Amazon Charges Customers $50 to Leave Reviews - My BBB post
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Amazon Review BBB March 30 2026
After discovering this scam by Amazon, I sent the following to the Better Business Bureau, having already written to the Federal Trade Commission, and the Canadian entity handling these matters.
Of course, I don't expect any action, as the humans behind the Amazon corporation are bloated with power and simply don't care. Customers are so much bothersome drek beneath their shiny shoes. This is just to warn buyers of the unscrupulous and technically illegal practices of this company, based on my personal experience.
According to the Federal Trade Commission:
While companies can set reasonable, non-discriminatory eligibility requirements for reviews to prevent spam (like requiring a verified purchase), creating a prohibitively high minimum purchase threshold ($50 for a $5 item) ... violates FTC guidelines against deceptive review practices.
Better Business Bureau Review
I'm shocked and appalled to find Amazon .com charges a customer $50 to leave a book review, even if the book is bought on Amazon. According to their policy, you must spend $50 on Amazon products in the past 12 months to qualify as a a valid reviewer of books and all other products. The average price of an ebook on Amazon is $3-5.
Many people aren't aware of this, especially if they subscribe to, or buy, Amazon services which already cover the $50 fee (for example Kindle). However, the policy stops authors on Amazon from receiving honest reviews by people who don't often use the platform, while lining the pockets of this greedy corporation.
Personally I want to buy and review a couple of books by friends, but i absolutely refuse to pay blood money to a business whose number one priority is avarice. There's no way spending $50 on Amazon qualifies a person as a product reviewer.
Charging this fee is highly unethical, against FTC policy and technically illegal. However, the corporation has strong political and financial influence, and gets away with it, while smaller or indie companies would be punished for doing the same thing.
It's impossible to contact anyone at Amazon - no customer service number, no email. A business number for Seattle home base is available, but you have to pay for it.
You can leave a request for a callback on their automated help section. I got mine a few weeks after requesting it several times (supposed to be right away). It was an automated message directing me back to the automated help section.
Amazon product reviews are well curated, and return a 4/5 on average. However, there are good reasons Amazon AS A COMPANY consistently receives 1-2 star ratings.
I've had many problems ie Amazon not updating books, forcing customers to buy old un-updated books, despite my repeated attempts to contact the company about this, including snail mail (ignored). They actually print several copies of a book if one is sold, and refuse to update that book until the previous, old, copies sell, hitting the reader and author equally hard if the first publication is flawed (I found out about a major formatting problem, only after I was notified by the reader) - in that case one gets a bad read, the other a bad review, and Amazon pockets the money anyway.
So, if you're thinking of buying a book on Amazon and leaving a review, BE AWARE of this prohibitive policy. I hope this will help raise awareness about the unethical and damaging practices of this company.
Thank you
Sylvia Kay Rose
Author
Amazon currently dominates 70% of the online book market, making alternate choices difficult. However, other platforms like Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Bookshop .org and more do not charge the customer to leave reviews.
As for Amazon, you can use Goodreads (a site owned by Amazon) or LibraryThing (partly owned by Amazon, in partnership with the majority shareholder) to leave a book review for books purchased on the platform free of charge.
Goodreads has fallen out of favor these days with many readers and writers, and LibraryThing is clunky and difficult, but they remain an option. Authors and readers are also looking at alternatives like StoryGraph (not owned by Amazon).
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