How To Change A Review On Amazon

David Reid
November 6, 2023

Changing a review on Amazon tends to break down into two types of activity, each with their own pathway.

Changing a review you yourself have written, in the event of second thoughts, and
Changing a review of your products or interactions written by someone else, to improve your overall feedback profile.

Changing A Review You’ve Written

This is by some considerable distance, “the easy part” of the equation when it comes to changing reviews on Amazon. That’s because positive Amazon reviews are worth more than gold dust to sellers.

Amazon therefore is very strict about intervening to censor or remove negative reviews – tampering with the honesty of user experience reviews – than users often are themselves.

So if you’ve written a shining review, then decided to temper down your five star rating, or you’ve written a whining review, then decided to polish your feedback a little, it’s a lot easier for you to do than it would be for sellers to change or delete.

So how do you do it?

First of all, the way to change your review differs depending on whether you’re doing it on a web browser or on a mobile app.

Web Browser

Sign into your Amazon account as normal.
From the home page, locate the “Accounts & Lists” link in the top right corner.
Click on that link.
At the bottom left of the “Your Account” page, you’ll see a list of options entitled “Ordering and Shopping Preferences.”
Usually the fourth item down in that list is titled “Your Amazon Profile.” Click on that link.
That will take you to your Amazon Profile page. On that page, you’ll see any and all details you’ve given – potentially a picture, any shopping lists or wish lists you’ve made, etc. In the right-hand space though, you’ll also find your Community Activity.
That will include any and all reviews you’ve written. Navigate to the review you want to alter.
You should see an ellipsis (three dots in a row) in the top right corner of your review. Hovering or clicking on that will give you two options: “Edit review” or “Delete review.”
Choose which activity you want – either delete the review entirely and write a fresh one, or edit your original review with new content.
If you want to edit the review, you get the chance to change the number of stars you give the product, and either add new content at the end of the review – specifying that after further consideration you changed your opinion – or simply write the review fresh, as though you hadn’t written a previous version.
Save the review, and it will be updated.

Mobile App

If you want to change one of your reviews via the Amazon app on a mobile device, the principle of what you do is the same, but some of the actual directions are different.

Open the Amazon app on your device.
In the top left corner of the screen, you’ll see three parallel horizontal lines. Click on them.
You will open a drop-down list. Select “Your Account” from this list.
Under “Personalized Content” on the page this opens, you’ll see “Profile.” Click on that.
On this page, scroll until you see “Community Activity.”
Clicking on “Community Activity” will open up the home of all your reviews, as in the web browser version.
As in the web browser version, look at your listed reviews. Find the one you want to edit or delete.
Find the ellipsis (three dots) in the top right corner of your chosen review and click on them.
Select whether you want to edit or delete your review, and then amend the review and save as you’re prompted. Boom! Review changed or deleted.

Changing Or Deleting Someone Else’s Review

This is very much more “the hard way” to do things.

It’s also worth remembering that if someone leaves a bad review, yes, there’s a chance it will drag down the likelihood of further sales. But on the other hand, sometimes too positive a picture can put people off too, as it looks a little “too perfect” in this day and age.

So the first thing to be sure of before you try to change or delete someone else’s review is that it’s worth your time and energy to get it changed.

If you’ve decided that it is, there’s the soft approach, and the hard approach.

The Soft Approach For Changing A Review On Amazon

The soft approach is the simplest thing you can do – which is to respond to the review in a professional manner.

If you open up a dialogue with the buyer, never do so with the explicit intention of getting them to change their review, because that’s creepy and pressuring and most of all is very unlikely to work.

But making the buyer aware that you’re aware that they’ve had issues with their experience of buying from you, and that you’re willing and able to do whatever you can to improve that experience.

That way, if you post a public response, it shows other potential buyers you were trying to fix the issues in good faith, and if your neg-reviewing buyer takes you up on your offer, you have the opportunity to improve their experience, which is a good thing to do in its own right, but also opens up the opportunity for that changed experience to earn you a changed review.

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The Hard Approach To Change A Review On Amazon

If you want to go to Amazon customer service and plead your case to get a negative review removed, you’re going to have to judge that on a case-by-case basis.

That’s because, as we said, Amazon has worked ridiculously hard to make its ratings and feedback system worth the pixels it’s printed on. Within some important guidelines, it’s a zone where free speech rules, and the power is essentially with the buyer.

Those guidelines are Amazon’s community guidelines.

If the review doesn’t contravene at least one of the community guidelines, the chances of Amazon taking action to amend or remove the review are pretty much vanishingly small.

So what should you be looking for in terms of things that can flag up a contravention of Amazon’s community guidelines?

Any review using profanity, harassment, or language that could be fairly construed as abusive. While Amazon puts the power more or less in the hands of the buyer when it comes to reviewing, it’s not about to stand for a review that’s abusive, harassing, or that uses language unfit to be read by anyone (including children, because they use Amazon too). This is the easiest line for reviewers to cross, and you can ask for the review to be removed on that basis.
Reviews that go off-topic. This is a much more subtle grounds for removal, because buyers may not be aware that reviews are supposed to stick strictly to talking about the product. If they mention you as the seller, and their experience with you in that capacity, they can technically be found to be off-topic, and you may have grounds for a removal there.
Reviews posted by your business competitors. This might sound weird, but it has been known for competitor companies to post loaded negative reviews to steer business their way. You have to be able to prove that’s happening in order to get a review removed, which is trickier than either of the first two cases – but if you can do it, you can get the negative review removed.
And perhaps weirdest of all, any review that mentions competitive pricing can be removed. “Available cheaper at Wal-Mart” is quite enough to get a review removed, because of course, it’s in Amazon’s interests to keep buyers within the Amazon sphere as much as it is in yours.
If you believe a review contravenes any of these guidelines, you can go through your seller account page to find customer services, and request that the review be taken down.