What Amazon's Request a Review button actually sends

The Request a Review button isn't an exemption from the messaging rules; it's among the ways to send they name. When it's available, why it grays out, whether you can follow up: the answers are in the Communication Guidelines and Amazon's API docs, not the seller help center.

Where the rules for this button actually live

Amazon's help page for the button sits behind the Seller Central sign-in, but the Communication Guidelines name the button in the paragraph that defines a proactive message:

They all send the same class of message under one set of rules. The button is safer than writing your own message because of what Amazon fills in for you.

What Amazon fills in, and what you give up

That sentence is the source for "the button translates itself into the buyer's language." When you write a proactive message yourself, it must carry the 17-digit order ID and must be in the buyer's Language of Preference. Through the button, Amazon handles both.

What you hand over is in the developer documentation (apps use the same mechanism):

The key word is template-based: you can't add a sentence, can't mention the replacement you shipped last week, can't attach anything, and can't ask for one of the two things rather than both.

The window: 5 to 30 days after delivery, but which delivery date?

The button says the same thing when you press it outside the window: "You can't use this feature to request a review outside the 5-30 day range after the order delivery date." It doesn't say which delivery date counts. The setup guide for the API behind the button does:

The Orders API defines those two fields:

The second window starts from yet another event: "Proactive Permitted Messages must be sent within 30 days of order completion." Order completion isn't delivery, and delivery isn't the delivery estimate. Amazon doesn't say which window wins. When the button grays out, check first whether you counted from the wrong starting point.

If you're automating this, those two delivery fields are returned only for seller-fulfilled orders. With FBA inventory you won't get them, so you have to call the eligibility operation and ask Amazon whether the order can be solicited.

One press spends the only request that order gets

The Communication Guidelines list seven message types that aren't Permitted Messages, and the seventh is one line:

The developer documentation turns it into an instruction, "Send only one productReviewAndSellerFeedback or free form proactive message per order", and says what happens if you don't follow it:

Pressing the button after an API request gets you an error. The other way round, the Communication Guidelines don't allow a second request on the same order either.

The Communication Guidelines also list valid reasons for contacting a buyer proactively: resolving an issue with order fulfillment, requesting information needed to complete the order, a return-related question, an invoice, scheduling a heavy delivery, verifying a custom design (the messaging rules guide covers compliant wording for each). But the developer sentence above says one review solicitation or free-form proactive message per order. Whether you can still message for those reasons after asking for a review, Amazon hasn't said. It's a gray area.

It asks for two things, and only one of them can cost you the account

Amazon's description of the operation is a single sentence: it "sends a solicitation to a buyer asking for seller feedback and a product review for the specified order." The two have different consequences, and you can't ask for one without the other:

Quotes above from Amazon, Order Defect Rate (PDF, Amazon-hosted).

The risk sits with buyers who are still unhappy: the button asks them to put that into seller feedback that counts toward a metric with a 1% limit, and the criteria for removing negative seller feedback are narrow.

So when should you press it?

Knowing who you are pressing it on

Without knowing how a buyer feels, you can only press every order or none: the first sends the invitation to unhappy buyers too, the second leaves real reviews uncollected. Deciding order by order means finding out what the buyer thinks before you press, and that's what our product does.

A card in the box. The buyer scans it and lands on a page carrying your brand, in their own language, and tells you how it went. No Amazon account connection, API authorization or password needed.

Every buyer sees the same page, whatever they're about to say, and a buyer who leaves no review at all can still complete it. Nothing is offered in exchange: no cashback, no gift, no discount, and nobody is asked to change or remove a review. Those constraints keep the approach within the insert card rules.

The Chrome extension brings that feedback back to the Seller Central order page in a small floating panel: which orders are waiting, the buyer on this one, and a button that presses Amazon's own Request a Review. Orders nobody scanned can still be requested, and whether to press is your call.

If you would rather see it before signing up: the demo walks through the page a buyer actually scans into, in about ten seconds.

If you automate it

If you're wiring this into an ERP or a script, the documentation gives you three rules to follow:

• Ask, don't calculate. "To check eligibility programmatically before you send a solicitation, use the getSolicitationActionsForOrder operation." If the productReviewAndSellerFeedback action isn't in the response, the order isn't eligible, whatever your own date math says.
• Rate limit: 1 request per second, burst of 5, so it won't clear a large backlog in one go.
• 403 means the order has already been asked. Treat it as final for that order and don't retry.

The last sentence of the Communication Guidelines:

After a violation, a seller may be left with only Amazon's templates, and this button is one of them.

Frequently asked questions

Is Amazon's Request a Review button safe to use?

On wording, it's the safest way to ask, because the message is Amazon's template: the order ID, the buyer's preferred language and the message guidelines are applied automatically. Incentives, asking only happy buyers, promotional language: none of those wording violations is possible through the button. What it can't manage for you is when to press it, or whether to.

How long do I have to press the Request a Review button?

Amazon's short answer, in the button's own error message, is 5 to 30 days after delivery. The documents behind it add two windows with different starting points. The Communication Guidelines require proactive Permitted Messages to go out within 30 days of order completion. The Solicitations API behind the button allows five days after the EarliestDeliveryDate to 30 days after the LatestDeliveryDate. In Amazon's definitions those two fields are the start and end of the delivery period you committed to. The day the parcel actually arrived doesn't move them.

Can I use the Request a Review button twice on the same order?

No, the system refuses it. The Communication Guidelines put a repeat review or feedback request on the same order on the list of messages that aren't Permitted Messages. The developer documentation says a second API attempt for the same order returns a 403, and pressing the button after an API send returns an error saying a review was already requested.

Can I edit the wording of the Request a Review message?

No, the template is Amazon's. You can't add context, mention the replacement you just sent, attach anything, or ask for only one of the review and the feedback.

Does the button ask for a product review or for seller feedback?

Both, in one email, and you can't ask for only one. They land in different places: a product review sits on your listing, while one- and two-star seller feedback counts toward your Negative Feedback Rate, one of the three components of Order Defect Rate.

Does using the button stop me from messaging that buyer again?

The Communication Guidelines only prohibit asking again for a review or feedback on that order. They don't bar the other valid reasons Amazon lists for contacting a buyer: resolving an order fulfillment issue, requesting information needed to complete the order, a return-related question, an invoice, scheduling a heavy delivery, verifying a custom design. But the developer documentation says one review solicitation or free-form proactive message per order, and Amazon hasn't said whether that covers those reasons too. It's a gray area.

Should I press it on an order where the buyer already complained?

Nothing in policy stops you. But the button also asks this buyer for seller feedback, one- and two-star feedback counts toward Order Defect Rate, and an ODR above 1% can lead to deactivation. A resolved complaint doesn't guarantee the buyer won't leave negative feedback. Find out where the buyer stands before you press it.

Related: Amazon buyer-seller messaging rules: what you can send | How to remove negative seller feedback | Amazon review and insert card rules: the official wording, sourced | What are bad reviews costing you? (free calculator)