Does Amazon delete book reviews?

[mdovell]

I read around a dozen books over the past summer..and more earlier in the year.

I reviewed a fair amount of them but the reviews are gone

These were not one star or five star reviews that may have shown a bias..

I'm not calling it censorship but has this happened to anyone else?

[ATDrake]

Yes they do, and they do it for any number of reasons, ranging from complaints about the review, to mentioning price/other stores in the review, etc.

You need not have given a 1/5-star review to get a complaint, either. I've seen some indie authors on the Amazon boards go into total meltdown over receiving even a flattering 3-star review which said the book was enjoyable and while it had some issues in places, showed great promise and the reviewer looked forward to reading a sequel.

[MichelRenaud]

I'm surprised to learn that they do, because I've seen a lot of nonsense in the reviews section. Some are as stupid as giving something one star because the package arrived late.

[pidgeon92]

Sometimes reviews go poof for a while, and then return. Poltergeists in the servers, no doubt.

[Lazer]

It could be a violation of these:

What's not allowed
Amazon is pleased to provide this forum for you to share your opinions on products. While we appreciate your time and comments, we reserve the right to remove reviews that include any of the following:

Objectionable material:
• Obscene or distasteful content
• Profanity or spiteful remarks
• Promotion of illegal or immoral conduct

Promotional content:
• Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively
• Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)
• Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product. This includes reviews that are a part of a paid publicity package
• Solicitations for helpful votes

Inappropriate content:
• Crucial plot elements (unless you offer a clear "spoiler alert")
• Other people's material (this includes excessive quoting)
• Phone numbers, postal mailing addresses, and URLs external to Amazon.com
• Details about availability or alternate ordering/shipping
• Videos with watermarks
• Comments on other reviews visible on the page (because page visibility is subject to change without notice)
• Foreign language content (unless there is a clear connection to the product)

Off-topic information:
• Feedback on the seller, your shipment experience or the packaging (you can do that at www.amazon.com/feedback and www.amazon.com/packaging)
• Feedback about typos or inaccuracies in our catalog or product description (instead, use the feedback form at the bottom of the product page).

[RainingLemur]

I've submitted a few reviews for some things I've read/purchased/etc... And, it looks like they are all still there. But, then again, I can't be sure of what all I've left reviews for...

[johnnyb]

I experienced removal of reviews for complaints about formatting... Even if the are just supplementary comments to an otherwise unbiased descriptive review...

[Kenneth_irl]

I find it very distasteful if Amazon removes reviews without sending a mail to the review author with the original copy, included specific reason for its removal. It doesn't sound like they do this from the OP. I am personally very distrustful of information in general and review manipulation is something to consider when making a purchase, certainly, and the reasons for that should be fairly obvious.

[Nausicaa]

Yeah they do.

[machinogodzilla]

Yes, they do, and not only reviews of books for that matter. I will never post any more reviews and won't trust the ratings I see, as you never know how many of critical reviews have been removed by amazon in order to protect its revenues.

[sirmaru]

The reviews may still be there. Go to \ Your Account \ Personalization \ Community \ Product Reviews Written by You.

I've never had any reviews removed. Even when the product was discontinued, my review was still in that location under "Your Account". Of course without the product page no one else could see the review.

When there are hundreds of reviews, you may not be able to find yours on the product page. If reviews are rejected by Amazon, it happens when you submit it and you receive an email stating it. That happened to me once.

[yoho]

Originally Posted by Kenneth_irl

I find it very distasteful if Amazon removes reviews without sending a mail to the review author with the original copy, included specific reason for its removal. It doesn't sound like they do this from the OP. I am personally very distrustful of information in general and review manipulation is something to consider when making a purchase, certainly, and the reasons for that should be fairly obvious.

in the past, those reviews did help us find the best product, but now? as you've said, total manipulation.

[machinogodzilla]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

The reviews may still be there. Go to \ Your Account \ Personalization \ Community \ Product Reviews Written by You

This is where I checked before and after. The reviews were removed on more than one occasion and the products are still there.

Originally Posted by sirmaru

When there are hundreds of reviews, you may not be able to find yours on the product page.

I didn't review products where there were hundreds of reviews already, that's kind of pointless, so I could clearly see that mine were gone. Maybe the censors at Amazon, a.k.a little China, could see them equally easily...