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How to Remove Negative Seller Feedback on Amazon.com

If you already know why negative feedback on Amazon is bad, then please skip ahead. And if you don’t, keep reading. Receiving negative feedback can hurt your chances of winning the buy box, which decreases sales, and can put your seller account at risk of being suspended or worse, banned.

Removing negative feedback is easy if the buyer’s order was Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA). If all of your product listings are FBA then this is going to be a walk in the park because Amazon is responsible for the handling, delivery, and customer service for the buyer’s order.

Before we get started, please note removing negative feedback using the case management platform is no longer available. There are a lot of outdated guides stating you can remove negative seller feedback using that method, but Amazon will actually redirect you to the feedback page (see image below).

Also, Amazon has become less lenient. The following situations are now the Seller’s responsibility even if fulfilled by Amazon:

  1. If the product or a portion of the product is missing from the packaging
  2. If the product delivered is not what the customer orderedThere’s an exception to this. You’ll need a photo of the manufacturer or Amazon product barcode label to use as leverage to prove to Amazon you properly labeled the product and/or Amazon fulfilled the incorrect product.
  3. If the product is broken, but the packaging isn’t damaged
  4. If the customer complains about having difficulty contacting the seller
  5. If the customer complains about your customer service

Let us begin!

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) Orders

  1. Log in to your Seller account
  2. Hover your cursor over Performance
  3. Click Feedback from the dropdown menu
  4. Scroll down to Recent Feedback and select Neutral or Negative
  5. Identify the neutral or negative feedback you want to remove (please note feedback older than 90 days is not eligible for removal)
  6. Click the down arrow next to “Choose one” located in the Actions column
  7. Click Request removal
  8. Click Yes after confirming the negative feedback meets one of their removal requirements

You’ll then get either one of the three messages below.

(1) “We have reviewed this feedback and found it does not comply with our policies, so we have struck-it through. View case

When refreshed it will then say, Message from Amazon: “This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfillment experience.”

OR

(2) “We have received your removal request and will reply soon. View case

OR

(3) “We have reviewed this feedback and found that it is not in violation of our guidelines and has been retained. To request further review of this decision, re-open the case in Case Log. View case

In most instances, the feedback will automatically get removed, but sometimes Amazon Seller Support will need to review the feedback. Most likely you’ll hear back from Amazon within 24-48 hours saying, they’ve removed the feedback. But in the rare situation where they don’t and it clearly is 100% in violation of their policies, simply reply politely in the case created when you submitted the removal request and remind them of the policies. Amazon Seller Support isn’t perfect and human errors can occur.

Here are the steps for when Amazon doesn’t automatically remove seller feedback that is in violation of Amazon’s feedback policies:

  1. Click View case in the automated message
  2. Click the Get Help button
  3. Select “I need more help with this issue.
  4. Enter your polite objection to their decision to not remove the seller feedback into the text boxMake sure to include why their automated decision is wrong. Citing Amazon’s feedback policies will increase the chances of the negative or neutral feedback being removed.
  5. Click the Send button

When your product listings are FBA, Amazon takes full responsibility for the item(s) ordered. And because Amazon doesn’t allow product-oriented negative feedback, it makes it almost impossible to get negative or neutral feedback except for when the product shipped is faulty or you fail to provide good customer service when the buyer contacts you. While you are grooming through the seller feedback it would be beneficial to contact customers who left positive product-oriented feedback and notify them they didn’t leave a product review. This is a great way to potentially get more product reviews.

If a buyer complains about having difficulty contacting you and/or receiving bad customer service when they did contact you, then this would be enough cause for the negative feedback to be warranted and not removed. That is why it is important to check and respond to all customer messages via the Messages dashboard in your Seller account on a daily basis.

Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) Orders

When orders are FBM your chances of removing negative feedback are in most cases slim to none. Since the product(s) are fulfilled by you it’s your responsibility for the handling, delivery, and customer service.

The following types of feedback can’t be removed:

  1. The feedback states the product(s) were not delivered on time
  2. The feedback states the wrong product(s) were delivered
  3. The feedback states they received bad customer service

The following types of feedback can be removed:

  1. The feedback includes obscene language.
  2. The feedback includes seller-specific personally identifiable information.
  3. The entire feedback comment is a product review.

On Amazon’s help page in the Manage Customer Feedback section, it says, “We strongly suggest that you work with buyers to resolve negative feedback. As a general rule, Amazon does not remove buyer feedback even if it is unwarranted or the issue has been resolved.

Naturally, when the feedback is true it’s best practice to do your best to resolve the issue. Once resolved don’t be shy to request the buyer to update or remove the feedback.

You can send them a message like this,

Dear [Customer Name],

Thank you for your patience and for allowing us the opportunity to resolve the issue with your recent order for [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]

Here’s how you can contact the buyer privately:

  1. Hover your cursor over Performance
  2. Click Feedback
  3. Click the Order ID # (i.e. 123-4567891-2345678) of the buyer you wish to contact
  4. Click the buyer’s name located in the Ship to box
  5. Select the contact reason
  6. Select Subject
  7. Type your message
  8. Review message
  9. Click Send

If the feedback is 100% against Amazon’s seller feedback policy and you’ve submitted a removal request, followed up on the case manually, and contacted the customer to remove the feedback, then there is one last step to take.

  1. Go to your Seller Central account dashboard
  2. Hover your cursor over Performance
  3. Click Feedback
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the web page
  5. Click the small greenish-blue tab labeled Feedback
    feedback tab on Amazon feedback Seller Central web page
  6. Select an emoticon, subject, and enter the issue with the Order ID and Case ID numbers
    negative seller feedback rate page tab
  7. Click Submit

At this point, all you can do is wait and hope Amazon’s feedback department recognizes their mistake and removes the negative or neutral feedback.

Now that we have all the steps out of the way lets talk about how to manage this. On a weekly basis, you should remove all neutral and negative feedback. Keeping your seller account healthy is important. Nobody likes to see fellow customers having issues. Even if you are a large high volume seller, implementing this small task is important to maximize your efforts on Amazon.

Lastly, if you are FBM you should seriously consider converting to FBA. Being FBM doesn’t just put your seller account at risk, it also hurts organic rankings and sales.

Good luck and happy selling!

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