Reviewing items from bought through Amazon....

I regularly buy from Amazon and usually rate and review items I have bought. Has anyone encountered a review being rejected?
I recently bought a Cheetah universal projector ceiling mount and was pretty satisfied with it and gave it 4 out of 5 stars overall and a generally favourable review. I did, however point out what I felt was either a QC or design flaw in that whilst it was robust and well made, one joint was a rivet type that had a small amount of play so even when all the adjustment bolts were fully tightened there was some movement. I also gave that as the sole reason for the 4 star review.
I got an email from Amazon quoting that I had breached community guidelines (which they sent a link to) and stating I could no longer submit any revised or otherwise review of that particular product.
For the life of me I cannot work out what guideline I have broken. It was a reasonable and objective review and contained no libelous statements or profanities. There seems no way to appeal or query as to why a particular review is rejected.

 

never had one rejected but I wouldn't pay much attention to the reviews on there at all to be honest. Lots of companies buy positive reviews to help boost them up the rankings on there, and many offer free gifts in return for positive comments. I myself bought a projector from Amazon last year, it was a really cheap model just to try out and had amazing ratings on the site. For the price I paid which was 50 quid I cannot argue that its a decent product and good value for money without being top class, but when I opened the package there was a slip saying if I left a positive review on amazon and emailed them evidence that I had done this that they would send me a free tripod for it. Of course I did cos who doesn't love a freebie but its all done to boost ratings.

Maybe it was rejected as you only gave it 4 stars not 5? and they maybe were a little annoyed at that.

 

Yes. I bought some bed shorts but when they arrived (nearly a month later than expected) they were in the wrong size and a different colour to what I paid for. I tried several times to contact the seller (not fulfilled by Amazon) and was ignored. I gave what I thought, and still think, was a very honest review but it was removed and I received an email telling me it breached their terms because it was critical of the seller and not just the item.

 

Seems to amount to unreasonable censorship to me. I would not mind so much if a) they allowed you to query why and not just get a vague 'guidelines broken' response and b) allowed you to submit a revised review. In my case they have done the seller a disservice as my review was favourable overall.

 

To be fair, you should have expected them not to fit when you bought bed shorts. The clue’s right in the name!

 

See Trust Pilot. They are buggers for it.

 

I have written some scathing reviews, including some on Amazon products and including edits. Not had any rejected thus far.
Eg one below.
5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 April 2019
Colour: Cool White, Pack of 4
Very bright but now dead
Put them in our kitchen to replace some fluorescent spiral GU10's which were very dim. Very impressed with how bright they are. Only downsides are 1) I have to clean the kitchen more often as you can see everything - no dingy corners for crud to hide. and 2) they are a bit clinical in their whiteness, fine for a kitchen , but not a cosy warm glow. Alsithee. Update. Failed after less than 10% of projected lifespan. Three failed together within days. Poor.

 

There was a channel 4 program about amazon recently and it highlighted the comments section as a huge issue

 

I am not sure whether people are being ironic or it is an army of bots, but you see lots of "best thing I have ever bought" when it's just a dust sheet or pack of screws that they are talking about.

 

I've always found it more useful to check the negative comments

 

I probably wouldn't have minded so much if they were close but I'm a 34 / 36 inch waist so I ordered large but was sent XXXL which on the charts are for a 48 inch waist. They were ridiculous. They were also a toxic orange / green stripe and I ordered black.

 

Ah, I thought you meant to write bed sheets! That description is quite hilarious!

 

Don't wear those colours. If a snake gets in the bed, you'll never see it.

 

Exactly, that was the first thing that concerned me when I opened the bag that they were in. You can imagine how quickly my excitement turned to disappointment. One has to take snake safety very seriously.

 

I wondered what the hell you were on about!! Haha

 

Only problem with that is that people will whinge for the sake of it. Tripadvisor for example- how many "terrible" reviews for a hotel say stuff like "it rained all the time" or "my husband Barry couldn't get chips and egg at 3 in the morning. Disgrace!"

 

That’s why they are useful though. I read a few good ones as they often have tips for nice nearby restaurants etc. and then I read a load of bad ones and decide how much depended on the exact situation at the time (e.g. other guests, weather etc.) and how much I would care about whatever it is (e.g. on-site bar was expensive - I would ignore as I wouldn’t be using it).

 

Yeah that's a good point.

I think the danger can be sometimes though that you can be put off any hotel by reading some negative reviews. Quite often it can be apparent afterwards that it is the reviewer that had the attitude problem or was being unreasonable. I tend to look at both like yourself and then see if the negative ones are consistently bringing up the same things. If they aren't I then assume it was just a one-off or the reviewer was a knob

 

Agreed to a certain extent but if you were to buy say a raincoat and there were a hundred reviews saying it was excellent and ten saying it was as waterproof as a sieve would you buy it

 

When it comes to hotels, whilst I will read through some of the negative ones to see if there any patterns that consistently crop up that would concern or affect me, I generally look at the ratio of 5 stars to 3 or below. If as many people rank it as average as there are people who rank it excellent then I give it a swerve.

Re: Amazon ones, the best ones are the people who unfairly affect a products ranking for reasons not associated with the product because they are too thick to understand how the review process is supposed to work.

Eg. 1/5 - postman left it in plant pot - not impressed.