How to fight back against unfair feedback on Amazon

By Sharon Fussell, April 13, 2012

Following on from last week’s ezine and the subject of refunds, I am going to discuss feedback ratings and the problem of, what may be perceived to be, unfair feedback comments. In fact, this topic is one we could potentially discuss forever and a day.

Your reaction to the receipt of bad feedback could be viewed as totally disproportionate to the actual act, but it’s crazy how annoyed it can leave you – fuming in some cases! If it is totally unfair you may feel like giving the customer a good dressing down so to speak (via email of course).
Amazon, as you probably know, only removes certain feedback comments, such as where:

• A buyer has been abusive
• Has left a review of the item

But in most cases this type of comment is rare.

The reality of feedback on Amazon

In nearly all cases, as I said last week, bad feedback is down to unrealistic buyer expectations. Amazon itself admits that around 1% of buyers do have unrealistic expectations of the product they are buying (which begs the question ‘why can they not remove comments that are blatantly wrong?’)

For example if you list an item as ‘used good’ and a buyer gives you bad feedback claiming you described the product as ‘new’ or ‘like new’ the buyer s error (intentional or not) could easily be proved, however, Amazon – for reasons unknown – remain reluctant to remove the comment.

You can always try and reduce the possibility of complaints as we have discussed in past ezines, e.g. by making sure to always describe items honestly and realistically. Of course for this to work you do depend on buyers reading the comment, it’s when they don’t you end up with bad feedback.

One way around this was suggested by Ian, one of my readers, in a recent email; Ian recommends that when you print off the packing slip relating to your order that you always ensure the description comments are included. This way at least the buyer can see retrospectively how the item was described. As Ian states ‘many buyers forget descriptions’, therefore making sure you send items with your comments printed on the packing slip should remind buyers and perhaps prevent them from being cross if an item arrives with defects they had forgotten about since buying it.

As said before, if you are unhappy with any feedback ratings then do contact the buyers.

Amazon have now made this easier to do (so they say):

“New Option for Contacting Buyers about Feedback

6 Apr 2012

If you receive negative buyer feedback, it is important to quickly determine the cause of the problem and work toward resolving it. To help you, we’ve added a “Resolve” feedback button to Feedback Manager that allows you to email a buyer directly and begin resolving any problems with an order.”

So try going to your feedback manager from your seller account and see how you get on.

If all else fails try sending a letter via normal post…

The following templates were kindly sent in by Robin, who is happy for you to copy them.

One template is for merchant sellers and one for FBA sellers. Fill in the blanks accordingly.

MERCHANT SELLERS

Dear ……

I write to you to thank you for your feedback which you left on our account recently.

I have noticed that you have left a rating of … This is a rating that is normally reserved for cases where there has been a problem with either ‘product condition’, i.e. the product not being in the condition to which it was described, or in a case where there was a major delivery problem. It is also normally reserved for sellers who do not communicate with their buyers properly or who in some cases ignore customer emails regarding a problem with any of the above.

We on the other hand do not normally have any problems with the above and have consistently serviced our customers to the very best of our ability for the last … years without too many problems.

I wonder if I could respectfully ask you if you would change your given rating to a ‘4’ as the ‘3’ you have left has had a devastating effect on our feedback score which would take approx 9 months to recover from. I and my team play close attention to the needs of our customers and react extremely quickly to any problems that could arise from time to time.

We are proud of our business and think that if all is fine with a seller’s product and performance then a rating of ‘4’ or even ‘5’ is what they should normally receive.

I shall leave it in your hands to decide whether our performance in your case deserves the ‘4’ rating I am asking for.

Yours Sincerely

……………………

FBA SELLERS

Dear ………….

I write to you to thank you for your feedback which you left on our account recently.

I have noticed that you have left a rating of … This is a rating that is normally reserved for cases where there has been a problem with either ‘product condition’, i.e. the product not being in the condition to which it was described, or in a case where there was a major delivery problem. It is also normally reserved for sellers who do not communicate with their buyers properly or who in some cases ignore customer emails regarding a problem with any of the above.

We on the other hand do not normally have any problems with the above and have consistently serviced our customers to the very best of our ability for the last … years without to many problems.

The book you purchased from us was dispatched via the Amazon ‘FBA’ system, (fulfilled by Amazon), this means that Amazon sent you the book on our behalf from either their Milton Keynes or Peterborough warehouses. With this in mind there should not have been any problems of the kind I have mentioned above. And I am assuming that the book was also in the condition that we described in our original listing.

I wonder if I could respectfully ask you if you would change your given rating to a ‘4’ as the ‘3’ you have left has had a devastating effect on our feedback score which would take approx 9 months to recover from. I and my team play close attention to the needs of our customers and react extremely quickly to any problems that could arise from time to time.

We are proud of our business and think that if all is fine with a seller’s product and performance then a rating of ‘4’ or even ‘5’ is what they should normally receive.

I shall leave it in your hands to decide whether our performance in your case deserves the ‘4’ rating I am asking for.

Yours Sincerely

………….