Unfair feedback? A quick trick that might remove Amazon negative feedback
A lot of Amazon booksellers complain that attempts to remove negative feedback fall on deaf ears. There is simply a lot of unjust feedback that falls between the cracks of the “official” reasons Amazon will remove feedback. And Amazon Seller Support is rarely “supportive.”
You don’t want to resort to trickery to remove negative Amazon feedback. But sometimes you have to. That’s what this article is about.
When Amazon will remove negative feedback
As a matter of policy, Amazon will only step in to remove feedback if it fits one of the following criteria:
- The feedback includes obscene language.
- The feedback includes seller-specific personally identifiable information, such as e-mail addresses, full names, telephone numbers, etc.
- The entire feedback is a product review.
- The entire feedback is regarding fulfillment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon.
- The feedback is price-related.
This does not encompass all of types of truly unfair negative feedback. For example, what if the buyer is clearly leaving feedback for an item they ordered from a different Amazon seller? Or the buyer left a very positive review, but accidentally hit one-star instead of five-stars? Both of these have happened to me more than once.
I tried something to remove negative feedback recently that I had never tried before. And it worked.
The problem
A buyer left negative feedback because the book description on Amazon’s product page was inaccurate. The ISBN matched, and I listed it on the correct product page.
My attempt to resolve
Amazon responded that this did not meet the criteria for feedback removal, and that they wouldn’t remove it.
My second attempt to resolve
I contacted the buyer, who did not respond (many buyers use a “spam account” for their shopping, and don’t check it often, if ever).
My third attempt to resolve
I attempted to open a second support ticket with Amazon, but I was met with a message that said you can’t make more than one claim about a feedback issue.
This is what I did to remove the negative feedback
This trick was so simple I didn’t think it would work.
I sent another message to Amazon customer service, this time under a totally different support category (not “feedback issues”).
The Amazon Seller Support rep who reviewed this one agreed with me, and removed the negative feedback.
Bonus: a similar trick to remove negative feedback
I haven’t tested this personally, but here’s a similar trick I heard from another Amazon seller…
Contact Amazon and make the feedback removal request like normal. But instead of contacting them through Amazon Seller Central, contact them through your buyer’s account.
Amazon bends over backwards to accommodate requests from it’s customers. Amazon famously hates (or seems to) it’s 3rd party sellers. It’s speculated the people who handle customer support (vs seller) are trained totally differently, and aim to make situations right (whereas Amazon Seller Central support usually makes things worse).
If you try this and it works, send me an email.
How to remove negative feedback: The takeaways
- If feedback is truly unfair and not your fault, don’t hesitate to contact customer service twice. Just use a different support category.
- Alternately, contact them as a buyer, not a seller and make the same feedback removal request.
- There is a human at the other end of your emails. And every one of them is different. Some may not see things your way, but some will.
Don’t abuse this. If feedback is your fault, take the lesson and leave it alone.
But there are many times when negative feedback is truly unjust. And as an Amazon seller you should have the option of an (informal) “appeal.”
That’s what this feedback removal trick offers you.
-Peter Valley
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