Amazon Textbook Support

All about buyer feedback

Buyer feedback is important to both sellers and buyers. Feedback is a metric by which Amazon measures seller performance, and buyers use seller feedback when making purchasing decisions. To get a head start on good feedback, read our Help page on How to get a great feedback score.

Buyers can leave a seller feedback for up to 90 days after the transaction. Once a buyer has left feedback, it cannot be edited, but the buyer can remove it for up to 60 days. Learn more in our Buyer Help page on feedback.

We encourage you to contact buyers about leaving and removing feedback. Remember, though, that ultimately it's the buyer's decision whether or not to give you feedback and what kind to give. Be courteous and professional. Inappropriate contact is a violation of our Selling Policies.

You use the Feedback Manager in your account to contact buyers. You can also use this tool to leave a response on your own Seller Profile to feedback buyers have left. Learn how in our page on Using the Feedback Manager and Feedback FAQ.

Good feedback rewards sellers who list products correctly, communicate well with buyers, and ship orders promptly. Customers are more likely to purchase products from sellers with higher feedback ratings. In the long run, it pays to be a flexible, fair, and professional seller!

Posting Responses to Negative Feedback

Sellers on Amazon occasionally receive feedback ratings they feel aren't warranted. First time buyers on Amazon may not always be familiar with our policies, and they might leave feedback ratings that don't accurately reflect a seller's performance on our site. For example, a buyer might elect standard shipping with their order, and even if the package is delivered within the required 4-14 business day timeframe, they might still leave feedback that indicates they didn't receive their order in a timely manner.

As you might expect, it is not uncommon for buyers on Amazon to review sellers' ratings before purchasing their merchandise. In the process of doing so, buyers can view the responses sellers posted to the feedback they received. For this reason, if sellers decide to reply to any feedback rating, it is important they do so in a courteous and professional manner.

In the example given above, the buyer may have left a negative feedback rating that reads:

• I ordered the book on July 3rd but it didn't arrive until July 10th! Buyers beware!

Upon receiving this type of feedback rating, a seller might hastily post one of the following replies:

• The item arrived within the required timeframe- buy from someone else next time!
• You didn't buy expedited shipping! What did you expect?

Of course, these feedback ratings are accurate: the buyer did leave an unfair rating. However, it is important to keep in mind that prospective buyers might read these replies before purchasing a seller's merchandise, and such unfriendly responses might persuade customers to purchase their items from a different seller. For this reason, we encourage sellers to leave friendly, helpful replies regardless of the feedback rating they received. The following reply might actually convince buyers to purchase a seller's items:

• I'm sorry you weren't satisfied with your order. Please understand you selected standard shipping, and your order was delivered within the required 4-14 business day timeframe. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions or concerns before or after purchasing our items.

Any buyers who read this reply will realize the seller did not deserve the feedback rating they received, but more importantly, they'll notice the seller replied in a calm, polite and professional manner.

If you wish to learn more about feedback on Amazon.com, please see our Feedback FAQ Help page and our recent blog post: What is acceptable feedback?

What is acceptable feedback?

Occasionally, a buyer may leave feedback that may not accurately reflect the quality of service they received from you. Because we want you to be very successful on Amazon, we will remove feedback that meets certain criteria.

Amazon will remove feedback only when:

1. The feedback includes words commonly understood to be obscene or profane.
2. The feedback includes personally identifiable information, such as e-mail addresses, full names, telephone numbers, etc.
3. The entire feedback comment is a product review, such as "The Acme Super-Widget lacks the sharpness and speed of the Acme Ultra Widget." However, if the feedback comment is only partly a product review but ALSO contains feedback about the seller's service, such as "Seller's shipping service was very slow, and the Acme Super-Widget lacks the sharpness and speed of the Acme Ultra Widget," then the feedback would NOT be removed.
4. The entire feedback comment is regarding fulfillment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon. Feedback reviewed and determined to be relating explicitly to fulfillment and customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon will not be removed, but a line will appear through the rating and the statement, "This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfillment experience" will be added.

Feedback that doesn't meet the criteria listed above will not qualify for removal.

If Amazon won't remove the feedback, then what?

Did you know that buyers can remove feedback they left?  Buyers have up to 60 days after the date they left a comment to remove it. You can contact the buyer and work with them to resolve any problems; once they are satisfied and have agreed to remove the feedback, you can give them simple removal instructions.

If the buyer chooses not to remove their feedback, you may want to post a response with your own account of the transaction. You can do this via the Feedback Manager tool in your seller account.

As in other aspects of selling, professionalism is very important. If you choose to contact buyers or leave responses to feedback, do so in a way that reflects your integrity as a seller with Amazon.com.

Often the best way to handle a negative feedback comment is to simply learn from it and let it go. Review the relevant order and fix any underlying problems in your business if possible. Then let your good record as a seller stand for itself.

Offer Expedited Shipping for Great Customer Service

Speedy shipping is especially important to buyers during textbook season. Offering expedited shipping on your orders shows you care about customer satisfaction.

New expedited shipping options for Books, Music, Video and DVD products (BMVD Products) allow sellers to provide higher levels of shipping services for those customers who want premium expedited delivery. Sellers who offer 2-day and next-day domestic shipping or expedited international shipping for textbooks can increase order volume. Sellers can also offer priority expedited delivery to domestic addresses.

Here are delivery expectations for BMVD orders. All of the available options for shipping textbooks are provided for comparison.

Domestic Standard
The buyer should receive their order within 4-14 business days from the shipment date (up to 21 days in some cases).

Domestic Expedited
The buyer should receive their order within 2-6 business days after shipment.

Two Day Domestic
The buyer should receive the order within 48 hours after shipment.

One Day Domestic
The buyer should receive the order within 24 hours after shipment.

Standard International
The buyer should receive their order within 3-6 weeks, though it may take up to 8-12 weeks depending on customs delays

Expedited International
The buyer should receive their order within 3-7 business days, though it may take longer depending on customs delays.

Sellers are expected to ship all BMVD orders within two business days of the date the order notification is made available by Amazon.

When you sell a textbook on Amazon.com, Amazon automatically charges the buyer a per-item fee for shipping and passes that amount on to you. The shipping rate depends on the shipping service selected by the buyer.

You can select any of the new shipping options on an item-by-item basis when listing or editing single items. If you are using inventory files, you can enter values for the new shipping options in the "expedited-shipping" field for each SKU in your file. The Book Loader and Inventory Loader both support the new expedited shipping options for books. (See the Data Definitions tab of the latest version of the file for instructions on coding the "expedited-shipping" field.)

To learn more about the new shipping rates and settings, enter "Ship BMVD" into the search box on our seller Help pages.

Happy textbook selling!

Part III: Handling Post-Order Problems - Returns

In our final look at post-order problems, we'll start with the good news: the buyer has received the shipment! Unfortunately, that's not always the end of the story.

The buyer wants to return the item they ordered.

Given other issues that may arise with your orders, returns are pretty straightforward. The buyer has the item you shipped but doesn't want to keep it.

The issues then are: is it fair to return it, how should it be returned, who will pay for the return, and what kind of refund should the buyer receive.

These issues are dealt with in our Marketplace Returns Policy.

Here are the basics:

• You have to accept returns within the guidelines spelled out in the policy, even if the item was exactly as described and the buyer simply no longer wants it.
• Returns of new items are different from returns of damaged/defective/materially different items.
• Buyer returns should be postmarked within 30 days of the original shipment sent by the seller.
• Returns should be posted to the address included on the outside of each package. It's a good idea to also include your return address inside the package and to confirm it with the buyer before a return is shipped.
• In cases where there is nothing wrong with an item, buyers should cover the cost of return shipping.
• In cases where an item is damaged or defective, or when it is materially different than the item described on the product detail page, sellers should cover the costs of return shipping. You can do this by issuing a concession to the buyer in advance of the return.
• Sellers can charge restocking fees (up to 20%) for returned items that are not damaged, defective or materially different. These fees are meant to cover the extra handling costs to take the item back into inventory and relist it for sale.

If you have further questions about how to deal with order issues, please see our Handling Orders FAQ.

Getting Buyer Feedback

Hey Amazon!

Q. I just sold a textbook for the first time on Amazon - it was easy!  Now how do I ask the buyer to leave me feedback?

A. Buyer feedback is important to both sellers and buyers. Feedback is a metric by which Amazon measures seller performance, and customers use seller feedback when making purchasing decisions. To get a head start on good feedback, read our Help page on How to get a great feedback score.

Buyers can leave a seller feedback for up to 90 days after the transaction. Once a buyer has left feedback, it cannot be edited, but the buyer can remove it for up to 60 days. For information on how buyers can leave or remove feedback, see our Buyer Help page on feedback.

Sellers can contact buyers about feedback using the Feedback Manager in their account. You can also use this tool to leave a response on your own Seller Profile to feedback buyers have left. For more information, see our page on Using the Feedback Manager and Feedback FAQ.

We encourage sellers to contact buyers about leaving and removing feedback. Remember, however, that ultimately it's the buyer's decision whether they'll give you feedback and what kind of feedback to give. Please be sure to be courteous and professional whenever you contact a buyer about feedback. Facilitating inappropriate contact is a violation of our Community Rules.

Good feedback rewards sellers who list products correctly, communicate well with buyers, and ship orders promptly. Customers are more likely to purchase products from sellers with higher feedback ratings. In the long run, it pays to be a flexible, fair, and professional seller!