… OR anyone using software to send emails.

It seems Amazon is once again changing things, and some without any kind of announcement or explanation of what is changing and how it effects sellers.

After some recent threads I decided to do some research. I don’t know if some of these are things I didn’t notice before, but I do know that some are changes.

First, I suggest everyone go back and re-read the Seller Code of Conduct … ESPECIALLY anyone recently hit with the Buyer Messages restriction or using any software to send Feedback or Product Review requests.

Sections to read closely …

Ratings, Feedback, and Reviews

(edits to point out certain content)

You may not attempt to influence or inflate customers’ ratings, feedback, and reviews. (Not even a little vague, is it?
(Isn’t ANY message asking about leaving these an attempt to inflate them?)
You may request feedback and reviews from your own customers in a neutral manner, but may not:

• Pay for or offer an incentive (such as coupons or free products) in exchange for providing or removing feedback or reviews
• Ask customers to write only positive reviews or ask them to remove or change a review
• Solicit reviews only from customers who had a positive experience
• Review your own products or a competitors’ products

Communications

You may not send unsolicited
(Unsolicited? Wouldn’t this cover any email sent proactively?)
… or inappropriate messages. All communications to customers must be sent through Buyer-Seller Messaging and be necessary for fulfilling the order or providing customer services. Marketing communications are prohibited.

Customer Information

If you receive customer information such as addresses or phone numbers to fulfill orders, you may use that information only to fulfill orders and must delete it after the order has been processed. You may not use customer information to contact customers (except through Buyer-Seller Messaging) or share it with any third-party.
(I thought I’d include this section … This is all about the PII data and it’s removal from orders)

Next … Buyer-Seller Messaging Service overview

(I edited to add this in as maybe it’s something catching those with the 30 day message suspension)

Guidelines for contacting buyers

In general, you can contact a buyer only to complete an order or to respond to a customer service question. You can’t contact a buyer (including via email, physical mail, telephone, or otherwise) for marketing or promotional purposes, or initiate contact with a buyer about a return containing a product designated as a gift.

If you send a permitted email to an Amazon customer, your message cannot include:

• Links to any websites
• Links to Amazon detail pages or storefronts (This would even include a link to the product purchased …)
• Seller logos if they contain or display a link to the seller’s website
• Any marketing messages or promotions
• Any promotions for additional products or referrals to third-party products or promotions

NEW … Request a review

Request a review

We don’t require you to request reviews because our systems already do that on your behalf at no cost to you. If you would still like to request a review for a specific order, we recommended that you use the Request a review feature on the Order Details page instead of asking the customer via email or Buyer-Seller Messaging.

When you request a review using this feature, we ask for both a product review and seller feedback for the order in the same email. These requests use standardized language and are automatically translated into the customer’s preferred language.

You can use this feature to request reviews once per order between 4 and 30 days after the order delivery date. This ensures that customers receive relevant, recent review requests.

I have no button yet, so obviously not fully implemented.

END result?

I believe by years end that Amazon will not allow any “emails” by sellers to be sent to buyers about ‘Ratings, Feedback, and Reviews’ or anything other than responding to a buyer question.