Scam ?

[Scott Donley]

Hi, I bought an indoor antenna , amplified, that did no better than my old cheapy non amplified one. I left a 1 star review. I got this email yesterday, what's the scam ? He already has my name and e-mail, no links other than the one to my review. So, what gives ?

Hello!
My name is Michael,
I noticed you had a bad experience with our HDTV Antenna, and you left a negative review on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R9F8R33G49AKF/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B07FVLXHYV

I am sorry that you are disappointed, and we want to smooth this inconvenience out for you. Therefore, I have 3 options to choose between for you:


1 - Full refund (no need to send the unit)
2 - 2 new HDTV Antennas as a gift
3 - $50 Amazon gift card

Just reply to this email with the number of option that is the most relevant to you. The only thing we ask you is to delete the review. We hope you will be happy enough with our offer to do it.


We are a small family company and we strive to ensure that the expectations of each of our customers are satisfied.
We will do our best to improve our product and customer service in the future.

I am really looking forward to hearing from you!
Thank you in advance!

Kind Regards,
Michael

[Michael Weber]

Just a thought but to me it sounds like the scam is the product they’re selling. Trying to keep it going longer by getting you to remove your rating.

[Lee Schierer]

I would pick option #3 and give him your address at a mailbox service in your area.

[Scott Donley]

Well he has my e-mail he could just send a gift card using that.

[Mike Henderson]

Well he has my e-mail he could just send a gift card using that.

That's what I'd tell him - just send the gift card by email.

[Edit: I didn't see the request to delete your review. I would not delete the review. One additional reason they want to get rid of negative reviews is that Amazon pushes them way down when someone searches for that type of product if they have a lot of negative reviews.]

Mike

[Thomas McCurnin]

Thought Police. They want to control the reviews and opinions of their bad product by bribing you.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

The scam is the review system. People think they are an honest reflection of consumer experiences with the product, but they are not. Your experience illustrates part of the reason why.

[Frederick Skelly]

Just a thought but to me it sounds like the scam is the product they’re selling. Trying to keep it going longer by getting you to remove your rating.

+1. Why would you change your opinion and screw the next customer by deleting that review? He is buying your silence. (Do you really need that extra $50?)

YMMV,
Fred

[Edit. If he gives you a hard time, tell him that he's lucky you dont go update your review to say he tried to buy your silence.]

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Not sure it’s a scam, sellers can get a lot of personal info from Amazon. I had the same problem with a $70 amplified MOHU antenna. I called tech services and the guy was dumber than a box of nails. He told me that sometimes a non-amplified antenna is actually better and suggested I buy one of theirs. I asked if I could disable the amplifier - no. I told him I’d never buy another MOHU product. As a last resort I looked on their website and found in the faqs that all I had to do to disable the amplifier was to disconnect it and plug the antenna into the TV’s antenna input instead of the USB port. I did and suddenly went from 22 channels to 70. Btw, the call was not routed to India and the tech rep was American.

[Doug Dawson]

+1. Why would you change your opinion and screw the next customer by deleting that review? He is buying your silence. (Do you really need that extra $50?)

YMMV,
Fred

[Edit. If he gives you a hard time, tell him that he's lucky you dont go update your review to say he tried to buy your silence.]
That is exactly what you should do.

I’ve been contacted about 4 or 5 times about a product I gave a low rating to, with offers of free merchandise and cash up to a hundred bucks, escalating, on the condition of deleting the review. It was a really crappy and unreliable product, that I returned to Amazon for a full refund, and I don’t feel like going along with other people being scammed (nearly all of their reviews are 5 stars, I wonder why.)

Plus, the odds of you actually getting the money are probably slim.

[Jim Becker]

Common with third party sellers on Amazon...bad reviews are a problem if they start piling up. Amazon does not appreciate deletion of bad reviews, however, especially from "verified" buyers. That skews reality for future sales. This company is also probably just reselling something they buy inexpensively for markup.

The "scam" is more pointed at future buyers if bad reviews get deleted... ;)

[David L Morse]

I would consider editing the review. (Maybe not do it after due consideration, but at least consider it.)

Let people know that the seller had made contact to try to resolve the issue. Then paste in the email.

That would be an informative review.

[Lee Schierer]

Upon further consideration, forward his email to abuse@amazonaws.com Let them deal with it.

[Jim Becker]

Upon further consideration, forward his email to abuse@amazonaws.com Let them deal with it.

I agree with this after giving it some thought. Third party sellers should not be trying to manipulate reviews with "rewards".

[Frederick Skelly]

Upon further consideration, forward his email to abuse@amazonaws.com Let them deal with it.

Yeah! That's brilliant!

[Michael Weber]

Doesn’t Amazon accept returns from their third party sellers? I don’t recall if I’ve ever returned a third party item but the few items I have returned have been painless and free. The last item I returned didn’t even have to be boxed and shipped. Just took them and an Amazon supplied QR code to the closest UPS or Kohl’s store to drop off unwrapped.

[Scott Donley]

That would be hard for me. My health has really gone downhill this past year, I am down to 40/50 % lung function, walking even 30 ft with my walker is hard.
I never said what I was going to do if anything, I was just asking how it could be a scam or not. The vendor has over 3000 sales with a 4 1/2 star rating. His e-mail is somewhat suspect help.amazonsevice@gmail.com

[Myk Rian]

Return it for a refund. My wife takes Amazon returns to a local Kohls store. Her fave store.
Maybe edit the review regarding sellers communications and up the rating to a 2.

I always read the 4 star ratings when shopping.

[Wade Lippman]

Maybe I am missing something. You are obviously dissatisfied. He trying to make good by refunding your money. If he does that you are okay and can delete your review.
I would have already returned the product for a refund, but if you didn't, this is easier.
I don't see that your address is valuable enough to scam for.

[Doug Garson]

Why should he delete his review? The product performance was poor, that's what he based his review on. Whether he gets a refund or not does not change the fact that the product did not perform. One of my pet peeves is people who give a product a 5 star review because it was delivered on time, had a good price, was well packaged and not damaged in transit BUT haven't used it yet. Maybe Amazon reviews should be split into two categories, the purchase/delivery experience and the performance of the product. While I appreciate a good buying experience I'm much more interested in whether the product works, if it doesn't it doesn't deserve a positive review. Period.

[Ronald Blue]

Why should he delete his review? The product performance was poor, that's what he based his review on. Whether he gets a refund or not does not change the fact that the product did not perform. One of my pet peeves is people who give a product a 5 star review because it was delivered on time, had a good price, was well packaged and not damaged in transit BUT haven't used it yet. Maybe Amazon reviews should be split into two categories, the purchase/delivery experience and the performance of the product. While I appreciate a good buying experience I'm much more interested in whether the product works, if it doesn't it doesn't deserve a positive review. Period.

The best reviews are the ones that follow up a month or two later and update on the item. Sometimes they are more pleased then they first reviewed and sometimes not. Sometimes they give more detail on how it's functioning but are happy with it. I agree that if one hasn't actually used it why are they leaving a review?

[Jim Koepke]

Why should he delete his review? The product performance was poor, that's what he based his review on. Whether he gets a refund or not does not change the fact that the product did not perform. One of my pet peeves is people who give a product a 5 star review because it was delivered on time, had a good price, was well packaged and not damaged in transit BUT haven't used it yet. Maybe Amazon reviews should be split into two categories, the purchase/delivery experience and the performance of the product. While I appreciate a good buying experience I'm much more interested in whether the product works, if it doesn't it doesn't deserve a positive review. Period.

Could it be those are all reviews written by those who got their money back by changing their review to a positive review?

jtk

[Doug Garson]

I think some of the premature reviews are a result of prompts from Amazon by email to post a review. On more than one occasion I got an email from Amazon asking me to post a review before I actually got the item. I guess their tracking system doesn't always sync with their review system. I don't recall ever posting a review because I don't believe in reviewing something until I have used it for a few months and by then I never think of posting a review. I have answered a few questions on products I have used for a while in response to emails from Amazon.

[Anuj Prateek]

Hi, I bought an indoor antenna , amplified, that did no better than my old cheapy non amplified one. I left a 1 star review. I got this email yesterday, what's the scam ? He already has my name and e-mail, no links other than the one to my review. So, what gives ?

Hello!
My name is Michael,
I noticed you had a bad experience with our HDTV Antenna, and you left a negative review on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R9F8R33G49AKF/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B07FVLXHYV

I am sorry that you are disappointed, and we want to smooth this inconvenience out for you. Therefore, I have 3 options to choose between for you:


1 - Full refund (no need to send the unit)
2 - 2 new HDTV Antennas as a gift
3 - $50 Amazon gift card

Just reply to this email with the number of option that is the most relevant to you. The only thing we ask you is to delete the review. We hope you will be happy enough with our offer to do it.


We are a small family company and we strive to ensure that the expectations of each of our customers are satisfied.
We will do our best to improve our product and customer service in the future.

I am really looking forward to hearing from you!
Thank you in advance!

Kind Regards,
Michael

Option 1 is in any case available to you from Amazon.

2 and 3 seems like an effort to get negative review removed. I would forward it to customer care.