concerned over who can and cannot write a review. Need clarification please
I am a new seller and I have worked so hard to get here that I'm doing my due diligence in making sure all my steps are compliant. That being said, I have been doing a lot of research and reading all the guidelines of do's and don'ts of reviews, how they are monitored, and how amazon has removed so many suspicious reviews that were verified ones. I have been told that aside from family that Amazon will remove any verified reviews of my product of whom I have shared a wifi with, or share same zip code, or have ever bought a gift for from my personal amazon account. That my personal Facebook page is monitored (even though it's set to private so how do they have access to that?) and all of my company's social media is also monitored to see who is friends with me on Facebook that also follows me on my company page.
This is all sounding very overwhelming. For example, I have many friends and they have many friends, and my zip code covers a huge town. so if anyone from my zip code (that i don't know, or is friend with someone i know) coincidently buys my product on amazon and happens to put a review it will be removed or my acct get suspended?
or if anyone that follows me on my business page and purchases a product thu amazon and puts in a review.. will my review get removed?
Or what if my friends get their friends to purchase my product cuz they believe in the product and think their friends would like it, in which maybe 1 or 2 of their friends like it and buy it and they end up writing a review. Do i get in trouble for their reviews?
What if these people that i have 6 degree separation genuinely like my product and voluntarily write a review. Will I still get my account suspended because I'm publicizing my product via social media and friends ( that are advocating for me) are introducing my product to their friends which will lead to one of them writing a review.
Do i just avoid my entire county? Where does it end. At what point is it safe to promote my products to friends, acquaintances, & thru social media (where many followers are also my FB friends) where they promote it to their friends and family, in which one of them or a couple of them decide to buy my product via amazon and write a genuine review of my product?
I genuinely want to know. because from what i'm gathering anyone that puts a review that is even a friend of a friend of a friend can get my amazon acct suspended. I'm really concerned. because this prevents me from doing any social media campaigns and creating sales from outside traffic... which I can't predict who will and wont write a review. it's their choice.
please advise cuz there are lot of crazy stories out there and I want to know the truth. the review policy compliant pages are very vague in this area.
concerned over who can and cannot write a review. Need clarification please
I am a new seller and I have worked so hard to get here that I'm doing my due diligence in making sure all my steps are compliant. That being said, I have been doing a lot of research and reading all the guidelines of do's and don'ts of reviews, how they are monitored, and how amazon has removed so many suspicious reviews that were verified ones. I have been told that aside from family that Amazon will remove any verified reviews of my product of whom I have shared a wifi with, or share same zip code, or have ever bought a gift for from my personal amazon account. That my personal Facebook page is monitored (even though it's set to private so how do they have access to that?) and all of my company's social media is also monitored to see who is friends with me on Facebook that also follows me on my company page.
This is all sounding very overwhelming. For example, I have many friends and they have many friends, and my zip code covers a huge town. so if anyone from my zip code (that i don't know, or is friend with someone i know) coincidently buys my product on amazon and happens to put a review it will be removed or my acct get suspended?
or if anyone that follows me on my business page and purchases a product thu amazon and puts in a review.. will my review get removed?
Or what if my friends get their friends to purchase my product cuz they believe in the product and think their friends would like it, in which maybe 1 or 2 of their friends like it and buy it and they end up writing a review. Do i get in trouble for their reviews?
What if these people that i have 6 degree separation genuinely like my product and voluntarily write a review. Will I still get my account suspended because I'm publicizing my product via social media and friends ( that are advocating for me) are introducing my product to their friends which will lead to one of them writing a review.
Do i just avoid my entire county? Where does it end. At what point is it safe to promote my products to friends, acquaintances, & thru social media (where many followers are also my FB friends) where they promote it to their friends and family, in which one of them or a couple of them decide to buy my product via amazon and write a genuine review of my product?
I genuinely want to know. because from what i'm gathering anyone that puts a review that is even a friend of a friend of a friend can get my amazon acct suspended. I'm really concerned. because this prevents me from doing any social media campaigns and creating sales from outside traffic... which I can't predict who will and wont write a review. it's their choice.
please advise cuz there are lot of crazy stories out there and I want to know the truth. the review policy compliant pages are very vague in this area.
6 replies
Seller_WBnGS7Ix3XiDX
I do get what your saying, but Amazon is super big about review manipulation. They feel having friends and family buying it or leaving a review will manipulate something. You never know, it might be the wild west of fake reviews if they weren't so strict about it.
Many years ago that's the way it was, and they really cleaned it up, and made it so everyone has the same advantage, I guess.
I have had many reviews from my county, but not at the beginning. It does raise some flags for some reason. I am not sure how they know, but they do.
Never let anyone use your computer for their own Amazon selling account either. You get one life on here, and its important not to mess it up.
It took 4 months on here to get my first review, and it was real, and brought a tear to my eye. So when someone asks for advice when they are new, I tell them to be patient. It will happen if you have a good product.
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
Your friends and family should not even be able to find your listings, unless you send them there, as it is not under your name. Keep them away from your listings....if you have people that are following a facebook page that belongs to your business, that is different, but we don't usually have our customers as friends.
Josh_Amazon
Hello @Seller_fGad1sny5HKiw,
This is Josh from Amazon. Thank you for contacting our Forums!
I understand that you want to have more clarification about customer reviews. Violations to Customer Reviews policies include, but are not limited to, these actions:
- A seller posts a review of their own product or their competitor's product.
- A seller offers a third party a financial reward, discount, free products, or other compensation in exchange for a review on their product or their competitor’s product. This includes using services that sell customer reviews, websites, or social media groups.
- A seller offers to provide a refund or reimbursement after the buyer writes a review (including reimbursement via a non-Amazon payment method), and asks the buyer to change or remove the review, before or after the refund or reimbursement. This could be done via buyer-seller messaging on Amazon or directly contacting customers or using 3rd party services, websites, or social media groups.
- A seller uses a third-party service that offers free or discounted products tied to a review (for example, a review club that requires customers to register their Amazon public profile so that sellers can monitor their reviews).
- A family member or employee of the seller posts a review of the seller's product or a competitor's product.
- A seller asks a reviewer to change or remove their review. They might also offer a refund or other compensation to a reviewer in exchange for doing so.
- A seller diverts negative reviews to be sent to them or to a different feedback mechanism while positive reviews are sent to Amazon.
- A seller creates a variation relationship between products with the aim of manipulating reviews and boosting a product’s star rating via review aggregation.
- A seller inserts a request for a positive Amazon review or an incentive in exchange for a review into product packaging or shipping box.
- A seller uses a customer account to write or change a review on his or his competitor’s product.
Go to Customer product reviews policies to learn more.
In addition, I found the following articles that might be useful:
Answers to Questions about Product Reviews
Please remember that in case you need more help you can always reach out to our Seller Support team.
Kind regards,
-Josh
