Shopify Customer Asks to Delete Their Review: 3-Step Reply

That covers most of these tickets. This guide also covers the cases where stores go wrong: unverified senders, edit requests, reviews tied to a refund, and reviews on sites you don't control. It gives you three replies to copy and one rule your whole team can follow.

Start the 14-day trial and let Relay answer the routine tickets by your rules, so your team only sees the cases that need a person.

What a "please delete my review" ticket looks like

These requests rarely have a clear subject line. They often come as a reply to a shipping email, or inside a message about another order. Sort each one before you act on it.

• "My parcel arrived after all, please take my review down." What it is: simple removal. Who handles it: support, after the email check.
• "I reviewed the wrong product, can you delete it?" What it is: simple removal. Who handles it: support, after the email check.
• "I put my full name and order number in my review." What it is: removal for privacy. Who handles it: support, first in the queue.
• "Can you change my rating to 4 stars?" What it is: edit request. Who handles it: support sends the edit link or offers removal.
• "Delete my review and I'll drop the chargeback." What it is: review tied to a dispute. Who handles it: a person.
• "Remove the review I left about you on Google." What it is: review on another platform. Who handles it: support explains how, or a person if there's more going on.
• A request from an email that matches no order. What it is: unverified request. Who handles it: support asks for confirmation, nothing removed yet.

The first three are routine. The last four are where stores get into trouble, usually because someone improvised an answer.

Step 1: Check the request comes from the reviewer

Anyone can email you asking to remove a review: a competitor, an ex-partner, a prankster. A quick check stops this. Compare three things:

• 1. The sender's email against the order email in Shopify. This is the main check.
• 2. The order against the reviewed product. The customer should have bought the item they reviewed, or at least have an order under that email.
• 3. The reviewer email in your review app. Most review apps store the email of the person who submitted the review. If it matches the sender, you're done.

If all three match, go to step 2.

If the email doesn't match, don't refuse and don't remove anything yet. People often write from a work address or a second inbox. Ask them to confirm:

• Subject: Your review removal request
• Message: Hi Sarah, Happy to remove it. For security, we only remove a review when the request comes from the email used for the order. Could you reply from that address? We'll take it down once we get your message.
• Sign-off: Tom, Customer Support

It's short and polite, and it stops the wrong person from getting a real review taken down.

Step 2: Remove the review and confirm

Once the request is verified, the teammate who manages reviews removes or unpublishes it in your review app. Every app has its own button for this. Then send the confirmation:

• Subject: Your review has been removed
• Message: Hi Sarah, Done. Your review of the Linen Throw is no longer on our site. If you'd like to post a new one later, the review form is at the bottom of the product page.
• Sign-off: Tom, Customer Support

Keep it that short. Leave out three things:

• 1. No question about why. The customer doesn't owe you a reason.
• 2. No thanks for "changing their mind". It sounds like you were hoping for it.
• 3. No discount, gift or free shipping. The FTC's 2024 rule on consumer reviews bans offering incentives for reviews that express a particular sentiment. A code sent right after a negative review comes down could be read that way, so it's safer to send nothing.

When the customer wants to edit their review instead: "change the stars to 4" or "take out the part about shipping" is not a removal request. Don't edit the text yourself. Once you change a customer's words, the review no longer reflects their opinion. Give them two options:

• The link to edit the review themselves, if your review app allows it.
• Removal, then a new review in their own words.

If the review was left in the Shop app, the customer can open the order there and use the "Edit Review" button.

• Subject: Updating your review
• Message: Hi Sarah, We don't change the wording of a review ourselves, so it stays in your own words. You can edit it with the link in the email our review app sent you when you posted it. If that's easier, we can remove it and you can post a new one.
• Sign-off: Tom, Customer Support

Change the middle sentence to match how your review app handles edits.

Start the 14-day trial to give Relay this rule once and let your team stop rewriting the same reply.

Can you delete a review without the customer asking?

Many merchants have this question behind the ticket, and most guides skip it. A customer's own request is always a valid reason to remove their review. Removing negative reviews on your own is a different matter.

The same FTC rule also covers review suppression (16 CFR § 465.7). Broadly, you shouldn't hide reviews because they're negative while presenting what's left as all your reviews. The rule names reasons for removal that don't count as suppression, such as:

• Defamatory, sexually explicit or discriminatory content.
• Someone else's personal information.
• Content that is clearly false or misleading.
• A review you reasonably believe is fake.
• A review unrelated to your products or services.

Apply the same criteria to positive and negative reviews. Write down which reason you used each time you remove a review. That one line in your notes is your record if a customer asks why a review disappeared. This is general information, not legal advice. For anything borderline, ask a lawyer.

Step 3: Write the rule once

How these tickets are handled shouldn't depend on who's on shift. Write the rule in plain language, as you would brief a new support hire. Review removal requests:

• If a customer asks to delete their own review: check that the sender's email matches the order email. If it matches, pass the ticket to the teammate who manages reviews. They remove it and send the confirmation reply. Offer nothing.
• If the email doesn't match: ask the customer to write from the order email. Remove nothing yet.
• If the customer asks to edit their review: send the edit link or offer removal and a new review. Never change their words.
• If the review contains their personal data: handle it first.
• Never mention a review in a refund, discount, return or replacement reply.
• Escalate to a person if the message mentions a dispute, a chargeback, a lawyer, legal action, or a review on another website.

Relay answers, refunds and resolves your Shopify tickets 24/7, following your rules.

The cases to send to a person

Some requests look like a simple removal but aren't.

The review is part of a deal. "Refund me and I'll delete the review" ties the review to money. Solve the actual problem on its own and don't mention the review in your reply. Our guide on offering a refund to remove a bad review covers this case, and our guide to setting AI refund permissions on Shopify shows how to keep that line in your refund rules. If a chargeback is already open, see what to prove on a chargeback after a partial refund. All three are listed at the end of this article.

Legal wording or threats. If the customer mentions a lawyer, a complaint to an authority or a public post about your store, a person decides. The FTC rule also covers using threats or intimidation to get a negative review removed, so your replies should never sound like pressure, even when the customer is the one getting heated. Our rude customer reply guide, listed at the end of this article, helps with the tone.

Reviews on other platforms. You can't remove a review on Google, Trustpilot or a marketplace. Only the author or the platform can. Tell the customer to delete it from their own account there.

The customer asks for a manager. Hand over cleanly, with the context. See how to reply when a customer asks for a human, listed at the end of this article.

To answer negative reviews in public, read how to handle negative reviews on your Shopify store. To decide which tickets an agent should take, see what AI support should and should not answer. Both are listed at the end of this article.

FAQ

Can I delete a negative review if the customer asks me to? Yes, if the request comes from the email on the order. It's their review and their choice. Confirm the removal by email and offer nothing in return.

What if the request comes from an email that isn't on the order? Don't remove the review yet. Ask the customer to reply from the email used for the order, then remove it once they do.

Should I offer a discount when a customer removes a bad review? No. The FTC's 2024 rule on consumer reviews bans offering incentives for reviews that express a particular sentiment. A code sent right after a removal could be read as that kind of reward.

How does a customer delete a review they left in the Shop app? They open the order in the Shop app and use the "Edit Review" button. From there they can change or remove what they wrote.

Can an AI agent handle review removal requests? Relay can answer routine tickets by your rules, and it hands disputes, legal threats and reviews on other platforms to your team.

Your first support hire, without the hire.