How to do a review of a battery

First if you don't want to do this then don't bother reading this isn't for you. This is a very technical review style, and requires lots of equipment most people do not have. I have the equipment because of jobs I used to have, and my hobbies.

Why do I go through the trouble of doing this? because I got tired of trying to find stuff on Amazon, ebay, and wherever but constantly running in to issues of terrible or zero information/descriptions, important information not given, sellers that do not respond or respond with nonsense answers, and the absolutely useless and terrible "questions and answers". Where people who have no business answering question responding with useless information and even "I don't know".

We will assume for this article that you are requesting a knock off battery for a brand name battery operated tool.

You will need: a battery capacity tester. You can do reviews without this but it becomes a whole lot more difficult.

The ability to make adapters to connect the batteries to the testers.
An accurate digital multi-meter.
A battery charger for said battery.
An accurate current limited power supply.
An Type A USB tester, and USB C tester

This an approximate order of what I do when I get a battery for testing:

Report if it comes with any manuals and if the information in side is of any value.
What is the voltage the battery was charged to when it arrived?
Charge the battery and report what it charged to.
Report the voltage put out by USB ports if they have them.
What is the voltage and amps output of the USB ports under load?
Open the device and try to determine what AH ratings the battery has (this is very difficult to do) sometimes the batteries will say, most of the time they won't. there are battery identification guides on the internet.
Is there a circuit board inside and is it a BMS? can be determined by looking up the numbers on the chips on the circuit board and reading their datasheets.

Connect the battery to a capacity tester and apply a load of 1 or 2 amps, no more because if a battery is labeled wrong you can damage it. the capacity tester (when properly programed) will stop discharging at a specific voltage, usually at around 15v for a 20/21 volt battery, 12v for a 14/16v battery (more about this later).

If a battery is rated at 6AH or 6000mah then a 1 amp discharge should take 6 hours. if it takes 4 hours then it is really a 4ah or 4000mah battery. if it takes 3 hours it is 3ah etc.

Charge the battery again (keeping track of how long it takes) if the charger is rated at 1.2 amps then it will take 5 hours for 6ah, 3.33 hours for 4ah, 2.5 hours for a 3ah battery. battery mah (milliamp hours)divided by charger output rating in mah.

Report if the battery discharge protection kicked in and at what voltage.

Describe how you tested it in case your review needs review by a human, and also for the reader to know your method.

Compare the weight of the battery to a similar OEM battery if you have one. A 6000mah battery should be heavier than a 4000mah battery. legit batteries are heavy, cheap knockoffs or fakes are not. I recently did a review for a Dewalt knockoff that was listed as 6000mah but is in fact 3000mah and weighed 160g less than a 4000mah battery I own.

Now (at the end) is when you report that it fits and works in the tool. Why at the end? Because people need to see that the batteries being sold on Amazon are almost always not what they are advertised as. If more reviews show this information then maybe sellers will start putting accurate information in the description (not holding my breath).

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Disappearing reviews

From time to time in the forums someone will post in a panic that their reviews have been deleted, and they are certain it was because they gave a low star review, or are being shadow banned, or some other complete bullshit. 

When you hear hoof beats, think horses, and not unicorns!.

In my profile page right now there are 13 items that have been deleted, but the reviews are still there. I did notice that at first they did not show up and I had to reload the page a couple times and scroll down and up a couple times. Deleted product reviews seem to be at the end of the list on your profile page.

Clicking on these items will show the review but it will say no image available under product details. Clicking on the no image available icon will take you to an amazon dog page. This means that either the seller took the product down (usually because it sold out), or for an unknown reason amazon took the product down. DO NOT PANIC if this is a food item, if there is some problem with a food item or supplement amazon would notify you. Do not assume that missing food items are somehow bad.

In your reviews items list, you might see this: 

 

saying Image not found

with an ASIN number and the words "This item is no longer available", a date, and "You Reviewed this item" but the button "see review" is missing. I have 4 of these on my reviewed items screen, and all are in previous years. If you look for that ASIN in the itemized report for that year you will see what it was, and you may find that the review IS still on your profile page.

If you are looking for your review on the actual product page, and you just had it approved, it will not show up for several hours or maybe a day. If the product has a lot of reviews and some of those reviews have lots of "helpful" clicks then your review may be buried.  It may take a while to find. If the review is for a previous year or evaluation period I would not worry about it since it no longer counts in your stats.

If you still cannot find your review, try on your phone, or in the app, or not in the app, or on a computer, or on a computer or your phone with your account logged out, or reboot your computer/phone. Clear cookies, and your cache. Try with wifi off on your phone. Try on someone else's computer or phone not on your network. If all else fails and you REALLY need to see it then contact vine CS. I do not know if they can help, and they may confuse your request with a request to report the review.

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Coming up with a consistent star ratings system

Everyone has their own way of determining what they rate products and why. There is no standard. Here is my way.

5 stars - The product is as described, works, or fits, and has no obvious flaws, user manual is easy to read, and understand, and there is generally nothing wrong with the item. I do not give 5 stars because I think a product is "wonderful" or "Amazing". I give 5 stars based on is the product as advertised? Some people almost never give out 5 stars unless they absolutely love something and that is not an honest review, it's subjective.

4 stars - Something is minor wrong with it. Usually more than one thing. but otherwise the product is still usable and does mostly what it says it does. This is where I dock a star if the product exaggerated or lied about some aspect. Battery capacity, run time, or is supposed to do 5 things but can only do 4 and seems to have never been able to do 5. I ordered a specific color, or style and got a variant.

3 stars -  The product has a major flaw but can still be used, or fixed by me. Instructions are non existent, or confusing. Poorly constructed in some way. Not a dangerous safety hazard but maybe on the edge of sketchy. Description is mostly a lie. I would not buy the item again nor would I recommend it.

2 stars - cheap junk. Non functional and can't easily be fixed. I rarely give this rating because I can usually tell when something is junk.

1 star - Safety or fire hazard. Dangerous to use. complete junk. Fake. I have never given a 1 star review to a vine item because I can usually tell when something is a 1 star item, and don't order it.

Notice that in no case did I dock stars because something was a color I did not like if there is no option to choose a color. There are all sorts of things on amazon that show a color like blue and the item you get is yellow or whatever. Usually if you dig in to the description it will say that you might get a different color item. This is very common in things like ODB2 scanners, portable oscilloscopes, and other techy tools. Do not dock stars because (in your haste to order a zero ETV item) you did not see that it was sugar free, or had nuts, or some other allergen, or some ingredient or food that you don't like. That is not the fault of the seller. If it is a food item and you cannot or will not eat it then let someone else try it and use their reaction as if it was yours. 

Do not dock stars because you cannot figure out how to use the item, or do not know how to use the item properly, or can't be bothered to read the manual. You can contact the seller and ask for tech support on how to use an item, Just try not to let them know you are a viner. If you do not know what an item is. or how to use it DO NOT ORDER IT!

Some people put a disclaimer in their reviews, or even a section detailing how and why they give stars. I do not care if you do this, but there are lots of viners that have a shit fit about it, and review shame (on forums) people who do these things. The issue is that if you put these at the top of the review then most people will skip the review, if you put them at the end then they probably won't read them, so skip it. 

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What happens when you order something

Once an order has completed, it will show up in your normal amazon orders screen with all normal shipping and other information except that it will show a total of zero.

Theoretically sellers do not know that someone with vine has ordered their product. Depending on how fast the item will ship is an indication of where it is shipping from either the seller or Amazon. 

If it is shipping from amazon it will usually have a ship date of anywhere from 1 to 3 days depending on how far an amazon warehouse is to you. If the shipping is some time longer than that, it is possibly going to ship by the seller, or is shipping from somewhere likely outside the US. It is not unusual to order items that won't ship (or say they won't ship) for months. The reasons for this are not quite clear but a likely explanation is that the items is in pre-release, is shipping from china, or some other reason. Do not worry about items that show a long time to ship. My experience (at this time) is that they will not show up in your stats until they are out for delivery.

I don't order a lot of things so I can actually tell what happens when you order things and how they relate to your stats on the account page. At the time of my writing this I ordered an item that is not scheduled to ship for 2 weeks. I have 2 total reviews, and 2 items in my Review-to-order ratio. The new order has not shown up yet and will likely not show up in the R2O ratio until I receive it. 

Now lets say you wait 2 weeks and the item has not shipped. My advice is to just wait. Amazon will send you a notice if there is a delay in shipping, and will usually post a new expected shipping date. If the item has shipped but is not being delivered by an amazon drivers but by the post office, and it is late, or does not show up, then wait until amazon notifies you that the item is possibly lost. Amazon will give you the option to cancel the order at that time or wait longer. I generally wait and ignore the message. If the item fails to arrive amazon will cancel the order for you. If you REALLY want the item you can select to wait longer and maybe it will ship. Amazon canceled orders will not disappear from you list but there will be an item in the itemized list of things you ordered with a subtracted number for that items ETV. So if your ordered a widget and never got it, amazon canceled it, then in your itemized report for that year you will see an item for 1 widget at $10 ETV and then another item for 1 widget at -$10. 

For the reason above it is recommended that you not order anything in the 2 weeks leading up to your evaluation date. My experience shows that anything you order that does not arrive before your evaluation date carries over to the new evaluation period. If you are trying for gold and you have enough reviews then this should not matter if one or two items carries over. 

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Things I want Amazon Sellers to know

Quality control is super important. If you have only one item offered in vine, and I get it, but it is defective. that does not bode well for the rest of the items in stock. what are the odds that the one thing you listed, and I received is broken junk? If I can fix it I will, but you will still get dinged big time for defective junk.

Don't post shill reviews. You aren't fooling anyone.

I am not referring to shipping damage. also I will not accept an offer to replace, you had one chance. also also don't try to bribe us.

If your product is clothes for men. Just know that not all of us have a gay sex fetish or wear weird bondage stuff. Could you post something that a normal person would wear in public? and why are all the mens clothes that I can find offered in small or child sizes? Same for women. Not every woman is a horny sleazeball.

Could someone offer cotton shirts? or pants? why is that so hard.

If you offer clothes you better give me a choice on size and color.

Same with shoes, you better offer ALL sizes. no one wears a size 9. 

PROOF READ YOU LISTINGS AND DESCRIPTIONS. 

PROOF READ THE PRINTING ON YOUR PRODUCT. There are lots of things sold on vine with sayings or other words where one or more words are not spelled correctly. While humorous to viners not too many people are going to order your product. 

Don't put gloves in with your tools, every tool I have ordered that had gloves included, the gloves seem to be for a small child. Even my wife could not wear them. If you really need to put gloves in they better be American size XL or larger.

Don't lie about your product. don't exaggerate. if your device only has 2000mah batteries in it don't say it has 5000mah I will test this, and I have the equipment to do it properly. if you say it can handle 40 amps and it only has 18AWG wire and a nema 15 plug it CANNOT handle 40 amps even if the relay can handle 40 amps, the wiring and the plug cannot, and I will report this in my review. I will test all aspects of your product and find ALL the flaws. If your product switches a load, then state what loads it is rated for: resistive, tungsten, inductive, and motor loads. These are important and something that can handle 15 amps resistive load, might not be able to handle a large inductive, or tungsten load, or a motor over a certain horse power. If you do not know FIND OUT! I will open your product, I will inspect it, and I will look up the ratings of components like relays, and I will measure traces, and wire sizes to confirm your claims.

Don't put fake UL stickers on your product I will look it up.

Don't put words in the description that do not apply to your product. I despise having products show up in searches that are totally not what I am looking for but has my search words in it.

Make it clear in your listing what we are getting. Bait and switch is not something you want. Don't put a picture in the vine listing of a motorcycle when the listing is for a motorcycle turn signal. 

Don't take down your listing before I can review it.

PROVIDE THE USER MANUAL FOR DOWNLOAD IN THE LISTING WITH ALL THE PRODUCT SPECS. Your listings ALWAYS lack the critical information I need when looking for a product and I will skip yours if I cannot get that information. double check measurements are accurate and in both metric AND imperial. Put measurements of anything and everything, even stuff you think no one cares about, I care! Put measurements on things that are made for some very specific device and you might think measurements are not needed. If you wonder "why isn't my product selling?" well your listing has one badly done picture and absolutely no specs or useful information.

Don't lie about tech support, and all your addresses, websites, phone numbers, and email addresses better work at least for a couple of years. This applies to supplements, vitamins, medicine, and snake oil products. Many of us verify this information.

Don't sell items that I have to register an account or have subscription to use.

Don't post bad photoshopped product images. No one believes that your product is that incredibly fun. Your putting a product in a picture sticks out like sore thumb. You post pictures with light fixtures attached to houses in a way that makes them appear larger than they really are. Animals that are NOT interacting with your product. Fake conversations over cameras that no one has. It's all so cringe. Your pictures indicate that you think the average buyer is an idiot. They are not helping people with uses for a product. EVERYONE on the planet knows how a radio works, and what it can be used for. Just stop with the fake scenes.

Post real pictures of the real product in a real use case with real people, animals, and models. Don't exaggerate the size of your products, they should actually be in the picture. If you cannot afford to do that, then show plain pictures of the product with measurements. We know when you are posting badly photoshopped images. Some of us will dock you stars for that.

Examples of comically bad photoshops:

 

 Bowl is 4.7" but Macaws are 3 feet long head to tail.

 

badly placed in image, no one in that image is listening to a radio, certainly not having that much fun. We don't need the sound waves emanating from the radio. we know how radios work. 

Size of light on wall is highly exaggerated. that doorway is no more than 3 feet tall based on the size of the light. Blatant false advertising.

 

Those cats are not actually in the picture nor are they playing with whatever that is. they are also comically small. 

Niche products get niche reviews, or not at all. Sorry not everyone needs a carburetor for a 1935 henway. I might though.

There are products that DO NOT need reviews. All common well known, long standing products DO NOT need reviews. I am never going to read a review for snickers. 

If you are putting an item on vine and it is normally used in pairs then there better be 2 of them offered, I am looking at you single bike pedal.

If your product cannot be opened or seems to be designed to prevent getting it opened without destroying the case, and it has a rechargeable battery inside you will lose stars. I should be able to open all electronics of all types. I may not ding you a star or 2 if the items is really inexpensive, but if it costs a lot and I cannot get in it to fix it... woe be unto you.

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How to find stuff

This one is simple, and straight forward. There is no magic method, and none of the extensions I know about have any special advantage over the standard ways of finding things.

Check RFY, AFA, and AI constantly refresh pages during drops (but not too fast).

Use vine search (if your countries vine has it). It does support some boolean commands, but reverts to standard amazon "just show you anything" results, though if nothing matches your search then it will show you no results. 

Use bookmarked searches. 

Monitor vinehelpers notification monitor.

Join the vine discord (I know not where that is).

Personally I watch the vinehelper NM when drops are happening, check my RFY, and AFA, and occasionally look in certain categories. I don't order a lot. less than 3 items a month. Many of the things I have ordered were things I needed to fix something, with a few that showed up in my RFY, and a couple I got from vinehelpers nm. I usually stop paying attention to vine once the drops slow to one or two drops every couple of minutes. I am happy to remain silver.

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Drops Pauses and Purges

Drops

Amazon does not normally drop (add) items in to vine constantly. No one knows the exact criteria for when drops occur. Drops can happen at any time of day, and any day of the week. Though they do seem to happen in a sort of predictable pattern. With many people noting that Mondays are particularly slow.

Drops can start and stop in a schedule that varies throughout the year, sometime happening in the middle of the night. At the time of this writing drop start at around 08:30 Eastern US time, and can last at a fast pace for around 3 hours before slowly tapering off around 14:00 EST. There is no indication that drops are happening unless you use an extension like Vinehelper and have the notification monitor open. The only way to start seeing them without an extension is to pick a category and at about the time they would start dropping refresh your browser page (F5). 

When drops start, a feeding frenzy develops. People have seconds to order things. If you are the first one to see an item drop you have at most 30 seconds for food items or some highly desired 0 ETV items to order them. Other items go quickly, some items stick around for minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Many of the things I am interested in, or need tend to be around for a while.

Pauses

Pauses can happen at any time of the year. A pause is when the normal drop cycle stops for as short as a couple days, to as long as several weeks. I think there have been at least 1 time when a pause lasted over a month. When a pause happens there maybe zero items dropping with very occasional single drops. No one is quite sure why pauses happen. Some speculate that they happen when the system is getting a major update, or because of holidays in china, or for totally made up, and unknown reasons.

Purges

Purges are related to pauses, and some people claim they do not exist. In this instance we are talking about Amazon purging the categories of products that have aged out, or nobody seems to want. If major purges happen they seem to occur during long pauses. I think they occur regularly in small increments. 

What I witness is that everyone is complaining that there is nothing good to order, and they have not ordered in days or weeks, yet the total item count is constantly dropping, sometimes rather quickly. As an example during the great pause/purge of early 2025 late 2024, there were over 130,000 items. Over the course of the purge The total items dropped down to around 40,000 before drops started up again. This also coincides with a bunch of changes to the program, and how product was ordered.

When I started in late 2023 there were about 23,000 items and it appears during that pause/purge the total item count went down to about 1500. 

Pauses are a source of great panic, wailing, and gnashing of teeth on the forums. With people speculating that "vine is going away", or that some of us are being "shadow banned" and all sorts of superstitious nonsense. 

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What is Gaming the System and why it will never go away

Gaming the system is something that has existed as long as people have had rules, laws, taboos, or any other type of organization, or system.

Why do people "game the system"? for the same reason they always have, greed and laziness. Sellers have all manner of ways they game amazon, and all its programs. I will not detail them here since I do not know what all those ways are. Just know it is rampant on amazon.

Viners game the system in all sorts of ways none of which are secrets:

Ordering zero etv items to bump their numbers without accruing a huge tax burden.
Writing short reviews that easily get approved.
Writing the same generic review for each item.
Using discord, and reddit to share information, and devise new ways to game the system.
Some people would include extensions.
Coming up with wording to circumvent the AI bots review rules.
Ordering product, not opening it, pencil whipping a review, and selling the item.
Some viners have done outright fraud.
I am sure there are people who have written their own bots, and scripts to automate certain processes on vine. Those people most likely do not share their hacks as that would decrease their ability to get da good stuff.

And probably all sorts of things I have not heard of yet, or even thought about. Gaming the system will never go away as long as humans continur to be humans.

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Parsing the Vine account status page

Most of this is pretty self explanatory, so I will only talk about the vague or not very well explained parts.

Total reviews, is exactly what it says. This display may lag a bit from what your review page says. It can take a couple days to catch up. I believe it turns green when you get 80 items reviewed. I have never gotten 80 items in an evaluation period. Your evaluation period is 6 months generally starting on the day you sign up (not 100% sure).

Review-to-order ration, once again pretty clear, but some people do not understand that during any 30 day period you need to keep your reviews above 60%. This is where many people slip up usually because they don't read the information provided. Mine rarely falls under 90% as I do most of my reviews pretty quickly. This display also lags a bit, by as much as 2 weeks in come cases. Which is why you should be on top of doing your reviews at all times.

Review Insightfulness score, first implemented in early summer 2025, and a cause of great panic in the vine community, especially for those that are gold tier. This metric (at this time) does not seem to apply too much to those who are silver. No one knows exactly how "insightfulness" is determined but you can see my article about it here. If you want to be Gold Tier, then (as of 9-1-2025) you will need to keep your score at excellent. This metric also lags by several days. I noted almost 2 weeks from when my last evaluation took place, and I posted my first review before it changed from "poor" to Excellent. It always resets to poor at the beginning of an evaluation period. I believe that this metric was introduce to combat the scores of poorly written reviews by gold tier viners who order tons of cheap or zero ETV items just to up their numbers I also think that at some time they might drop viners who cannot keep their score above a certain rating. Amazon shot themselves in the foot when they implemented the tier system and this is their attempt to fix it. 

Reviews with media, Also a bit controversial, and implemented at the same time as the insightful score. At this time this metric mostly does not factor in to your becoming gold, but vine cs communications indicate that at some point it might. Some people believe that you have to upload pictures to every review because why would that have that metric? The rest of us sane people are just going to continue uploading pictures and video only when needed. Some emails from vine cs indicate that a media score of between 20% and 30% will be the minimum needed to be gold in the future. My normal media upload rate is around 25%. I only upload images when it is necessary, and not just to pad my score.

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Vine browser extensions and what they can and cannot do

Do to the failings of Amazon to make their portal interface more user friendly at least to people have taken it upon themselves to create browser extensions to make using vine less aggravating.

They first is Vinehelper (I use)

The first concern everyone has is will you be kicked out of vine for using vinhelper? The answer is we do not know. Amazon has never formally made a statement one way or the other. Some vine cs responses indicate YES, and others NO. 

Vinehelper is NOT a bot. Any arguments to the contrary will be ignored. It does not order things automatically nor does it search for things and show them to you or order them. It only can see what you see, or another viner with the extension sees.

Can Amazon tell if you are using it? at this time? unknown. Amazon knows the extension exists.

What are the main things it can do?

Fix the infinite spinner.
Allows hiding listed items. 
Highlights 0 ETV items, and other things that people are interested.
Saves reviews for you. 
Shows a stream of drops called "Notification monitor". 
Displays an overlay with more details on items listed.
and much more. 

Disadvantages to using vinhelper are that if you rely on the notification monitor, you will not get first pick at things. Everything in the notification monitor is there because someone else with vinehelper has already seen it. My testing shows that things that are viewed by other people can show up within 1 second and as long as a minute when there are tons of drops happening quickly. I have tested this in 2 separate browsers where I was the first to see something (VH tells you this) in one browser, and how long it took that item to show up in the NM in the other browser. VH cannot "steal" items from others and it does not show you items in other users RFY. The concept of "stealing" in vine is absurd since an item is not yours until you have successfully ordered it.

The other extension is Ultraviner. 

I have not used it, and don't know much about it. click the link above to find out more.

Why doesn't everyone use extensions?

Fear. Amazon enforces its rules by fear, non communication, and superstition. There are many people who think that vine will go away unless everyone strictly follows the rules, and do the proper ceremonies, and rituals. Vine is a cargo cult. They think that just using an extension once will mark you (somehow) forever and when the great purge comes, everyone who were non believers will be cast in to the pit of despair.

Why aren't you afraid?

Because vine is just a hobby for me. I don't need 99.999% of the things offered. If Amazon kicks me out so be it. As to vine going away? It will only go away when it no longer makes money, or Amazon folds. 

Why do I use Vinehelper?

Mainly for its ability to hide things in RFY and AFA. Once I decide I do not want an item presented there I no longer want to see it. Also there are some very obscene things that show up in vine, that I don't really want to stare at all day. I also like the notification monitor because it often shows me things I did not know were on vine. I have only ordered 2 or 3 items that showed up in there in my time in vine. I use some of the keyword functions but they aren't super useful so far. That's it. Nothing I use it for is cheating.

Both extensions have subreddits:

r/vinehelper  

r/ultraviner/ 

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Sellers trying to bribe customers for 5 star reviews

A common issue on amazon is sellers trying to bribe customers for 5 star reviews. This often comes in the form of a note or gift card in the box of a product requesting a 5 star review. Usually the gift card will not be activated until you write the review, it is accepted, and you provide proof that you wrote it. Another method is that a seller will contact you in some way like an email, the post office, texting you, or contacting you on some social media platform you have an account on. Some sellers can be very abusive and threatening. Do not put up with it. Report them

Amazon does not kick people out for reporting review abuse and bribes. more details can be found here.

If you accept a bribe there are reports that amazon can somehow find out. It is safest to not accept them, and to report them. You are already in a program that gives you "free" stuff. Don't jeopardize that. 

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Common Amazon Vine errors

This is probably one of the most common errors you will run in to, it has various names:

Spinning wheel of nope
Spinning wheel of death
Spinning circle
Spinning circle of disappointment 
Thinking wheel
Infinite Spinner 

This issue is caused by a problem in the listing having to do with the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) which prevents the product from displaying and being requested when clicking on the "See details" button. There is a fix for it that requires manually editing the code on amazon's page which is a bit complicated. The simplest way to fix it is to install either the Vinehelper or Ultraviner extension in your browser.

There was a problem creating your request. Please request another item.

The item was ordered by someone else before you could click on "Request item". Tough luck, go on with your life.

Error displaying product detail.

The item was ordered by someone else before you could click on "See details". Tough luck, go on with your life.

We're Sorry! An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're working to resolve the problem as soon as possible. If you were trying to make a purchase, please check Your Account to confirm that the order was placed. We apologize for the inconvenience.

This seems to be some kind of generic error message when a process fails on Amazon. You can try again later. It does not appear to be directly related to something that you did wrong.

We apologize but Amazon is not accepting reviews on this product from this account. If you would like to contact us about this decision, please email community-help@amazon.com.

Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean you are shadow banned from commenting. Amazon does not shadow ban people, they tell you when you are kicked out or might soon be kicked out. This is an example of a badly worded error message that means that the seller is doing some kind of weird sneaky or suspicious things with reviews, or that there are suspicious reviews on the product. Reviews that are not verified, that all showed up at the same time, that all are 5 stars, and don't say much, or something like that. Therefore Amazon has turned of the ability for people to write reviews for the time being. If you need to write a review wait a week and try again, if you wrote a review and received a rejection letter and you tried to edit the review and got the message, then wait a week and it will probably get approved. If 2 weeks go by and you cannot write or edit a review for that product then contact vine cs. It may take up to 7 days for them to respond.

We apologize but this account has not met the minimum eligibility requirements to write a review. If you would like to learn more about our eligibility requirements, please see our community guidelines.

The most common reason for this is that you have not purchased something from Amazon costing $50 or more, in the last year paying with a credit, debit, or checking account. It also might be because you have not kept up on your reviews.

We apologize but this account has submitted the maximum number of non-amazon verified purchase reviews this week. You may continue to submit amazon verified purchase reviews. If you like to learn more about amazon verified purchase reviews then check our community guidelines click here.

The most likely cause of this is that you did not submit your reviews through the Vine portal Reviews tab and the items under Awaiting Review. This is the ONLY place you should be leaving your reviews. Do not leave reviews for vine items from the page that shows up after you write a review. Go back to the vine portal and select another item. I am not sure how to fix this, as I have never done this. 

 

Some of the items are not able to be displayed at this time. We are currently experiencing a technical issue affecting products that are unavailable to be requested, but should still be displayed in your item queues.

This seems to be caused when an item has been taken (by someone else) after you clicked on the page, but before the page has displayed. Tough luck, go on with your life. 

 

Update on account status. You have reviewed less than 60% of your order and are at risk of having your account closed within 30 days. Review 60% or more of your recent items for at least two weeks to unlock personalized recommendation and keep full benefits of vine.

This is exactly what it says, and it tells you exactly what to do. Stop ordering things (you may not be able to order things), and catch up on your reviews for the next 2 weeks. Basically just do ALL of your reviews and there won't be a problem. Don't argue with vine CS, don't post to a forum about the unfairness of this, just do your reviews. Simple as. If it means you won't make gold tier then too bad. You probably aren't cut out for gold tier anyways.

 

Sorry something went wrong on our end Please go back and try again or go to amazon's home page. Amazon dogs screen.

This screen shows up when a product has been deleted from amazon, and that means it will show up if you try to view a review you did for that product. It can also mean there is some kind of connectivity issue with amazon, or a glitch on amazon, You might be hitting F5 too much, or doing to many searches to fast, or some other issue. An Amazon internal server error. Try accessing your account on a real computer and not your phone. If on a computer, try accessing the amazon site through your phone (but not connected to your wifi). Wait a few minutes and try again. Your ISP could be the cause. log out, and clear your cookies. Reboot your computer or phone. Whatever the cause, it is not amazon shadow banning you. 

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Dealing with Vine Customer Service

Vine Customer Service (Vine CS) is accessed through the "Contact Us" Link, and filling out a form with your your issue. Do not contact Amazon customer support for Vine problems, Amazon CS will NOT know anything about vine.

When you contact Vine CS be extra polite, the staff of Vine CS seem to be in another country, and based on the very formal way they respond, and write I think it is in India. Try not to ask about more than one issue at a time. If you ask more than one question they may not respond to the other issues, and even respond in odd and unexpected ways. Do not respond in any way with anger, it will not go well for you.

Do not bother to ask CS why your review was rejected. The response will almost certainly be either to send you a link to the community guidelines, or quote them. Rarely will they respond in that regard with anything useful. Some people have gotten lucky and managed to get in touch with someone who explained some things in more detail, but not usually when review rejection is the issue. They may also respond as if you are reporting a review as having something wrong with it, resulting in the review being removed, or a response saying that they do not see any reason to take the review down, and if you persist in asking them about it they might kick you out of the program (I know that makes no sense).

Do not request more than one item be removed form your review queue, or to cancel more than one item at a time. Canceling too many items at one time is grounds for removal from the program. If you do the request one at a time they go to multiple different people and are less likely to cause problems.

Do contact them if a product arrives too damaged to review. Broken bottles, open packages of food or supplements, Products that arrive and do not work are reasons to have them remove the item from your queue. You CANNOT RETURN OR EXCHANGE items. Some people have reported being able to do it, but they were not supposed to. 

I have not had any products arrive DOA but if I did I would attempt to fix them, and then do a review reporting that the product was not working when I got it. A reasonable quality product should only have 5% to 10% max failure rate, if you receive a product that is bad from the beginning then it is likely a large portion of that product could be faulty.

If for some reason you are kicked out of vine, CS generally CANNOT reinstate your account. Take a break, finish ALL your reviews and go on with your life, some people have reported that they got another invite later on. If you think a vindictive seller is the reason, or something else other than you did not keep up with your reviews, then try to contact them.

Do not be afraid to contact vine CS, there is a lot of superstition around the vine program, and many viners act like they are in a cargo cult when it comes to how they deal with and react to problems on vine.

Vine CS can take from 24 hours to a week to respond. wait at least a week before contacting them, if you do not get a response. 

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Getting rid of product

A very contentious subject that comes up is how do I get rid of things I do not want? Do I have to wait 6 months?

Before I answer this I wish to state I DO NOT SELL ITEMS I DO NOT NEED OR WANT.

Amazons Terms of service are a bit contradictory in regards to this. As of 8-16-2025 the Vine Terms Of Service (TOS) state:

All right, title and interest in Vine Products will pass to you when the Vine Product is delivered to the common carrier for delivery to you. You may keep or destroy the Vine Product at your discretion at any time. You may keep or destroy the Vine Product at your discretion at any time.

and 

for six months following your order of any Vine Product, not sell or give possession of that Product to any other person. 

In Vine help it says:

Per the Amazon Vine Terms and Conditions, you may not sell or give possession of the products to any other person or entity for six months following your order. 

Here is where the problem is. "All right, title and interest in Vine Products will pass to you when the Vine Product is delivered to the common carrier for delivery to you." This means that the product is YOURS, It is YOUR property. If something is MY property then I CAN and WILL do with it as I see fit regardless of any further conditions mentioned. So as far as I am concerned I the conditions that state "for six months following your order of any Vine Product, not sell or give possession of that Product to any other person" is null and void.

In ye olde times when vine was young there were vine police/vigilantes people that would take it on themselves to police the rules and make sure that other viners abide by them. So my advice is that in your amazon review profile you change your name to something that is not traceable by others to you. Amazon can still see your real name, but there is no reason sellers, or other viners should be pursing ne'er do wells. to do this:

go to https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/

click on edit profile.

change your public name to something completely not related to you in real life.

remove the check mark next to "Show reviews to the public" and "Allow customers to follow you" then save changes.

You can verify that this is working by loading your profile in a browser that is not logged in to amazon.

This will also help to protect you from vindictive sellers that will report as many of your reviews as they can find because you dared to leave a low star review on their cheap junk.

Now why does amazon not want you to sell or give away an item (for 6 months) that you reviewed? Because this is to give the seller time to make a profit from their item without competing with some random listing on an auction site, or some other selling format.

How can amazon or the sellers find out? The dirty little secret is that for the most part they cannot. The only way they could find out is if you were selling something on a publicly accessible site and you are using the products word salad brand name, AND your real name is prominent in the listing, can be traced to you, or the site cooperates in telling the seller or amazon who you are.

In the event you give something away or donate it? unless you are posting about it, or someone else posts about it and names you? There is no way that amazon or the seller can find out, as such the 6 month rule is basically not enforceable in any reasonable way.

There are sticklers that will brow beat and try to shame anyone who post that they gave away, sold, or donated an item. So DON'T POST what you eventually did with the item, and if you do don't mention exactly what it is, or when you got it. Basically DON'T POST about it at all anywhere.

I go to thrift stores all the time, and I noticed in the last couple of month (since the start of summer 2025) that tons of vine related items have show up in them. I do not have any specific brands but I recognize things I have seen on vine, and most of this stuff is brand new. String trimmers, batteries, blowers, lawn equipment, pressure washers, toys, brand new car parts, and all manner of new but cheap and crappy things. So several people in my city and the neighboring cities are dumping stuff right and left.

Oh and as far as I know Amazon has not asked for any product to be returned or has required anyone to prove that they still own it, for over 15 years. Even if they do request a return or proof you still have it, all you have to do is say you threw it away after destroying it, they cannot prove otherwise. 

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What not to do in Vine

Do not order things you do not need, and cannot use. 

You cannot write good reviews for things you do not care about, don't know how to use, and don't really want. All you are doing is wasting sellers money, your own time, and putting Vine voices in a worse light than we already are. I do not order things I have no immediate use for, this means that I let lots of stuff go by. I have seen many things I could use but for whatever reason cannot use them within the next 3 weeks so I skip them. There is always next time.

Don't be greedy.

If you order a high dollar item like a laptop, and later another one comes up, leave it for someone else. Don't order every food item you see. Most of it is junk candy and in huge amounts. You don't need to eat that much candy, and neither does anyone you know. There are lots of people in the program that actually need things that you might be ordering and then just tossing later.

Don't police reviews.

This is not our job. Do not go on the lookout for reviews that you don't like, agree with, or think are chatgpt generated. If you see one that is obviously fake because they left the AI prompt in the review or other information that makes it obvious that it is not human written then sure report it. Do not make this a habit. You can be kicked from the program for false reporting or perceived false reporting. I reported a 1 star review on a product, that all it said in the review was "human", and had a video showing a short clip of walking down a street, and this was for some electronic device. Otherwise MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

Do not order variants.

Variants are items with multiple listings, or a single listing with multiple items. You can only review one of them if you do order a variant. How can you tell if an items is a variant? look at the listing and see if the item you are looking at has the same seller as another item that looks close to or exactly the same. If you order in haste then it is highly likely you will order a variant. You will either have to eat the review in your stats (because you cannot review it), or contact Vine Customer service and explain what happened. They will remove it from your review queue. Try not to do this a lot. Too many removals/cancellations can result in getting kicked from vine.

Avoid Canceling items.

In 2024 Amazon started cracking down on this. At one point many years ago, people would order "placeholders" an item they kind of wanted, but if something else came along they would cancel, get their pick back, and order a better item. The issue with this is that when you cancel and order the seller loses a review, the item is NOT put back on vine, and the seller loses the money they paid for the listing. So now if you cancel too many orders at once you can and likely will get kicked out of the program. Per an email from vine cs "If you must cancel multiple items, do them in separate contact requests." Do not send one request saying I need to cancel 5 items (or whatever). this could result in being kicked out immediately. I am not saying do not cancel orders, but if you do you better have a good reason. "I didn't realize what I ordered", "I don't want it", or any other lame excuse will not cut it. I reasonable excuse is along the lines of "I ordered a food item and realized it contains something I am allergic to", "I have had a family emergency and cannot review the product (or any product) for several weeks or longer". So do not order in haste.

Do not accuse sellers of selling fake/counterfeit items.

Counterfeit - An item made to look exactly like a brand name item, and may even carry that name, but appears to be not properly made, or for some other reason raises red flags.

You can report counterfeit items to amazon but be warned that sellers are required to provide proof that an item is the real deal. Sellers can easily provide fake documents, and amazon will use that as plausible deniability. Amazon can and will kick you out of vine and amazon itself if it thinks you are being a nuisance about this. If you think a product is counterfeit report it to the brand manufacturer and let them deal with it. Do not try to claim it is counterfeit in a review. Report your concern to vine CS and have them remove the item from your queue.

Fake - An item usually supplements that may not be what it claims, or may contain ingredients that are not listed or lying. An item that is supposed to do something but does not do that thing or anything useful.

This is hard to pin down. If you think a product is in some way fake? the same issue applies with reporting counterfeit items. Sellers have to provide certs that an supplement is what it says it is, but these can be fake. If you suspect a supplement, or medicine is fake contact the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or its equivalent in your country and let them deal with it. Do not try to claim it is fake in a review. Report your concern to vine CS and have them remove the item from your queue.

Copy - An item the may or may not look like a brand name device, but makes no claims that it IS that brand name, or an item that will work with a brand name as an accessory, battery, or attachment.

There is nothing to report here. While possibly underhanded and maybe a violation of copyright it is not your place to report this. A common thing now is making power tools that use established brands batteries, or making batteries that work with an established brands tool. You can report in a review that this battery is not Original Equipment Manufactured (OEM) but that is not really necessary as the seller is very likely not making any claims that it is. They may list it as "For Makita" or "compatible with X". All manufacturers are aware that this is happening, and there is not much they can do about it.

Do not review shame.

Do not post examples of other peoples reviews on reddit (or other forums) no matter how badly they are written, or how much you want to protect the vine program. I have seen examples where a reviewer was shamed. The review was reported to Amazon, the reviewers account was supposedly locked, and the reviewer posted about it on reddit. Their review was meant to be humorous but over zealous vine vigilantes did not get the joke. Leave other peoples reviews alone. Not your circus, NOT your monkeys!

Do not post stupid shit on the vine subreddits.

We've all seen the silly/sexy/perverted/cute/stupid/misspelled/pointless/controversial items in vine. You are not the first person to see them, and almost certainly not the first person to post that item on that day/week/month. In fact you are probably the 4th or 5th. The vine forms are not for that kind of thing. If you cannot help yourself and still want to make a stupid post about them, then go to r/AmazonWTF (no I won't make it a link). If you crave human interaction so much that this is what you have been reduced to, maybe go volunteer in a senior center, or hospital.

Do not discuss politics in vine forums.

Nothing good ever comes from this. If you cannot effect something that is currently happening, then grousing about it in a forum does nothing except foment strife. Find a political forum and self flagellate all you want. If there is something that is even slightly the result of politics, or from a politician do not discuss it in vine forums.

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Taxes and Vine

Vine Help tax FAQ

This is a contentious subject with many people claiming to know how to file your taxes and many of them trying to find ways to game the IRS and claim as little as possible.

Here's the deal. If you order a total amount in excess of $600 and possibly at some point this may go up to $2000 you will be able to download a 1099-NEC. If you order less than that you will NOT receive a 1099, and neither will the IRS.

If you receive a 1099 you MUST report it on your taxes as income. I cannot tell you what type of income, except that my CPA reports it as self employed income. I have seen many "sovereign citizen" types try all sorts of mental gymnastics to avoid paying the taxes that they have accrued. Some people have reported as much as $17,000 in orders. I do not know what the tax is on that exactly but if it is something like 19% then the taxes you would owe would be about $3,230. Keep this in mind when you are going hog wild ordering all that junk. You have to pay the piper.

Here is what will most likely happen if you try to one up the IRS. You very likely will be on the receiving end of an audit. This is not pleasant, I have had to deal with this twice, once for a parent, and once for myself. In both cases it took 6 months to resolve. in once case it was in my parents favor, and for myself I had made a mistake of not filing a 1099 I did not know about. THE IRS SURE DID.

They will wait a couple of years to inform you of the problem, and send you a nastygram that basically says pay up criminal scum. You will accrue interest, penalties, and the IRS does not care if you do not have the money. "PAY UP, do it NOW or the interest and penalties will increase" is most of the response you will get. Good luck getting a person on the phone. Some people have reported not having a problem talking to an agent, in my case it took 5 months to get someone on the phone that would actually listen to what the issue was with my parents return, and I never got anyone on the phone for my case. I had to respond through their portal, and they would ONLY respond in snail mail letters which would take weeks to get to me. I finally hired a CPA to deal with it. When all was said and done, I still had to pay the taxes I owed on the 1099, and most of the penalties and interest. the CPA did save me a couple thousand even after paying his fees.

so DON'T try to game the IRS you WILL lose. 

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What is Additional Items

Additional Items (AI) is basically where the majority of items in vine can be found. these are "sorted" in to categories, but the categories are merely a suggestion as to what you will find in them. Sellers (or whoever) decides what goes in to each category often put things in categories that they do not belong in. as an example; outlet covers in "Sexual wellness", or the infamous "cake toppers" in "Pantry staples". So good luck finding things by category.

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What is Available For All and how does it work

Available For All (AFA) is basically for products offered only by Amazon. It does not appear to be influenced in any way. The products that appear in there are often boring, and useless to most people. Some people claim they get some of the best items there, but I think that is only if you sit when drops are happening and keep hitting F5. Items can remain in AFA for weeks, and sometimes have errors that prevent them from ever being ordered. Anyone can order the items in AFA.

What shows up in AFA?

car parts
clothing
Wall paper
Printer ink or toner
Pet food and treats
small step ladder
Anti Colic bottle tops 
Kids toys
Kids ride on toy covers
baby items

And many Other things.

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What is Recommended For You and how does it work

Recommended For You (RFY) is a list of products specifically picked for you SUPPOSEDLY based on information amazon knows about you, things you have ordered, things you have looked at, things you have searched for, and some people believe things you put in your wishlist, shopping cart, or ordered from vine before.

Don't get all worked up about what shows up, and when in your RFY. People put WAY too much emphasis on getting, or not getting stuff in RFY. 

The truth is that NO ONE knows except amazon. Some believe that it is mostly random. I am in that camp. Do I get things that I have showed an interest in or ordered? Yes. Does it happen enough to convince me that it is not random? No.

What RFY is not:

It is not a list of things that you have to review.

It is not always populated.

It is not very good at showing you things you like.

It is not always a sign you are in trouble if it is empty. 

Can you influence it? Not as far as I can tell. my attempts at it are inconclusive. I am convinced there is a lot of confirmation bias in those that believe it can be influenced, also some people have very low standards and are easily impressed with some of the garbage that shows up in it. 

RFY is completely automated and controlled by some kind of AI. Items can stay in RFY for as much as 24 hours, and supposedly only shown to you, and maybe a few other people. Items in RFY do not show up in Additional Items, unless no one orders them.

Things that showed up in my RFY in a 2 week period and whether it was relevant to me or junk. 

women's halloween costume. (never once ordered a costume)
48 plastic wine glasses (don't drink wine)
magnetic block toy (no use for never ordered anything like it)
radiator cleaning wand (no use for never ordered anything like it)
LED light fixture (No use for)
brake cable for a car I don't own
pruning shear blades (I won't need one of these for 10+ years if ever)
some kind of decorative arch thing (junk never ordered anything like it)
USB C cable (dime a dozen)
remote for a car I don't own
monitor arms (no immediate use)
woman's v neck dress (I'm an older guy, and it wouldn't fit my wife)
area rug (junk never ordered anything like it)
window blind cleaning spray (junk never ordered anything like it)
laptop battery for a laptop I don't have
dried flower wreath (junk never ordered anything like it)
block printing kit (junk never ordered anything like it)
car stereo specific to a car I don't have
japanese sauna hat (I've been in sauna one time in my whole life never ordered anything like it)
laptop tote bag (already have a bag)
children's ofrenda (no children, not mexican)
8 ball throw pillow (junk)
dried leaf wreath (junk)
"jade" elephant statue (junk never ordered anything like it)
alphabet fidget toy (junk never ordered anything like it)
"onyx" earrings (junk)
carplay adapter (junk never ordered anything like it)
digital dial calipers (I actually could use this and ordered it)
32" wind chime (way too small)
woman's watch (not a woman, and I haven't worn a watch in 15 years)
Baseball bucket bag (haven't played baseball in over 50 years never ordered anything like it)
6 pack of round black table clothes (I don't have a round table)
Wooden Montessori Activity center for children (no children never ordered anything like it)
Methylene Blue (I didn't eat the horse paste, I'm not eating this)
mens long sleeve jacket in my size but polyester (I hate polyester)
steam deck fan thing (I don't pay for video games never ordered anything like it)
TV no stud wall mount (don't need)
oil cooler filter housing for car I don't have
Smart LED turn signal? (never ordered anything like it)
grasscloth? (never ordered anything like it)
Sauce pan set (don't need)
trading card storage box (no trading cards never ordered anything like it)
battery for laptop I don't have
solar garden statue (junk never ordered anything like it)
Anime "neon" sign (junk never ordered anything like it)
lighted makeup mirror (junk never ordered anything like it)
floor vent (no floor vents in my house)
"sexy" skeleton costume (there's nothing more lazy than a sexy X costume)
cutting mats for something
air compressor drain valve (don't need)
woman's sweat suit (ugh!)
bathroom trash cans (junk)
princess costume (junk)
woman's tennis dress (trash)
picture frame (junk)
Weird wall sconce (junk)
stainless steel thing (no idea)
"smart" glasses (junk never ordered anything like it)
fish fillet mat (junk)
F1 RC race car (would have been neat to have about 46 years ago)
grass catcher for a mower I don't have, and my yards are xeriscaped.
useless area rug
doctor kit for toddlers (no toddlers/junk)
throw (junk)
a set of flat free tires for a lawn tractor (wrong size and we have all we need)
pressure washer gun and stuff (don't need)
3 lawn mower blades (don't need)
soccer ball (don't care about any sports)
rechargeable bike light (don't want rechargeable)
woman's formal dress (ugh)
I've been searching for an adult size bike helmet for months, did I have one show up in my RFY? no, the 2 I ordered were found by searching.

I share an account with my wife, but she is setup with her own profile, and she has ordered girl stuff and toys for kids, but not on my profile. 

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Why you should put the title description in your review

This subject is slightly controversial in the vine community. For a long time there was a way that sellers gamed the vine system. Normally they can offer up to 30 items to be reviewed. The idea is there would be one listing with 30 items resulting in sellers getting up to 30 reviews for an item. Sellers quickly figured out that they could list 1 item 30 times, then aggregate the variant and reviews. What they did was pick and choose which variant or other listing had the good reviews and aggregate those tossing the bad reviews. Sometimes they would change what the product was after they got reviews. Get a bunch of good reviews for some cheap throw away product, then change the product to what they really want to sell knowing that lots of people would not read the reviews and just look at the number of 4 or 5 star ratings. If anyone did read the reviews they would just assume there was a glitch or that someone got confused and reviewed the wrong product.

To combat this viners began putting a basic version of the product description in the title, and or inside the review. I personally do this, and make it as short as I can. This way if everyone did it then buyers might see large amounts of reviews referencing a different product and think something is up and go elsewhere. Some people don't like the idea and say it is not our business to police buyers. I prefer to think it preserves the integrity of my reviews.

At this time I do not know what sellers think about this. Sellers cannot easily get reviews taken down. contrary to what some viners think. In fact on the seller forums they complain that they cannot get reviews taken down that were left by someone who obviously should not have ordered something, or did not know how to use the thing they ordered. Reviews like that are often left by people who were too hasty in ordering things, and then realized they could not use the item, get mad, and leave a low star review for their own stupidity and greediness.

One thing that will get you lots of derision in the vine community is putting a disclaimer in your review, or explaining what your star rating system is. I do not do this, but I do not see a problem with doing this. Some of the people who do this are trying to protect the validity of vine reviews, and others are trying to point out that we do not get our products totally for free since we have to pay taxes, and have to leave a review. I agree we are not getting a product for free. if we were getting them for free there would be no tax and no one would leave reviews. 

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Save Your Reviews and causes of rejection

If and or when Amazon rejects your reviews, and you go to edit them, you will find the review blank.

I think amazon does this on purpose to force you to rewrite the review. Amazon will never tell you exactly why your review was rejected. So it is highly recommended to save copies of your reviews at least until they are live, and you have verified they are visible on the product page. Also editing a pending approval review will not show the edits until AFTER it is approved.

Most common reasons for rejection:

mentioning shipping and packaging issues or damage to product. this has nothing to do with the product so don't talk about it.

Posting links that lead outside of amazon. 

Something in your picture (barcodes, other products, QR codes, brand names on things)

Same for videos 

Claims of fake or counterfeit products. 

Saying a medicine, or supplement is effective or not.

Attacking the seller or their customer service.

Mentioning problems ordering or returning items.

Shipping costs or speed of shipping.

Mentioning product value as compared to it's value when obtained off of amazon. 

Basically if it is not about the product then you should not talk about it. 

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Other sources and forums related to vine and Amazon

This is a curated list of every source for information on vine, and amazon (that I know of). I recommend checking out each of the forums that you can access. Before complaining about amazon employees, policies, drivers, sellers, and whatever. Spend a day in their shoes. I highly recommend that you NOT spend a lot of time on these forums, you will be a lot happier as they are full of fear, superstition, greed, conspiracy, and clueless people spewing bad information. I only go there occasionally to see if things are happening that I don't know about. Remember to down vote every thread.

Amazon provided:

Vine Help

Terms of service

Resources

Community guidelines 

Vine tax FAQ

Amazon Hosted Seller forums:

Amazon Seller Forum

Seller Central 

Seller Central Canada

Reddit hosted Vine forums: (read the rules, FAQ's and the first 50 posts and comments before posting on any of theses subreddits).

r/amazonvine The currently most active forum.

r/vine Not as active less rules.

r/veteranamazonviners not very active  

r/AmazonVineHelpGroup  Barely active lots of rules, no fun, complaining, arguing, product link sharing, amazon rules heavily enforced, no "cheating", no tax talk, and being nice is enforced with passive aggressive remarks, and bans. whatever you do, do not talk smack about the mods. they have no sense of humor and are basically sensitive children.

Vine forums for other countries: 

r/amazonvineuk United Kingdom

r/amazonvinecanada Canada

r/amazonvineaustralia Australia

r/amazonvinede Germany

Misc other vine sites: 

r/beautyviners forum for viners that slather goop on their faces

Good Reads Amazon Vine forum (private group you must request to access) 

r/amazonvinecirclejerk Forum that mocks r/amazonvine (not very active)

Non Vine Amazon related forums:

r/AmazonFC For amazon employees that work at fulfillment centers (warehouses)

r/amazon/ General Amazon Employees

r/AmazonSeller Amazon sellers

r/FulfillmentByAmazon Another Warehouse employee forum

r/FASCAmazon Fulfillment and sort center employees

r/AmazonDSPDrivers Amazon Delivery Service partners

r/amazonemployees Amazon employees

r/AmazonFlexDrivers Kind of like Uber but for Amazon delivery

Vine Extensions:

r/vinehelper 

r/ultraviner/ 

Other links of interest: 

Lowest number of items on vine

Things viners wished they could tell sellers

Why do items ship in wrong size boxes

Most repeated questions asked by noobs/newbs READ ALL OF THIS!

Every so often I check in on the reddit forums and every time it is full of same garbage posts. 

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Why is there so much junk? Caveat Emptor!

This involves an explanation of why the vine program exists. This history is pieced together from information provided by old viners as understood by me.

In 2007 amazon launched vine voices, the purpose of this program was to give sellers a chance to get a leg up on getting (somewhat) guaranteed reviews for product.. Sellers live and die by reviews. Many people will not purchase products form listing without reviews (good or bad). Initially the program was vastly different from what it is today. Viners were hand picked based on the quality of their reviews. Emails were sent out 2 times a month with lists of products you could select. You chose a product and they sent it to them totally free. There were no tiers and it was basically first come first served. 

Reviews were required to be done in 30 days. Amazon hosted an online discussion board. In 2015 the IRS decided that viners had to pay taxes on the items received. In 2016 the process changed to basically what it is now. The forums were shut down and moved elsewhere (more later). In or around 2023 the 30 day deadline went away, and the tier system was implemented. I do not know exactly when viners started being selected at random. If you think you were selected based on how well you wrote that last review, well you would be wrong. 

In the early days of the program most if not all the products offered were established and well know name brands. At some point in the mid to late 2000 tons of word salad brands started appearing on amazon. This Article explains in more detail, but the TLDR is that amazon requires sellers to have a registered trademarked name chinese sellers don't give a shit about what names they use so that's why you will see all manner of strange meaningless and almost vulgar brands.

As amazon became flooded with these fly by night sellers and their sub standard products the quality of stuff showing up in vine plummeted. China is inundated with companies that make almost anything you want to whatever price point you want, and the chinese government helps them. Now don't get me wrong there are good quality products in vine, but it all depends on what you are looking for, what tier you are, and how fast you are in deciding to order.

Understand that selling on amazon is cut throat. Sellers use all manner of tactics against each other, and to game the system and promote their products.

Sellers buy each others products, and then leave 1 star reviews, they hire shills to purchase products, or bribe customers with gift cards that pay only after you leave a 5 star review. They have cronies leave unverified purchase 5 star reviews, and 1 star reviews. They report each other to amazon because amazon will shut them down or take down a product, and the process to get something back online is mired in poor customer support, bad communication, and computer/AI automation. So for sellers on amazon a total average review score of less than 4 stars is basically a death sentence for that product. If a seller has too many low star reviews then amazon will stop promoting the product or even take it down.

The main reason why most products are junk is that as I stated before chinese companies will make you a product as good, or as shitty as you will pay them to. Sellers list a product with a finite inventory, try to sell as much as fast as they can, while avoiding as many returns as they can, and then shutting down and never carrying that product again (under that brand name). If amazon cracks down on a seller, they just shutdown. change address, names, brands, and re-open as something new. We as reviewers and consumers pay the price for that.

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What are 0 ETV items and why people want them

What classifies an item as zero ETV (estimated tax value) can be confusing but is most commonly human consumables/food, vulgar and sexual food items, items or devices with a medical use, medical devices, medical supplies, parts for medical devices, assistive devices, and parts for same, some cosmetics/jewelry like items, and personal grooming items. Medical testing products, supplements, medicine,  insulin pumps, some sex toys, and medical training devices. Some pets supplies, some sports devices like mouth guards, certain types of sun glasses or other eye-wear, parts for eye-wear, and many other things.

Caveats of zero ETV items:

Sometimes items are misclassified, as 0 ETV, or as not being 0 ETV. If you order a zero ETV item and suspect it is not really zero ETV take a screen shot of the vine details and save it. Some people recommend doing this with ALL zero ETV items as you might need proof to submit to vine customer support if the ETV of an items changes later.

Don't be a greedy jerk. If you have no use for a medical or assistive device DO NOT order it. The vine program has many people who need assistive/medical devices, or are in the medical field and far more likely to use/review correctly medical/assistive devices than you can/will.

Ordering zero ETV items is tempting but you are doing a disservice to Amazon consumers, and yourself by ordering them just to up your numbers.

People want zero ETV items because it is an easy way to boost your total items ordered without accruing the tax burden of ordering lots of taxable things. Some countries do not have taxes on vine items.

Amazon is starting to crack down on poorly written reviews and at minimum you can or will lose your gold status if you cannot meet the requirements, and could be kicked out from the program completely for failing to complete enough reviews. 

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Why you should avoid ordering supplements

I highly recommend that you do NOT order supplements, medicine, or vitamins. Basically do not order anything that makes a medical or health claim of any type. Why?

Because you cannot review them in any meaningful way. You cannot:

report that a product improved you health.

report that it made you feel better/worse.

got rid of a headache, or even heartburn/acid reflux.

helped get rid of pain in any form.

cured you.

gave you a hard on. 

grew hair.

make any claims whatsoever. 

This is not Amazons policy (amazon does not care) this is the FDA's policy in the United States.

All you can do is describe the color, taste, smell, packaging, ease of consuming, and that's about it. It's hard to be insightful with these constraints.

other reasons to avoid ordering supplements are:

Snake oil products that make absurd claims or hint at claims.

fake products.

unknown ingredients.

undeclared ingredients/allergens.

Many products will have misleading labels, fake addresses, companies, phone numbers, and websites. False claims of certification and testing. Supposedly pharmaceuticals made in india are safe, as well as cosmetics made in south korea, but beware that this is not something you want to mess with unless you know a brand or can confirm with third parties that a product is what it says it is. 

Basically where meds, and vitamins are involved don't order them if you are not familiar with the brand already. 

According to information gleaned from Amazon hosted forums sellers must submit proof that a supplement/medicine is certified and tested, but amazon does not appear to verify these certificates.

The temptation is high to order supplements, medicines, and vitamins because they have zero Estimated Tax Value (ETV) which means that you can up your numbers without the added tax burden. But if you are not prepared to review them properly, and do not mind consuming who knows what, then do not order them. You will often have just seconds to decide whether to order something, and no time at all to read the description or do any verification of who really makes it. So skip it. This is too bad for the sellers but your health is more important than being able to (maybe) order a laptop full of spyware in the future. The safest thing is to let them go.

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