Amazon seller guide

How to deal with negative reviews on Amazon

Last updated September 2026

You can only get a bad review removed if it breaks the Community Guidelines. The rest stay up, and you can't reply to them publicly. What's left is to respond within the limits Amazon allows and prevent the next one: give buyers a way to reach you about order problems, then fix what they complain about.

Which negative reviews Amazon will remove

"We remove reviews posted by someone with financial interest in the product, or any other conflict of interest."

"Don't post content that invades privacy or shares your own personal information, including: Phone number · Email address · Mailing address · License plate · Data source name (DSN) · Order number"

"We don't allow: Profanity, obscenities, or name-calling · Harassment or threats · Attacks on people you disagree with · Libel, defamation, or inflammatory content · Drowning out opinions. Don't post from multiple accounts or coordinate with others."

"We don't allow URLs with referrer tags or affiliate codes."

— Amazon, Community Guidelines, "What's not allowed"

"We don't allow reviews or questions and answers that only focus on:"

"Sellers and the Customer Service they provide"
"Ordering issues and returns"
"Shipping packaging"
"Product condition and damage"
"Shipping cost and speed"

— Amazon, Community Guidelines, "Seller, order, or shipping feedback"

In practice, these are the reviews you can report:

Abusive or hateful content. Profanity, harassment, defamation, or attacks on people rather than the product.
Reviews from someone with a stake. A competitor, a friend or employee, or a paid reviewer. That includes negative reviews bought against you. Report them with whatever evidence you have.
Personal information. Phone numbers, emails, addresses, order numbers.
Affiliate or referral links.
Reviews only about the seller, the order or shipping. "Arrived late," "box was crushed," "customer service never answered." The guideline doesn't depend on who shipped the order. Once the review also says something about the product itself, this rule no longer covers it. The same complaint left as seller feedback follows different rules, covered in how to remove negative seller feedback.

A one-star review because the buyer expected a different size, misused the product, or just didn't like it won't come down. Even one that gets the facts wrong stays unless it breaks a guideline.

How to report a review

Reporting a review: "Select Report. This button is located below the review."

Seller reports of attack by a competitor: "Select Report Abuse or choose the relevant issue from the available options."

— Amazon, Community Guidelines, "How to report violations"

Three channels, in this order:

The Report button under the review. Fastest for clear-cut guideline violations.
Seller Central. Go to Help, then Get Support (or your Account Health Dashboard), and choose Report Abuse. Name the guideline the review breaks and quote it. "This review is unfair" isn't one of them.
If you're in Brand Registry, the Report a Violation tool also takes reports on reviews you believe are fraudulent or competitor abuse. We couldn't find a public Amazon page that says so, so check what your own account offers.

We haven't found a published turnaround time or appeal channel for these reports. Report once with your best evidence instead of filing the same case again.

"Review removal services" are a trap

"A seller asks a reviewer to change or remove their review, or offers a refund or other compensation to a reviewer in exchange for doing so."

"Any infractions by your business partners, employees, or 3rd party agencies will result in enforcement actions, even if they happened without your knowledge or consent."

"Amazon has a zero-tolerance policy towards any Customer Product Reviews violations. If we detect any attempts to manipulate Customer Reviews, we take immediate actions." The first action listed: "Immediate and permanent withdrawal of the seller's selling privileges on Amazon, including the withholding of funds."

— Amazon, Understanding Amazon Policies on Customer Product Reviews, p6 (violation examples), p8, p7

Search for review removal and you'll find agencies selling guaranteed deletions. Amazon only removes reviews that break a guideline, so nobody can guarantee a removal. An agency that gets results by going to the buyer is doing the first thing on that list, and the account that pays for it is yours, whether or not you knew how they did it.

Doing it yourself is the same violation: asking the buyer to change or remove the review, or offering a refund or gift for it. The Community Guidelines say this "applies even if a seller offers a refund to remove or change a negative review."

Responding when you can't reply

"While reviews and feedback are important to our customers and sellers, the comments feature on customer reviews was rarely used. As a result, we are retiring this feature on December 16, 2020."

— Amazon's email to sellers, as posted in "No more commenting on customer reviews!", Amazon Seller Forums. We couldn't find the notice on an Amazon help page

Proactive messages may be sent for "resolving an issue with order fulfillment". Permitted Messages do not include "Language that requests removal or an update of an existing product review".

— Amazon, Communication Guidelines

Since December 16, 2020, there's no public reply under a review. You can still write to a buyer to fix their problem, as long as the message says nothing about the review. What's left:

With Brand Registry: the Customer Reviews tool gives you two fixed templates for emailing the buyer behind a 1-3 star review. One offers a courtesy refund, the other offers help with their problem. Neither mentions the review. Once the problem's solved, the buyer may update the review on their own. (We couldn't find a public Amazon page for this tool, so these details aren't quoted.)

Without Brand Registry: there's no direct channel, so you respond indirectly. Answer the complaint in your listing (if three reviews mention confusing assembly, put an assembly diagram in the images), improve the insert instructions, or fix the defect.

Prevent: the review you never get

When something goes wrong and the buyer has nowhere obvious to say it, they may say it in a public review. Removal and response both come after the fact; prevention means giving buyers a private way to reach you about order problems.

The usual way is an insert card with a QR code pointing at your own feedback page, and the same neutral invitation to every buyer. Neutral means no incentives, and no steering happy buyers toward the review page and unhappy ones away from it (that's review gating, and it's how insert cards get sellers suspended; the rules, and what Amazon hasn't ruled on, are in the insert card guide). When a buyer tells you the charger was dead, you find out about the bad batch sooner.

Aftermesh is built to stay inside that line. You build the care page and it gives you the QR code for the card; after scanning, a buyer can tell you what went wrong with the order, and you read it in your dashboard. You can see the page a buyer gets first.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a negative Amazon review removed?

It depends on whether it breaks the Community Guidelines. If the buyer is simply unhappy, or says it bluntly, Amazon leaves it up.

Can I pay a service to delete negative reviews?

No. If you're caught, it's your account that's at risk.

Can I ask the customer to change or remove their review?

No, not even with a refund attached. It violates Amazon's review policies. You can solve their problem through the official channel; whether they revise the review is up to them.

Can I respond to a negative review publicly?

No, that feature went away in 2020. With Brand Registry you can email 1-3 star reviewers through fixed templates; without it, you can only change the listing and the product.

This guide explains Amazon's policies in plain English and isn't legal advice. Amazon updates its Community Guidelines and review policies regularly. Check the current version in Seller Central before acting on a specific review.