Among Friends

[Suzeecat]

I just love the convenience of Amazon and use my Prime membership all the time.  I leave reviews when I have something constructive to say because I always read reviews before I purchase and have found them helpful and figure my opinion might help someone else with their decision. 

I recently saw an ad for a sleep supplement and checked the reviews before I purchased them.  The majority of the reviews were glowing with just a few (as is usual) that said the supplement did nothing for them.  I compared the ingredients to an Andrew Lessman sleep supplement that I currently take and the one on Amazon had higher levels plus a couple additional ingredients so I had high hopes.  After trying them and having nothing but several really lousy nights' sleeps, I decided to leave a review voicing my disappointment.  I said something to the effect of "either the other reviews are fake or I just got a bad batch because these pills did absolutely nothing for me."  Well, that was BAD and Amazon sent me a note saying I did not abide by the guidelines and my review could not be posted.  OK, my bad, mea culpa, no more sarcasm, I've learned my lesson and accept the admonishment.

A couple days later I got another email from Amazon stating that *SEVERAL* of my recent reviews have been outside their guidelines and I should consider this my first warning.  WOW!  This one is the only review that I can recall saying anything bad about and I'm feeling like a really bad person now!  I don't think I'll be submitting any more reviews on Amazon.  This is the first time anything like this has happened to me and I just feel really sensitive and chastised.  And, I'm going back to the Lessman supplements!

[Imaoldhippie]

Wow thats terrible.  I believe you can go to your account and check your reviews.  If you have a question about it, I would call or email Amazon.  I am sure those letters are somehow triggered automatically.

[BirkiLady]

So much for trusting the reviews on Amazon! I have also relied (and believed) them to be valid. Guess they are slanted in favor of the vendor. Not a fan of that kind of business tactics. Thanks for sharing.

[dex]

I don’t know why you even concern yourself....they are constantly asking for reviews and I guess they pick and choose so now we know that maybe they are finding ways to post mostly the favorable ones.

[Krimpette]

My guess would be that "implying" that the other reviews were fake is what caused the notice.    JMHO.

[World Traveler]

Very interesting. I didn't get a warning, but they sent me their guidelines to review after I posted that the company, Satisfaction4you (I think that was the name), never sent my order that I placed in July. I kept getting in the order status that it was "on its way" but it never came. 

When I posted in the reviews the fact that company had not sent it yet, and that it had been THREE months, I said something like, "It's only toilet paper; what can possibly be the problem?" Well, they wouldn't post it. Amazon refunded my money, but the order status kept saying "on it's way." Still does.

I noticed that other people posted that they never got their order from Satisfaction4you or that it took very, very long. So, I am not sure why those reviews were allowed to be posted and mine wasn't. I even tried to rewrite it, yet getting across the point that the company did not get the product to me. I didn't want others to use that third-party supplier for the same product.

[Janey2]

Do not know if it is true, but I read that if one of Jeff Bezos'  "friends" writes a book and the reviews are not excellent Amazon will out post them for a while until the book is out for many months.

[aprilskies]

I no longer trust any reviews anywhere.  Not really.  I find them quite frustrating anymore.  Sometimes I see rave reviews on something and when I dig into them, the majority of them were given the product free for promotion.  This is everywhere now.

I wouldnt worry about the notice you received from Amazon.  Doesn't make you a bad person and you shouldnt feel that way. You were being honest.  This is a lost attribute these days.

[NickNack]

I'll bet it's because you're supposed to review the product and not the company.  I'll bet they've recently changed their guidelines.  You can review the company another way.  Under your orders if the order wasn't shipped from Amazon, it says "leave seller feedback."  You can post what happened to you there.  I always check the seller's feedback before ordering.

[Allegheny]

@Suzeecat

First warning...  Did they say what the consequences were.  They certainly don't want to lose you as a customer.

Something must be going on with Amazon reviews.  I leave reviews about 50% of the time.  The last review was deemed as not meeting their guidelines.  To be honest I never read the guidelines.  I said nothing negative about the product.  So I said phooey.  I don't have time or interest in mickey mousing around to satisfy their goal.  I just decided not to leave reviews any longer.