Zazzle's Review Process

[whimsywhim]

It's astonishing how terrible and grossly unfair the review process is.  Shopkeepers get a poor review that has, literally, nothing to do with us.  And it remains for all to see, falsely blaming the shopkeeper for the problem and hurting our business.  Evidently, reviews cannot be removed due to laws and yet, no one knows what those laws are.  

There is an online company that has been around forever.  It is notorious for treating sellers poorly.  But even they remove blatantly unfair reviews AND they give the seller a chance to respond to the customer.  Perhaps this company is unaware of the laws that prevent the removal of reviews.  

What laws prevent the removal of reviews?  Does anyone know?  

Zazzle, please re-evaluate the horrible review policy.  At the very least, give shopkeepers a chance to respond.  We need to inform the customer that we are not responsible for manufacturing, printing or shipping the products and to give Zazzle's contact information.  

The current review policy is stunningly unfair to shopkeepers.

[Laura-LiseWong]

Funnily enough, I had a review come through today that said "Said it was watercolor and they sent it to me as a regular print." which made me scratch my head and prompted me to write a blog post: Are Watercolor Invitations Really Hand Painted? Understanding Digital vs Traditional Art in Wedding ...

[ColsCreations]

Your blog article is hilarious (and informative)! I hope it reaches the people who need to see it. 😉

[Laura-LiseWong]

Hahaha thank you! I know many people do not know the ins and outs of how POD works.

[KaptainBlasfemy]

@whimsywhim you should also post this in ideas and suggestions

[whimsywhim]

I did before.  i have had a problem with the review process for a long time.  Now, it's much worse because they refuse to delete grossly unfair reviews because there are laws preventing them.  I would like to know what laws, but no one seems to know.

At the least, Zazzle needs to give us a chance to respond publicly.  It is atrociously unfair for sellers to have negative reviews in their shops when we have absolutely nothing - nothing - to do with the problem.  

[BevStuff · Accepted solution]

Here's Googles AI response to this question about Zazzle removing negative reviews given one of their Creators for something out of the Creators control, such as printing, shipping, product quality, etc and are there any laws preventing Zazzle from doing so?
Google AI summary answer:
No, there is no specific law preventing Zazzle from deleting negative reviews of their sellers, but they are restricted from doing so in a way that is deceptive or suppresses honest feedback. Federal law prohibits businesses from removing negative reviews based on their sentiment, but they can remove reviews that are defamatory, fake, violate the site's terms, or contain false information.

What Zazzle can remove:

• Reviews that violate the platform's terms of service.
• Fake or misleading reviews.
• Reviews that are harassing, abusive, obscene, or contain private information.
• Reviews that are clearly false or misleading. 

What Zazzle cannot legally remove:

• Honest, negative reviews based solely on their negative sentiment.
• Using deceptive practices like suppressing negative reviews while misrepresenting that the reviews on its site are all or most of the reviews submitted. 

What this boils down to is Zazzle cannot legally delete a review where someone is just saying, "I hate Zazzle printing," because that is expressing a sentiment opinion about the company. Now negative reviews given a Creator Seller with a Zazzle store for anything like failing to ship in a timely manner or poor product quality or printing errors or anything that Zazzle is responsible for, that review is a false accusation against the Creator-Seller who has no control over such things---these reviews Zazzle can legally do something about because they are a false charge against the Creator Seller and it is misleading because it makes them responsible for things they are not. It is not honest feedback about the Creator-Seller. Also hurts the reputation of the Creator Seller. It's a fine line, But a store owner ought to be able to report a negative review that blames them for things Zazzle's responsible for and Zazzle could simply move the review from the Creator Sellers store to a different feedback location, since the complaint is probably legit against Zazzle, for Zazzle staff to consider and address.

[whimsywhim]

Thank you.  This is exactly what I've been saying - reviews that are misleading, i.e. blaming the shopkeeper for things they have NOTHING to do with - Zazzle can and should remove the review.  The policy to not remove any review needs to be changed.  It is grossly and breathtakingly unfair to the seller.  We work extremely hard and long hours on this site.  And, yet, we have to endure false charges that hurt our businesses.  What's especially egregious is that Zazzle is not even giving the seller the chance to respond to the review.  We should be given a chance to respond directly under the review at the very least.  Frankly, the review simply should be removed.

[shoshannahscrib]

YES! Thank you for bringing this up. I have also complained about this in the past. If they dont want to delete the reviews at least remove them from the artist's page and star rankings if it has nothing to do with our work. "the order was late, one star." HOW IS THAT ON MY RATING? Totally unfair. Customers are already mistakenly messaging us as the first line to deal with issues out of our control, and we also have to accept the burdens of their reviews for these matters? Nonsensical.

[Angelandspot]

I think people mistake us for Etsy.  I once had a customer sending messages each on getting more angry because I was asleep and not working 24/7 to answer the messages they were sending and it was something I could not even fix because they wanted me to ship it to a different address they had listed when they ordered and we as just the artists do not know the customers address nor so we handle the shipping of the products. So then they go and leave a one star review on the product 😞

[whimsywhim]

Even more reason for Zazzle to delete misleading, unfair and unjust reviews.  

[whimsywhim]

Nonsensical and profoundly unjust.  Simply horrendous to allow these negative reviews that have NOTHING to do with the seller to be on our page and star rankings.  It is egregious and unjustifiable.