Dirty tactics/underhand practices - what's your experience?
Discussion
Just looking for a bit of sanity.
Short of it - launched a product (first commercially available of its type) in 2020, but it was quickly copied (much lower quality, poorer design and much more expensive) by a competitor who has been using underhand tactics since 2022 to undermine my product. My product was selling really well on Amazon, but all of a sudden, negative reviews started with the 'buyers' mentioning the competitor's product as 'the better alternative' - at the time, I checked through all the orders and, surprise surprise, the competitor had actually ordered my product and this coincided with the raft of negative reviews. Unforunately for me, this has not stopped and continues to this day with the negative reviews following the same pattern.
I take every negative review/returned item very personally and this clouds my mood for days.
Has anyone else been the subject durty tactics and, if so, how do you deal with it?
TIA
Short of it - launched a product (first commercially available of its type) in 2020, but it was quickly copied (much lower quality, poorer design and much more expensive) by a competitor who has been using underhand tactics since 2022 to undermine my product. My product was selling really well on Amazon, but all of a sudden, negative reviews started with the 'buyers' mentioning the competitor's product as 'the better alternative' - at the time, I checked through all the orders and, surprise surprise, the competitor had actually ordered my product and this coincided with the raft of negative reviews. Unforunately for me, this has not stopped and continues to this day with the negative reviews following the same pattern.
I take every negative review/returned item very personally and this clouds my mood for days.
Has anyone else been the subject durty tactics and, if so, how do you deal with it?
TIA
Wow... or... er... holy moly! I can't believe how cretinous some people are. Can you report the "reviews" as fake? They can check the IP addresses and account emails. Or even reply with "According to our records, you have not bought this product from us which means you must be a fake review."
I wouldn't go so far as commenting on the poor quality of the rival, though.
You could also contact past buyers and ask them to post positive reviews in light of your current situation.
I wouldn't go so far as commenting on the poor quality of the rival, though.
You could also contact past buyers and ask them to post positive reviews in light of your current situation.
Thanks for the replies.
So, another negative review was published on Saturday which pushed me over the edge - however, this time we discovered that the 'buyer' that left the negative review is actually following my competitor on IG, so we have a link between them and our competitor. Have reported to Amazon, so will see what they say (not holding out hope as we have reported before and nothing happened).
Just for clarity, this product was designed by myself and solved an decades-old problem and so is very much a 'passion product' which is why this feels like a very personal battle. We sell it directly, via Amazon and via a very large retailer.
Direct sales - ZERO complaints and ZERO returns.
Amazon - product was actually 'Amazon's Choice' until the shenanigans started and now has fallen in ranking due to the rating taking a battering is behind inferior Chinese copies.
Not sure whether a LBA might be a good idea?
So, another negative review was published on Saturday which pushed me over the edge - however, this time we discovered that the 'buyer' that left the negative review is actually following my competitor on IG, so we have a link between them and our competitor. Have reported to Amazon, so will see what they say (not holding out hope as we have reported before and nothing happened).
Just for clarity, this product was designed by myself and solved an decades-old problem and so is very much a 'passion product' which is why this feels like a very personal battle. We sell it directly, via Amazon and via a very large retailer.
Direct sales - ZERO complaints and ZERO returns.
Amazon - product was actually 'Amazon's Choice' until the shenanigans started and now has fallen in ranking due to the rating taking a battering is behind inferior Chinese copies.
Not sure whether a LBA might be a good idea?
Frimley111R said:
Can you reply to each one? It may work in your favour if you give a very professional response and mention that yours is higher quality, original etc.
Or get someone independent to test yours against theirs for a YT video.
Unfortunately, cannot reply to Amazon reviews - Amazon has really shut down avenues of re-dress for sellers.Or get someone independent to test yours against theirs for a YT video.
YT video is something that I am considering - competitor has posted one, giving a bulls
t backstory, explaining how he 'invented it' whilst also implicitly disparaging my product by stating that his early designs had feature 'x' but did away with it because it hindered the function (my product has feature 'x' and the wording he used in his YT video to disparage it, is the (uncommon) wording that I use for my product).Reviews pointing towards another (their own) product fall outside the community guidelines. Ads, conflicts of interest section.
"
We also don't allow people to create, edit, or post content about their own products or services. The same goes for products and services offered by:
Friends
Relatives
Employers
Business associates
Competitors
"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display....
"
We also don't allow people to create, edit, or post content about their own products or services. The same goes for products and services offered by:
Friends
Relatives
Employers
Business associates
Competitors
"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display....
Ham_and_Jam said:
You say they copied your product. Did you get any protection before you launched the product? (Patents / copyright etc)
This…this comment is exactly right. I’m a very experienced Amazon seller and honestly without trademark, design rights or patents you might as well p**s into the wind I’m afraid. fellatthefirst said:
Ham_and_Jam said:
You say they copied your product. Did you get any protection before you launched the product? (Patents / copyright etc)
This this comment is exactly right. I m a very experienced Amazon seller and honestly without trademark, design rights or patents you might as well p**s into the wind I m afraid. Had protection in parts of the design - competitor copied the concept and left out the elements that had protection - no issue with that, as I believe that having competition is healthy, if it's fairly done. The problem they had was/have is they can't compete on price, quality of materials, design, function etc. so they resorted to maliciously defaming the product in order to 'get it out of the way'.
Don't want to reveal what it is/what industry, suffice to say that my product created a new niche within an established industry sector.
Amazon have got involved and investigated - they said that they have taken action, but won't share what those actions are. Negative feedback/returns seemed to have stopped, so, hopefully, things will improve.
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