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Archived Author Help > Getting Amazon review removed/Fiverr transaction gone wrong

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message 1: by J.B. (new)

J.B. Trepagnier (jbtrepagnier) | 27 comments I need a little help here.

Last week, I ventured into the world of fiverr to see if I could get more exposure for my book through keywords and a new blurb. I paid for a few extras as far as keywords and having my blurb rewritten with the new keywords to see if it would get it more exposure. What the seller sent me the first time were a bunch of keywords unrelated to my book and my EXACT same blurb sent back to me. I sent a revision with clarification on the keywords and pointed out I paid for her to rewrite my blurb and she did not. I got more unrelated keywords and my exact same blurb back with a sentence at the end'"you must buy this book". After a few more back and forth, I sent her the entire plot laid out and she sends me back another blurb with glaring plot errors as early as the second sentence that I stated in the first sentence of the plot as well as complaining to me that I'm a pain in the ass basically. I ask to cancel at this point via message and she tells me she won't let me cancel, but wants to leave me a 5 star review, having never read it, and wants to rewrite it again. I don't want 5 star reviews I didn't earn from someone who has never read it, so I attempt to cancel through fiverr and she denied the request.

I contact fiverr directly, who cancels the gig and refunds me and the day I get the email from fiverr that it went through, she goes over and leaves me a 1 star review saying I filled over 300 pages with filler words and didn't actually write a book. She said no one should buy it and kind of hinted that I paid for all the 5 star reviews I have.

I contacted Amazon, both via phone and email. The department that does the reviews can only be contacted via email. I've laid out the entire situation that she's a fiverr seller and has never actually read this book and has a beef with me. Amazon has told me TWICE now that this doesn't actually violate their guidelines. Their guidelines clearly state you can't post reviews that are libelous and defamatory, but does not consider this situation that.

Has anyone had a review like this and how did you get it removed?


message 2: by Christina (new)

Christina McMullen (cmcmullen) Hi JB,
You would want to flag the review as abuse. Beyond that, you may want to take screenshots and send them to Fiverr to show them what their user is doing. I'm sure she must be violating vendor terms as well.


message 3: by Alexis (last edited Dec 20, 2016 07:19PM) (new)

Alexis | 265 comments What a vindictive, childish [censored] that one is. I would screenshot all your conversations with her and fiverr and send it all to Amazon.

ETA: I've reported her review as being inappropriate. I would have for the spelling mistakes alone. Lol. Hopefully it helps. =/


message 4: by Rhonda (new)

Rhonda | 45 comments Wow. What a nightmare. Sorry to hear about that. I've never dealt with fiverr but amazon's response is disappointing. I'm curious to see if anyone else has had the same problem.


message 5: by J.B. (new)

J.B. Trepagnier (jbtrepagnier) | 27 comments Fiverr is aware and said they would send her account to the Trust center, but said they wouldn't be able to tell me what happened from there.

I'm running a promo in 2 days and I'm trying to get this review down. The account review history is clearly fake as they are all 5 star and she's reviewed at least 9 of the same type of dog product you would only ever need 1 of. Her other 1 star review has the exact same wording she left on mine.

I've been flagging it as abuse since it showed up and have emailed Amazon numerous times. They keep replying to me that the review is not against their terms of service. I've just sent Amazon screen shots of the fiverr conversation where she was trying to bribe me with a 5 star to keep me from canceling as well as calling me a pain in the ass


message 6: by R.L. (new)

R.L. Jackson (authorrljackson) ^ditto what everyone else said. And also next time if someone gives you shoddy work, that's red flag number one that they are unprofessional and do it care about your brand. Drop them immediately or have them do sample work first before paying. So sorry this happened to you.


message 7: by R.L. (new)

R.L. Jackson (authorrljackson) Don't*


message 8: by Marie Silk (new)

Marie Silk | 611 comments Wow this is awful. I'm sorry you are going through this J.B. :(


message 9: by C.L. (new)

C.L. Lynch (cllynchauthor) | 316 comments OMG this is terrible. So sorry for you.


message 10: by Kenneth (new)

Kenneth Brown | 17 comments People be careful about who you get to do something, after they've been paid, that is when you realise how fraudulent, unprofessional and horrible how some people are.That is when the heartache and greif begin.


message 11: by Owen (new)

Owen O'Neill (owen_r_oneill) | 1509 comments Sorry you want through this. It sounds like you have done all that can reasonably be done.

As far as the review being up, readers who care about reviews will are discerning enough to see that the review is not genuine, and will discount it. Readers who pay no attention to reviews will not be affected by it.

These situations are unpleasant but the fact is that a transparently fallacious review like this does no real harm. Readers know better. They can tell what's going on here as well as we can.


Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) (sammydogs) | 973 comments J.B. I'm sorry you are experiencing this upsetting issue. I wish I had advice. I can only hope it will be resolved correctly. Hugs


message 13: by Mary Ellen (new)

Mary Ellen Woods (maryellen_woods) | 48 comments Wow...I just paid someone on fivver to do a promotion of my book which was supposed to be done yesterday and wasn't. I was going to ask for my money back but I'm reconsidering. I don't want this kind of headache over $8. But I'm torn because I don't want someone else to waste money either. This was my first foray into fivver and probably my last with this result and what I'm reading here.


message 14: by C.B., Beach Body Moderator (new)

C.B. Archer | 1090 comments Mod
Rizember wrote: "A service whack."

Hello Rizember, this isn't the place to promote your services. You can start a thread in the SIA Reader and Writer Showcase if you wish.


message 15: by J.B. (new)

J.B. Trepagnier (jbtrepagnier) | 27 comments Mary, the only other fiverr gig I've tried was the promotion service. I didn't set a day for it, but it was done timely. They provided me with tracking links, but it didn't result in any sales. They did what they said they would do, thought. There's a webpage called copromote that I joined that you can sync through twitter, facebook, instagram, etc. You pick what you want blasted and the more share, the more reach you get. I've been using that instead of the fiverr promotion services.

An update on the whole situation: Amazon is still refusing to remove the review and apparently fiverr did nothing because her account is still active


message 16: by Nat (new)

Nat Kennedy | 321 comments Wow. What a nightmare! Maybe you could tell Amazon that the review is your sister and shouldn't be on there because you know each other.

Seriously, though, I am thankful that you posted about this so I can now be more wary of such scams/situations. I hope you rated her very very poorly on Fiver.

I've done some fiverr promotion, for FB and TW and neither amounted to sales. So, I'm not really sold.


message 17: by Tamara (new)

Tamara Brown (asktamarabrown) | 26 comments I've had my own Fiverr nightmare. I'm staying positive I don't see copies of my book out there that I did not publish.


message 18: by Rohvannyn (new)

Rohvannyn Shaw | 189 comments J.B. wrote: "I need a little help here.

Last week, I ventured into the world of fiverr to see if I could get more exposure for my book through keywords and a new blurb. I paid for a few extras as far as keywor..."


Wow! That's rough. Sorry to hear it happened. I agree that the review might not really have much of an effect if your other reviews are all good. I reported the review too, in case it helps.

It's sad that someone can do such bad work, expect to be paid for it, then get mad when you actually want her to do the thing she agreed to do! There are so many people out there who would love to do the work, it's a shame that one is such a bad egg.


message 19: by J.B. (new)

J.B. Trepagnier (jbtrepagnier) | 27 comments That's the thing with fiverr. Since the gig was canceled, I can't leave her ANY feedback on fiverr at all and she can't leave me any. Amazon doesn't appear to want to do anything about her review, so the only thing I can do is leave a comment on her review and possibly blog about it


message 20: by Thomas (new)

Thomas Everson (authorthomaseverson) | 424 comments Warning! Do not engage!

I would recommend against commenting on the review at all. Bad things happen when authors confront. Very bad. Look up "author confronts blogger" on Google.

Yes, this is one of the extreme possibilities, but there are many other situations where an author confronted and it ended in a very bad situation for the author (such as one fake bad review turning into a whole slew of them.)


message 21: by Justin (new)

Justin (justinbienvenue) | 790 comments Wow that's terrible. I hate that people like that exist. Hope you get it taken down.


message 22: by Christina (new)

Christina McMullen (cmcmullen) Thomas wrote: "Warning! Do not engage!

I would recommend against commenting on the review at all. Bad things happen when authors confront. Very bad. Look up "author confronts blogger" on Google.

Yes, this is on..."


Seconding this. Very, very, VERY much second ding this. We have seen careers ruined by an author response to a bad review. It doesn't matter who is in the right or who is in the wrong, it never turns out well for the author.


message 23: by R.L. (new)

R.L. Jackson (authorrljackson) Wow just read the essay. That's insane!!


message 24: by G.G. (new)

G.G. (ggatcheson) | 2491 comments Disclaimer: I haven't seen the review or read the book, but I had a few things to say about the whole thing.

First, as Thomas and Christina said: NEVER ENGAGE. The biggest mistake an author can make is to engage a reviewer.

Second: It sucks, but this is but one review. If what she claims is untrue, if no one else has the same complaints she wrote, people will more than likely ignore it.

Third: This is a public forum. Anyone doing a search can see and read it. Whether she was right or wrong writing that review, some people might see it as you harassing a legit reviewer, which is something you want to avoid at all cost. I'd leave it be. As reviews will accumulate, hers will be lost among them.


message 25: by C.B., Beach Body Moderator (new)

C.B. Archer | 1090 comments Mod
It appears as if you already engaged, a few days ago.

I'd suggest deleting that comment, and honestly this entire thread. Don't throw your possible career away because of one star. You reported it to Amazon, nothing else will help at this point.

Disengage.
:)


message 26: by Jane (new)

Jane Jago | 888 comments Don't. Just don't. As everyone else has said you are on a hiding to nothing.

The only real,lesson in this is that we authors need to have thick skin and a mordant sense of humour...


Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) (sammydogs) | 973 comments I'm in the process of thickening my transparent skin. One thing helping me is occasionally thinking some people shouldn't have a driver's license, have no right working in customer service, or have a mean disposition in general. Plus I have a very sarcastic sense of humor. : D


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