Vine reviews are apparently a scam

So we recently launched on Amazon back in June, and decided to enroll our products into the Vine programme to gain some traction. we started off with five units each, and enrolled 3 ASINs into the scheme on June 17th. Once concluded we are expecting a total of 15 reviews.

It is now effectively a month later, and we are still waiting on 6 of the reviews. I had suspicions initially because the orders were all sent out within a week to 2 weeks max and of course all the units are claimed, but most of the reviews are still not there. I started a chat with Seller Support to find out what the deadline is, and when we can expect to receive all the reviews by. I opted for the live chat as this is a quick fix sort of issue.
Please see below for a screenshot of the very short conversation i had with the associate (excuse my sloppy typing at times)

What I infer from this is that Amazon are basically claiming, that for a review collection scheme that they charge a £140 per ASIN enrollment fee + the cost of goods for each unit claimed, there is absolutely nothing in the way of regulating or enforcing that we actually receive the reivews, and therefore it’s happy days ‘Vine VOices’ who can claim an item for the grand sum of 0, leave no review and suffer no repercussions for doing so. I’m not even acknowledging the braindead incompetence of the Seller Support associate i was assigned as there are infinte threads discussing that issue.

If someone has had a similar experience and or has an idea on how to resolve/prevent this i would be glad to know. this just seems very wrong .

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5 replies

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Tags:ASIN, Fees

5 replies

Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO

3 years ago

In reply to: Seller_LZCfFr7HINQmp’s post

Amazon do say in the policy that Vine reviews are not guaranteed and you will be charged the full fee once you get a single review. Vine reviewers are subject to certain conditions for their participation so can be removed if they breach the rules.

Seller_zhjiy4JuMEuyF

3 years ago

In reply to: Seller_LZCfFr7HINQmp’s post

If it helps, when I had a few products on Vine a while back, some of the reviews came in quite late (over a month) but they were quite thorough with photos. Maybe Viners like to test for a prolonged period before passing judgement.

Seller_2Su3bcJXQR0sO

3 years ago

In reply to: Seller_LZCfFr7HINQmp’s post

It’s a tough one. Vine deals do not guarantee reviews. We used to give away 30 units per asin, usually get about 1 to 10 reviews. Each enrolment cost us anything between £200 to £600. But we’ve learnt that some products are simply too niche to enrol into vine. We are not enrolling in Vine anymore, preferring to spend the money on advertising. At least then, people who need or want to buy our products know what it is and how to use.

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