Exclusive: Consumer electronics retailer Pixmania has landed in hot water with Amazon after a customer appeared to be offered a partial refund in return for removing negative feedback.
Pixmania, owned by the Dixons group, offers products via the Amazon Marketplace – a section of the Amazon UK website where third-parties can sell items.
Web User reader Simon Mellor bought an 80GB Maxtor HDD from Pixmania via Amazon but when his order arrived he was unhappy with the state of the packaging. When a shopper buys from a third-party seller at Marketplace, they are encouraged to give other customers insight into their experiences via feedback as “it may be useful if you want to see if previous sellers have had problems with a buyer.”
After Mr Mellor posted feedback that the order was “poorly packaged, no accessories and no advice note”, he received an email from a member of Pixmania's customer service team offering a gesture that “would compensate your inconvenience and remove your review”.
The email, seen by Web User, stated: “I would like to apologise for the service you have with your Amazon/Pixmania order and find out an agreement that could satisfy us both. Actually, I can offer to refund you the delivery of your parcel in exchange of the removing of your review on Amazon. It means a refund of £4.50!”
Mr Mellor told Web User that he thought this action could “potentially mislead customers”. He said: “I use the Marketplace sellers every so often as I find them usually cheaper than Amazon itself, and the feedback is often a good indication of whether you think you can trust the company and if it has many happy buyers.”
“To try and offer you money to take off negative feedback is quite worrying and very unprofessional.”
A spokesman for Amazon UK said: “This is something frowned upon by Amazon. Our reviews are incredibly important to us and are a big part of the Marketplace. They perform the role a shop assistant might do and are impartial and honest. They are unmediated unless they are defamatory or libellous and no way influenced by a company.”
“We will be speaking to Pixmania about this as we want to ensure our integrity is protected.”
Pixmania's managing director Ulric Jerome told Web User that the email was a “misunderstanding” and said Mr Mellor would get the refund regardless of whether he removed the review.
Mr Jerome said: “Please be completely reassured that it [is] not in our practice to deal with such [an] issue on an exchange basis. If it is a misunderstanding I will make sure that our team is aware of the case.”
Mr Mellor has now received his £4.50 postage back but has not removed his review.
Have you ever been asked to change your feedback by a seller? Let us know
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Claire Woffenden, Editor
