A card in the box asking customers to contact you before leaving a negative review is a policy violation

Key takeaways

• Product inserts are permitted. What is prohibited is directing customers to write a positive review, offering any incentive for a review, or directing dissatisfied customers to contact you instead of reviewing.
• Reporting quotes Amazon's own wording: directing customers to write a positive review, or to contact the seller instead of leaving a negative review, is prohibited.
• Redirecting customers to non-Amazon websites for shopping purposes is separately prohibited under the Seller Code of Conduct.
• One published technique for staying compliant is structural: never put the customer service offer and the review mention in the same sentence, because making the connection for the buyer is the violation.
• The safest version, is to remove review-request language from inserts entirely and use Amazon's Request a Review button — which eliminates the most common false-positive trigger.

Almost every private-label seller puts a card in the box. Most of those cards contain at least one sentence that as prohibited, written in good faith by someone who thought they were being helpful.

01What is allowed

An insert can:

• Thank the buyer
• Explain how to use the product — setup instructions, assembly, troubleshooting
• Offer assistance with problems
• ** the customer is free to report an honest experience**
• Cross-sell your other products on Amazon
• Provide warranty registration, within the policy boundaries

That is a genuinely useful card, and it is the version that carries no risk.

02What is not

Reported prohibitions, and each one catches a common template:

Asking for a positive review. Reporting quotes Amazon’s own wording: directing customers to write a positive review is prohibited even if no incentive is offered.

Offering any incentive. Discounts, refunds, free products, gift cards or other compensation in exchange for a review — reported as prohibited even when the compensation is not conditioned on the review being positive.

Review gating. Directing dissatisfied customers to contact you instead of leaving a negative review. Reporting is explicit that Amazon treats this as review diversion even where the intent is customer service.

Redirecting off Amazon for shopping. Covered separately under the Seller Code of Conduct, not the review policy.

Newsletter and email capture. an insert asking customers to sign up for a newsletter as unlikely to convert well and likely to violate the policy on diverting sales.

QR codes, social links and landing pages used in ways that manipulate reviews or move customer service off Amazon. these as permitted in narrow cases with enforcement depending on use case and wording — which is another way of saying the risk is yours.

03The technique that separates the two

One published approach is worth stating precisely because it is the difference between a compliant insert and a suspension trigger.

Do not put the review mention and the customer service offer in the same sentence, or adjacent to each other.

Reporting explains why: it may seem a subtle difference, but separating them leaves the buyer to make the connection that contacting you is a better route than leaving negative feedback. If you make that connection for them, you have broken the rule.

Non-compliant: “If you have any problems, please contact us before leaving a review.”

Compliant: a support section giving contact details for help with the product, and — separately, if at all — a neutral statement that honest feedback is welcome.

04The safest version

One source’s conclusion is more conservative and worth taking seriously given what a review-manipulation flag costs.

Remove review-request language from inserts entirely. Use Amazon’s Request a Review button — the only officially sanctioned proactive mechanism — and let the insert do setup, support and Amazon-only cross-sell.

The reasoning: this eliminates the most common false-positive trigger that catches good-faith sellers, because there is no review-request language anywhere for an algorithm to flag.

And the exposure extends beyond your own card. Reporting names supplier packaging with review requests as a trigger — meaning a factory that includes its own insert, or reuses packaging from another client, can create a flag against your account. Add “no inserts, no review language” to the packaging specification and check it at inspection.

05What a flag actually costs

Covered in full in the review manipulation guide, and worth summarizing here because it is the reason to be conservative:

Amazon’s system will flag patterns rather than confirmed violations, notices do not specify which reviews or messages triggered them, and false positives are documented and common in 2026.

Which means the cost of a slightly aggressive insert is not a warning about the insert. It is a notice you have to diagnose yourself, on an account that may be suspended while you do — see the suspension guide.

06What to do

Audit your current insert against the prohibition list. Most fail on the customer-service-before-review sentence.

Separate support from feedback, physically on the card if you keep both.

Remove incentives entirely, including Amazon-only discounts paired with review language.

Remove newsletter and off-Amazon calls to action.

Specify no supplier inserts in the purchase order and verify at inspection.

Use Request a Review as the proactive mechanism and let the insert be genuinely useful instead.

Reprint rather than use up existing stock if the current card is non-compliant. A reprint costs a few hundred dollars; the alternative is an unexplained flag on the account.

Read your current insert aloud. If any sentence mentions reviews, stars, refunds, or a website, that sentence is the violation — and the card is cheaper to reprint than the account is to reinstate.

Frequently asked

Are product inserts allowed on Amazon?

Yes, provided they do not manipulate reviews, offer incentives for feedback, or redirect customers off Amazon in ways that violate seller policies. Setup instructions, support offers and Amazon-only cross-sell are the low-risk uses.

Can I ask customers to contact me before leaving a negative review?

No. Reporting quotes Amazon's wording directly: directing customers to contact the seller instead of leaving a negative review is prohibited, and Amazon treats it as review diversion even where the intent is customer service.

Can I offer a discount for a review?

No. incentives — discounts, refunds, free products, gift cards or any compensation — as prohibited even when not conditioned on the review being positive.

How do I offer support without breaking the rule?

Keep the support offer and any review mention separate rather than in the same sentence. Published guidance is explicit that pairing them makes the connection for the buyer, and making that connection is the violation.

Can I put a newsletter signup on the insert?

it as unlikely to convert well and likely to violate the policy on diverting sales off Amazon. The off-Amazon prohibition sits under the Seller Code of Conduct rather than the review policy.

What is the safest insert?

One that does setup help, support and Amazon-only cross-sell, with no review-request language at all, using Amazon's Request a Review button for feedback instead. That removes the most common false-positive trigger entirely.

Sources

1. Customer product reviews policies and the prohibition on incentivized or diverted reviews; packaging insert guidelines, Amazon Seller Central Help accessed 2026-09-05
2. Amazon product inserts: rules and best practices (permitted and prohibited uses; review diversion treated as prohibited even where intended as customer service; QR codes and social links as gray zones; low-risk purposes of setup help, neutral review asks and Amazon-only cross-sell), SupplyKick Secondary accessed 2026-09-05
3. Amazon package inserts: what is allowed and how to use them (Amazon’s own wording on positive review requests and review diversion; separating the support offer from the review mention; newsletter signup likely violating the diverting-sales policy), WebRetailer Secondary accessed 2026-09-05
4. Amazon review manipulation suspensions in 2026 (removing review requests from packaging, inserts and messaging entirely and using only the Request a Review button; eliminating the most common false-positive trigger), SellerSprite Secondary accessed 2026-09-05
5. Amazon review manipulation suspension: what triggers it (product inserts requesting reviews and supplier packaging with review requests among the triggers; incentives prohibited even when not conditioned on a positive review; automated flagging of patterns), DAM Law Firm Secondary accessed 2026-09-05
6. How to get reviews on Amazon: 9 compliant ways (what an insert may say — thank the buyer, describe use, offer assistance, note that honest feedback is welcome; prohibitions on positive-review requests, incentives and review gating), SalesDuo Secondary accessed 2026-09-05