Amazon seller bribery attempt

[Deleted member 68495]

A little while ago I bought a coffee grinder from Amazon (despatched by Amazon, sold by Conqueco). It was working very well until the grind adjuster inside came loose and let the whole mechanism fall apart. Reassembled, only to have it happen again some time later. At nearly fifty quid I expected better so I sent it back with a one-star review explaining the problem. My money was refunded and that, I thought, was that. That is until I received my first email from the seller asking me to remove my negative review in exchange for a £15 gift card. I ignored it only to receive, a few days later, another email offering me a £20 gift voucher to delete my review. I wrote to them telling them I thought their practices were dodgy at the very least and scandalous at worst and told them never to contact me again as I had my morals and I was sticking to them -- and they didn't, for about two hours. Then they wrote again offering me fifty quid to delete my review. Fifty pounds is actually about three pounds more than I paid for the item in the first place!

Anyway, I have sent their messages to the spam bin and will ignore any further attempts at bribery.

Looking more closely at the reviews of this product shows only three 1-star reviews, all saying exactly the same as me, many of the 5-star reviews are made by Vine members and are reviews of a free gift. I wonder how many people took the offered bribe and recanted their negative reviews?

Really, Amazon should be clamping down n this underhand practice of artificially elevating the rating of products as in my opinion they are cheating legitimate buyers of decent feedback. I'm in two minds whether or not to send all the emails to Amazon with a complaint but I feel I might be wasting my time.

 

[tijuana taxi]

I bought a vacuum food sealer and got given a code for a free roll of plastic.
When I went to claim it the offer was dependant on leaving a positive review.

 

[Deleted member 68495]

I bought a vacuum food sealer and got given a code for a free roll of plastic.
When I went to claim it the offer was dependant on leaving a positive review.

I must confess to not reading any five-star reviews, I tend to pick the bones out of one-star and four-star versions as they are much more revealing, as is the location of the reviewer -- a lot of the more honest ones seem to be in other languages.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I tend to pick the bones out of one-star and four-star versions as they are much more revealing, as is the location of the reviewer...

I find the one-stars tell it all, especially the percentage of them. Anything more than 3% one stars and I pass on to another product.

 

[srichards]

@ShinySideUp

I'd report it to Amazon customer services as well. They usually can see correspondence between sellers and buyers. I'm not sure how much they check.

Being evil I'd add the fact that they tried to bribe you to take down the negative review to the review with a screenshot of it. Hoist them right up their own hoop.

 

[Box Brownie]

@ShinySideUp

I'd report it to Amazon customer services as well. They usually can see correspondence between sellers and buyers. I'm not sure how much they check.

Being evil I'd add the fact that they tried to bribe you to take down the negative review to the review with a screenshot of it. Hoist them right up their own hoop.

I would tend to agree on notifying Amazon by all channels possible.

Such a merchant needs slapping hard by Amazon

 

[Deleted member 68495]

Being evil I'd add the fact that they tried to bribe you to take down the negative review to the review with a screenshot of it. Hoist them right up their own hoop.

I was tempted but I think I'm going to let it go now. My review stands and other people have to believe it or not and buy, or not, the product; at least they were warned by three of us with ethics that this product falls apart. I am curious though as to how many people took their thirty pieces of silver to delete their poor reviews.

They have 83% 5-star reviews which is generally unheard of, even for something, for example, as a simple screwdriver. So many of the top reviews are by people who were given the product free of charge -- I doubt their ethics too!

 

[Deleted member 68495]

Actually I changed my mind and am talking to an Amazon rep as I write this.

 

[Deleted member 68495]

Gosh, that got elevated very quickly. Spoke to the AI bot mentioning bribery and it sent me straight to a human immediately, that human has referred it upwards and I should receive contact from them within 24 hours. Watch this space.

 

[boogie man]

Some of the 1 star reviews on Amazon are ludicrous, usually referring to a problem with delivery rather than the actual product. But if there are more than a few bad ones it’s a worth taking a look to check for common complaints.

I’ve never been bribed to remove a bad review but I’ve been morally blackmailed by a seller on Amazon. “We’re only a small family business. It’s nearly Xmas when we do most of our trade. Please reconsider.” Blah, blah blah The fact still stands, the product was rubbish and was nothing like what they were advertising so I left the review up.

 

[woof woof]

@ShinySideUp

I'd report it to Amazon customer services as well. They usually can see correspondence between sellers and buyers. I'm not sure how much they check.

Being evil I'd add the fact that they tried to bribe you to take down the negative review to the review with a screenshot of it. Hoist them right up their own hoop.

Amazon would probably take it down. I left a bad review for a supplier once and that's exactly what Amazon did, they deleted it. There justification was that a review must be of a product and not a supplier.

 

[ecoleman]

A little while ago I bought a coffee grinder from Amazon (despatched by Amazon, sold by Conqueco). It was working very well until the grind adjuster inside came loose and let the whole mechanism fall apart. Reassembled, only to have it happen again some time later. At nearly fifty quid I expected better so I sent it back with a one-star review explaining the problem. My money was refunded and that, I thought, was that. That is until I received my first email from the seller asking me to remove my negative review in exchange for a £15 gift card. I ignored it only to receive, a few days later, another email offering me a £20 gift voucher to delete my review. I wrote to them telling them I thought their practices were dodgy at the very least and scandalous at worst and told them never to contact me again as I had my morals and I was sticking to them -- and they didn't, for about two hours. Then they wrote again offering me fifty quid to delete my review. Fifty pounds is actually about three pounds more than I paid for the item in the first place!

Anyway, I have sent their messages to the spam bin and will ignore any further attempts at bribery.

Looking more closely at the reviews of this product shows only three 1-star reviews, all saying exactly the same as me, many of the 5-star reviews are made by Vine members and are reviews of a free gift. I wonder how many people took the offered bribe and recanted their negative reviews?

Really, Amazon should be clamping down n this underhand practice of artificially elevating the rating of products as in my opinion they are cheating legitimate buyers of decent feedback. I'm in two minds whether or not to send all the emails to Amazon with a complaint but I feel I might be wasting my time.

Amazon probably would clamp down on this underhanded practice if you reported it to Amazon instead of just sending the emails you spam.

It is against Amazon Seller policies but they can't clamp down if they don't know it's happening.

 

[Sky]

I had a similar thing to this a couple of years ago - like you told them to 'shove it'.

Amazon reviews can't be trusted completely I know, but they're better than nothing. I can normally spot the fake ones quite easily and I ignore any that are not marked as 'Verified Purchase'.

 

[KIPAX]

I would have folded at £50

 

[ecoleman]

I had a similar thing to this a couple of years ago - like you told them to 'shove it'.

Amazon reviews can't be trusted completely I know, but they're better than nothing. I can normally spot the fake ones quite easily and I ignore any that are not marked as 'Verified Purchase'.

Ignore that are marked as Vine reviews too.

 

[Nod]

Amazon would probably take it down. I left a bad review for a supplier once and that's exactly what Amazon did, they deleted it. There justification was that a review must be of a product and not a supplier.

If you click on the supplier's name, you end up at a page where you can leave a review of the supplier rather than the product.

 

[Graham W]

If, when they offered you £15.00, you replied with "I'll remove it for £50.00" they would have done you for blackmail!

 

[Deleted member 68495]

They [Amazon] have come back to me within the 24 hours they promised and while the response is appreciated, the guts of the email are a bit of an anti-climax as they responded with:

Thank you for letting us know that the Seller is requesting the removal of your review.

We will investigate and take appropriate action. For privacy reasons, we cannot share the results of our investigation with you.

I expect I'll find out when the company concerned send me an abusive email full of vitriol and blasphemy; oh well, I've done all I can. In truth, I actually doubt I'll ever hear from the company again, vitriol or otherwise, and my ethics are intact, which is quite satisfying for me.

 

[JonathanRyan]

If, when they offered you £15.00, you replied with "I'll remove it for £50.00" they would have done you for blackmail!

How about.... I'll remove it if you send me a working grinder?

I've seen a few reviews like that and it makes me think well of the seller.

 

[Steep]

I've had that happen two or three times over the years. I don't think Amazon will do anything, they make money on sales and if they did block the seller the Chinese companies all seem to have multiple store fronts so little harm to lose one.

 

[Dave Canon]

I am ashamed to say that just over a year ago, my wife asked me to order more ink for her printer. I told her that Amazon no longer offered genuine Canon ink but found it elsewhere, but she thought the price much to high and wanted me to buy a compatible set which I warned her would not be as good. So I ordered from Amazon (Market Place)and installed the compatibles but the first print she did the Magenta was orange and Cyan and yellow weird too. She was not even printing photographs but these inks were unacceptable for anything. I claimed a full refund from Amazon which was returned immediately and left a suitable 1* review. A few days later the ink company contacted me and offered £30 to remove the review. I think normally I would have resisted but my wife now needed a set of Canon inks immediately and it cost about £30 more so I removed the review. I had to buy another set a few days ago but notice that Amazon are selling the genuine Canon inks again.

Dave

 

[Pixbarmy]

I don't do good reviews now until I've had something for aaaaaaaaages! Bad reviews are done immediately! Maybe we need a name and shame for c*ap products thread! I have a few names that I could add (Some surprising ones too - old brand names now made you know where!).

 

[Deleted member 68495]

How about.... I'll remove it if you send me a working grinder?

I've seen a few reviews like that and it makes me think well of the seller.

From what I saw with the coffee grinder I had, I believe there was a basic design flaw (not limited to this company it turns out , see Youtube) that would have a meant that another one would probably have developed the same problem. There are fixes for the problem and as I said in my review, if the thing had cost £15 I'd have fiddled it but not when the thing cost nearly fifty.

I too tend to wait before I give good reviews but when I do, I really do.

 

[doctorjuggles]

Are you able to edit your review and update the public on their bribery attempts?

 

[Deleted member 68495]

Are you able to edit your review and update the public on their bribery attempts?

No, that is unwise as it would go against Amazons reviewing rules and the review would probably be removed altogether.

I have sent them the whole email exchange and left it in their hands. I have done my bit, I want no further part in it now, Amazon will do what Amazon will do.

 

[Brendan Mulachy]

id take the 50 quid...and leave the 1 star review, mentioning they offered you the money to take away the bad review....give the money to charity

 

[Deleted member 68495]

As I said above, Amazon will just remove the review altogether.

Amazon have been informed and they will proceed as per their rules and regs, as far as I am concerned now, the matter is closed. I have heard nothing more from the seller so if nothing else, it's shut them up.

 

[Garry Edwards]

This is a difficult one . . .
Obviously, sellers shouldn't behave in this way but it's easy to see why they do, because (good) reviews really do help sales and poor ones destroy them. Basically, reviews are free advertising and nothing else on Amazon is free and most sellers simply can't afford to advertise on Amazon because they take nearly all of the profits without spending even more on advertising or promotion.

I sell a couple of photography books on Amazon, and they sell reasonably well. Sales don't affect me personally because all of the sales income goes to a charity.

Someone posted a negative review, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PM95HZM saying
"

cornishman
1.0 out of 5 stars It's a book (to do with lighting and heavy irony, sad waste of the authors time).
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 January 2020
Verified Purchase
I do not know the background as to the compilation and production of this sorry mess; I cannot for one minute believe that this work was intended to be so dreadful. I received the book and as usual I have a brief skim through to check the product before settling down to read it. That's when I noticed it's failings. Now I could spend an age being picky but I will address the major problems. The first issue was the quality of images - badly printed, repetitive, unnecessary, out of focus and of no use whatsoever (irony number one - it's sad that a book which is clearly written, designed and printed for people, like myself, interested in product photography to produce quality images for sales purposes is so totally rubbish). Second issue is that pages 48-52 are repeated, as well as bad images, on pages 70-75. Third issue is the section on the use of Photoshop for image extraction/compilation. screen shots are poor, the book printing makes these of no use whatsoever, the methods of using Channels or the Pen tool are horrendously bad and of no value at all, actually embarrassing (and I am no expert but even I know that both processes are more involved than the explanations contained here). At the beginning of this book it has the unfortunate phrase that the contents are "bang up to date", wonderful but what date. The last issue (of 60) is where it came from - Amazon and printed in Italy according to the last page.
As I intimated I cannot believe that the author had this end result in mind as bad as it is. My advice to the author is to mitigate the embarrassment of this tosh to your reputation and I truly hope that this is not indicative of your ability."

My issue with that review is that it's all nonsense and untrue, except that the claim of poor printing quality may or may not be true, the book is printed by Amazon but nobody else has complained about the print quality..

I responded with my own comments, which were not published. I complained to Amazon, no response.

What effect did it have? Sales halved!

There's another poor review, which appears second on the list
"

Michael
3.0 out of 5 stars Not the right book for me
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 December 2021
Verified Purchase
I am amateur photographer, I take my own product photos and wanted to improve these. This book is more for a professional photographer looking to learn the technical aspects in great detail of lighting and product photography. I was way way out of my depth reading it and hope I can find something aimed more at my skill level. I don’t doubt this book contains extremely important information and methods if you are a pro"

And this one reduced sales too, although not by as much. I believe that this review is honest, unlike the first one, and the guy is perfectly entitled to express his views, he simply didn't put any effort into learning from it, no doubt hoping for some kind of "magic bullet" that would improve his photography without effort.

And, to make matters even worse, these reviews are top of the list, the first ones that people see.

So, although my view is that it's wrong for sellers to bribe customers, they do need to do something to reduce the damage caused by unfair reviews.

 

[Deleted member 68495]

Poor reviews are of course difficult for a seller but if one looks on any product on Amazon there is, almost without exception, a few poor reviews for any product. Pitting the good reviews against the bad ones will give an indication to a potential buyer of how much to trust the product. Too many positive reviews are almost as bad as too many bad ones as I personally start to get a little suspicious if it seems to good to be true. The product I left a bad review for had only three 1-star reviews and every one of them said the product fell apart, this was against 83% 5-star reviews, many of which were from Vine reviewers who received the product free-of-charge. Before I left my review I might have thought that the 1-star reviews were just two-offs but then after I was bribed to remove my review it made me wonder how many people took their thirty pieces of silver and removed their reviews.

Bad reviews I wouldn't have thought would necessarily cause a product to lose sales (otherwise nothing on Amazon would be sold at all) but the ratio of good to bad I feel does have a major influence, at least on me.

 

[Dave Canon]

I have just given a book (not photography) 5* as has everyone bar one person. So I looked at the 1* review and the only comment was that he had not yet got round to reading it. Clearly Amazon should not publish such review but it emphasises how little use they are.

Dave

 

[woof woof]

I have just given a book (not photography) 5* as has everyone bar one person. So I looked at the 1* review and the only comment was that he had not yet got round to reading it. Clearly Amazon should not publish such review but it emphasises how little use they are.

Dave

WHAT???

Oh My

 

[Deleted member 68495]

I have just given a book (not photography) 5* as has everyone bar one person. So I looked at the 1* review and the only comment was that he had not yet got round to reading it. Clearly Amazon should not publish such review but it emphasises how little use they are.

Dave

I've seen that too in the past, the review literally said "Haven't read it yet so 1 star."

I'm not sure that people actually know what a review is, I have seen so many one word 'reviews' -- great, crap, boring, etc.. Amazon should ensure that there is a minimum number of words in a review before it gets published. Personally , I think no review should be published if it contains anything similar to 'could of' or 'would of', oh, and that the author of said review is hung, drawn and quartered!

 

[zx9]

I blame the emails you get prompting review of a recent purchase, particularly from the likes of ScrewStation and Toolfix which offer a chance of winning a monthly prize on completion of review, admittedly not a tactic I have seen on Rainforest.
After purchasing a GoProAlike from Rainforest I did get a 'leave us a review and receive a free accessory pack', I did leave a review but only after testing the camera, basically saying that it worked well, had good IS and did not flood in the hotel pool. Obviously my accessory pack arrived too late for that holiday but some of the assorted plastic tat included has been of use on other occasions.

 

[Nod]

hung, drawn and quartered!

Or even hanged, drawn and quartered.

Completely agree with the "should of" etc..

 

[Brazo]

I always take all Amazon reviews with a pinch of salt. A lot of the time they lump in product reviews together so 20 different types and makes of graphics cards could all be under the same review making it difficult to separate out the product you want reviewed.

Also the quality of the people writing the reviews is often very poor!!

 

[Deleted member 68495]

Or even hanged, drawn and quartered.

Completely agree with the "should of" etc..

'My bad, you are absolutely correct. Back to the naughty step for me; I have disgraced the uniform of the Grammar Nazis.

 

[Nod]

Did you miss the

 

[Deleted member 68495]

Did you miss the

No, not at all, I knew you were just having fun. I love good speech and grammar and even as I write this I am wearing a T shirt that says on the front "You wouldn't buy fewer petrol so you can't have less items! On the back is written 'Grammar Nazi'.

I am saddened to report that someone in a pub a long time ago accused me of supporting Hitler, really! I'm fairly sure that Hitler's grammar, knowing the German nation, was impeccable.