How to Remove Negative Feedback on Amazon
Getting negative feedback on your Amazon seller account can impact your sales, profits and Buy Box percentage.
If you sell on Amazon, sooner or later you’ll find yourself with a negative review. In life or eCommerce, it’s never pleasant to be on the receiving end of negative feedback.
Amazon sellers need to know how to remove negative feedback.
Amazon calculates your average feedback rating based on the feedback received over the last 12 months. If you have a feedback rating of over 95% (ideally over 98%), you’ll improve your chances of getting a share of the elusive Buy Box. If you have a feedback rating of less than 90%, then you may want to review your selling practices. Removing negative feedback helps your account.
All sellers should have a formal process for collecting and managing feedback—whether they do this manually or use an automated feedback tool.
Removing Negative Feedback
The basics of how to remove negative feedback on Amazon is below.
First, not all negative feedback can be removed. Amazon will remove feedback where the reviewer has used “obscene language” or included “personally identifiable information”. Transaction feed that contains an Amazon product review can also be removed easily from your feedback profile, as according to Amazon guidelines, these should be added to the product review section.
Finally, Amazon will update feedback if the comment is solely about “fulfillment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon”.
For example, if an order was delivered late or got lost in transit, a line will appear through the rating and the statement,
“This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfillment experience”.
Amazon states that transaction feedback left by the buyer should only be about the services provided by the seller. If you think you may have received negative feedback which contains a product review, then it’s up to you to alert Amazon. And it’s not just negative feedback who might want to ask for removal — neutral feedback can also affect your seller metrics and feedback rating. Having just a few negative or neutral comments removed can really help to give your feedback rating and sales a boost.
There are two ways of removing negative feedback on Amazon:
1. Contacting Amazon to Remove Feedback
Visit Seller Central and open a new support case.
Select Account Settings > Orders > Customer feedback problems.
Comment that the feedback received is a product review and give some details but keep it concise, then send the message.
I’ve received a comment from [buyer’s name] on [order number] and feel it is more suited to the product reviews section. Can you remove this from my feedback profile?
Here is the comment in question, [insert comment].
If you’re successful, you’ll get a response from Amazon which looks something like this:
Only feedback that is solely related to a product received is eligible for removal. This is the case as long as the buyer did not leave a negative rating for “Arrived on Time”, “Item as Described” or “Customer Service”. If the reviewer leaves feedback for the product and the service then this won’t be eligible for removal.
2. Contacting a Customer to Remove Feedback
Buyers themselves can also remove negative feedback retrospectively. However, you need to abide by Amazon’s rules when asking buyers to remove a negative comment. This means you can’t offer them a full refund in exchange for them removing their comment. If you do this, you run the risk of Amazon suspending your account.
You can contact the buyer and attempt to resolve the problem they encountered. If an order arrived late, you can apologize and offer a partial refund or a full refund for any shipping charges. If you hear back from the customer, you can politely ask them to remove the negative feedback. However, you can’t connect the refund to the feedback removal.
Sellers shouldn’t pressure buyers into removing feedback. Feedback manipulation, harassment and quid pro-quo agreements are all violations of Amazon’s policies. If the feedback doesn’t break Amazon’s rules and if you do not hear back from a buyer after a reasonable period of time, then you may want to consider responding to the negative comment.
You can apologize for not meeting their exceptions on this occasion and explain anything you are doing to stop it from happening again in the future.
An example message may look like this:
Dear John,
We hope we met your expectations on your recent order of [product name]. If you feel we have adequately addressed any concerns you may have had, then we kindly ask you to consider removing the negative feedback.
[insert link]Thanks, [Amazon Seller Name]
Buyers have 90 days from their purchase date to leave feedback. Feedback must be removed by Amazon or the buyer within 60 days of the date feedback is posted. After this period, feedback can no longer be removed.
You can find your current feedback rating in the “Manage your Rating and Feedback” within Reports.
Negative Feedback on Amazon – Conclusion:
There are some things you can do as a seller to protect your 100% feedback rating. You should always provide accurate product descriptions in your listings. Ensure you ship your items on time, if you are an FBA seller, you do not need to worry about this. If you receive a message from a buyer, you should aim to respond to it within 24 hours.
But if you do get a negative review, ensure you follow the advice above and act quickly to get it removed. Receiving negative feedback doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. It could be an opportunity for you to improve an area of your business that you could do better in and provide a better customer experience.
Guest Blog by Chris Dunne from FeedbackExpress. As an Amazon Sellers’ Lawyer reader, you can start improving your Amazon seller feedback rating today. By using the promo code “FEX10”, you can enjoy 30 days of Amazon feedback software (up to 10,000 messages) for free (no credit card required), then get a 10% discount on your first month’s subscription. Learn more.. A version of this blog originally appeared on FeedbackExpress.