How one Vine reviewer turned my dream launch into a Nightmare 😱
I'm already completely desperate.
I launched my first product after a whole year (a year!) of product development.
A truly complete product, made from the best materials, with the best settings, everything p-e-r-f-e-c-t. So, I launched the product, invested hundreds of dollars in an amazing listing, videos, photos, photographers who captured every possible angle, and the most accurate information. Launch day - a blast: 10 sales in few hours, one campaign, a huge budget, and really, sales just kept growing day by day (common, why did I only order 1,000 units?). Listen, 100 orders in the first 15 days, no one returned the product, not a single refund request, and really - 6 five-star reviews came in only 1 month, two of them even posted with a photo, what a dream - my lovely customers love me to.
At least that's what I thought.
One day, I check the listing and discover that my five stars (yeah, I knew it wouldn’t stay that way) dropped to 3.8.
My world darkened.
The nastiest, most disrespectful review I’ve ever received in my life, I felt humiliated. Never mind that the title started with "the size not working for me" (my product is tailored for a bed and comes in a specific size, clearly stated in the title, the bullet points, the image, and the product specs—like, didn’t you notice your bed doesn’t fit to the product? But fine - it could happens). The review content was almost a full page of , extremely insulting, comparing me to the worst product in the world, saying I wasted her money, time, and even space in her house. And you know what’s the funniest? She’s part of the Vine program - the program that should "boost sales through reviews". You literally got the product for free (okay, you paid taxes), literally got it on the 30th of the month, and literally posted the review on the 1st of the following month—you didn’t even give the product a chance.
The content of the review doesn’t even match my product; it talks about a solution my product doesn’t offer or provide, and there’s no mention of it anywhere in my listing. Long story short, over the week, I’m down to zero sales each day. I lowered the product’s price to a point where I’m not just losing, I’m also going broke. And I’m frustrated, I’m frustrated that Amazon isn’t helping me. Frustrated that I spent so many mental and financial resources on this product, and because of one review (at least that’s how it feels), everything went down the drain.
Within two weeks from this review, I dropped back to where I started, the advertising budget just keeps increasing, and I still can’t sell. I lower the price, increase the coupon to almost 30%, and still can’t sell.
Friends, I’m frustrated, I feel betrayed by Amazon. A lot of sellers told me not to expect help when I’d need it—they were right. Everyone told me that the other sellers are the real Amazon’s support, so I hope that somehow, salvation will come from here. Because I tried everything, I tried to contact the buyer (contact disabled be her), I tried to ask to refund her, I tried Amazon support, I tried to report this review. Nothing.
How one Vine reviewer turned my dream launch into a Nightmare 😱
I'm already completely desperate.
I launched my first product after a whole year (a year!) of product development.
A truly complete product, made from the best materials, with the best settings, everything p-e-r-f-e-c-t. So, I launched the product, invested hundreds of dollars in an amazing listing, videos, photos, photographers who captured every possible angle, and the most accurate information. Launch day - a blast: 10 sales in few hours, one campaign, a huge budget, and really, sales just kept growing day by day (common, why did I only order 1,000 units?). Listen, 100 orders in the first 15 days, no one returned the product, not a single refund request, and really - 6 five-star reviews came in only 1 month, two of them even posted with a photo, what a dream - my lovely customers love me to.
At least that's what I thought.
One day, I check the listing and discover that my five stars (yeah, I knew it wouldn’t stay that way) dropped to 3.8.
My world darkened.
The nastiest, most disrespectful review I’ve ever received in my life, I felt humiliated. Never mind that the title started with "the size not working for me" (my product is tailored for a bed and comes in a specific size, clearly stated in the title, the bullet points, the image, and the product specs—like, didn’t you notice your bed doesn’t fit to the product? But fine - it could happens). The review content was almost a full page of , extremely insulting, comparing me to the worst product in the world, saying I wasted her money, time, and even space in her house. And you know what’s the funniest? She’s part of the Vine program - the program that should "boost sales through reviews". You literally got the product for free (okay, you paid taxes), literally got it on the 30th of the month, and literally posted the review on the 1st of the following month—you didn’t even give the product a chance.
The content of the review doesn’t even match my product; it talks about a solution my product doesn’t offer or provide, and there’s no mention of it anywhere in my listing. Long story short, over the week, I’m down to zero sales each day. I lowered the product’s price to a point where I’m not just losing, I’m also going broke. And I’m frustrated, I’m frustrated that Amazon isn’t helping me. Frustrated that I spent so many mental and financial resources on this product, and because of one review (at least that’s how it feels), everything went down the drain.
Within two weeks from this review, I dropped back to where I started, the advertising budget just keeps increasing, and I still can’t sell. I lower the price, increase the coupon to almost 30%, and still can’t sell.
Friends, I’m frustrated, I feel betrayed by Amazon. A lot of sellers told me not to expect help when I’d need it—they were right. Everyone told me that the other sellers are the real Amazon’s support, so I hope that somehow, salvation will come from here. Because I tried everything, I tried to contact the buyer (contact disabled be her), I tried to ask to refund her, I tried Amazon support, I tried to report this review. Nothing.
0 replies
Seller_NbYSGJ8Tehgbv
One time, I had 22 5 star Vine reviews and 1 1 star Vine review. The 1 review even had pictures of why my product was so bad.
Another time, I had 12 5 star reviews and 1 2 star review by someone who was just tired of Amazon in general.
I can mention that I always get those singular terrible reviews and its not detrimental to your business. I agree. Amazon Vine reviews are the new "Yelp" reviews of the internet. You always get that one smug person who is just having a bad day leaving a 1 star review so they can make themselves feel better.
But it is still essential to your business. A bad review, especially a detailed one, turns your customer into a bargain hunter. Bargain hunters typically analyze why they can still handle the item even if the bad review had any validity...making it a bargain for that customer and not the reviewer.
I know it feels like the review tanked your sales. I suggest you look elsewhere for why your sales are not to your expectations.
In addition, I strongly suggest you lower your expectations for Amazon. I have been on the platform for 10 years now. I trust nothing that comes out of Seller Central...but if you get good at it...its fruitful.
Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC
Why didn't you do a small research here in the forum, typing "Vine" in the search bar? You would have learnt how vine "customers" can temporarily destroy a listing. BUT - normal customers will continue to buy and leave good reviews. Patience, that's not the end of the world.
Seller_1oT4ZOwrSByEE
What product, what listing
show us the listing, show us the review
not sure why you would type out this story and leave the most important thing out.
Seller_aWrza8YvWVgM1
I see you are already bouncing back from this at 4.2! Negative reviews will come, it's part of it. Just keep moving forward.
Seller_HP0CuTSNvJvu9
Take it as a lesson. Either burn another GS1 barcode, update the packager to print the new UPC, print stickers to put over UPC on current stock, and start over, or just stick through it and don't do it again. Vine is not worth it.
Seller_xlf3vF516IRli
My brother once told me he won't buy anything below a 4 star review. He's what I call a savvy shopper. I use him as my benchmark. When one of my listings goes below 4, I look and see... is it the design, is it sizing, what happened? Was it just one review, does it just not have a lot of reviews yet. Most of my popular stuff is 4.5+ You literally cannot please everyone. I've gotten reviews that just said "horrible" and nothing else. I got a review once of 1 star that the person wasn't a verified customer, posted pictures of NOT my item, but something similar she obviously got from someone else, and said that I didn't include ANY instructions and it was a garbage product. Mind you, EVERY order gets 2...yes TWO sets of instructions. ONE on a half sheet of paper, and the other on a sticker that is on the back of every design. If she had purchased from me, theres no way she would of missed that. What she posted photos of was some terribly cut design in a color I don't sell. It was CLEARLY a knockoff of my design poorly done. At the time it destroyed the sales of that item... No way to respond or even contact this person. I've even gotten negative product reviews for TOO MANY instruction guides. That I was "overly aggressive with the instructions" and this person recommended that people "ignore them completely" I've never been overly aggressive with anything. LOL. It was 1 half page of instructions, and the sticker on the back of her product in case they lose the half sheet. In the almost 8 years I've been doing this particular business (been in business for over 25 years total), I've found that 70% of people need to be repeatedly told how something works. Not putting the stickers on the back with the instructions resulted in triple the complaints. Not putting the instructions on a half sheet resulted in nearly the same. I tried one and the other, both together got the best results and fewest complaints.
You just need to learn what works and what doesn't. It's trial and error mostly. People aren't going to be loyal to you, they have no reason or skin the game when they get something for free. They aren't getting it because the want or need your item to improve their lives, they are getting it because its free.
Seriously tho, take it with a grain of salt and a deep breath. It'll improve.
Seller_gatjkdfPmzT4O
I remember I had a situation where some guy ended up leaving two "questions" in the ask question section but they were more of negative statements about the functionality of the product phrased as questions. The same individual then left a negative 1 star review for the product with 3 paragraphs and a screenshot from a section of the manual online. The kicker is this person never bought the product. Then after some time went by and I went to this persons profile on Amazon they are now a Vine customer. Amazon did nothing about it.
Seller_p7mSqtkBCAkqm
I saw your "completely desperate" post and thought I'd give some hopefully helpful advice.
I'm sure that you've heard the expression, "Never put all of your eggs in one basket." Selling a wide variety of products seems to be the way to go on Amazon. That way, one bad review only affects one product out of many.
As for the bad product review from the customer who got the product for free, it is my opinion that Amazon Vine isn't the way to go for reviews.
When your products first started selling, you mentioned that you got several very good reviews from normal customers. If you had stayed away from Vine, you would probably still be selling your product like crazy.
If you haven't done so already, your best option now is probably to send review requests to your current customers to try to bring your product rating back up again. Amazon allows you to do that directly through your seller account. Some sellers automate this so that they don't have to do it manually.
As for temporarily slashing your prices, you may discover that it actually has a negative impact on sales. Some potential customers may see your low price and wonder what is wrong with your product.
More importantly, when people order your product at the slashed price and then come back later to buy it again as a gift for someone else at the regular price they will view the new price as a massive price increase.
They may think that you suddenly got greedy; not realizing that they got the product while it was heavily discounted and that you are merely reverting back to the normal, original price.
This tends to drive repeat customers away and even leave bad customer reviews because of the price change even if they really liked the product.
This might sound crazy but you might also try temporarily pausing your advertising campaigns to see if your sales increase. It seems to work for me and I save advertising money for a couple of weeks at a time.
Also keep in mind that although Amazon is pretty big now, it is a relatively new selling platform.
Seller_igkFNem9q2hSC
Amazon only protects buyers, they don't care about sellers.
