Amazon Tactic to Reduce Bad Product Reviews

[BigBoy99]

I ordered a dash board camera for my truck. When it arrived, I read the instructions and down at the bottom of one of the pages was the comment: "Unit suffers from false positives frequently and it recommended the auto collision feature be turned OFF." Why have unit which one must turn on just before there is an accident? There were other items in the instructions which were not clear. It has been written by someones whose first language was NOT English.

I wrote a truthful review, giving the product a single star. I have now received two emails from the company VP for After Sales Support asking that I remove my bad reviews. In the first email, they offered $30 if I deleted by review. I replied and said no, and they should fix their product and not put trash on the market. The second email has upped the offer to $60. I very tempted to write another online review of the product telling how the company is trying to bribe me to remove my unfavorable review.

 

[LVSteve]

The auto-collision feature just makes sure to save the last chunk in case you are unable to do so because of injury. The camera still runs all the time.

 

[allthumbs]

I bought some plants (50) from them, advertised as 10" - 12" tall, they came and they were 3" - 5" tall, all have just about died, I left a review and it has never shown up, left another same thing. I contacted the seller and no reply. I'm quickly losing any faith I had in Amazon !

 

[Muss Muggins]

I have posted a couple less than favorable reviews on Amazon, and I have always been contacted by the seller and been offered something to remove it. Took it once. A nice molle pouch for my edc backpack . . .

 

[Onomea]

Keep in mind that Amazon is primarily a platform for selling other people's stuff, so when you complain the response is coming from the people who sold you the stuff via Amazon. The reply is not coming from Amazon.

If you don't like the response, get Amazon customer service involved.

I bought a high end, $350 juicer from Amazon in July of 2018. I use it daily. In March 2019 it developed some issues with its motor. While still usable, the unit has a ten year warranty on its motor. I contacted the manufacturer, explained that I had purchased it via Amazon, and what the issue was.

The manufacturer asked me to check the invoice — available under details for past orders online in my Amazon account — to see who had actually sold me the unit. I looked this up, told the manufacturer, and the manufacturer explained that the seller was not an authorized distributor, and that therefore the manufacturer would not honor their warranty as they could not know if the internals were genuine, etc. They told me to contact the seller.

I contacted the seller via Amazon's email form, explained the situation, and asked for a refund, offering to return the product. The seller told me to get lost, saying nearly a year had passed.

At this point I contacted Amazon directly. This takes some looking on Amazon's, site, but they do have customer service people.

While it took me six weeks — discussing among the vendor, the manufacturer, and Amazon — Amazon refunded the price by giving me Amazon gift credits. This is fine by me as I buy a lot of stuff off Amazon. They even told me to keep the juicer.

If you can't get satisfaction from the seller, seek Amazon's customer support. If the first Amazon customer support person can't help, ask, politely, for hizzer supervisor. (I went through three levels of customer support.) Be polite, be patient, and be persistent.

The above experience has only happened to me once. Over 20+ years of using Amazon, I have returned items unused for refunds or exchanges if I did not like them, but a product breakdown where I had a warranty issue and a non responsive seller was a first for me.

I think Amazon is great.

 

[Jeff423]

I found an app called "Fakespot" that really helps with Amazon reviews. I now don't buy anything on Amazon without checking it.
I too have had good luck with Amazon's customer service. I bought a set of three pliers from their used department. They were listed as "good" condition. Two of the three were fine but one was totally broken. I called to see if I could keep the two and get a credit for the broken one instead of returning all three. They gave me an additional 40% off.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

A while back I posted a less than great Motel review.
I got a really nasty response from the Motel Manager.
Basically , you need to know that I am not qualified to evaluate Motels.
I'll just stick to guns, shovels, knives, hammers, stuff like that!

 

[gman51]

I have read that Amazon deletes bad reviews but I have read some bad reviews. WOW $50 to delete your review. I had to laugh at your saying you should add you were offered money to delete the review. Hold **** what would they have offered then?
The reviews I laugh at are the people that haven't even used the product yet but they give a 5 star rating because of quick delivery.

 

[Targets Guy]

My bad reviews go through. I don't continue to watch them to see how long they remain on line but they do go through.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I have posted a couple of negative reviews on amazon. Nobody ever offered me cash to remove them. Should I be offended?

I was contacted by the author of a book I bought after I gave it a one star review for disjointed grammar and poor editing despite the fact that he claimed to have two Master's degrees. The book was basically unreadable. He told me he felt sorry for my negativity. I told him I felt sorry for his English. No cash was offered, and the review is still there.

Once I posted a negative review for a phone case I bought for my son. It didn't fit. After researching it I found that there were three different phones with the same name that were marketed in different parts of the world. They were different sizes. The case I ordered was for the Asian version of the phone which was smaller than the NA version. I was contacted by the seller (from China) who offered me a free replacement of the correct size. I declined as it was my own fault for not reading the listing carefully. I also changed the review and gave him five stars for customer service while admitting I was a dummy.

I try to be truthful and fair in my reviews. The idea is to help someone decide if the product will work for them.

 

[Mark S.]

Many times, the same product is offered by several sellers. I always pick the one fulfilled by Amazon itself as it is usually an option.

That way any problems are quickly resolved using contact directly with Amazon. If you pick another seller, just be prepared for the possibility of having to go through a few more hoops, with Amazon being the final option.

 

[BigBoy99]

The auto-collision feature just makes sure to save the last chunk in case you are unable to do so because of injury. The camera still runs all the time.

Yes, I realize that but what will prevent the camera from running on and on after the accident if the power is not cutoff or the camera is stopped? Then whole event could be rerecorded over and everything lost. Having a feature which must turned off is a bad design flaw in my estimation.

 

[rubiranch]

The second email has upped the offer to $50. I very tempted to write another online review of the product telling how the company is trying to bribe me to remove my unfavorable review.

I would have in a heart beat.

 

[TripLeader]

I wonder if I could start my own part-time job by posting bad reviews and waiting for cash offers to remove them?

Probably wouldn't end well for me in the long run...

 

[500SNW]

Many times, the same product is offered by several sellers. I always pick the one fulfilled by Amazon itself as it is usually an option.

That way any problems are quickly resolved using contact directly with Amazon. If you pick another seller, just be prepared for the possibility of having to go through a few more hoops, with Amazon being the final option.

Ditto what you said. Avoid private sellers at all costs. I once ordered a set of vintage books from a private seller via Amazon and, after I transferred the $$, I received a notice from the seller that my order had to be cancelled because they had already sold the books elsewhere and forgot to remove the listing from Amazon. It seems that this bookstore runs items on multiple sources...both a brick and mortar shop, eBay, Amazon and who knows what else. It took me 4 days before they Paypal'ed me back my money. I got nothing but an automated sorry letter from Amazon...and AFAIK the seller is still there.

 

[GaryS]

You have to pay attention to that, which some people don't. Amazon is the seller in many cases, but they can also do just fulfillment, or in some cases just host the sellers listings on the website.

Same goes for return policies, because some vendors charge for returns.

Amazon doesn't make it all that easy to contact customer service directly, but once you do, they usually resolve any issues promptly.

I've never seen Amazon remove a bad review, nor does Amazon itself pay people to remove bad reviews. One of the best things Amazon does is post reviews. I've used reviews for products I have not bought from them. The reviews are generally well detailed and honest.

Many times, the same product is offered by several sellers. I always pick the one fulfilled by Amazon itself as it is usually an option.

That way any problems are quickly resolved using contact directly with Amazon. If you pick another seller, just be prepared for the possibility of having to go through a few more hoops, with Amazon being the final option.

 

[H Richard]

I recently bought a CCW vest off Amazon. I know it was an outside vendor. When it was received I was pleased by the material used, and so/so with the layout of the various pockets, etc. As it came it looked very military (for all you "Tactical" fans), so I cut off the D Rings on the shoulders, (right where you would put the butt of your rifle), and the bottom side buckle tabs (that just snagged anything you bumped against), and removed from every pocket handfuls of loose threads, I mean several handfuls of threads. I gave it 3 star rating and listed every individual fault I thought it had. So far I haven't been contacted.

 

[Steve912]

A while back I posted a less than great Motel review.
I got a really nasty response from the Motel Manager.
Basically , you need to know that I am not qualified to evaluate Motels.
I'll just stick to guns, shovels, knives, hammers, stuff like that!

I got a crummy haircut from a LN gal, in a PX barbershop in
(then West) Germany in the 80's. She asked if I liked it, I
told her I didn't.

She loudly and indignantly informed me that she'd been to school to
cut hair, had been doing it for five years, and knew how to cut hair.

I said I'd been getting haircuts for twenty six years, and knew
what a bad haircut looked like.

The older, "chief" barber, also a LN, heard that and laughed
out loud.

 

[Telecaster]

Like others said, tell Amazon. Sellers are not allowed to tell you what to do or not do in a review.

 

[oink]

I've left bad or less than great reviews. On a bad one I was bribed with free stuff if I removed or edited the review to be favorable. I told them I was happy to get their free stuff and that if they sent free stuff I would alter the review from the one star to reflect good customer service but I would not remove the review or lie. I thought that was a fair counter offer. They tried to get me to upgrade the review first. I refused and altered my review to reflect truthfully their attempts to get me to change my review. I never got any free stuff. Oh well!