Product Review Manipulation - Possible Suspension
Hello everyone,
I received an email from Amazon, which I have written down below for you guys. I have not been hit with a susepnsion, at least not yet. Also, I respondend quickly to them and have posted my response down below. Might not be the best response as I was anxious and wanted to get a response out to them quickly.
It has been a day and I have not received a response yet. To be honest, I am not 100% sure what Amazon wants me to admit to exactly. I have left my competitor’s reviews using my own account, which was wrong of me to do and I have told Amazon, but I’m not sure if that is it because it wasn’t done recently or if they want me to admit to possibly manipulating my own products reviews.
I would really appreciate any advice here. I messed up and I have learned my lesson, I’d like to conitnue selling without taking any actions against TOS. I recently purchased $35,000+ worth of inventory and this could really hurt me.
None of my product reviews have been removed, if it was with regards to a particular review that they did not like then they would have removed it by now, right?
Should I reply to them and tell them everything that may have possibly triggered this or wait for their response? I am worried about adding anything sketchy to it that I may have done and making things worse.
They have not suspended me, is their response going to be a suspension? I am not sure how serious this is compared to other people I have seen who have gotten suspended right away it seems.
Seller support told me that if they do not receive the information that they are looking for within 3 days then they will deactivate my account, so I’m worried if they don’t replied within 3 days then what I have admitted to doing is not what they are looking for and I should follow up.
UPDATE: Amazon closed down the option of me being able to reply to the case and has posted the following message and my case is showing as “Transferred” instead of “Pending Amazon Action”: “Your case has been forwarded to another Amazon team and they will contact you regarding your question.”
Amazon’s email:
We attempted to reach you by phone to discuss the status of your Amazon selling account.
As a result of recent violations of Amazon’s Community Guidelines, your account will be temporarily deactivated in 72 hours if you do not send a plan of action addressing these violations.
Why is this happening?
Because you are manipulating product reviews. Amazon’s policy regarding Customer Reviews can be found at (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200386250).
Amazons’ policies prohibit activities such as:
– creating, modifying, or posting reviews or community content regarding your own products or services
– creating, modifying, or posting reviews or community content regarding your competitors’ products or services
– offering compensation for customer reviews – offering compensation, including free or discounted products, in exchange for creating, modifying, or posting reviews or community content Violations of our policies may also violate applicable laws.
Amazon strives to maintain customer trust and provide the best possible shopping experience. As a result, we will investigate when we learn that sellers, vendors, or others have attempted to manipulate reviews.
What’s next? Please send a plan of action within 72 hours that includes:
– A detailed description with dates of all methods you used to post or obtain customer reviews that are prohibited by Amazon policies, or otherwise manipulate reviews.
– Contact information (name, email address, website, etc.) for any third parties you engaged to manipulate reviews or obtain prohibited reviews.
– Identifying information for any customer accounts you or a third party used to post prohibited reviews.
– Documentation (e.g., emails and receipts) from any such third party confirming you used their service.
– List of any prohibited reviews remaining on the Amazon site.
– Description of steps you have taken to prevent product review manipulation within your organization and how this will prevent future violations.
How do I send the required information? Submit this information at (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/case-lobby).
What happens if I do not send the requested information? If we do not receive the requested information within 72 hours, your account will be temporarily deactivated.
My response:
Hello,
– A detailed description with dates of all methods you used to post or obtain customer reviews that are prohibited by Amazon policies, or otherwise manipulate reviews:
I believe the only review manipulation that I have done is with regards to “– creating, modifying, or posting reviews or community content regarding your competitors’ products or services.” If there is something else then let me know. But I have never posted reviews for my own products and have not compensated or offered compensation in exchange for reviews to customers.
I’d like to start by apologizing for the actions I have taken that were against Amazon’s TOS. I have now fully understood them and will no longer take such actions in the future. Here is the details of the actions I took that were against TOS: I have left my competitors verified and unverified negative reviews using my own personal Amazon account. I have deleted the unverified reviews but I have the dates for them and the verified reviews here for you. I have not deleted the verified reviews yet, I have left them for you to see as evidence and will be deleting them after you respond to this case and have seen them. The dates for the unverified reviews that are now deleted by me: May 24, 2019, Aug 4, 2019, Jan 10, 2020, Jan 19, 2020. The dates for the verified reviews are: February 23, 2019, September 3, 2019, September 11, 2019, September 29, 2019. For the verified review that was left on February 23, 2019, it was actually before I began selling my product. So, at the time the review I left was not for a competitor but later began a competitor once I started selling which has caused a problem now.
– Contact information (name, email address, website, etc.) for any third parties you engaged to manipulate reviews or obtain prohibited reviews.
I did not engage with any third parties. All of the reviews that were left for my competitors were from my own Amazon account. Here is the URL link to my profile: https://www.amazon.com/xxxxxxx
– Identifying information for any customer accounts you or a third party used to post prohibited reviews.
No third parties were involved. Here is the URL link to my own account that was used: https://www.amazon.com/xxxxx
– Documentation (e.g., emails and receipts) from any such third party confirming you used their service.
There were no emails or receipts. There was no third party involved for my case.
– List of any prohibited reviews remaining on the Amazon site.
The URL to the remaining verified reviews that I had left are below, I will be deleting them after you have replied to this case and seen them:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/XXXX
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/XXXX
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/XXX
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/XXXX
– Description of steps you have taken to prevent product review manipulation within your organization and how this will prevent future violations.
The first step I took was delete all of the unverified reviews that were left by me. I will be deleting the verified reviews that are still live after you have seen them. I have left them for you to be able to view. A major step I have taken to prevent future violations is ensuring that I do not leave reviews for any competitors or potential competitors. If I purchase a product that I may become one day a competitor with, I will not be leaving them a review. If I do ever leave a review for a product I purchase, I will take measures to ensure that they are in no way a competitor or a potential competitor. If I purchase a competitor’s product, I am not leaving them a review. My organization only consists of me, there are no employees to send them this message but the message is understood by me. I should note that I do not send my customers any auto-emails. I make sure that in my product insert customers are not asked to leave a manipulated review. When it comes down to my own products I have always ensured that my products’ reviews are honest. This was a mistake I made leaving my competitor’s reviews and it is not acceptable and will not be repeated.
Thank you,
Seller_6AtZ6s8g9oLb1
My account was reinstated! Turns out the problem was me asking for reviews in my inserts. I didn’t ask for positive reviews or offer compensation, but I’ve learned that Amazon can give you trouble even if you mention reviews in your inserts. Not taking that risk anymore and wouldn’t recommend anyone. After removing my inventory to fix them, Amazon reinstated me.
Seller_VPTojhikJPGtl
You will be
This is a deathblow. It is not only against the TOS, it is a major ethical violation.
Either send it back or find a new venue to sell on, you committed a serious violation of policy.
I am not being mean, I am being realistic here.
Seller_6AtZ6s8g9oLb1
I just received the email down below from amazon and my account has been suspended/deactivated. I am crushed. I have $35k+ worth of inventory. Would highly appreciate any tips from you guys on what to do next. Especially if you have gone through this. I will be formulating an appeal and contacting a third party to go over it for me.
The email:
Your Amazon.com seller account has been temporarily deactivated. Your listings have been removed from our site. Funds will not be transferred to you but will stay in your account while we work with you to address this issue. Please ship any open orders to avoid further impact to your account.
Why is this happening?
We recently contacted you about product review manipulation. Because you are still manipulating product reviews, you currently may not sell on Amazon.com. Learn more about this policy in Seller Central Help . Violations of our policies may also violate applicable laws.
How do I reactivate my account?
To reactivate your account, please send the following:
- A detailed description of all methods you used to post or obtain customer reviews that are prohibited by Amazon policies.
- Contact information (name, email address, website, etc.) for any third parties you engaged to obtain prohibited reviews or manipulate reviews.
- Identifying information for any customer accounts you or a third party used to post prohibited reviews.
- List of any prohibited reviews remaining on the Amazon site.
- A plan that explains how you will prevent product review manipulation in the future.
How do I send this information?
Submit this information by replying to this email with the requested details.
What happens if I do not send the requested information?
If we do not receive the requested information within 21 days of the original notification, your account will remain deactivated.
We’re here to help
If you have questions about this policy or your account, please search for “Prohibited seller activities and actions” in Seller Central Help
Has your account been deactivated in error?
If you believe there has been an error, please submit an explanation. Your explanation should include the following information:
----Evidence or examples that demonstrate that your account complies with our policies
Pax_Amazon_old
Hello @Hopeful_Seller,
Pax here to provide some feedback on your appeal.
Reviews of your appeals can take varying amounts of time, therefore we recommend giving it more time to be reviewed, as a few days may not be enough.
Not necessarily.
If you have already submitted an appeal that details all of your actions, then wait for the appeal to be reviewed. We will contact you upon completion of your review.
This is good. It means we have received your appeal.
Let us jump into your appeal.
This section appears to be hidden, and thus hard to find, within the whole block paragraph. It would be best to make it more noticeable by beginning your root cause here, or providing a space between this sentence and the previous one. Your appeal should be easy to read, and the answers immediately visible to ensure your appeal is strong.
Do you have any screenshots of the feedback you had left on your competitors? This might be necessary.
This seems to be an immediate action taken, not a preventative measure. Therefore, it should be moved to the proper section.
How will you know they will not be a competitor or potential future competitor? You will need to explain this.
Explain what your inserts do state.
Explain your understanding of the impact you have had on your competitors due to the negative reviews you left.
I hope this helps guide you towards the direction of your appeal revision. Please revise and resubmit your appeal to us for review.
Best,
Pax
Seller_6AtZ6s8g9oLb1
My account was reinstated! Turns out the problem was me asking for reviews in my inserts. I didn’t ask for positive reviews or offer compensation, but I’ve learned that Amazon can give you trouble even if you mention reviews in your inserts. Not taking that risk anymore and wouldn’t recommend anyone. After removing my inventory to fix them, Amazon reinstated me.
Seller_eqoxgTVNkI54O
Hi, Hopeful_Seller ! Just found your post here. I have exactly the same problem! They ask me to come up with a plan of action. Did you provide the one? Can you share which drafting did you use to persuade them to reinstate your account? Thank you in advance!
Seller_sUCPPgZ4lnYXh
Sorry but you are out of the game
Seller_1u8VvvTAQQag2
Hey,
I purchased a 3 product from brand NBJU and in everybox I found the $30 Amazon Gift Card in exchange for 5* product review. I reported to Amazon and even didn’t get any email reply.
So, here is it…
ORDER # 114-1844326-2330640
Reported listing: ASIN: B093BQWGN9, ASIN: B08VJF76W6, ASIN B08JPGTXJ3
