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Have you ever wondered how cheap, no-name products on Amazon can amass hundreds, sometimes thousands, of near-perfect ratings, with only a handful of negative reviews?
Here’s one way: Some sellers reach out to disgruntled buyers to review or remove their negative reviews, in exchange for refunds or gift cards. With fewer disgruntled buyers, the overall average rating goes up.
Sellers who ship products through Amazon are not supposed to contact customers outside of the official Amazon channel – in fact, this is a violation of the terms they agree to on the retail platform. .
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In March, New Yorker Katherine Scott chose an oil spray for cooking, based on nearly 1,000 rave reviews from Amazon for the product, which received an average of 4.5 stars. When the $ 10 sprayer arrived, she found the item did not perform as advertised: instead of a mist, it produced a jet of oil, she said. “It was like a Super Soaker gun instead of a spray paint spray, which defeats the purpose of the product,” she said. She left a negative review.
A week later, Ms Scott received an email from someone claiming to be on the customer service team for the oil sprayer brand, Auxtun – correspondence which I have reviewed.
| Teleprinter | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM, INC. | 3,344.94 | -31.05 | -0.92% |
“We are ready to reimburse in full,” wrote the representative. “We hope you can reconsider deleting comments at your convenience?” “
The message concluded, “When we don’t receive a response, we’ll assume you haven’t seen it and continue to send emails.” “
The seller shouldn’t have had his email address. The sellers who fulfill the orders themselves receive the names and postal addresses of the customers. But for orders that Amazon fulfills itself, customer data is supposed to be protected from sellers and brands.
Sellers are allowed to communicate with buyers through Amazon’s integrated messaging platform, which masks the customer’s email address. Amazon’s terms of service also prohibit sellers from asking a customer to remove a negative review or post a positive review.
“We don’t share customer email addresses with third-party sellers,” an Amazon spokesperson told me.
Meanwhile, brands, which may be separate from sellers, can reach dissatisfied customers through Amazon’s messaging service, but they’re also not allowed to ask customers to remove negative reviews.
Ms Scott requested a refund but was unwilling to remove her review. Another representative contacted the next day and refused to reimburse him. “A bad review is a fatal blow to us,” the email read. “Could you help me remove the notice? If you can, I would like to reimburse you $ 20 to express my gratitude to you.” (This was double what Ms Scott paid.) A few hours later, she received another plea from the same email address.
Browse the Amazon webpage on an iPad (iStock / iStock)
“It was so scary. They emailed me directly about this on several occasions,” Ms. Scott said.
Ms Scott has contacted Amazon twice about this. I have reviewed chat transcripts and emails from Amazon.
In a conversation with customer service on April 16, an Amazon agent told Ms Scott: “I am relaying to the team who will get back to you on this within 48 hours. They will make sure the seller doesn’t will be more associated with Amazon. ”She said no one had recalled her.
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When she received more spam emails in July, Ms Scott called the Amazon support hotline. A representative told him via email that the matter would be investigated, but Amazon would not be able to release the outcome of the investigation.
The list – and its positive reviews – has remained online after Ms Scott’s complaints. But after asking Amazon to comment on the situation for that column, the listing is gone and the brand, Auxtun, and the seller, HoHousstore, no longer appear to be on Amazon. “The issue you are highlighting has been detected by our internal processes and the appropriate enforcement action has been taken,” the Amazon spokesperson said. Neither Auxtun nor HoHousstore responded to requests for comment.
It was not an isolated incident. In this kitchenware niche, at least a dozen other customers have said in reviews that they have been pressured to revise their low initial ratings.
Many of the top search results currently in Amazon’s “oil spray” category feature the same design, sold under different brands and vendors. One product, with over 4,600 ratings, has eloquent reviews. “The product doesn’t work and the business will bother you until you change your mind,” wrote one customer. “The seller offers $ 20 to $ 30 to remove negative reviews,” said another. Both gave the spray a star. Neither the seller nor the brand responded to requests for comment through Amazon’s internal messaging.
Sellers and brands sometimes find ways to reach customers away from Amazon’s watchful eye. Ms Scott believes a “free gift” insert for a cooking thermometer in the oil spray package – which prompted her to enter her email address and order number – enabled the brand to link the negative review to its address. The Amazon spokesperson said the insert is a violation of company policy.
The seller may have been able to look up their name and mailing address in the sales records provided by Amazon and use that information to find their email address. In April, after Ms Scott purchased the oil spray bottle, Amazon stopped including names and postal addresses in the records of most purchases made by Amazon. Now sellers typically only see a buyer’s city, state, and zip code.
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Ben Hendin from Tulsa, Okla. – who featured in my report on the fake Amazon reviews economy – said he heard from a seller four times after posting a negative review of an unsatisfactory $ 17 finger splint. The seller increased the amount he was willing to pay to remove the notice, eventually reaching $ 40.
When Mr. Hendin asked how this salesperson got their contact information, the rep replied, “The boss found her through social software name search. People who contacted Hendin did not respond to my requests for comment.
James Thomson, a former Amazon employee who is now a partner with branding consultancy Buy Box Experts, said some third-party tools take shipping information from customers and associate it with known email addresses. He stressed that the practice violates Amazon’s rules and that he would not recommend sellers or brands to use these tools.
One company, called Matic Chain, offers an email fetching service to Amazon sellers. A representative for the company told me via email that they use Google and social media to match buyers’ names with their contact details. When I asked if the company knew this was a violation of Amazon policy, the rep did not respond.
Another company, called ZonBoost, says it provides email addresses from reviews up to $ 60 apiece. ZonBoost did not respond to requests for comment.
“Amazon provides plenty of help content, proactive coaching, disclaimers and other aids to sellers to ensure they stay in compliance with our clearly stated policies. We have clear policies for reviewers and business partners. that prohibit the abuse of our community features, and we suspend, ban and prosecute those who violate these policies, ”the Amazon spokesperson said. “Bad actors who try to abuse our system represent a tiny fraction of the activity on our site and we use sophisticated tools to combat them and we make it more and more difficult for them to hide.”
The spokesperson also said: “In 2020, we stopped over 200 million suspected fake reviews before they were seen by a customer, and over 99% of reviews were enforced by our proactive detection. “
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The Wall Street Journal has reported cases where Amazon employees have been accused of accepting bribes in exchange for information benefiting third-party sellers. Amazon said at the time that it disciplined any employee in violation of company policies and had systems installed to restrict and audit what employees can access.
No matter what method a salesperson or brand uses to obtain customer information, the result is the same. Reviews are hard to trust, and you might be less inclined to leave your own negative product review for fear of retaliation from the seller. So what can you do
Do not use your name in Amazon reviews. I encourage people to leave as many reviews on Amazon as possible. But if you do, keep your real name or initials out of the redaction to prevent the seller or brand from contacting you off-platform.
Go to Your account and under “Ordering and purchasing preferences”, click on Your Amazon profile. There you can change your public name. Click on “Edit your public profile” then “Edit privacy settings” to manage what appears on the profile. You can also choose to hide all activities.
Save all your communications. If you receive any questionable and potentially abusive emails or messages, download them or take screenshots of them so that you can forward them to Amazon customer service.
Report abuse to Amazon. An Amazon spokesperson said customers can report abuse by sending an email to [email protected]. Provide as much detail and as many screenshots as possible. Next to the reviews there is also a “Report Abuse” link.
Block their email address. By replying to the seller or brand, you could confirm that your email address belongs to a legitimate customer and that they could continue to send you messages through different accounts. Instead, in Gmail, click the three dots in the upper right corner of the email message to block the sender. In Outlook, select a message, then in the menu bar, navigate to Message> Junk Email> Block Sender.
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