Amazonreviews, explained.

Amazon's own tools are Vine, which sends brand-registered products free to vetted reviewers, and the Request a Review button in your Seller Central account, which asks once per order, 5 to 30 days after delivery. Offering money, free product, refunds or gifts for reviews outside Vine breaks Amazon's rules and can cost you the account. The law bans fake reviews outright too, in the EU since May 2022 and in the UK since April 2025, when the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 also banned reviews hiding an incentive.

Vine, which gives your units to trusted reviewers for honest reviews, is free on amazon.co.uk for up to 2 units per product page, then £60 for up to 10 and £140 for up to 30. Germany, France and Spain charge €0, €70 and €170 for the same tiers, which Amazon set in October 2023. It's open to brand-registered products sold through Fulfilment by Amazon with fewer than 30 reviews, and you're only charged if you enrol 3 or more units and the first review arrives within 90 days.

Reviews only come down when they break Amazon's Community Guidelines, so being negative or unfair isn't enough. You can flag one with the Report link under it if it's abusive, written by a competitor or about delivery, damage or the seller rather than the product. Offering a refund or anything else to change or delete it breaks Amazon's rules. Seller feedback is the separate rating for your service, and on Fulfilment by Amazon orders, feedback that's only about delivery gets struck through, with a note that Amazon takes responsibility.

Yes, your Account Health Rating scores how well you follow Amazon's policies on a 1,000-point scale, and every account starts at 200, the lowest healthy score. Your order defect rate has to stay under 1%, counting orders with 1 or 2-star seller feedback, an A-to-z Guarantee claim or a card chargeback over a problem with the order. If you dispatch orders yourself, late dispatch must stay under 4%, cancellations under 2.5% and valid tracking above 95%. Slipping counts against you in the Buy Box and, over time, the account.

Aim to reply within 24 hours, because Seller Central, the back office where you run your Amazon account, flags any message left longer as late. Amazon tells shoppers to expect a reply within 48 hours, and on an order you dispatched yourself, a shopper with a problem who hasn't heard back by then can open an A-to-z Guarantee claim. Amazon keeps copies of the messages, which a shopper can use to back up a claim.

It's Amazon's promise that what you sell arrives on time and as described, or the shopper is refunded. They can claim when an order goes wrong and you don't answer within 48 hours or don't fix it, up to 90 days after the latest delivery date. Amazon's customer service handles Fulfilment by Amazon orders, so claims mostly come from orders you ship yourself. Claims granted against you are charged to your account and count towards your order defect rate, as do pending ones and any you refund after they're filed.

Amazon suspends accounts over fakes or stock you can't back up with supplier invoices, restricted products, trademark or copyright complaints, review manipulation, failed identity checks and poor performance. It can also deactivate accounts it treats as related to a suspended one, so a link can take yours down. Unlike a suppressed listing that hides one product, a suspension stops the whole account and Amazon can hold your money while it's deactivated. Getting reinstated usually takes a plan of action covering the cause, the fix and what stops it happening again.