Yes, a UK customer can post a review on Amazon.com but they need to register and the review won't show as verified. But, Amazon doesn't like it, and they'll usually remove either the .co.uk review, or the .com review. (.com reviews populate the .co.uk page - but not the rating).

 

When Kindles were first made available in the UK, you had to buy them - and the books for them - from the US store. Then they opened a Kindle store on the UK site - about the time the K3 (Keyboard) was released - and we had the opportunity to change our Kindle account over to our UK Amazon account. I did that, but I still have my US Amazon account - it's actually the same username and password as on the UK site. So there may be many readers who still have a US account.

As a test I just tried to login to the Amazon Canada site, which I've never been to before, with that same username and password and it logged in me without a problem. So it may be that if you're an Amazon customer, you're an Amazon customer everywhere.

 

Yes, a UK customer can post a review on Amazon.com but they need to register and the review won't show as verified. But, Amazon doesn't like it, and they'll usually remove either the .co.uk review, or the .com review. (.com reviews populate the .co.uk page - but not the rating).

One UK reviewer has cross-posted their review of four of my books to the US without this happening.

I also occasionally cross-post reviews, though much less than I used to, and have never had a problem with this. Possibly the difference is that I set up my US account years ago in order to buy certain books and films that just weren't available in the UK, so it's a visibly legitimate customer account rather than just a reviewing mouthpiece. Who knows?

 

There are no regional accounts on Amazon. Any account for any region can log in to any version of Amazon. Accounts created on .com can login to .fr or .de, accounts created on .co.uk can login to Amazon .es and .com, and vice versa. There is no difference.

When it comes to reviews, there are differences in the regulatory framework. Dot com reviews require FTC disclosure if it's a free copy - and without a verified purchase on dot com, UK readers may be mistaken for free copies, whereas the UK requires no such disclaimer.

USA reviews do show on .co.uk as a 'read more from Amazon.com', but only if the book doesn't already have a lot of UK reviews, and it's only linked out to .com. They don't count for the UK rating.

There's nothing to stop an international user posting to dot com. Whether Amazon accept/ post that review is another thing entirely.

 

Yes.

 

I had a reviewer kindly post his review on several Amazon sites, including India and Australia.

 

A quick word of thanks to the people who have already posted interesting and informative responses to this question.

The message I think I'm getting here is that an Amazon customer in any given Amazon territory can in theory post a review in any other, and Amazon probably won't mind (though some people seem to question its attitude). Which is useful. If anyone has even more definitive information on Amazon policy, that would be nice to know.

I take the point that a UK review won't be shown as "verified" if posted on the US site, even if it is on the UK site, and some readers might therefore consider that it must be based on a free copy. However, is it not the case that registered Amazon customers are free to post reviews of any book at any time, whether they have actually bought the book from Amazon or not? If that's right, then surely a UK review uploaded to the US site is no different from any other review that is not shown as being from a verified reader? It doesn't mean that by definition the copy was free, does it?

This aside, I think a picture is building up here, though I still think if anyone has any additional information or experience to contribute, it could be helpful.

 

Responding for a bump in this thread. Up here in Canada, I've a few books w/ reviews that don't appear in .com at all. When I emailed Amazon, they were no help; they made no mention that an account holder from Canada can log into the US and leave a review. Ummm... I mean, that's my take away from this thread so far.

This coming week, I'll contact some readers and ask them to do that and see if it's possible.
I'll report back here with my results.

 

I've posted reviews on both uk and us with no problem. If I review a book I do it on both as a matter of courtesy. I am an account holder on both though.

 

I've posted reviews on both uk and us with no problem. If I review a book I do it on both as a matter of courtesy. I am an account holder on both though.

Thanks for this comment - but there's a sting in the tail! You mention at the end that you are an account holder in both the UK and the US. Can you elaborate at all on how that works? If, as some forum members have said, the same login works in all Amazon territories, I'm not entirely clear how these separate accounts are differentiated. Did you for instance have to register with a different username and password on the second site from the first one - thereby in effect creating a separate 'entity' for the second account? Was Amazon happy to accept a street address that was not in the territory of the second account, or do you in fact have a street address in both places? And what about paying in a currency that is not your own? Is that never an issue?

Sorry to sound so ignorant about all this, but I tend to feel intimidated by Amazon and reluctant to do anything that would offend it, so it's always useful when others can share their experience.

 

For Amazon UK and the other Amazons, as I recall I was able to just log in with the same user name/password.  I didn't have to set up a new account at all, it just carries over.  Amazon did that intentionally because global society, moving, etc

I want to say Amazon Japan was the one exception, but that may have just been for Author Central.

 

I've noticed that quite few Goodreads reviewers seem to post there, and on Amazon US, and in the UK.

 

For Amazon UK and the other Amazons, as I recall I was able to just log in with the same user name/password. I didn't have to set up a new account at all, it just carries over. Amazon did that intentionally because global society, moving, etc

I want to say Amazon Japan was the one exception, but that may have just been for Author Central.

I have to agree, and I have a case that supports it.
My wife read a book by a Kboards member and posted the review. It appeared on Amazon Canada. Yesterday she went to Amazon.com (US) and logged in using her .ca credentials. No problemo w/ logging in. I suspect that Anma's correct insofar as the Zon just wants to know who's doing what. It reminds me of Netflix- people watching Netflix USA from Canada using a VPN (no names- a friend of a friend, cough cough) just log into Netflix USA using their Netflix username and pw and are good to go...

ANYWAY...
Michelle put up the same review for the same book on the Amazon.com (US) site and it's live now.

So the take away is to tell our readers to make sure that they're at .com when they post.
I'm going to keep an eye on that review I just discussed, and if there's any changes, I'll let you know. I'll also post re my Canadian results.

 

I have deleted this post as I do not consent to the new Terms of Service that Vertical Scope are attempting to retrospectively apply to our content.  I am forced to manually replace my content as, at time of editing, their representative has instructed moderators not to delete posts or accounts when users request it, and Vertical Scope have implied that they will deal with account deletion requests by anonymising accounts, which would leave personally identifying information in my posts.

I joined under the previous ownership and have posted over the years under different Terms of Service.  I do not consent to my name, content, or intellectual properties being used by Vertical Scope or any other entity that they sell or licence my data to.

 

My understanding is that you can use your details to log in to any Amazon (US/UK/FR/DE/ETC) but you have to purchase something from that particular Amazon before you can leave a review. I think the only one I left was on an obvious parody title that a Kboarder published as a freebie one April the 1st (there was a thread on it at the time, and he published it, and the rest of us left silly reviews) - I think that it and/or our reviews have now been taken down, because I have a helpful vote showing up in my account under 'my reviews', but no actual reviews.

Grrr.... I figured that there would be some sort of catch! If I come up w/ a workaround, I'll post it here.

 

My understanding is that you can use your details to log in to any Amazon (US/UK/FR/DE/ETC) but you have to purchase something from that particular Amazon before you can leave a review.

Grrr.... I figured that there would be some sort of catch! If I come up w/ a workaround, I'll post it here.

I wonder if the thing that you purchase from the 'alien' Amazon site (the US, in your case and mine) could simply be a Kindle e-book that you were going to buy anyway? Or is there a specific veto on buying Kindle books from an Amazon site other than one's local site? If it's possible, it wouldn't be much of a hardship, even if the price is higher than it would be locally, considering how low most Kindle book prices are anyway.