Amazon Seller Tries Bribing Mom to Take Down Her 1-Star Review of Bottle Warmer

A mom is claiming that a seller on Amazon's website she purchased a bottle warmer from, tried bribing her into taking down a negative review.

TikToker @thisisforkayla said that the seller's product burnt her baby's bottle and made it so hot that it ruined the formula inside of it.

She says in the now-viral TikTok: "This Amazon company has been trying to bribe me to take down a one-star review from an Amazon product that I bought back in December and this is the 4th email that they sent me." The TikToker then moves out of the way to show the green-screened screenshot behind her.

She continues, "And it's getting like a little threatening." The mom then goes into what exactly happened with the order to clarify how and when things went wrong. "So I bought a bottle warmer, like travel one back in December for Christmas for a trip that we were gonna take with the baby."

@thisisforkayla goes on to say, "And I followed the instructions I put the little thing, the warmer on the bottle followed everything to a T and it burnt the formula to the point where like it was black on the little warmer." That isn't exactly the kind of experience you want to have with any product unless you're buying a bottle char-broiler, not something meant to keep your baby's food warm.

She went on with the negative experience she had with the product: "It was horrible. Smelled so bad so, of course, I was angry so I left a one-star review and the company reached out in January from like a random email address and was like oh we will give you $20 to take down the review."

That was just their first offer, however, the slighted mom said that they reached out again and offered $40, again, from another "random" email address that appears to have come from a different person entirely.

"It's not even a company email," she said before stating that she received yet another email from the company that urged her to take it down so neither her nor the company could be "hindered."

@thisisforkayla ended her video by stating that she's not going to take their money in order to take down the 1-star review, but added that she now knows "why they have good reviews though," because folks presumably took their bribe offers after posting up negative reviews.

Judging by the way the company handles its customer feedback issues, it's not difficult to imagine that they could possibly be paying for positive comments/ratings as well.

Ars Technica reported that there's big money in the commerce of selling favorable reviews online as folks are more than likely willing to purchase a product with a deluge of positive high-marks as opposed to those with just a handful of reviews or with a lot of low marks.

The outlet reported that Amazon even went so far as to sue AppSally and Rebatest, brands that cultivate positive reviews for online marketplace sellers. The site's Seller Central Website clearly delineates that while companies can ask customers to leave a review, they cannot ask for a positive one, or attempt to persuade them to do so.

"If you decide to ask a buyer to leave a review, you may not ask for a positive review or ask for reviews only from buyers who had a positive experience, nor may you ask customers to change or remove their review, or attempt to influence the review," the online retailer states.