This review goes back like 7 years, maybe? It was a book on BBQ, and while it did have a few good recipes, I trashed it for a ton of reasons. It was not proofread. It had glaring errors in ingredients. In one case the recipe called for a full jar of a particular hot sauce you may have heard of called Pick- A- Pepper..... Well, they, at that time, had 2 varieties of sauce.... one was red, and had some heat from hot peppers. The other was brown, and was a tamarind based sauce, with no heat at all. I mentioned that it would be terrible to use an entire jar of the wrong sauce, as they were so different that if you did use the wrong one, you would likely ruin the BBQ. And, it was mostly recipes for crowds of 100 people or more, but was not presented as such on amazon.... I guess he just thought people would scale it down to size on their own? He called me years ago, and didn't leave a message, but I recognized the name on the caller ID. This time he called and left a message and a phone number to call him back. The only thing I could think of why he might call me again after all these years is to proofread a new book.... but who knows, and he didn't say why on my answering machine. I don't think I will be calling him back as it feels pretty creepy to be "stalked" by an author from a review written so many years ago. What do you think?
I think this this hilarious. Not just the scenario, but also the fact you are asking people on an ios gaming forum. Personally I would ignore the call, but that's just me.
I need to see the actual review so I can see how much you trashed it. I mean it must have been something really bad for him to call twice. Btw how the heck did he get your number?? I don't think you leave personal info on your amazon profile? And I never heard of amazon sharing that kind of private info with people. Also are you the only bad reviewer? Or are there any more? I'd be curious to see if he's making his rounds for all the people who gave a negative feedback. Now if you want my opinion on the subject, and going from the info you wrote here, I think there's a strong possibility his book sold poorly from the get-go. He thought about calling a bunch of purchasers who had strong words towards his product either to ask them politely to remove them, or to discuss his POV. The fact he didn't go through with the first call makes me think he was scared it will get awkward. Now that is all fine in my books, but what are the chances he kept your number AND still remembers you after all these years to call back? My theory is either he's a complete egotistical maniac who couldn't handle the review OR he's writing a new book and wants your opinion on the subject since you seem into that sort of stuff. Point is you never know with writers (no matter what topic they handle) and they can be overly sensitive, sometimes even so ballsy to defend their territory it's scary (trust me I have an "ex" one at home and she's prettty difficult to handle if you know what I mean). So I can't give advice now before you dish out more details so I make up my mind. But right now I'm gonna have to go with a small call from your part. It never hurts to see what this is all about and you can get your answers (why didn't he leave a message back then? why now? etc etc. PS: YES I wrote all that. It's my final week at college and I'm looking to wasting as much time as I can away from the books and projects because that's my grown ass man decision
Maybe he just wants you to proof read his soon to be released book, the circumstances of how they got your phone number would better tell if it were creepy or not.
Don't call back. There are a lot of people suing for liability on things like Angie's list, and various sites and they are winning money. If your review could seem to be opinionated without merit, biased, etc. they could potentially collect dollars from you.
If it were me, I'd not call back. As someone who sometimes reviews things on Amazon (and other sites) I feel like I'm doing it for other consumers. At no point is there an expectation of creating a dialogue with the creator of the thing. There might be a few occasions where I would consider engaging with that person, but it'd be most natural in the comments section of the review, through the relevant site's messaging system, or (maybe) via email. An out of the blue call is weird. I would not be comfortable with that. But generally, even within the online-based avenues I would consider responding to, it would make me uncomfortable. Because while the chances are good that this author is fine and sane and all that, I've heard enough about authors responding negatively to poor reviews and acting irrationally that I'd be wary of any tangible contact--and while you can't touch a person through a phone, it's still a more tangible than a message on a website. Reviewers don't owe content creators a single thing. And that goes double when it's random guy on Internet who felt inspired (positively or negatively) to write a paragraph or two about something they purchased.
I was going to say the same. How in earth did he track you down. Did you give some info away in the review ? Bizarre
If you didn't give out any info like phone number and such I'd not respond as of the way he put specific effort in finding and contacting you and especially after years of your review. Who knows what this person is thinking so could be opening up a whole lot of trouble or flip side is trying to sell you his new revised bookrolleyes. Either way I'd play it safe and not worth the curiosity to find out imo.
Well, my guess is he saw the town I lived in, and called the people with my name. Not that many I would imagine... We were listed in the phone book before.
Holy bleep. That's like straight out of a Dean Koontz/Stephen King book. After reading the other posts I backtrack from my former opinion and tell you to forget about this whole issue. Can you keep us updated if he ever shows up at your doorstep, meat hook in hand?
What about if he's seeing this thread right now and getting information of everyone who has commented and marking us for a 'visit'?
OMG! I bet he's prepping his grill right now to use us for his next project *shrills*. I just hope he uses the right sauce this time. My tender flesh does NOT go well with anything on the market.
On the subject with the Amazon sellers and phone calls... I bought supplements from "Sheer Strength" for example and they called my phone. Ensuring that I received the product(s) and my opinion of the supps. I've also read other reviews for some other products and those folks claimed to have received a call as well. I'm guessing Amazon just provides the information to sellers?
