How to Remove Negative Feedback From Your Amazon Storefront
Remove negative feedback automatically and manually to improve Buy Box rotation.
If you’re an experienced Amazon seller, you should know by now how important feedback is. Obviously, too much negative feedback can lead to account health issues and suspensions. But more importantly, feedback is a part of the formula that controls Buy Box rotation.
We don’t know how much of a factor feedback is (nobody does except Amazon), however, we know it’s significant enough to care. Go on any listing on Amazon and check the Keepa data. You’ll see sellers below 80% positive feedback typically are getting less Buy Box rotations.
What matters more—number of reviews or percentage of positive reviews?
Before we have to hear it, yes—the number of reviews your storefront has will have a higher correlation with more Buy Box rotations. This means a storefront with 10,000 reviews at 85% positive feedback will dominate a storefront with 100 reviews and 100% positive feedback.
However, we’d argue that more reviews is also the result of simply being a bigger seller and selling more units. This means in addition to more reviews, you have a lot going for you beyond review count (e.g., more units sold per month, longer seller history, higher inventory levels, etc.).
For that reason, if you have <1000 reviews, rather than worrying about which software to choose to improve your review rate by 1%, focus on keeping the reviews you do get positive. Since you have less total reviews, one negative review can have a huge impact because…. maths. e.g., 1 negative review out of 20 total reviews = 5% impact.
With that out of the way, let’s focus on swatting down those negative reviews.
FBA: Automatically remove feedback
If you’re an FBA seller, your life is a lot easier when it comes to negative feedback. This is because if a customer leaves a negative review on an order that was fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), Amazon will take responsibility for the issue. When this happens, Amazon will strikethrough the feedback on your strorefront.
What does a strikethrough mean? The review will remain visible on your storefront but with a a strikethrough and disclaimer note from Amazon. The review will not count as negative feedback against your account.
This process is mostly automated now and no action will be needed on your part. Amazon detects certain feedback is invalid based on keywords and phrases the customer uses. They’ll automatically strikethrough it and you will probably never notice unless you click your feedback page.
FBA & FBM: Ask Amazon to remove feedback
For FBA orders, start by requesting a secondary automatic removal
In the event that Amazon doesn’t automatically strikethrough the feedback, you can request the feedback is removed yourself. To do this, access they Feedback page in your Seller Central account (Performance > Feedback).
From here, you’ll see a page of all your storefront reviews. Locate the negative feedback and select “Request removal” from the dropdown to the right of the review.
If it’s an FBA order, Amazon will prompt you with acceptable removal requests. If it fits the bill (be liberal here), go ahead and proceed with the request.
Amazon will once again perform an automated check of some kind. 9x out of 10, the review will be removed on the spot. We don’t quite understand why this secondary automated check isn’t performed the first time, but…. this is the way.
If this fails, move onto submitting a ticket.
For FBA and FBM orders, submit a ticket to Seller Support
For FBA orders, sometimes that secondary auto review won’t quite work and Amazon’s system will reject your request. Honestly, it’s been so long since this happened to us that we don’t even have a screenshot to show you. However, you should get a message from Amazon stating why they couldn’t review the feedback.
If this is the case, you will need to submit a Seller Support ticket. If it’s an FBM order, this is your primary means of removing feedback. Amazon may provide a link or message box for you to do so directly from that Feedback screen. If not, jump to the Help Hub and submit a ticket there.
In your message, provide a direct explanation for why the feedback mentioned meets the criteria for removal. This is usually one of two reasons:
If FBA, the feedback describes a fulfillment issue. This is probably a damaged product (blame Amazon’s warehouse) or late/missing delivery (blame Amazon’s carrier).
If FBA or FBM, the feedback is more of a product review rather than a seller issue. If the customer is complaining about the quality of the product in any way, that’s not on you as a seller. Those reviews should be made on the product page vs the seller’s storefront.
In either of these scenarios, Amazon should strikethrough and remove the feedback.
FBM & FBA: Respond to the buyer directly
If you can’t get Amazon to remove the feedback, your last hope is to ask the customer to remove their feedback. Here’s how to approach this the right way.
First, send a message to the to the customer apologizing for the issue and taking responsibility.
Be the adult in the room. The customer blames you. Don’t waste time and get them distracted attempting to convince them USPS is to blame. Owning up to the issue diffuses the customer and makes them feel heard.
Note: Obviously, use your judgement on the taking responsibility bit. If the complaint is something serious like the customer being injured by the product, probably not in your best interest to admit fault without legal counsel.
Next, resolve their issue immediately—either via a refund or replacement.
If you really want that feedback gone, do this regardless of if the customer is right or if you are to blame. If you want to be stingy and ding them a restocking fee or whatever, don’t be surprised when they write an even worse review.
Typically the customer tells you what they want upfront (refund or replacement). Do whichever they ask if reasonable.
If you sell high end items and the customer isn’t actually entitled to a refund, it’s your call. Maybe one negative review isn’t worth the expense.
Finally, acknowledge the negative feedback, communicate that you’re a small business, and ask the customer to reconsider their review.
When a customer leaves negative feedback, they are either using it as a tool to get a refund/replacement or seeking revenge against what they perceive to be an evil company.
By taking this step, we are reminding the customer that we are human and we truly do care about that negative review and we are giving them time to reconsider.
Putting this all together looks something like this…
“Hi [First name] -
Oh no! I saw your review and we’re so sorry to hear your product arrived damaged. That’s certainly not the experience we strive for with our customers.
As requested, I’ve immediately issued a replacement product, which is on it’s way now. I’ve also expedited the shipping to get it to you sooner. You can track the replacement item here: [Shipping details/link].
Again, I do apologize on behalf of [Store name] for the inconvenience! We’re a small business and every customer review means so much to us. In fact, this is the first negative review we’ve received, so we’re committed to doing everything we can to make it right!
If you feel like we’ve corrected the issue and you’d consider removing or modifying your review, it’d go a long way for our store. If not, we completely understand and appreciate you giving us a chance.
Have a wonderful rest of your day!
- [First name]”
Notice how over-the-top that is? That response goes above and beyond. Notice the tone as well. It sounds like it’s coming from friend, rather than a big company. That’s very intentional. We want to invoke some sort of emotional response.
Feel free to modify the above to your liking. Again, as you get more and more reviews, you may be more comfortable taking your chances and offering a more standard response.
If all else fails, you can post a public reply
If you try everything above and you still can’t get the feedback removed, a completely optional step would be to respond to the customer’s feedback publicly. This reply will be posted on your storefront when other customers read your reviews.
I say it’s optional because this won’t help with Buy Box rotation. It really only helps if you sell expensive items and customer’s double check your reputation.
Plus, once you sell more and get more reviews, that negative review will be hidden from the first page of your storefront, which is what most customers look at.
Similar script as above with the public reply. Accept responsibility and communicate what you did to resolve the issue. This signals to future customers that if they have an issue with you, it will get resolved.
Conclusion
In conclusion:
If FBA, most feedback is removed automatically.
If FBA and it’s not removed autoamtically, you can request removal by clicking the dropdown menu next to the review.
If FBA or FBM, you can also submit a ticket to Seller Support and justify why the feedback is removed either on the basis of FBA fulfillment issue or because the review is a product review.
If FBM, your next best chance is to request the buyer remove the feedback by resolving their issue promptly.
As a final note, if you go through all these steps and come up empty, don’t take it personally and get emotional. In the long run, you can easily drown out negative reviews with positive ones. Keep your head down, sell more, and everything will sort itself out on its own in time.
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