Amazon Feedback

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Jack White, Aug 27, 2020.

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  1. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Just a rant to let off some stream.

    A while ago I bought a spoken word CD set from a marketplace seller on Amazon Canada. The manufacturer credits the CD to Orson Welles on the packaging ("Produced, Directed and Narrated by Orson Welles") and Welles is named by Amazon in it's product listing as the artist of the CDs.

    I received the CDs. Other than the track list, there is no information within the packaging as to the cast or technical credits. Just a blurb on the back cover about the recording made over several years in the '50s and '60s with an international cast (no individual cast names are given) in Europe and a note about the soundtrack performed by a symphony orchestra (does not mention which one). Well, that's par for the course with Welles, trying to finish a project in this time period. I give them a listen. There is no Orson Welles anywhere to be heard. Not as the narrator. Not as a cast member. I recognize a couple of the voice actors, which leads me to believe the recording was made in the US and not in Europe. The presentation and performances are well done, but not only is Welles absent from the performance, I get the sense that he had nothing to do with the project behind the scenes, as well. I do some research on my own. I can't find any reference in any source about Welles' life or work that mentions this particular project. This is obviously the manufacturer's fault, not the sellers - and I believe a deliberate false claim that Welles was involved to help sell the spoken word audio CDs. However, I decide to keep the CDs anyways. I don't complain to seller. There are no requests for my money back. I'm good.

    Then I receive an email requesting feedback about the purchase. I don't usually leave feedback comments or ratings. So, I ignore it. I get another email ... and another ... one every day. Day after day. Every single day. I figure I pay on time, you send me my stuff, if something's wrong you fix it and I'm happy. If everything's right you got paid and I got my stuff and everybody's happy. Everybody that is except for Amazon, apparently. This ratings and feedback comments is a game - a scam. But ... to stop these incessant, never ending email requests I leave some feedback. Basically I wrote, it arrived in good condition and was well packed, but the CD is credited to Orson Welles and Welles is not on it. This is an error of the manufacturer not the seller. I gave a 2 star rating because of that. That was this morning.

    This evening I get a phone call from the seller from California - as the crow flies, over 2,000 miles away. He's reaching out and calling me in person about the complaint and says he'll do anything to make it right. I tell him, "no deal I'm happy with the CD set. I don't want to return it. I don't want a refund." He goes on and on about the negative feedback. I emphasize that the feedback explicitly states it's not the seller's fault but the manufacturer's fault. He asks if I will remove the feedback. I again point out that the negative feedback states it's not the seller's fault. He tells me he knows, but because of the negative feedback, Amazon is causing him "big problems" like I wouldn't believe. But I again insist the negative feedback is not about him, the seller, but the manufacturer. He's knows, but Amazon ... He asks if I will delete it. Sure, no big deal.

    Tonight, I go to my Amazon account and try and figure out how to edit or delete the feedback comment and rating. I can't find anyway to do it. There's no info on the Customer Service pages on the Amazon site, either. I'm about to call customer service for the fourth time. The third time I asked the customer service rep if she could just delete it from her end - she tried, but no such luck - I have to do. And the link she sent telling me how to do it, isn't working.

    I will never leave feedback again.

    And what's up with Amazon and the feedback their sellers receive. Are marketplace sellers blackballed if they receive too many negative comments and ratings?
     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2020
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  2. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    Best thing to do in such circumstances would be a positive feedback for the seller, as the purchase experience itself was fine, and then write a product review for the CD and give it a negative rating (maybe even a 1-star) and make it clear to prospective customers that Orson Welles is not on the recording and this is a case of false advertising.

    That way , the seller's metrics are not harmed (and it sounds like they were not at fault), but the item's ratings get a deserved hit and anyone interested in the item might be dissuaded from being duped/disappointed.

    EG.
     
  3. brownie61

    brownie61 Forum Resident

    He called you??? How did he get your phone number? That’s the worst part of this whole story.
     
  4. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    Amazon provide (and sometimes even print) the customer phone number on orders. I never liked that. So the seller will have been given that as part of the order/shipping process. As a seller, I would never dream of calling a customer, but I guess he felt it would be better to talk over the problem.

    EG.
     
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  5. BeardedSteven

    BeardedSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Indiana
    I would leave feedback to warn other potential buyers that this seller will *call* you on the phone. The heck with that!
     
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  6. brownie61

    brownie61 Forum Resident

    I never noticed that they do that!

    I would have ended the call quickly and blocked the phone number.
     
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  7. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    I assume I provided it when I first set up my account with Amazon and that it's available to the marketplace sellers if your purchase something from them.
     
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  8. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    It's a very divisive thing, calling a customer. I remember on the Seller Central forums back in the day, it was something that people felt strongly about one way or the other. Some would say, if you have an issue just call the customer and try to put it right, and others would say "no way would I dream of calling them, if someone did that to me I wouldn't like it". So it's tricky. I think the seller had good intentions, but it could have backfired even worse than it did.

    EG.
     
  9. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    The guy seemed very sincere and accommodating to "fix the problem". There are plenty of bad sellers out there. I don't think he's one of them, and I wouldn't want to add to his problems.
     
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  10. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    I figured that out after he called me. I was tempted a couple of days ago to write a product review. There's also a button to click on to report product misinformation.

    The good news is that I finally managed to get rid of it. YEAH!!!
     
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  11. Bungo

    Bungo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    My thoughts exactly. The first thing I did after reading this story was to check my Amazon account to make sure they don't have my phone number. Fortunately they don't, but I got a pop-up nag asking me to add a number, which of course I declined.

    Who the hell wants to interact with people by phone these days, especially random businesses?
     
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  12. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    Oh that's good :) Yes, reporting the product might be an idea.

    EG.
     
  13. the pope ondine

    the pope ondine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia


    Amazon will kick someone off the sellers site if the FB falls below a level so he might be panicking, theyre pretty ruthless, good karma for you trying to help him out and remove it, ive tried calling amazon and never gotten a real person
     
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  14. siebrand

    siebrand music lover

    Location:
    Italy
    When I receive goods from "Amazon Partner" I always receive, like you, an invitation to leave feedback, however it is always specified that the feedback is related to the single transition with the seller, NOT with the product itself.
    Almost always I am happy and I leave 5 stars.

    The very few times that I have had any problems I have contacted the seller FIRST, receiving, except once, proposals for resending, refunds, etc.
    In fact, leaving the feedback, there is the box "Are communications with the seller OK?" with three options:
    1) no communication,
    2) poor communication
    3) excellent communication.

    Therefore, the famous stars should be filled in and attributed only after any requests / replies with the seller himself.
    The only time I left very negative feedback (1 star) the seller threatened to send me the lawyer.
    I said that he should try, and that I would make other purchases, if necessary, with other names, from him, in order to be able to give only one star at other times.
    After that ... I never heard from him again, neither him nor his lawyer. :laugh:

    In the end, I think it is a good enough way to understand if the seller is reliable or not ... If an Amazon Partner has many negative evaluations ... I don't buy from him ...
     
    Dave likes this.
  15. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    I have left many negative reviews on Amazon and have even uploaded videos of faulty products. No one has ever called and I never heard from anyone after leaving a review. I have also changed/edit my reviews several times after negative feedback has resulted in a resolution. And if I go to my reviews an "edit" button appears below the review.
     
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  16. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    I went back and reviewed the email requests I received and the feedback application on Amazon, and did not see any caution specifying that the feedback should pertain only to the service with the seller and not to the product itself. Although, when I deleted my feedback comment, there was a 'check-the-box' specifying the reason for the deletion and one was for "feedback comments concerned the product itself and not the seller".
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2020
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  17. siebrand

    siebrand music lover

    Location:
    Italy
    But that's for the products, I don't think it's possible to modify the "amazon Partner" feedback....
     
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  18. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Amazon does NOT send you endless prompts to leave feedback. If you are getting those, that's because the seller set things up to ping you.

    That said, feedback is exclusively for comments about whether the seller sent what was listed, in the promised condition, in a reasonable amount of time, properly packaged, etc.. It is NOT about the item itself. If you want to leave feedback about the quality of the item, that should be left as a review.
     
  19. the pope ondine

    the pope ondine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia

    careful, the Amazon Overlords will probably not look kindly on talk like this
     
  20. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    I had a similar experience with a Discogs seller a long time ago. I asked in a PM if the disc was the surround SACD (there was also a stereo-only version), he assured me it was, I got it, it wasn't. Sent it back and got refunded. I left negative feedback not on the basis that he didn't make it square with me, but that what I wanted to purchase didn't happen. Days later my wife and I are woken from a sound sleep by the seller, asking me to change my feedback! :eek:

    We go through a testy but civil conversation about how the seller depends on good feedback, he did his due diligence, and sorry for the inconvenience. I explain (unnecessarily, I felt) the meaning of my feedback, and why that wasn't enough. And while my wife is looking perturbed from the bed, I go back to the compyooter, look at his Discogs entry, and sure enough...he's still offering the surround SACD. He says he'll change it, and I'll change my feedback.

    Not two weeks later, same time of the morning...he calls back, asking why I haven't changed my feedback rating! :eek: :wtf: And so I go back to the compyooter, and sure enough, he has not modified his entry to correct it. So I told him, the phone conversation is going nowhere, and neither is my feedback until he changes his entry properly so nobody else gets taken. Well, he had that changed within two days, so I changed my feedback. I shouldn't have, but I held up my end of the bargain.

    But as much as it bothers me in retrospect, I am almost tempted now, to purchase another item from him...just so I can leave this story in the feedback...:evil:
     
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  21. ScramMan2

    ScramMan2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland OR
    Third party sellers on Amazon should not be requesting feedback and definitely not call a customer. Report them to Amazon.
     
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  22. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    We may be splitting hairs here, but ... the email return address ends in @marketplace.amazon.ca and the Amazon name (logo) is on the masthead of the letter. I'm assuming that the seller submits the email to Amazon, which then forwards it on to me. It may be the seller prompting these requests to me, but Amazon is sending them with the seller. I'm also guessing that Amazon places a lot of pressure on their sellers to get a lot of feedback ratings.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2020
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  23. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    This is correct.

    Funnily enough, I got one of these tonight, for a purchase made through a third-party seller using FBA. It was sent by amazon.

    EG.
     
  24. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    As someone who sold on Amazon, I can tell you that if you do nothing, your customers may get prompted once to leave feedback, but not frequently and certainly not every day. That's something the seller forced.
     
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  25. ScramMan2

    ScramMan2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland OR
    Complain to Amazon, not here. The third party seller is not allowed to solicit feedback. They can see the Amazon email trail and suspend him.
     
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