How to stop sellers from harassing you to change reviews
Sellers use emotional manipulation and partial refund offers through direct messages to pressure buyers into revising honest, critical reviews. This harassment leaves buyers second-guessing their feedback and trapped in a cycle of unwanted messages when they only wanted to share a genuine experience.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- Most of it landed at once — the busiest month was September 2026, with 6 people.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Reporting the seller to the platform2 people mentionedDid this help you?
- 2Ignoring the seller completelyDid this help you?
- 3Updating the review to a lower ratingDid this help you?
- 4blocking the seller's account from messagingDid this help you?
- 5updating the review to mention the seller's persistent messagingDid this help you?
- 6opening an item not as described case with the platformDid this help you?
- 7reporting the seller for harassment or extortionDid this help you?
- 8Reporting the user multiple times to platform supportDid this help you?
- 9Ignoring direct communication demandsDid this help you?
- 10Changing the review to a higher rating just to get the seller to stop contacting themDid this help you?
- 11Reporting the message or shop directly through the platformDid this help you?
- 12Emailing customer support or abuse departments with screenshotsDid this help you?
- 13Updating the review to include transcripts of the harassing messagesDid this help you?
- 14Ignoring the messages and blocking the sellerDid this help you?
- 15Contacting platform support for guidanceDid this help you?
- 16Ignoring the seller's messages based on platform support adviceDid this help you?
- 17Requesting a prepaid return label from the sellerDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I just got a long message from the seller with a sob story, apologizing that the quality of the packaging was not to my standards (no mention of the quality of the item itself), wanting to "make it right" by offering a partial refund, and asking for a revised review, and I'm second-guessing whether my review was too harsh.”source ↗
“Today the seller messaged me some wild stuff (see attatched screenshot). They had also asked me to change the 1 star review to a five stars before I got my refund. I changed it to three stars so they'd leave me alone.”source ↗
“is there a way to report a seller for inappropriate conduct?”source ↗
“i recieved a phone case that didn't fit my phone and seller refused to give me a refund and so I got one from Etsy. he asked me to change my review and then said this. actually freaked out lol”source ↗
“Now, they keep messaging me to update the review when they didn't send me what I was expecting.”source ↗
“The seller has been harassing me and messaging me on iMessage, WhatsApp, email and messaging me on Etsy. She is using all my personal information to message me on.”source ↗
“The seller went ahead and reported me to ic3.gov which I’m not sure what they can do. And is planning to report me to a few other sites if I don’t pay her. This is threatening.”source ↗
“I have a seller that is currently threatening me.”source ↗
“She then posted me online because i left a bad review, lying about the situation.”source ↗
“She has sent a message saying that if I do not agree to send it back or dont respond at all she will take legal action and report it as theft.”source ↗
“This has been a nightmare honestly. I have never been harassed and threatened by a seller before.”source ↗
“Im still worried. Will I be in trouble?? What should I do? Looking for a lawyers perspective.”source ↗
“after leaving this honest review of my experience, the seller is repeatedly harassing me in DMs to change my feedback”source ↗
“WTactualF?!? I'm so sorry. You don't deserve that.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5Having second thoughts after paying a wedding vendor deposit
- 2Why are my legitimate customer reviews getting deleted?
- 23How to handle high-pressure roofing salespeople
- 3Seller offered refund if I change my review
- 21Why do purchased reviews disappear and drop my ranking?
- 3Why do online sellers send useless automated replies?