I don’t think this is a repeat of other “rating topics”. I read through a long long “rating review thread” over the last couple of days and I think I understand how the rating system has evolved. I was interested in how an author was able to hide all reviews before April 2016 but then I read that authors were able to do this because of some kind of update to the system. I’m fine with that. What I was surprised to see was a select 4 or 5 recent reviews removed from an authors section. I’ve been following this author for the last month and I noticed his product trended … then his sales went up … then he received a string of bad reviews … and then somehow, most of those negative reviews (1 star with specific issues) were removed … and then a 5 star rating appeared … and then the product started trending again.
To the untrained eye this looks highly suspect. Can an author remove poor ratings? If so, what’s the criteria for getting them removed?
Hi,
Before April 2016 reviews were not public. That’s because you see only recent ratings.
Authors can’t remove ratings. However, when a buyer requests a refund and the refund is accepted, the buyer’s rating is removed automatically (5-star ratings included).
Oh … that’s very interesting. I like it … and … I don’t like it. It encourages a company to settle their differences but it also removes legitimate reviews and allows buyers, like me, to come behind the first person, who just got their money back, and spend a few weeks experiencing everything the first buyer did. It’s as if we’re being hired to do endless Magento theme R&D work for 84.00. The developer keeps putting a product out there … let’s someone try to use it … the customer finds all the bugs over a few weeks and ask for their money back … developer fixes bugs … someone buys the product … the customer finds bugs over a few weeks and ask for their money back … and on and on and on.