I Quit the Amazon Vine Customer Review Programme

Because it's just a jaded junk pile of terrible items.
They've lost a voice, and so be it.
Classic Vine Reviews:
• Worst Coding Book Ever...
• Review - Amazon Basics...
• Sony Bravia KD49XE8004...

[@LordXelous]

I had no idea so many other Amazon Vine members were finding this video, hello to you all, and honestly I could not do with the grind, the lack of interaction from Amazon and then the knock back on years of effort on their behalf for free.

[@magnum164]

In the US and while the items are not FREE to me, I have to pay taxes I do find a lot of good items. This week I have a new hose and pressure washing wand coming in. Tomorrow is my Gold Status Upgrade - I hope but so far in 6 months I have gotten over 150 items. Might be just difference in US and UK markets, but a lot of items I have used to update my home. I also review/test mostly electronics including batteries and cameras. So there are a lot to select from for me. I am the odd one. I enjoy getting a battery rated at 4Ah and testing it and tearing it open to prove it is only 1.5Ah. Had several already removed from Amazon for fraudulent ads.

[@we-are-electric1445]

I was upgraded a week ago to Gold status and I haven't seen an improvement in the quality of items available over the Silver status. I constantly had error messages telling me to choose something else under the Silver status then the item appeared again the next day eliciting the same message and the day after that etc. So far the Gold status has conferred the same problems upon me and I know of other people in the UK complaining of similar problems. I had hoped Gold status would improve the situation. If it doesn't improve over the next few weeks I will drop out of Vine. It is interesting US participants seem more positive about Vine than those in the UK. I have had only one review rejected and when I have given 1 star reviews I have sometimes been contacted by the supplier/manufacturer through Amazon but I have never been harassed for giving a negative review. I do wonder whether Amazon realise how problematic Vine is for UK participants and if you are in the UK and have been invited I would not set your expectations too high - a lot of the products are low quality and a good few never worked properly, or at all. From my experience the value of the items will not adequately reimburse you for your time spent preparing the review. if the value of the items you receive come to more than £1000 then HMRC will probably ignore it but you do have to declare it. Sadly, for the UK at least, Vine has probably had its day or should I say it is starting to wither !

[@magnum164]

@@we-are-electric1445 I just got anew patio Furniture, New Nuwave AirFryer, 3 over 60v tool batteries and Security Cameras. Stuff I would not have bought/gotten without Vine.

[@BarmyTwubble]

The error message simply means they have all gone, it's why you see it on the most popular stuff. I personally love vine, have so many great quality items tax free, yesterday grabbed Maybelline 2024 make up calender, Ellie calender and a huge feeding station for my dogs, by a top German brand. So far tax free I have 1000s of euros worth of top quality products by great brands. The key is sit everyday at roughly the right item update time and spend an hour refreshing and checking the few 0.00 tax areas for the good stuff, 10 seconds late and it's all gone, error message or just not there. Anyone not there at that time and FAST to grab, will see nothing but cheap crap sadly. Sure some days even doing that will get nothing, big deal. I guess if you don't like it, leave. I'm happy with a dumping ground giving my wife so far over 1750 euros worth of branded beauty products. As far as leaving, Amazon are not to fussed, we are not special to be on vine, everyone and their dog are invited now days, that's part of the issue. What people must realise is though whether Canada, UK, Germany and many other places now, you will be taxed !!!! Unless you grab the 0.00 items, if you are 10 seconds late , you will just see cheap useless tat, sadly.

[@citymouse40]

How do you file to pay taxes? Is it considered self employment? Because there self employment taxes here. Taxes can hit hard depending on your status, married vs single filing, how much you make and the tax bracket you're already in, the state you live in etc. I don't have state tax, but when I work a gig job, I had to pay self employment tax on top of higher taxes due to filing jointly.

[@magnum164]

@@citymouse40 I would have to go back to my return and look. But when you enter the 1099 instead of listing self-employed or hobby you select MISC. Then just follow the instructions and you are basically telling the IRS you are not making a profit by selling the items. Yo do not have to pay self-employment taxes, you only pay taxes on what you buy based on your tax bracket. For me retired/disabled I do not pay much on taxes, maybe 20% on any Vine item. So getting a new $700 gaming laptop for about $140 was a no brainer for me. If you listen to the Vine Forums people will tell you, you cant do this. But I actually showed a friend this who took it to his daughter who was a CPA, and she confirmed it was legit and allowed by IRS and redid his taxes saving him $2K in taxes. The instructions are on Turbo Tax answers, but I can find it at the moment.

[@toda2638]

And not to mention that the search feature on vine is absolute garbage! I was looking to see if I could get some solar fence lights for a fencing project, and searching various terms returned different results ("light" vs. "lights"; "fence" vs. "post"). It's like trying to use a search engine in 1999! I was just demoted to silver despite actually meeting the 100 items/90% rule (some of my reviews were approved on the last day, so they'll just say I should have put them in earlier if I try to complain). I managed that 100 items because I just re-did my kitchen, so of course I needed a lot of things! In the next 6 months (you are supposed to do 100 items every 6 months!), I can't imagine needing 100 different items for my own use! And the official rules say that you can't buy them for or give them to anyone outside of your household! So if your sister would really like a piece of jewelry, you shouldn't be doing that! If your nephew would enjoy a gaming headset, that's not really within the rules unless they live with you! They don't police that part well, but do they really think that there are households out there that need 100 different, random things every 6 months?

[@BrownStain_Silver]

I was invited to join the Amazon Vine Program a few days ago. I've watched a few videos and get the general idea of it now. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[@LordXelous]

Welcome aboard!

[@deusvlad2.083]

@@LordXelous I don't get it you said welcome aboard, but you quit vine? lol

[@vlvr]

Though I agree the item quality has dropped precipitously, I do not share the rest of your experience. I've given plenty of 1 and 2 star reviews and have never been contacted by the seller/manufacturer about them. I also never have never had a review rejected for any reason. Lastly, the "do you want the vine logo to appear next to your name" is probably misleading, but it's referring to whether you want to be ID'd as a Vine member on all of your reviews as opposed to just your Vine reviews. I have selected No. Reviews of items I purchased from Amazon do not show my Vine status. Reviews of items I received as part of Vine do.

[@OmniKoneko]

Thanks for this video, I was invited today and was thinking that it was too good to be true, I guess I was right. Hope you have a good day!

[@toyotamanus]

Don't write it off so quickly. I was invited back on the 15th and have ordered some decent stuff thus far. It's like shopping in a big electronic bargain bin. You WILL find good items, just have to look. The best item I found to date was a 136 piece car emergency kit with tire inflator and jumper cables (listed for $86).. Also a very nice large dehumidifier and many other useful items.

[@LordXelous]

Like I always say your mileage will vary, mine was over a decade the service and experience changed over that time, sometimes for the better, sometimes for ill. The current in vogue though just totally turned me away from the whole thing, Vine became a job one had to keep up and I'm frankly busy enough. I can say, and you can see, many of my reviews were videos they are on this very channel (making my channel a bit messy), the point was I was always honest, I did unboxings, I tried everything, but when that everything becomes a never ending parade of tat that you have to endure just on the off chance of maybe getting something of actual use it became a drag; and folks say "oh you're moaning about getting free stuff"... The point maybe is that the actual stuff available is so trashy it's a literal waste of the planets resources... And you can't post that as a review, so I voted with my feet.

[@ericthompson515]

I’m so glad you said these things! I fell out of Amazon vine because I couldn’t keep up. However, I wasn’t very motivated after awhile as all of the junk we were getting was cluttering our life and there wasn’t enough time to test the products and give it an honest review anyway. My time-- my family is worth more than that. And if we need the item, we buy the item. I just curious if anyone had the same reasons for rejecting the “opportunity “ of free products.

[@LordXelous]

Thanks for sharing!!

[@John90XJ]

I'm in the US and have been at it for about six weeks. Just hit the goal for going to Gold and its been a challenge wading through acres of stuff one has zero interest in to find little nuggets that will be of use. I've got several of a few different items that ultimately will get shred with friends that have common interests. In the meanwhile, we'll see what develops. Like anything, when it quits being fun the party is over.

[@tvtoms]

You mean you hit 100 items in 6 weeks and at least 90% reviewed? You can just kick back and wait until April now for the review.

[@kethf4301]

The only review that I've had rejected was for some LED tail light bulbs. I believe it was rejected because my first try (accidentally) showed my car tag. That was an identity identifier. I re-submitted it with the exact same review but with the tag number blurred out, and it was accepted.

[@xzaviar1965]

Same here; I'm going to finish my first six months and not step up to the gold level.

[@samothwas3876]

You are so wrong about your current evaluation of the Vine program and products, I agree 100% the product quality and diversity is not what it was, but if you consider you are (WERE) part of a selective group of people that have had the opportunity to select from thousands of free products in order to give an honest and unbiased review and yet now you feel it's not worth your time because you don't like the products offered... ask your friends if they would like the opportunity to be a Vine reviewer. So what if the product offerings are not up to your standards, like on the level of a free TV, no one is forcing you to place orders other than the obligation of completing your review metrics over 6 months, and regardless if it is product dumping: there are many valuable and useful things on Vine. But I will acknowledge that being a Vine reviewer in the USA, which is taxable as opposed to Canada (where Vine is considered a Hobby and non taxable … at least for the moment) makes a huge difference in your Vine participation activity Getting invited to Vine is like winning the

[@sixfivecreedmoor]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. If it's junk, I'll nail it as junk. ASAP! They can get pissed if they want, and I guess they can kick me off if they want, but I REFUSE to "give away" reviews that don't deserve it. Tomorrow, I'll continue to fly the three drones I got thus far in (4 and a half weeks) with the grandkids (who LOVE the "follow me" function to make their on videos), my chicken water bowls will enjoy the heaters that they now have in them, my new brooder lights will warm my biddies, my two pygmy rattlesnakes LOVE their radiant heaters, we will take a break from the photo drones with the 4X4 R/C truck occasionally, I'll let the chickens in and out of the pen with the solar charging automatic and R/C electronic coop door, not to mention the great Galaxy S23 case and Gorilla Glass protection for my phone, the terrific LiPO 12v battery with small solar panel sets I have built for USB phone power supplies in both deer stands, etc. I haven't even been in 5 weeks, I ordered NOTHING that I didn't want, and I am going to be brutally honest, good or bad, with all I get. By all means, anyone who doesn't like Vine should bail ASAP to make room for the many that would LOVE to be a part of it!

[@bonnylouwho76]

The taxation is what is killing me I may lose my programs because of a couple of thousands dollars of things much of what turned out to be junk.

[@suzanndy]

VINE here in the U.S. since NOV. I have definitely met the requirements to get to GOLD, but I am guessing the wait will go on until my review date in MAY. Would love to know what GOLD is offering. I have also received items that arrived Broken, or Damaged in some way.. Example: Tarnished/Rusted Earrings, Broken Glass to Light fixtures, Coat Rack Dented in several places and strange material covering certain parts, Missing parts, Wooden Tower with Split wood, etc., etc. The Taxes are hard to swallow if items arrive this way. I have indeed noticed many are cheap (from China) products. There have been a few items that are indeed nice though. Just wonder how to handle the damaged items and still stay a part of Vine. I mean, how many times can you contact VINE about issues without being a problem? I have a couple of times, and even tried to send photos for proof. They apparently don't want the photos.

[@mungbean345]

​@@suzanndy Similar experience. I have contacted the company probably less than 10 times for products that arrived broken, and most of the time they were fair and removed it from my account so that I didn't have to count toward taxes. Buuut, having just worked on calculating my taxes for my first *full* year of Vine where I tried to get into Gold, the tax burden (and the annoyance of a penalty fee for not realizing that I should have been paying estimated "income" taxes this whole time, my bad! 🤦‍♀️) for items that were more fun rather than necessary has really given me pause about whether I should continue. I think if I were to do it again, I would ask for them to remove every arrived-broken item (and forfeit having it count toward my progress) rather than trying to make the best of it with some of the things that were in poor shape.... even if that made me an annoyance to the company. I wish you the best!

[@lostar1975]

Agree with you. I've 'upgraded'/replaced lots of my extension leads to cut on various adapters for zillion of USBs; garden stuff has been invaluable - from pots to anything else you might need, incl electric stuff. Phone/watches etc stuff - where you dont need to spend 20 quid on decent case or any other things. There's a lot that Vine helped me to replace/upgrade without financial costs (UK). Pet stuff!! which otherwise I wouldn't buy or would - depending on what. I guess having the privilege of being early Viner vs being demoted to silver is deffo affecting the POV. There are so many others that will be happy to take the spot. And then, translate it into money. 100 x 15 avg price= 1500 quid saved on unnecessary/not needed spending. Equals to 16-17 item reviews over 6 months. I think ROI is pretty good. And there's no need to write essays!

[@selfactualizer2099]

did you have, a REASON to be on vine? or were you just trying to profit from it somehow. All i see from the vine community is "how can i profit from this" its useful to me, i get random bicycle gear, terrarium/aquarium items, and music related stuff, but almost all of it, is maintenance items, like inner tubes, strings, aquarium pet food and filters and endless other important stuff that i *needed* and *saved a lot of money on* most of you buy garbage that sits on a shelf

[@WesternCenturion]

Some vine voices are just in it for profit but there are the vast majority who actually want to make a difference and help people decide on whether to buy the product or not. After the six month retention is up I give my vine items to a local charity so they can sell them on for their own profit.

[@noire1001]

People are initially excited and grateful to have been invited, but within a few weeks they're already asking if Vine really do ask for things back within 6 months as they want to start selling stuff. Ebay is filled with Vine items in the UK. Usually put up a few days after receiving. The government now requires financial institutions to report any funds received, so a lot of unaware Viners will get an interesting brown envelope on their doorstep soon.

[@LordXelous]

I was invited to the programme in its very early days, there were a lot of folks just bum rushing the big ticket items, I however just had things I had a use for (like the suit cases !ORANGE!) or certain USB items. I also reviewed my own purchases, which is how I got the invitation in the first place. Amazon saw me as free labour, that's my issue, I wasn't particularly interested in the swathes of junk they were offering for a genuine humans time (sure AI maybe).

[@noire1001]

@@LordXelous No one knows why people get invited as they haven't said, so we can only speculate. It appears to be completely random though, as there are people that have been invited that have 0 reviews and people who haven't and have reviewed hundreds of items and have thousands of hearts.

[@bonnylouwho76]

THANK YOU FOR POSTING YOUR VIDEO! It popped up on my feed on my TV screen just a bit ago. I am leaving Vine as well, due to the same reasons you are stating s well as more serious and legally transactional actions that can be sued for as well.

[@tyrand]

If I see any product with a bunch of fake paid-for Vine reviews I do not purchase it.

[@magunra3k]

seems silly to ignore the reviews of people who actually invest time and effort into testing and reviewing items, yes they got the item for nothing, but they also use and test the stuff and tell you the pross and cons way better than some rando customer who paid for it and gave it a rating and the line " love this ,works " or 1 star " didnt do what i wanted returned"

[@magunra3k]

Title should be , "Cry Baby quits vine because they demoted him to silver"

[@LordXelous]

Not really, i've plenty of swag, but don't wish to be forced by Amazon to put in a 40 hour week of reviewing just to possibly receive items I had received, and well reviewed, for years previously. It's quite an insult on their part.

[@magunra3k]

@@LordXelous you need to get over your yourself, you were been given free stuff in exchange for your opinion, what's more YOU get to decide what free stuff you accept, if you have chosen something you have reviewed previously that's on you and to be fair, it should make reviewing it that much quicker and easier. Given your feelings i think Amazon customers and vendors have probably dodged a bullet not having to read your opinions on free stuff you would have been given.

[@muskratondatra8294]

​@@magunra3kright sounds unthankful . Even if it's small stuff you don't need to get it right then lol

[@fkrioters1000]

I was just invited, and initially excited, but ... the more I think about it, the more it seems like I might be walking into a trap. That's why I decided to look up some youtube videos on Vine, and found yours. * Finding interesting products takes a lot of time. * Most of the items are cheep made-in-China generic products. * You have to pay taxes on it as "income." So that $100 "free" item costs you something like $25. * You also have to take the time to write a review. * You aren't supposed to sell the items, but even if you did, you might bet 25% the "value." * I don't have space to store a bunch of stuff. Where I've somewhat ended up is thinking maybe it'll be good to just search vine first if I need some generic product that I was thinking of ordering anyway, and treat it like a discount.

[@antiricergt]

It’s not. I’ve been in for years. Once you are in gold you don’t have a limit. Silver is 100 and below

[@fkrioters1000]

@@antiricergt I've been ordering cheap items and reviewing everything within 2 days or receipt, so I should be in Gold at the 6-month mark. I'm getting into the groove of it, I have a bunch of saved searches, and I check them about twice a day, which isn't that time consuming.

[@antiricergt]

Just have to be at 90%. It’s better to be over that tho. To give it some buffer room. I’m currently at 75% I currently doing some reviews I got behind on. Biggest issue I have is all the products and the boxes! I have a ton of boxes in the house.

[@fkrioters1000]

​@@antiricergt I'm probably fine for the 90%. I'm less than a month in, and reviewed 39 items, and 81%. Almost all of the other items, I haven't received yet. If I'm close to the 90% mark at review time, I think I'd back off ordering just to be sure I don't accidentally dip below. So far, I've mostly been ordering small items, space-savers, organizers, shelves, wall-hooks, and similar items. I've had to pass on a few items I wanted, because there's no place to put them. For the boxes, I have no space tor that and can't return the items anyway, so the boxes get discarded immediately.

[@itsyourmethod]

Do u habe to Paypal taxes for items u maybe have to give back or they break? Really?

[@nzalog]

I just got invited this week, and yes there is a ton of stuff I don't want or need or is complete junk, but at the same time when I need something I just search there first. If it's not there I buy it. I think maybe you're overthinking it, even in silver you've got access to stuff you might need. The only thing I can empathize with you on is getting emailed, so I'm considering setting up a new email address for this purpose.

[@climate-moneymakingcampaig305]

Asked Tax registration ?

[@nzalog]

@@climate-moneymakingcampaig305 Yep

[@olgerkhan9331]

Started a week ago and yeah it started great (stuff i needed anyway) but today night i really struggle to get my third daily item. Eighter the ordering bugged or on clothes my size was out of stock or it was just garbage. At least only one of the arrived items was false advertisement. Right now i dont feel the problem about reviewing on time, did most of them after testing them at the same day, one exeption is a book that takes obviously several days to finish. I just wanna see the gold status once.^^

[@Benzyl]

It is mostly rubbish but I've had plenty of spirits and beer in the last six months that I wouldn't have got otherwise so I'm not bailing out quite yet. Bugger the thousand identical sunglasses and phone cases though.

[@WesternCenturion]

I feel your pain and totally understand your frustration, I was invited back in 2022 as Gold and then it was mainly tat, had a few good items but found myself reviewing mostly rubbish. Time is valuable and once gone will never be gained back so making worthy and honest reviews only to have them rejected can be soul destroying. In early 2023 I got behind on my reviews because I just did not have the time or interest in reviewing the rubbish I was getting and it was a pain just to try and keep up, and so was demoted to silver, and then I thought was this worth it? I stuck with it and back to Gold again but this time I just pop in and out of vine, I don't spend the same hours of my life there like I did, I only select items I can use or need, if I don't get the full 100 by the time of my next review then I'll probably opt out like you did. So thank you for sharing your story 👍👍

[@HapticFlav]

What is the criteria to get invited to Vine? I dont have 100s of reviews though, maybe a few dozen. I've been trying for years, on and off, to get into the programme in the UK.

[@VintageRayne]

I tried Vine out. 3 items. Well under the $600 threshold. Not my cup of tea. Pretty much all the reasons you mentioned. It’s essentially Temu & I’m not trying to mess with 1099 forms. Thankful for the invite & opportunity but the whole situation gives me major red flags. 😊

[@One-Day-After-Another]

I just joined but I haven't requested anything yet because I didn't see a thing I wanted.... Not to mention that they count anything you request as income...when it's NOT income

[@LordXelous]

I never had anything considered as income. They were zero value purchases.

[@fkrioters1000]

@@LordXelous I don't see it as income either, but that's what it currently says when you sign up (in Sept 2023), and they ask you for your tax-info. edit: In the US. I don't think it applies in other countries.

[@mungbean345]

​@@fkrioters1000 Also, as my husband and I just discovered as he put in my Vine info as we are preparing our taxes, we received an extra $30 penalty for not already having paid an *estimated* tax on my "income." I'm not a financial genius, but I do prefer to follow the rules, so it was annoying to realize I had erred there. Just a heads up if you plan to stay in the program!

[@tracyann9622]

I thought that this was going to be fun and I was getting to be in a special club, so I said yes. It has been a few hours and I can’t find one item on their sight I want or need. You are right it is all junk so far as I can see and I don’t have time to review 100 products in the short time they have laid out especially since most of the items I see are nothing I would order to begin with and I certainly don’t want to pay taxes on junk. But now seeing they lied and said you were not going to be hounded because you had your privacy, but now I know that is not true. Also, to find out honest reviews are not necessarily wanted and your reviews can be rejected this sounds like a waste of time and in the end money on my end. I don’t need a bunch of junk to pay taxes on.

[@bonnylouwho76]

I only WISH I had seen this video back in September of last year when I was "invited" to be a reviewer. Now I may well end up losing my medical and other benefits because of the lies and tricks of Amazon Vine. THEY DO LIE and they violate the rights of disabled persons as well. It is WORSE than you would ever know. Feel good that you dodged a huge gigantic bullet that has completely stressed me and made my physical and emotional health damaged.

[@ZaPpaul]

I just choose stuff I want/need and not just anything. 100 items in 6 months is easy to do like this. Plus I get plenty of branded stuff, I tend not to order anything chinese/unbranded.

[@Ootgreet1]

I was surprisingly admitted to Vine a few months ago after a pattern of troll, snarky reviews. I probably can't be arsed to review the quantity of stuff they need in order to upgrade me to gold from silver status. There is a pace of reviews that you must have risen to that is just insane and I can see the stress level to stay even with the program at your existing status. As a DIYer and home owner I find a plethora of small cheap necessary items that I can request that I would buy anyway, such as tools and shop stuff, grill accessories, kitchen items, etc. Personally, I want the gravy train of free stuff to continue, and Amazon reviews have little integrity anyway, so I don't stress over the review process. For me the priority is creating reviews to cover every item requested and which won't be challenged and denied. For items that have no current reviews I basically write what amounts to an explainer/ad for the item and I try to find something positive to say. I give em all 4 to 5 stars. I'm a cheap ho, sue me. Lol.

[@menow7903]

This is great. There will be many moaning at you for turning down 'free stuff' but you appear to be someone who took reviewing very seriously. A huge chunk of reviews are now AI generated, some of the stuff doesn't come out of the box but is put straight on Ebay or other selling site. I've had some useful things, not as good as yours but I've cut down on my involvement and just do enough to keep my stats up for now. And you are right; the amount of landfill rubbish is terrible!

[@ChildOfGodInternational]

how much did you have to pay in taxes for the value of the products??

[@missmonasuzette]

You have to pay taxes. The "tax value" dollar amount is treated the same as income,...as if you were getting a paycheck. You pay accordingly to your tax bracket. So,...if you receive an item that is valued at $500 and you are in the 22% tax bracket, for example, you will pay $110 out of pocket.

[@noire1001]

There is no tax on UK Vine.

[@missmonasuzette]

Lucky you! Uncle Sam always has his hand in the pot in the US. It used to be completely free up until about 7 -8 ?years or so ago. When it was free, we weren't supposed to sell it, gift it, donate it, or give it away. Now that we pay taxes on it, we can do whatever we want to with the items after 3 months or so.

[@LordXelous]

No tax here in the UK, it's all below the threshold stuff.

[@traciebarthel3319]

Thank you. This video helped confirm that its definitely something i do not want to accept

[@LordXelous]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mikepearce7997]

Please don’t be discouraged by this somewhat churlish video, which comes across as a tad ungrateful after the number of expensive items he says he's received. I’ve been a member for only a few months and have already been delighted by numerous useful products, such as an electric blanket, jackets, shoes and tools for gardening and d-i-y. Nothing obliges a member to claim anything they think is rubbish!

[@oragamiowl5031]

Personally I love Vine and have been on it for a year. Currently gold and have had some really nice products. I will never complain too much about getting free stuff. That said I do understand people's frustrations because it can be frustrating at times. I mean I personally have never been hounded for leaving a 1 star review and I have only ever had 1 review rejected but those that run Vine are very hands off with it and trying to get them to resolve an issue, even something minor, does take far too long! Also competing against others for stuff is annoying.

[@JennaGetsCreative]

If you quit 3 weeks ago, you got out just ahead of the promotion Amazon ran to get new sellers in. They could stock 2 items per ASIN for free, so sellers split up all the colour/size variations of their products into separate ASINs. One day last week I had 8 differently coloured copies of the same fox shaped kids drawing pad in my recommended items 🙃 Edit- showing the Vine Voice tag: That toggle was whether or not you want the green "Vine Voice" tag beside your name on every review you post to Amazon regardless of how you got it. Vine reviews still that the free item disclaimer line on them no matter what.

[@LordXelous]

There was the option to show your Vine Tag or not for a very long time, since at least 2016 IIRC. I'd not call their stocking two items by mistake a bonus, since most everything was pointless tat; and whenever I would review it as such, the sellers would bombard me with email, they'd complain to Amazon and then non-native English speaking moderators would contest my posts constantly. That's not to say I didn't like things, there were a very many things I liked, but in the last two years it just got worse and worse. The moment I saw that rating requirement... Review at least 90% of your items and review at least 100 items.... Between the plastic fantastic junk and non-applicable items I was done, it's really an insult and just another way for Jeff to get unpaid review labour. Leave it for the bots to make stuff up essentially.

[@bonnylouwho76]

I WISH I HAD SEEN THIS VIDEO back in September of last year when I was invited. I have now messed up my life and am terrified that I will lose my medical and other benefits as i am disabled because of the JUNK offered and my naivete' that I was invited because I was a valued honest person that would help others out.

[@endeavour2968]

I just signed up with Amazon Vine, and i spent hours looking through the products , The items i would like are not available but the products i have no interest in are available, like GCSE Books for students and a load of cables and leads, However as im only on day 2 , I will persevere and see how it goes. For example i needed a web cam, so i had to buy it, i needed a keyboard so had to buy it, I need a tripod for my phone, but will probably have to buy it as these items at the time of writing this are not available on Vine, and just as im writing this ive just received a message please review your products, but ive only received the items yesterday . This isnt a rant, but i find it interesting coming across your video just as im doing some research into Vine products and why i cant seam to find any great products etc🤔🤣

[@trikky2.2]

New to your channel, was interesting as am a UK Amazon Vine member,

[@TheUsualSuspekt]

Do you happen to know if they automatically renew after 6 months or is it up to Amazon?

[@LordXelous]

I never "renewed" anything, I was invited for years, and then this new gold/silver level thing happened and I quit, not having that from them. But it's all up to them as far as I know.

[@TheUsualSuspekt]

@LordXelous thanks. It's definitely hard to find items worth having but there's a few hidden gems

[@NeriahTafao]

Are there children stuff?Toys craft kits stuff like that?I just got invited and I’m not sure about it.

[@ibsn87]

Amazon store is turning into cheap nasty shit from temu. Most vine items you can find on temu for 1/5th the price.

[@deusvlad2.083]

I thought you had to pay taxes on vine products as well?

[@jamil027]

It's challenging to hear you due to the low volume of your video. My laptop's speakers are on 100%.

[@meganarpasi]

I honestly never look at vine reviews as I feel there’s no way to be unbiased when your getting the product for free (I’m speaking to higher priced items usually hundreds of dollars) esp seeing complaints of the negative reviews being kicked back now

[@missmonasuzette]

It's not free. Vine items used to be, years ago, but you weren't supposed to give them away or sell them. Today things are different. The tax value (which is usually equal to retail) is treated as income. For example, If I get an item with a tax value of say, $500, I will be paying $110 when income tax time rolls around. You're gambling when you buy it, because it might be junk,...so maybe you just threw $110 out the window. Then there is the time that it takes to write reviews. If you are a thoughtful reviewer sometimes just one review can take an hour or even more. I always give an honest review. If it sucks, it sucks.

[@KnightmareUSA]

Can you opt out at any time, and do your reviews have to be over a set number of words? Regarding the items going down in quality, I think this uncoincidentally reflect Amazon as a store itself over the last decade. The market has been flooded with aliexpress grade products. Plenty of clones, counterfeits and unsafe items (esp electronics). Unrelated, but I recently had a critical review rejected on Amazon, as I had mentioned a seller in the review. The seller was Amazon.

[@MoneyStruggleSuccess]

You can opt out of the Vine program whenever you want. Per other people approved Vine reviews, you can have a 1 line sentence be your review. 😂 Will that keep you in the program? Probably not, but you can do it that way if you want.

[@KnightmareUSA]

I just wondered in case I clicked on 'I agree' and signed for it, and then decided five mins later the products I could choose from were not worth having or reviewing. If they throw you off vine for not using it within a month or more. The main problem I can see is for people in the US, as since 2015 users are now billed (will owe taxes, a percentage of the value of all items sent out) @@MoneyStruggleSuccess

[@riverraisin1]

Why opt out? Just order as many items as possible and don't write any reviews. You'll soon be shown the door. 🤣🤣

[@MoneyStruggleSuccess]

@riverraisin1 This is the best strategy when you ready to leave. 🤣 Just don't forget about that ETV though!

[@Leparfumdesmots]

1) You want free stuff. 2) You want high value stuff only Money was your motor. Nice to see you quit.

[@WesternCenturion]

For the majority of us it's not about the high value items, it's about the variety and quality of those items. To do a true review takes time, photographs, videos of the item being used and then making sure your wording is correct and following the vine review guidelines, because if it is rejected you do not get told why, just told to do it all again. As gold you can select 8 items a day, so say each review takes a minimum of 30 minutes, that totals 4 hours per day, to me that equates to a part time job 👍👍

[@Leparfumdesmots]

@@WesternCenturion I am part of the Amazon Vine program in France. The value of an item is the first criteria of every vine member. Always.