Anyone else banned from leaving Amazon Reviews?

[Phil77354]

.... If i’ve been banned from reviewing,why does amazon pass along these requests for me to review by vendors? ....

.... So even though I’ve been cleared - I haven’t been and even though I receive weekly requests from vendors to review a product Ive purchased - I can’t help them because I can no longer review anyones product on amazon.....

Well, you are misunderstanding one thing, at least.

Requests from vendors to you requesting review of their products are not resulting from any Amazon action. They are a result of vendors obtaining your e-mail address either because you have posted it on your Amazon profile, or because at some point in the past you had some interaction with one or more vendors that resulted in your name getting picked up and put on a list of Amazon reviewers.

Amazon does not provide e-mail addresses of reviewers to vendors. Period.

If you were re-instated once, and you've done nothing wrong, then you can go through the same process you have already learned to follow and you will have your reviewing capabilities restored again.

It is an imperfect process but if you have posted 5000 reviews on Amazon then you should have a pretty good understanding of the history of how this has all evolved, and have learned by now how to deal with it.

And why do you say 'I can't help them' if you have never received a request from a vendor and then posted a review to their product? These days vendors offer to reimburse reviewers for the cost of purchasing a product after the review is posted. Presumably in an effort to avoid detection by Amazon. You are suggesting that you get an e-mail from a vendor and then decide to purchase their product and post a review without anything in return? Well, good for you if that is what you're doing, but you can be sure that it raises lots of red flags to Amazon.

If you want to be a reviewer in good standing on Amazon then my suggestion is that you ignore vendor requests for review and simply go about your normal life and review the things you buy for yourself, not things that are promoted to you for the purpose of soliciting reviews.

 

[Tuffcookie]

This has recently happened to me. Even though Amazon told me in an email, that my ability to write reviews was reinstated and all the reviews I had written prior to the suspension would also be reinstated, nothing is happening! I am able to send a review now, for approval, but I never get an email from Amazon, stating my review has now posted. I have called Amazon customer support every other day, only to be told they will send my complaint to another department so it can be fixed. It is obvious, no one at Amazon knows how to fix this. So, rather than waste any more of my time, I will resign from trying to leave any more product reviews.

 

[GlenK]

Never happened to me but I must admit I'm glad to see they are monitoring this. Some of the reviews are ridiculous and wondered if anyone ever paid attention to it!!!

 

[Sian Kwong]

I don’t understand. I never receive any free products or know any sellers personally or leave fake reviews and I still get banned. I have a feeling it’s because I’ve posted two reviews in one day and somehow the system flags it, but the community email address they provide is absolutely garbage since they never respond. Browsing online, it looks like I’m not the only one with this issue and it’s happened to tons of people but - if this has happened to any of you here have you had any luck appealing or getting your review status back?

I would love to leave Amazon but it provides convenience and I can get a lot of the products I need cheaper than what I would find elsewhere.


On the bright side.. at least I guess I can just buy what I need and not worry about reviewing anymore. *shrug* I know how much reviews help me determine to buy a product and want to do the same for others but I guess not..

I had been blocked two days before.
I did appeal. But they rejected my appeal and upheld the original sentence.
I haven't done anything violation. Never received any benefits. They punish me for this. This is very unfair to me. 😭😭

 

[TriumphGuy]

Ok, I admit it, I did it. I was compensated for doing reviews. And I got banned. And I called the Amazon Community Police a bunch of Nazis, because I'm a grumpy old man. (Yes, there really are Amazon Community Police) I got banned, but the sellers, who still to this day, ask me to review their products, never did apparently. Ok, guilty. But does that deserve being banned forever? I think this is pretty harsh. I have not, nor will I (until they lift my sentence, if ever) renew Amazon Prime. So what do you think, should people be banned FOREVER for breaking the rules, and why not ban the sellers as well? How about a class action lawsuit? Thoughts? It irritates the crap out of me that I can't ask questions about products I am interested in. I don't really care about the review part.

 

[HDFan]

I think we all know a lot of Amazon reviews are fake.

There are tools which can help you evaluate product reviews:

ReviewMeta.com - Amazon Review Checker

reviewmeta.com

 

[John2022]

Well, you are misunderstanding one thing, at least.

Requests from vendors to you requesting review of their products are not resulting from any Amazon action. They are a result of vendors obtaining your e-mail address either because you have posted it on your Amazon profile, or because at some point in the past you had some interaction with one or more vendors that resulted in your name getting picked up and put on a list of Amazon reviewers.

Amazon does not provide e-mail addresses of reviewers to vendors. Period.

If you were re-instated once, and you've done nothing wrong, then you can go through the same process you have already learned to follow and you will have your reviewing capabilities restored again.

It is an imperfect process but if you have posted 5000 reviews on Amazon then you should have a pretty good understanding of the history of how this has all evolved, and have learned by now how to deal with it.

And why do you say 'I can't help them' if you have never received a request from a vendor and then posted a review to their product? These days vendors offer to reimburse reviewers for the cost of purchasing a product after the review is posted. Presumably in an effort to avoid detection by Amazon. You are suggesting that you get an e-mail from a vendor and then decide to purchase their product and post a review without anything in return? Well, good for you if that is what you're doing, but you can be sure that it raises lots of red flags to Amazon.

If you want to be a reviewer in good standing on Amazon then my suggestion is that you ignore vendor requests for review and simply go about your normal life and review the things you buy for yourself, not things that are promoted to you for the purpose of soliciting reviews.

I have been an excellent reviewer for years 50,000 points. Yet they banned me and deleted all my reviews.
The problem is they do not want a candid review which reads negative. My past six reviews were about the fit of brand name shoes which I had to send back three times. If it sounds negative, out you go. Makes no difference if you have reviewed 50000 times in the past 20 years. The quality of products is not what it was 5 years back.

 

[John2022]

Ok, I admit it, I did it. I was compensated for doing reviews. And I got banned. And I called the Amazon Community Police a bunch of Nazis, because I'm a grumpy old man. (Yes, there really are Amazon Community Police) I got banned, but the sellers, who still to this day, ask me to review their products, never did apparently. Ok, guilty. But does that deserve being banned forever? I think this is pretty harsh. I have not, nor will I (until they lift my sentence, if ever) renew Amazon Prime. So what do you think, should people be banned FOREVER for breaking the rules, and why not ban the sellers as well? How about a class action lawsuit? Thoughts? It irritates the crap out of me that I can't ask questions about products I am interested in. I don't really care about the review part.

The amazon community is a computer program. It is not human, it will be impossible to view thousands of reviews.
I got banned after 20 years, I don't really care. My goal was to help other buyers. The quality of products is cheap. Negative reviews gets you banned. Good for me.

 

[Nhwhazup]

I have been an excellent reviewer for years 50,000 points. Yet they banned me and deleted all my reviews.
The problem is they do not want a candid review which reads negative. My past six reviews were about the fit of brand name shoes which I had to send back three times. If it sounds negative, out you go. Makes no difference if you have reviewed 50000 times in the past 20 years. The quality of products is not what it was 5 years back.

I agree with you there about them not wanting bad reviews. I wrote one with a 1 star rating and they wouldn’t post it. So I changed it to a 2 star with the same wording and it was posted.

 

[John2022]

I agree with you there about them not wanting bad reviews. I wrote one with a 1 star rating and they wouldn’t post it. So I changed it to a 2 star with the same wording and it was posted.

My recent 6 negative reviews on a brand name sneakers got me banned. I had to order 3 times, spent time and gas money taking the shoes to UPS, how can I write a good review ? Personally it saves me time in not writing reviews. Consider yourself lucky

 

[John2022]

What good does the fake 5 Star reviews mean to a buyer ?
If Amazon does not want genuine reviews they should cancel the review process.
It is misleading, waste of time and a con game.
If I keep sending items back for poor quality, incorrect fit etc, that will be grounds for getting banned from purchases.
It is a joke and a bad one at that.

 

[John2022]

This has recently happened to me. Even though Amazon told me in an email, that my ability to write reviews was reinstated and all the reviews I had written prior to the suspension would also be reinstated, nothing is happening! I am able to send a review now, for approval, but I never get an email from Amazon, stating my review has now posted. I have called Amazon customer support every other day, only to be told they will send my complaint to another department so it can be fixed. It is obvious, no one at Amazon knows how to fix this. So, rather than waste any more of my time, I will resign from trying to leave any more product reviews.

Amazon is too big to fix their own problems. They want all 5 star reviews to promote bad products.
God forbid you write a 1 or 2 star review. Banned !! Sad and a bad joke.

 

[TriumphGuy]

The amazon community is a computer program. It is not human, it will be impossible to view thousands of reviews.
I got banned after 20 years, I don't really care. My goal was to help other buyers. The quality of products is cheap. Negative reviews gets you banned. Good for me.

You can say they are a computer program all you like, but I got an email response saying they had reviewed my case and they were not going to change their minds. Does that sound like a computer program talking?

 

[John2022]

You can say they are a computer program all you like, but I got an email response saying they had reviewed my case and they were not going to change their minds. Does that sound like a computer program talking?

Yes it is a computer bot. Receiving a negative response via email does not validate that Amazon has a staff just to respond to emails. You are out of touch with technology.

 

[TriumphGuy]

Yes it is a computer bot. Receiving a negative response via email does not validate that Amazon has a staff just to respond to emails. You are out of touch with technology.

"You are out of touch with technology" You say it like it's a bad thing.

 

[Elsalovesice]

Whoa… I didn’t expect to receive a response this quickly, but lets see if it’s true since it seems to be automated.

View attachment 1955456

ETA: Yep, looks like my reviewing capabilities are back! Going to not review anything again at this point.. ?

Although it seems quite late, may I ask the email address you contacted?

 

[okiebirdnerd]

I was banned over 15 years ago because I was badgered by the sellers to write a review so I gave 5 stars to the last 5 or 6 products and all I wrote was "it was perfect and just what I wanted." I wrote the same sentence on five reviews and I was banned for life. Hell, if I murdered someone, I'd get out in 15 years! I don't think I did anything wrong and feel like I have been wrongly accused. I didn't personally know the seller and I was very pleased with what I bought. I really don't care about writing a review, but I do miss being able to ask a question for other buyers. A good example was when I purchased a 5,000.00 lens. I wanted to ask what camera body people had. I ended up having to go to B&H Photo and read all their reviews.
Anyway, Can someone please tell me what email address you were able to write to and get a response back. I have never had any luck. Thank you for your time.
I also feel it is unfair for people to give less stars because they didn't receive it in two days. They shouldn't be able to take off more than 1 star for slow shipping. Ebay fixed that years ago. People wear only giving 1 star if it took to long to receive their item. That just isn't right.
As far as Amazon goes, I haven't received anything in two days in almost two years. Matter of fact, I ordered a pan (TUE) that said I would receive it tomorrow (FRI) and when I checked just now to see if it shipped, it says I won't receive it until the 28th. and as of today Thur it hasn't shipped yet. Prime is a rip off!

 

[WeatherWeasel]

Change your password and request 2 factor authorization. seems like someone knows you too well and not a fan.

 

[okiebirdnerd]

Change your password and request 2 factor authorization. seems like someone knows you too well and not a fan.

I'm not sure who you were directing your answer to. I have not been able to post for over 15 years and doubt I did more than 20 total before I was banned. I never gave a bad review; I just returned the things that weren't to my expectation. As long as I get my money back, I'm a happy camper and see no reason to complain.

 

[Phil77354]

Regarding the question as to who you may contact at Amazon to appeal your situation, I can offer a couple of suggestions.

First is to address your e-mail to Jeff at Amazon dot com. This will be received by Amazon's customer relations team and they should direct it to the appropriate group for response.

In writing the e-mail I recommend putting a clear statement into the subject line of the e-mail, something along the lines of "Your Attention is Requested Please - A Mistake Has Been Made Regarding my Reviewing".

And be very polite and straightforward in your e-mail, give them the benefit of the doubt in making an honest mistake and you are requesting that they correct it.

Another e-mail address that may be useful is community-help at amazon dot com, to make the same request.

 

[WeatherWeasel]

I'm not sure who you were directing your answer to. I have not been able to post for over 15 years and doubt I did more than 20 total before I was banned. I never gave a bad review; I just returned the things that weren't to my expectation. As long as I get my money back, I'm a happy camper and see no reason to complain.

I thought it was to the person who started the thread. I have posted often and had no issue.

 

[satcomer]

I thought only verified purchased reviews (already bought the product) to review the product! No more questioning of products, just verified customers of the product!

 

[Phil77354]

I thought only verified purchased reviews (already bought the product) to review the product! No more questioning of products, just verified customers of the product!

No, it's not a requirement. And anyway it doesn't prevent sellers from arranging to reimburse someone for their purchase price if they post a good review.

 

[satcomer]

No, it's not a requirement. And anyway it doesn't prevent sellers from arranging to reimburse someone for their purchase price if they post a good review.

Then I will never buy on reviews ever again!

 

[Phil77354]

If you are familiar with Amazon then you know that a review from someone who did purchase the product is so identified. And you can filter the reviews to only display those from verified purchasers.