Performance Notification - detected suspicious customer review activity

#1

Dear Members,

We received 2 notification’s today with regards to ‘Suspecious customer review activity’. The notification does mention ’ no impact on account health’. I am concernd on the nature of the notification and need help to understand the implications of the notification. ( 1 of the Notification pasted below).
The notification does not appear on my account health ’ [Customer Product Reviews Policy Violations]’

I have spoken to seller support (via Call me feature), however the advisor advised to reply to the email asking for more clarification. The explanation given was generic and speific to my notication.

  1. Does this imply I have violated ‘Customer product reviews policies’ - I do not use any TP software for revieIw , any other s/w and manage my a/c myself to no staff access.
  2. Is this is a generic message about the listing.
  3. I do not send any messages to customers for feedback and all my sales are via FBA.

Has anyone receievd a similar notifcation, what is the best was to deal with the notifcation ?

Kind Regards,
GT-UK

Hello ***

We have detected suspicious customer review activity on one or more of the products that you sell in our store. Due to this activity, we are reducing the discoverability of the affected products in search results and promotional channels in order to protect our customers from inauthentic reviews that might influence their purchase decisions. This will not impact your account health. For more information on this policy, visit “Customer product reviews policies”:
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/help.html?itemID=YRKB5RU3FS5TURN

Why did I receive this message?
We are sending this communication to inform you of suspicious activity and the actions we are taking as these actions may impact your business. We are reducing discoverability in search results and promotional channels for the following products:
{B07R934TS5}

Amazon policy prohibits activities such as:
– Offering a financial reward, discount, free products, or other compensation in exchange for a review on their product or their competitor’s product. This includes using services that sell customer reviews, websites, or social media groups.
– Offering to provide a refund or reimbursement after a buyer writes a review, which includes reimbursement, via a non-Amazon payment method. This includes using services, websites, or social media groups that sell customer reviews.
– Using a third-party service that offers free or discounted products tied to a review. For example, a review club that requires customers to register their Amazon public profile so that sellers can monitor their reviews.

Amazon strives to maintain customer trust and provide the best possible shopping experience. We investigate and take actions when we detect any attempts to manipulate customer reviews. For more information, visit “Customer product reviews policies”:
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/help.html?itemID=YRKB5RU3FS5TURN

What happens next?
We will continue to reduce discoverability on the products listed in search results and promotional channels until we identify and remove reviews and reverse any unfair advantage accrued to the products driven by such reviews, to the extent feasible. During this period, customers will still be able to find and purchase your products.

We are here to help.
If you have any questions or if you believe we have made an error, please reply to this email.

#2

It looks like they’re carrying out some sort of investigation (maybe scouring social media groups, etc):

Perhaps the idea is that you check all your reviews yourself, just in case an employee or a family member etc has left a review without your knowledge. This would explain why it’s not yet appeared on your Account Health.

Technically, it would seem to.

I believe it refers to the whole account, although obviously any reviews will be on specific listings.

But that doesn’t stop your auntie buying one of your products and leaving a glowing review as “Amazon Customer”. The point is, this can happen without the seller’s knowledge.

#3

It’s also a shared listing so might not necessarily be you, do you use commingling on it or barcode yourself?

#4

Thanks for the feedback.

The products in question are Branded products and are not owned by me. I am a re-seller.

Thanks

#5

Good point, Caroline.

#6

We just barcode it with FNSKU, all my sales are via FBA.

thanks

#7

Can I ignore if I have not vilated any policies?

Thanks

#8

You can… But whether that would be wise is another matter.

After all, if it was indeed your auntie who left a glowing review for you (it’s just an example, not a real suggestion) and she did it again and again, you might end up with no account.

Perhaps this calls for your own internal investigation, just in case you can spot whatever it is that Amazon believe they’ve seen.

#9

Looking at the recent reviews I would say the last two are strange and suggests that someone on the listing may not be selling an authentic version of this product or the reviews are from a competitor

There are not many recent reviews on the product recently so not sure where Amazon are coming from.

I would say provided you are selling the authentic version of this product and have invoices to prove this and you have not tried to procure reviews from people or placed any review yourself then you have nothing to worry about.

There is no violation on the listing so you have not been accused of doing anything so I think you are good to carry on selling the item. Sales might drop though if people can’t find it easily.

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#10

The products have been sourced by the Brand Owner directly, so I dont see an issue with the supply chain.

I will for sure keep an eye on the reviews.

Thanks

#11

Part of our store name has the WORD ‘GREAT’, not sure if this is causing Amazon /BOLTS picking up the reviews linked to my STORE.

I have now as a precautionary step renamed my Store Name.

thanks

#12

“With Amazon, nothing is impossible.”

#13

I received the same email a couple of weeks ago, I went and looked at the feedback, there was nothing I could see that would warrant an investigation, it was a Christmas card? No family or friend has purchased this card, there was only 3 feedback comments and all were OK? Then a couple of days later a couple sold so I have just left it alone!

#14

WOW! coming from Amazon! ‘Unfair advantage!’
The amount of sellers over the years we have had to report for blatantly breaching rules to ‘gain an advantage’ and they have done nothing! zero! zilch!

The biggest offending rule breach has to be images as this is what draws the buyer attention.
Hope the OP gets this sorted out though.

#15

We had exactly the same email regarding a snakes and ladders board game yesterday, no idea what’s going on, I never leave reviews or give feedback etc.

#16

Hello @G2T-UK,

Thank you for reaching out.

We understand that you have received notification regarding suspicious customer review activity on one or more of the products that you sell in our store.

We strongly urge you to thoroughly review Amazon Customer Reviews policies and immediately correct any violating actions. It is important that you educate your business partners, employees, and any third-party partners you work with about these policies as well. Any infractions by your business partners, employees, or third party agencies will result in enforcement actions, even if it happened without your knowledge or consent.

Violations to Customer Reviews policies include, but are not limited to, these actions:
• A seller posts a review of their own product or their competitor’s product.
• A seller offers a third party a financial reward, discount, free products, or other compensation in exchange for a review on their product or their competitor’s product. This includes using services that sell customer reviews, websites, or social media groups.
• A seller offers to provide a refund or reimbursement after the buyer writes a review (including reimbursement via a non-Amazon payment method), and asks the buyer to change or remove the review, before or after the refund or reimbursement. This could be done via buyer-seller messaging on Amazon or directly contacting customers or using 3rd party services, websites, or social media groups.
• A seller uses a third-party service that offers free or discounted products tied to a review (for example, a review club that requires customers to register their Amazon public profile so that sellers can monitor their reviews).
• A family member or employee of the seller posts a review of the seller’s product or a competitor’s product.
• A seller asks a reviewer to change or remove their review. They might also offer a refund or other compensation to a reviewer in exchange for doing so.
• A seller diverts negative reviews to be sent to them or to a different feedback mechanism while positive reviews are sent to Amazon.
• A seller creates a variation relationship between products with the aim of manipulating reviews and boosting a product’s star rating via review aggregation.
• A seller inserts a request for a positive Amazon review or an incentive in exchange for a review into product packaging or shipping box.
• A seller uses a customer account to write or change a review on his or his competitor’s product.

Kindly post in the same thread if you need more assistance we’d be more than happy to assist you.

Regards
Zain

#17

Have you noticed an impact on your product discoverability?