Last year my mom and I had some issues leaving book reviews. Because she had temporarily moved in to my home and was using the same address, Amazon would not allow her to post a review for a book that I had already reviewed. They felt that her reviews would be biased because she was living at the same address. She called them on the phone and they gave her the runaround. Eventually we gave up and accepted it.
I also noticed that I was never able to use the word NetGalley or say that I received the book for free, or my review would be removed. It had to be worded that you received a “complimentary copy” or it would be removed.
Fast forward to January 30th, 2018. I logged into Amazon to leave a book review and I received this message…
This makes no sense. What previous review? I called Amazon and a woman gave me the runaround, telling me that someone would call me regarding the issue. Needless to say, nobody ever called.
A few days ago I received a specific request from an author to record my book review on Amazon. This is a book that’s a verified purchase through Amazon, by the way. I logged on and received the same message: “Sorry, we are unable to accept your review.” I became a little perturbed because this just seemed so unfair. I decided to call Amazon again. This time, the person I spoke with gave me the same information–that someone would call me back. I never received a call, but this morning I received an email from Amazon…
Final? Obviously they’re sending this email out for all inquiries. It gets worse…
Due to my geographical location, I’m a heavy user on Amazon. We pay for a Prime membership which (most of you probably already know) includes free two-day shipping. It’s not uncommon to purchase forty or more items a month and 98% of our Christmas and birthday gifts come from Amazon. I also purchase scads of books on Amazon as well.
When scrolling through some of my purchases from last year, I noticed that the star rating wasn’t completed on ANY of my previous purchases. Every single one of my ratings and reviews has been removed; every single one from the beginning of time.
I have NEVER received goods in exchange for a review or won ANY Amazon giveaways in the few that I entered. I have received a few free books in the mail from giveaways on Goodreads and a few from authors requesting reviews, but I’m not affiliated with them in any way, in fact, the few authors that I am friends with became friends AFTER I read their book. In only one case did I have friendly communication with an author over the internet prior to reading their book. I honestly don’t see how Amazon deems my reviews biased based on that.
With that said, I also questioned if it could be the fact that I read ARC’s for NetGalley and Edelweiss. Also, that maybe they somehow discovered that I have a blog with all my Amazon links, but I make zero money from this blog and pay a yearly fee out of my pocket for it. Even so, how can it be right to blacklist me and not allow me to leave any community reviews on verified purchases which is where the majority of my reviews on Amazon come from anyway.
Thanks a lot, Amazon, for preventing me from sharing fair and honest reviews with the public.
ReadRantRock&Roll 
The same thing happened to me after I reviewed ONE book! I didn’t push the issue because I rarely rate my Amazon purchases but I do rely on Prime multiple times a week. I’m so sorry this happened to you!
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I’m so sorry it happened to you too! This is just horrible. I’ll be doing an update soon…
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Oh, crap. what is this??!!! That’s totally grossly unfair!! I am so sorry this happened to you, Jenn… I am utterly shocked. I just can’t wrap my head around how this could have happened or in what way you could have violated Amazon review policy… that doesn’t make any sense at all!!!
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Noriko, how did I miss this comment? Anyway, I agree. It’s complete nonsense. I’ll be doing an update next week to explain what I’ve done and where I am with this now… Thanks for your support. ❤
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Ugh! That really sucks. I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with that. How frustrating! 😦
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It is so frustrating. Sorry I missed your comment! I’ll be doing an update soon. Hugs ❤
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I can’t believe it! Terrible and sorry you had to go through that. I haven’t had this experience, but I have seen others complain about having a review or 2 denied. BUT certainly not all of them. How unfair.
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Thanks, Holly. I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else. It is truly unfair and at this point I’m just being ignored by them. I’ll update once more. ❤
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Hi Mischenko, sorry I didn’t comment earlier I’ve only just seen this and I am amazed Amazon did this to you. I thought that I had to state where I got the book from and in exchange for an honest review? So are they penalising reviewers who do this now? I can’t keep up! Its just so wrong..and its hard enough for authors to get detailed reviews on Amazon and GoodReads as it is! Surely reviews sell books, and Amazon sell books…confused.com! So sorry you had to go through this hun, you’re one of the best x
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It’s no problem at all! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. I don’t have a clue what’s going in or even why they did this to me because they won’t give me any answers. As far as I know at this point they’re telling me I violated guidelines. I just have no idea how. I started using the words they told me too which are “complementary copy” so I have no idea what I could’ve done. One person said to disconnect social media and I’ve done that. Still nothing. I’ll be doing an update soon. 💜 Thanks for your caring comment. You’re very supportive and I appreciate that! Hope all is well. 😁
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I’ll look out for your update, take care x
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This just happened to me. I read 2-3 books a week and buy way more books than I should. It is stupid to punish readers for being fans of the authors they read. I do get ARCs from NetGalley and I do get ARCS directly from some authors and I do leave leave reviews when I enjoy the works these people have created but I also buy hundreds of books a year. If amazon doesn’t want people reviewing ARCs they should require you to purchase the items through their site before you can review it. But now they have removed all of my reviews and locked me out of reviewing books I have bought and paid for and they didn’t even inform me they did it or why….that is unfair.
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I’m so sorry! It is totally wrong and seems to be happening to more people everyday. The stupid thing was that they took ALL my reviews including my verified purchases. I used to share pictures and everything. I’ll be doing an update soon. I hope that you gets yours worked out. I’ve heard others have. ❤ Thanks for sharing your story.
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