UPDATE: As of April 11, 2026, I can now can see 1- and 2-star reviews on Amazon. They did not send me an “oops, our bad, you’re actually approved” email, so there’s no explanation for the change. I’m leaving this post up for posterity because who knows who’s still being blinkered, when it might happen to me again, or anything else about the situation, as corporate monoliths aren’t known for their transparency.
I went to Amazon to look at a book’s reviews because there weren’t many elsewhere. I look exclusively at 1- and 2-star reviews because I’m not interested in “zomg best book eva.” I want to know what people are pissed off about, whether that leads to saving my money for something less likely to piss me off or mashing the buy button immediately because it’s pissing off all the right people.
When I clicked the bar to see the 1-star reviews, Amazon showed me only top-rated 5-star reviews, beneath which was an invitation to request permission to see more reviews.
When I clicked that, rather than being shown more reviews, I was told my request had been sent, and they’d let me know if I was ALLOWED TO READ PRODUCT REVIEWS within 5 days.
Guess what.
This is not just books. It applies to EVERY PRODUCT on the site. Amazon is now hiding negative reviews so every product they sell appears gassed up and consumers have no idea what they’re really getting into.
I’m sure their lawyers have deemed it legal, but it sure is consumer-hostile.
Found a Reddit post about it, so it’s not just me, with my account that goes back to the days when Amazon sold only books.
If you’ve been on forums crying “where did all my reviews go,” that’s where.
If you’ve spent years begging your customers to leave reviews on Amazon, that’s all gone now. You should probably stop doing that, since it’s now a waste of their time to share opinions that vanish into the ether.
If you still actually purchase things from Amazon, this is your warning that the reviews warning you about those things’ negative properties are being hidden from you, and they won’t show any warning you leave to others.
Happy days if your business model is selling shit, though. 🎉