Negative Amazon Seller Feedback: the removal rules nobody uses
Seller feedback is not a product review, and it follows its own rules. Amazon removes a feedback comment when it is entirely a product review, contains obscene language or personal data, and strikes it through when the problem was Amazon’s own fulfilment on an FBA order. You request this yourself in Seller Central, within 90 days of the order.
On this page
- Feedback and product reviews are separate systems with separate rules.
- Product-only comments, obscenity and personal data are removable; FBA fulfilment complaints get struck through.
- The window is 90 days from the order date — after that, nothing moves.
What is seller feedback, and why does it matter?
Seller feedback rates the transaction: did the order arrive on time, in the condition promised, and was the seller reachable. It sits on your seller profile and feeds your feedback score, which is one of the inputs into Account Health and into the Buy Box. A product review rates the product and sits on the detail page under the ASIN.
Buyers routinely mix them up. Someone who wants to complain about a cracked lid lands in the feedback form, and someone who waited four days for a parcel writes a one-star product review. That confusion is the reason both systems have removal rules — and the reason feedback is often the easier of the two to clean up.
What does Amazon remove or strike through?
| Case | What happens | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| The comment is entirely a product review | Removed completely | FBA and seller-fulfilled |
| Obscene or abusive language | Removed completely | FBA and seller-fulfilled |
| Personal data (name, phone number, email) | Removed completely | FBA and seller-fulfilled |
| The comment is entirely about fulfilment or delivery on an FBA order | Struck through, with a note from Amazon | FBA only |
| Delivery problem on an order shipped on time via Buy Shipping | Struck through | Seller-fulfilled |
A struck-through comment stays visible but is crossed out, carries a line saying Amazon takes responsibility for the fulfilment experience, and no longer counts towards your feedback score. For your rating, that is as good as removal.
The one word that decides it: entirely. A comment that mixes both — “arrived late and the fabric is thin” — usually stays, because part of it is genuine feedback about the transaction. One sentence about the seller is enough to keep the whole comment up.
How do you request removal?
- Open Feedback Manager in Seller Central, under Performance.
- Find the comment and use the removal request on that row.
- Pick the matching reason — product review, obscenity, personal data, or fulfilment on an FBA order. Amazon’s automated check runs first and decides many cases in a day or two.
- If it is declined, open a case and argue it in writing: quote the comment, name the category it falls into, and add the order ID. Don’t argue that the feedback is unfair; argue that it belongs in a different place.
- Mind the clock. Requests are only possible within 90 days of the order date.
You can also ask the buyer to withdraw the feedback themselves — buyers can remove their own feedback within 60 days — but be careful how you ask. Offering anything in return, or linking it to a refund, breaks Amazon’s rules in exactly the way described in does Amazon remove negative reviews.
Why is feedback easier to clean than product reviews?
Three reasons. The categories are narrower and more mechanical, so there is less room for interpretation. Part of the check is automated, so decisions come back in days rather than weeks. And Amazon has a direct interest in the FBA cases: when its own fulfilment caused the problem, it is Amazon’s performance being rated, not yours.
The flip side is the 90-day window. Product reviews can be reported years later; feedback cannot. If nobody is watching your feedback page, removable comments expire quietly. A weekly look is enough.
What if the complaint sits in the wrong place?
This is the case worth knowing, and it runs in both directions:
- A product complaint in your feedback — “the cable is too short” — is removable feedback. Request removal as a product review.
- A delivery or seller complaint in a product review — “arrived crushed”, “seller never replied” — is a product review that breaks Amazon’s Community Guidelines. Report it through the review channels in how to report a review on Amazon.
Both are the same underlying problem — feedback filed in the wrong system — and both have a route. Most sellers only use one of the two.
What does a good feedback routine look like?
- Check weekly. New negative feedback, sorted by date, with the 90-day clock in mind.
- Sort by cause: product, fulfilment, your own service, or buyer expectation. Only the first two are removable or strike-through cases.
- File immediately for anything in those two categories. Waiting costs you the window.
- Fix the rest. Repeated service complaints are a process problem, and no removal route exists for them — nor should it.
- Keep a log of order ID, date, category and outcome, so a declined request can be escalated with a sharper argument rather than the same one.
If your product pages carry the same kind of misplaced complaints, the free review check shows how many of them qualify under the review rules.
Frequently asked questions
Does seller feedback affect my Buy Box or Account Health?
Your feedback score is one of the performance signals Amazon looks at, alongside order defect rate, late shipments and cancellations. A single negative comment rarely changes anything on its own, but a run of them on a small order volume moves your percentage quickly, because the score is a ratio rather than an absolute number. Removals and strike-throughs both take the comment out of that ratio.
What is the difference between removal and a strike-through?
A removed comment disappears from your feedback page entirely. A struck-through comment stays visible but is crossed out, carries a note from Amazon taking responsibility for the fulfilment experience, and no longer counts towards your feedback score. Commercially the effect is the same; visually, a struck-through comment is still readable to anyone who scrolls your profile.
Can I ask a buyer to remove their feedback?
You may contact the buyer through Buyer-Seller Messaging to resolve the underlying problem, and buyers can remove their own feedback within 60 days. What you may not do is offer anything in exchange, tie a refund to the removal, or pressure them. That turns a solvable service issue into a policy violation on your account, which is a far bigger problem than one comment.
How long does a feedback removal request take?
Requests that match a clear category — a comment that is purely a product review, or a fulfilment complaint on an FBA order — are often decided within a few days, because part of the check is automated. Cases that need a written argument take longer, in the same range as product-review reports. The one thing you cannot extend is the 90-day window from the order date.
Is it worth removing feedback if the product reviews are the real problem?
They are separate problems with separate effects. Feedback affects your seller metrics and the Buy Box; product reviews affect what shoppers read before buying. If your feedback score is healthy and your detail pages carry the damage, the review side is where the money is — see our guide on where the sale is actually lost.
Cueneyt has spent years inside Amazon seller accounts — first in account management at SellerVate, now in review removal, with more than 5,000 cases behind him. These guides come out of what actually happens in those cases.
About Starfix.ai: Starfix.ai is a success-based Amazon review removal service. It reports only reviews that break Amazon’s Community Guidelines, through Amazon’s official channels, and charges only for reviews that are actually removed. Whether a review comes down is Amazon’s decision in each case.
Which of your reviews shouldn’t be there?
Paste one ASIN into the free review checker — we come back with how many of your negative reviews qualify.