Amazon Book Reviews

[John Temp]

For the last week I have been trying to get Amazon.co.uk accept a book review that I wrote. For now I won't mention the book, but it is a Java title that has many errors in it and I wanted to point this point out.
The review did not slight the author ot tell people to avoid other publications by him.
After submitting the review a number of times, I emailed amazon to ask why the review was ignored and they said that they had the right to do so under their guidelines. The problem is that I didn't breach the guidlines.
I pointed out to them that they do not seem to accept negative 1st reviews of books as this will hit sales. They will accept negative reviews in amongst other positive reviews.
What makes me really mad is that I feel that the book deserves the review that I gave it. It does have many mistakes and it is not as good as some of the other books that deal with the same subject matter.
Has anyone else found problems like this with amazon?

[Cindy Glass]

Actually I have seen lots of books that have been really panned at Amazon. Some of the rather brutally.
I never actually looked to see if there was always a good review FIRST though.

[John Temp]

I have sent three reviews for this book, the first could be considered offensive to a degree as I said that it was a small book and therefore would not take up much space in my bin. This I accept was too much. The second & third attempt were very tame.
Here it is :
"Ok the price is good and the book is smaller and more concise than other titles but they are it's only redeeming features.
Unfortunately there are too many errors and too little core detail to warrant buying this title. The Manning book is far better in almost all areas.
The information contained within the book is often little better than reading the servlet & JSP specifications that can be freely downloaded from Sun's website.
Spend the extra money elsewhere."
Does this go too far? - Amazon says that it does!
If the concensus is that I have over stepped the mark then I stand corrected but it seems an accurate reflection as I see it.
[ March 19, 2003: Message edited by: John Temp ]

[Gregg Bolinger]

Maybe you could get Amazon to tell you what specific guildelines you may have breached. That way you can see what part of your review didn't meet their standards and possibly be able to correct that.

[John Temp]

I have asked them to clarify (no reply so far).
I think that part of the issue is exactly that however. They simply said that they don't have to publish it as they have specified guidlines and have the editorial control over what gets published.
I accept that they have to control the content but I think that the review should stand as it will help people to get an informed opinion on a book that I have read. I have no axe to grind with the author, just the content of his book (oh yes and Amazon now)

[Thomas Paul]

You should know that it can take up to 4 weeks for a review to get posted on amazon.uk. They are amazingly slow.
There is a board for people who do reviews at amazon:
http://forums.prosperotechnologies.com/am-custreview
There is a lot of side stuff but the people there will know more about the rules of posting reviews.

[John Temp]

I know that they can take a long time, but I emailed them and they said that the review had been refused.
I don't know whether amazon have such a forum on amazon.co.uk I'll have a look. Thanks for that.

[John Temp]

I have a reply from Amazon and they state :
"Please know that Amazon.co.uk is a retail site and we are happy to
post legitimate book reviews that meet our guidelines. All customer
reviews submitted are subject to posting at our discretion and all
decisions are final."
Nice to know that they won't even reconsider even though they still will not tell me exactly what is wrong with the review. The explicit mention of Amazon being a commercial website gives a hint as to the reasoning however.

[Thomas Paul]

Amazon.uk doesn't have forums. But many of the people who post on the forum I gave you do reviews on amazon US and UK.

[Eleison Zeitgeist]

Originally posted by John Temp:
I have a reply from Amazon and they state :
"Please know that Amazon.co.uk is a retail site and we are happy to
post legitimate book reviews that meet our guidelines. All customer
reviews submitted are subject to posting at our discretion and all
decisions are final."
Nice to know that they won't even reconsider even though they still will not tell me exactly what is wrong with the review. The explicit mention of Amazon being a commercial website gives a hint as to the reasoning however.

I usually buy a lot of crap from them (USA). Huhm, I think my reviews may have been rejected a few times from them - never really followed up though. Thanks for the info... I wish they were a little more "fair" - oooh, welll... I guess I will have to do a little more research and not put as much stock into their reviews as I usually do. Probably will spend less money with them also....

[Younes Essouabni]

Thx for the info, each time that I go to amazon I spend time reading the reviews. Now I know that they are selecting. It is just not fair. If you could post the email adress of amazon, I would like to send them a protestation mail. Even if I know that it is totally useless.
[ March 19, 2003: Message edited by: Younes Essouabni ]

[Thomas Paul]

This is very unusual. I have never heard of amazon rejecting a review because it was negative. Usually the only time they reject it is if it becomes personal about the author. "The book sucks and so does the author." I have had negative reviews posted with no trouble at all.
Here is an example:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735710899
[ March 19, 2003: Message edited by: Thomas Paul ]

[Younes Essouabni]

Damn, I think that Thomas never play CS or UT. Where do you find the time to read all those books? Do you read 1,2,3, ... books a week? (<= serious question)

[Axel Janssen]

maybe its new politic, because of crisis of computer book sales. Wrox, etc.

[Thomas Paul]

I read at least one book a week. Sometimes more. I'm reading "The Cocoon Developer's Handook" right now and I have a J2ME book and a book on BEA Web Portals sitting on my desk to read. Plus a secret book that I can't talk about. I'll have them all finished by the end of the month.

[Bhushan Jawle]

BTW Amazon.co.uk is closed for some time (source BBC) for error in price of some hw probably handheld computer (11$ as against 299$!)

[SJ Adnams]

check this out..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006AUDW
look at the "Customers who shopped for this item also shopped for" section

[John Temp]

Fantastic, thanks for that Simon, it kept us laughing for ages in our office.