# Should I take my Amazon review down? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365 "2014-10-24T16:50:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/22 "2014-10-24T22:22:33Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > Oddly, since I posted the review someone else has posted one that specifically contradicts the issues that I had with the product. Perhaps the problems with mine were just a fluke. It’s either that or the seller asked/hired somebody to write a review to counter yours. If he is already trying to manipulate the reviews by asking you to remove yours, he might do something like that as well. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/23 "2014-10-25T01:32:40Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > The edit and delete buttons for mine appear right above my reviews when I am logged in. > > Oddly, since I posted the review someone else has posted one that specifically contradicts the issues that I had with the product. Perhaps the problems with mine were just a fluke. Or the other review “took the bait”. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/24 "2014-10-25T14:29:37Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > It’s either that or the seller asked/hired somebody to write a review to counter yours. If he is already trying to manipulate the reviews by asking you to remove yours, he might do something like that as well. Aye, that’s what it sounds like to me. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/25 "2014-10-25T14:35:38Z")
Don’t take down the review. Who is the seller? Would be good for us to know that here. It’s a second-hand data point. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/26 "2014-10-25T15:04:50Z")
Wait, your issue is with the product, but the seller wants your to change the review? is the seller also the manufacturer? bad reviews don’t reflect the seller’s status. Is this one of those non-marketplace sellers who just has a link through Amazon? or did you also post a review saying the seller sold you a crap product, and that’s what the seller wants you to remove? If you do remove something, make sure you remove the right thing. A couple of times, I got totally crap products from eBay, and posted “neutral” (not negative) reviews, saying that the seller should pay more attention to what they are selling (one was a videotape that was broken, and you could see if you lifted the guard that the tape wasn’t visible; I had to open the cover with a screwdriver and Scotch-tape it back together). Apparently neutral reviews on eBay are just as bad as negative ones, because I got a profanity-laden reply (which I reported) from the seller that I should have contacted him before I posted the review and given him a chance to correct the problem (why? because it’s easier to say “sorry” later than to ask permission first?) does he think I would have sent the tape back so he could have opened it up, taped it together, and mailed it back? Besides, I had no idea that neutral and negative reviews were essentially that same-- now, if I get bad service, but it’s not just sinfully awful, I don’t leave any review at all. He gave me a “bad buyer” review, but I had a 100% rating before that; his seller review was nowhere near 100%, which I know now (I didn’t then, and the fact that I bought a videotape should let you know when this was) is a red flag not to buy from the person. He’s no longer a seller. But didn’t write a review of the movie where I spent time complaining about a busted videotape. If your review of a product is somehow affecting the seller because of something that was not the seller’s fault, then maybe you should revise the review. If not, leave it be. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/27 "2014-10-25T15:27:39Z")
The seller’s actions are a reflection of the seller and of the products s/he sells. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/28 "2014-10-25T15:33:11Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > I bought something on Amazon that has a few design issues affecting its functionality, so I posted a lukewarm review. The seller emailed me and refunded my credit card without asking for a return, and wants me to take down my review, which was honest in discussing the product flaws. Should I take it down? Just to be clear: Did you post a lukewarm review of the product, or a lukewarm review of the seller ? There’s a huge difference. If you reviewed the seller, I would absolutely edit or delete the lukewarm review and change/post a positive one instead. If you reviewed the product, I’d quite possibly edit in a notice that your issues were with the product itself, _not_ [seller] so readers are aware; I’d be far likelier to do this if [seller] is the only Amazon shop selling the product. Also, if I had reviewed the product, I would go and add a positive review for the storefront itself. They basically gave me the product for free without me even asking and I think that’s good customer service. I’d also send a quick email back letting them know that. Reviews of products and reviews of marketplace sellers are absolutely different things. I wouldn’t see anything wrong with someone rating the product a 1 and the seller a 5, or vice versa. It may be a bit tacky that they explicitly asked you to change your review, but for sellers whose online shop is their livelihood, reviews can make or break them. I have no problem with their question/request, especially if it’s a situation like I described above. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/29 "2014-10-25T18:07:37Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > How about reviews where the ‘problem’ is something that’s one of the basic properties of the item? > > While I was reading this thread I was also checking online pricing for a 6" slide vice (40lb chunk of cast iron for the unfamiliar). > > Reviewer wouldn’t recommend it because, a: it’s heavy, b: it’s too big for his bench-top drill press. > > Congratulations, you’ve just demonstrated that you can’t be trusted with power tools. > Leave the review. God, that drives me insane - I’ve been trying to decide which jogging stroller to get, you know for ACTUAL RUNNING. It’s hard to parse the reviews because a lot of the negative ones are bitching about how hard strollers with fixed wheels are to turn. That’s the point. That’s because it isn’t for your goddamned trip to the zoo, it’s for actually running, and a fixed wheel keeps your baby from ending up in the lake if you hit a bump. Your review is useless to me if you don’t run with your running stroller! But in the situation of the OP, no way. It was unethical of them to ask and would be unethical of you to do. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/30 "2014-10-25T19:39:11Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Just to be clear: Did you post a lukewarm review of the product, or a lukewarm review of the seller ? There’s a huge difference. > > If you reviewed the seller, I would absolutely edit or delete the lukewarm review and change/post a positive one instead. If you reviewed the product, I’d quite possibly edit in a notice that your issues were with the product itself, _not_ [seller] so readers are aware; I’d be far likelier to do this if [seller] is the only Amazon shop selling the product. > > Also, if I had reviewed the product, I would go and add a positive review for the storefront itself. They basically gave me the product for free without me even asking and I think that’s good customer service. I’d also send a quick email back letting them know that. > > Reviews of products and reviews of marketplace sellers are absolutely different things. I wouldn’t see anything wrong with someone rating the product a 1 and the seller a 5, or vice versa. > > It may be a bit tacky that they explicitly asked you to change your review, but for sellers whose online shop is their livelihood, reviews can make or break them. I have no problem with their question/request, especially if it’s a situation like I described above. To clarify a bit: The _only_ change to the product review I’d make is potentially adding the bit about the issue being with the product itself and not the seller. I would _not_ change my star rating or delete anything I had already written. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/31 "2014-10-25T19:44:52Z")
OT, but something I hate is when someone’s review of a _product_ is “I have been waiting 3 weeks, and it still has not arrived.” And it’s the only 1-star review of something that otherwise has only 4- & 5-star reviews. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/32 "2014-10-25T21:11:45Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > How about reviews where the ‘problem’ is something that’s one of the basic properties of the item? > > While I was reading this thread I was also checking online pricing for a 6" slide vice (40lb chunk of cast iron for the unfamiliar). > > Reviewer wouldn’t recommend it because, a: it’s heavy, b: it’s too big for his bench-top drill press. > > Congratulations, you’ve just demonstrated that you can’t be trusted with power tools. Whenever I buy something for a non-trivial amount of money, I make a point of reading the negative reviews. Even if it’s like 95% five star to 5% one star - you never know if that 5% found something really bad about it. Way more often it’s like you said. “They didn’t say ANYWHERE that this mailbox can’t be submerged in a lake!” It’s actually a good confidence booster when the only complaints are idiotic or psychotic or both. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/33 "2014-10-25T23:11:45Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > OT, but something I hate is when someone’s review of a _product_ is “I have been waiting 3 weeks, and it still has not arrived.” And it’s the only 1-star review of something that otherwise has only 4- & 5-star reviews. I’m dumbfounded by those kinds of reviews – things like “I received the wrong item! Please send me what I ordered NOW!” I wonder if those people are still waiting for Amazon to notice their complaint and act upon it. > [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > It’s actually a good confidence booster when the only complaints are idiotic or psychotic or both. Yes, I’m reassured when the few negative reviews are obvious outliers. When they insist that the good reviews are all fakes, that’s a giveaway. My all-time favorite Amazon review was from a guy who complained that his _Wizard of Oz_ DVD was pan-and-scan. He demanded that the film be released “in its original widescreen glory.” I’m guessing he was bombarded with derision and took the review down, because I haven’t been able to find that gem since. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/34 "2014-10-25T23:18:41Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > It’s actually a good confidence booster when the only complaints are idiotic or psychotic or both. This^. I check the negatives first as well, and if the bulk are dumb crap like this I ignore them and move on. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/35 "2014-10-25T23:57:00Z")
I needed something once on Amazon and found one I liked that shipped in 8-10 days so I ordered it. They charged my card immediately (I hate that practice but all the non Amazon stores that sell on Amazon now do that by listing the order as “shipped” immediately, even if the item in question isn’t even released yet, but I digress…) but the expected arrival date was suddenly almost a month away. Turned out it was shipping direct from China. I was angry because one of the reasons I picked the one I did was the quicker turn around time so I posted a negative review. They e-mailed me asking me to remove the review because they said the shipment would be within the estimated time. I thought that was very weird for them to contact me. I have posted negative reviews before and that never happened. It ended up arriving sooner than a month but more than the 10 days originally promised (took about 16 or 17 days). Still, I didn’t remove the review. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/36 "2014-10-26T00:22:40Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > My all-time favorite Amazon review was from a guy who complained that his _Wizard of Oz_ DVD was pan-and-scan. He demanded that the film be released “in its original widescreen glory.” I’m guessing he was bombarded with derision and took the review down, because I haven’t been able to find that gem since. I can’t remember what movie it was, but someone insisted that he had received the colorized version of a movie, and he wanted the original B&W. About 8 people replied, telling him the movie was originally in color, including one person who saw it in the theater when it was released-- and it was a pretty old movie. He insisted that he had seen it on TV years ago, in B&W, so it must be colorized now. Several people told him to look it up on IMDb, and one person even tried to explain the trademark restrictions that caused some color films to be shown on TV in B&W in the 60s and 70s, but he just said they must be a shill for the company. It was really hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/37 "2014-10-26T00:28:26Z")
BTW, who else hates getting requests for feedback? I get emails from people I bought stuff from saying “We hope you are satisfied. Please give us 5-star feedback.” Those people get NO feedback. Unless the item has not arrived. Then they get less than stellar (pun intended) feedback. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365/38 "2014-10-26T00:37:59Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > A couple of times, I got totally crap products from eBay, and posted “neutral” (not negative) reviews, saying that the seller should pay more attention to what they are selling (one was a videotape that was broken, and you could see if you lifted the guard that the tape wasn’t visible; I had to open the cover with a screwdriver and Scotch-tape it back together). Apparently neutral reviews on eBay are just as bad as negative ones, because I got a profanity-laden reply (which I reported) from the seller that I should have contacted him before I posted the review and given him a chance to correct the problem (why? because it’s easier to say “sorry” later than to ask permission first?) does he think I would have sent the tape back so he could have opened it up, taped it together, and mailed it back? Besides, I had no idea that neutral and negative reviews were essentially that same-- now, if I get bad service, but it’s not just sinfully awful, I don’t leave any review at all. The hostile response was wrong, but he’s right that you are supposed to contact the seller to give them a chance to make it right before giving a review. It’s one of the questions they ask you when you try to leave a review, and it’s in the help documents. The feedback is supposed to be the end of the transaction. And anything less than a 5 star positive review dings the seller’s reputation. eBay is pretty much the opposite of Amazon in this situation. You aren’t reviewing the product but the seller. Problems with the product are only problems if the seller won’t make it right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-take-my-amazon-review-down/702365.md?page=1)