Why I Don’t Do Reviews for Amazon…
Or from any other shopping sites with sellers in them.
You bought something on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, or any of those shopping sites. Then a few days later, after you received the package, there is a little notice in your email asking you to review your experience with the buyer. Should you do it or not?
Suppose you had a bad experience, whether getting the wrong item or being damaged during the delivery. Then you would get the same message in your email. Do you give the Seller a bad review?
I don’t write reviews, and here is the reason why:
Years Ago.
I can’t remember what I bought when this first happened or the type of product that I purchased. I had forgotten that it was the wrong product or broken during shipping. I remember that I had a bad experience and wrote a bad review on Amazon. Then I get an email from that Seller asking me to change my review. That’s something that none of these Shopping Sites won’t allow me to do. It is illegal to do so on those sites. So I let the Seller know that I couldn’t do it on my end. But that wasn’t the first time it happened to me. It occurred to me a few more times. And that’s when I stopped giving reviews.
I believe that sellers are still doing it today, even though they know it is illegal. They have forgotten that each of these sites has Terms and Services that mention that the Seller should NEVER ask a customer to change their negative reviews.
I do know why Sellers do this. They want to sell more of their products. But to me, a negative review means that you are a human who makes mistakes.
If you are an online seller who does ask buyers to change their reviews, why are you still selling online? You forgot that sites like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy would ban you from their sites if you are doing this. They don’t care if the review is negative or not. I do love it that these sites will ban anyone who asks customers to do this (Which, in reality, you can’t).
The only solution for these scammy sellers is that if you don’t want a negative review on your product, YOU delete it, not the customer.
It Doesn’t Just Happen on Online Shopping Sites.
Even gig sites like Fiverr and Upwork will never let the person hiring ask the freelancer to change their review. I had two of them on Fiverr asking me to do this. The last one was a neutral review. But I know from speaking to a Fiverr rep that I can’t do this.
Speaking of Fiverr, I did have one person who messaged me asking me if I wanted to get paid to review their product on Amazon. Well, when they first contacted me, they didn’t say this. But I did ask more questions. At first, I thought they wanted me to write a description of the product they wanted me to sell (I am a copywriter, after all). But no, they want to pay me to review their stuff. I immediately said no to that. I don’t want that mentioned on my resume. I know that there are many writers out there who are willing to do that, and that is wrong.
A few years ago, I saw a show called CBC Marketplace (I am from Canada), where they experimented with getting great fake reviews for a fake food truck online they created. They did come across one Canadian woman (And they did another show just about her, too) who does YouTube videos pretending that she is a customer, a doctor, a lawyer, etc., doing these fake reviews for these scamming businesses. She hasn’t even tried any of these products or services that she promotes either. So if you are on Upwork, Fiverr, and any of these gig sites, and you want to write. Please don’t do this. It’s not good for your career.
Conclusion
For the buyer, if you do get a seller that wants you to change your negative review of a product, first let Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc., know that they are doing this. Then, they should ban these scammers from doing this.
Or better yet, maybe these shopping sites should first ask if we want to review before doing it. That’s what I think should be done.
Nonetheless, I don’t do reviews on these sites unless the buyer went above and beyond to deliver the items straight to me or fix a delivery issue or broken product. That is what excellent customer service is not begging people to change a review to make you look good.
Update:
I just read another Medium article encouraging you to write product reviews on sites like Amazon because that will make you lots of money. That is not a good thing to do.
If you are just starting as a writer, fake product reviews are not suitable to put in your portfolio.
The only thing that I did with this person I stop following them. I would instead write a review on an item that I tested than write fake ones.
References
Answers to questions about product reviews — Amazon Seller Central. (n.d.). Amazon Seller Central. Retrieved December 12, 2021, from https://sellercentral.amazon.ca/gp/help/external/G201972160?language=en_CA
Half of Amazon Sellers Believe It Is OK to Ask Buyers to Change a Product Review. (2018, November 20). Seller Labs. Retrieved December 12, 2021, from https://www.sellerlabs.com/blog/half-of-amazon-sellers-ask-buyers-to-change-product-reviews/
How to Ask Customers to Remove Negative Feedback in 2021. (2021, March 4). Signpost. Retrieved December 12, 2021, from https://www.signpost.com/blog/ask-customers-remove-negative-feedback-templates/
How to deal with a bad review on Etsy. (n.d.). Oh She Creates. Retrieved December 12, 2021, from https://ohshecreates.com/bad-review-on-etsy/
Seller asking me to change my feedback. (n.d.). The eBay Community. Retrieved December 12, 2021, from https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Seller-asking-me-to-change-my-feedback/td-p/27239144
