This whole DAM situation has only recently come to my attention. I had a similar problem with one of DAM’s ‘friends’ writing a 3 star review that was not at all unflattering. The review disappeared and kept doing so.

Part of the problem with Amazon is their off-shore customer service. Any editing is done by someone in India.

Many times a 1 or 2 star review returns with “Cannot post because this is a personal opinion.” Yet, Amazon encourages you to post opinions as long as they are not disparaging.

I’m not entirely sure that after ten years of hosting customer reviews that Amazon really knows what they want or how to govern it.

I will continue to lurk and I will maintain contact with some of the participants via the private message services offered within the Romance readers forum, via MySpace, via this thread or via e-mail. It’s not as if I will be hard for people to find.

Whatever advantages you perceive Amazon’s top reviewers to have, it is completely untenable for me to continue working with you. Apart from anything else, such a perception may lead you or others to believe that I can get more out of Amazon than anybody else on the Romance readers forum. You say that you’ve been very successful in getting Amazon to change things, which suggests that there isn’t any preferential treatment for top reviewers, since you haven’t yet achieved that status (though I expect you will if you continue reviewing on Amazon). You can’t have it both ways.

My reasons for getting involved in this case were as follows

1) It being an extreme case, Amazon are more likely to take decisive action than they do for more mundane cases. I’ve seen this previously, particularly with the “delete and re-post” facility. Re-posted reviews now carry the date of the original review to prevent abuse of the option. In the same way, Amazon will be forced to intervene on review abuse reporting. They introduced the automated facility because they were inundated with complaints. The “Report this” link presumably reduced the volume of e-mails significantly (but I don’t have any information to support this) and if so, it’s easy to see why Amazon are reluctant to abandon automation. But this case shows why they’ll have to, at least in part.

2) It is a problem for all Amazon customers and reviewers. You’ll know that reviewers have a bad reputation within some sections of Amazon’s customer base. Like all reviewers, this inevitably affects me in some way thogh it’s impossible to measure. Of course, there are other problems with the reviewing system, but as somebody told me, if you’re going to eat an elephant, it’s best to do so in small chunks.

3) My history with the chief villian. When it comes to malpractice of any kind, the same names keep coming up. (TX is another case.) If DAM isn’t stopped as a result of this case, she will likely go on to commit other, more serious, offenses.

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Since getting involved, I have been impressed (for the most part) with Reba’s performance. I want victory for her sake. I also want victory for all the ex- and current Highland Press authors who have suffered through their experiences with DAM.

So I have plenty of reasons to continue contributing in any way that I can, but you and I will have to each make our own separate contributions.

But the biggest contribution may yet be made by “I never delete anything” who claims to have incrimninating e-mails and is apparently willing to allow them to be used in evidence. I don’t know if Reba has yet been able to contact that person, but I hope that contact will be established if it hasn’t already been.

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Now we come to TX

I reiterate, Amazon do NOT TOLERATE plagiarism because it may lead Amazon into unwinnable lawsuits. If anybody believes that TX is guilty of plagiarism, let’s have the evidence, or let the person with the evidence present it correctly to Amazon. I explained all this in my guide Complain to Amazon about a reviewer, for which I posted a link on the Romance readers forum, later deleted along with all my other posts there.

I offer my sincerest apologizes for losing my head earlier on that other site. I think most know that that is not my normal manner and I’m usually rather calm and patient, but I admit when I feel dismissed, devalued, or irrelevant, my worst side takes over.

I only tried to post what I thought was some kind of minor victory and a sign of improvement that Amazon was beginning to take some steps in the right direction and simply felt like I was being belittled. Whether that was intentional or not matters little, it’s simply how I felt at the time.

Peter, as I’ve told you before, you are a very intelligent man, but your lack of some humility at times can be frustrating. Of course, that doesn’t excuse my conduct. I very sincerely apologize for losing my head and becoming rude to you. The moment just got the best of me and my
conduct was uncalled for. Please know that I am not a grudge holder and I have fought with others from time to time and still stayed friends with them. Hopefully, that can be said of us still. Spouses fight and so do friends, but I would not stop posting there because of that, but I can’t fault you should you decide not to post anymore, however, I will regret it would be because of my anger at one given moment.

Sincerely,
Steve