that happens with the feedback review requests.
Will any of our comments actually mean Amazon change something that they chose to be in place?
If Amazon themselves had feedback, therefore, lost the Buy Box, got their Account closed, etc, I wonder if changes would then take place. Often, I get a message delivery running late, or Prime but takes days to arrive, none of which a Seller can achieve and would get 1 star feedback.
Seller_7pTs15IYXmTOB
Review of the unit sold must not be allowed in feedback because feedback is meant to be the service provided, for instance, prompt/delayed dispatch, packaging quality, communication experience, refund speed. Anything and everything else is just a review, not a feedback.
Rightly or wrongly I also believe that royal mail/courier delayed services would be a review of their services, not a feedback on the seller, so long as they have dispatched it without delay.
Also any feedback left after the issue raised has been resolved, should be removed. For instance, Royal Mail or a courier delayed a parcel, the seller addresses it straightaway and yet, the buyer leaves a negative feedback. That should not be construed as a negative experience.
Personally I think most buyers cannot distinguish review and feedback.
Also there is an increasing number of feedback meant for wrong sellers.
A refund from my account was issued incorrectly when the refund actually was meant to be issued by another seller. Fortunately the buyer sent me details of the wrong purchase and all of that was recorded in my messaging system. I had to fight tooth and nail before the FBA team reimbursed my money, I still lost on refund expenses though.
I suspect the issue is with the messaging and feedback format. Buyers don't know which seller sold them the item. Likewise the feedback too, if you come to the main feedback page for all sellers, they don't know who they are leaving the feedback for. Well as a buyer I struggle to understand every element of this website.
Seller_kiGi86yCf45Gd
Why does it have to result in a defect?
Metrics take a hit and ultimately buy box eligibility for 60 days afterwards if sends a seller over 1% ODR
