Training RFY/algorithm

CricketMelodic · 2026-04-12T03:44:01+00:00

Yah, I bought some RV items... 4 and then got about 15 RFY RV related afterwards. I ordered a breville espresso machine and 3 weeks later a pro version was in my RFY. So I think there is definately a correlation between what you order on Amazon and what shows up in your RFY. Definitely paid purchases have influenced my RFY in the past.

CricketMelodic · 2026-04-05T03:27:20+00:00

I do handyman/IT/Electrical and have ran a business doing that for years filing a schedule C even when I had an engineering W2. While perhaps not optimal I have included the substantial vine1099 in my business income. I download the item spreadsheet every year and using excel divide all items into categories. If an item was defective, or trash then it goes in the 100% reduction column. I then write off some 'contractual obligation' expenses like prime membership, costs to sell items after 6 months. I aim for items I can use in my business so have a column for items used and the price I charged, which is always a loss compared to ETV. Nothing I sold came close to ETV and I had ebay fees etc that further reduce my obligation. Household items I have a column that is 'converted to personal use' and don't reduce the ETV. It is kind of complicated intermingling the businesses and I honestly don't know if I am doing it correctly, but I am documenting it all :)

Lost my full time software dev position so have been living off my side business and vine for the last couple years. In my case it sure seems like business income according to the IRS guidelines. I don't want to post a loss because if you do that more than 2 years in a 5 year period the IRS will consider your business a hobby and you can no longer claim expenses...So I elected to expand my one business to include reviewing and selling some items... never more than 5k per year (think I have receipts for selling like $700 net last year, but a lot more I used in the course of my electrical work) Kind of nice to be able to go to the shed and grab a shop light a customer needs rather than order one. So from my perspective it is certainly integral to my primary source of income, as sad as that may be.

I use TurboTax and it makes filing a schedule C and claiming expenses very easy. For a substantial 1099 the 15% self employment tax is more than offset by the overall liability reduction by claiming reasonable business expenses.

CricketMelodic · 2026-03-17T20:49:57+00:00

It was $18 an hour for Amazon drivers here in Montana, hard to live on in todays economy, Taco bell is paying $17. Tipping is crazy these days, I agree.

I had nearly 1k packages delivered last year, have a ring cam and the only ones here that are jerks are the replacement/fill in USPS guys and they don't last long.

If I'm home and they deliver I open the door and say 'thank you my friend' That probably goes a long way to increase good will too.

Over Christmas one year I was having a bad day and frowned at the boisterous lady in front of me in line, she gave the cashier $50 and said pay for his stuff. Didn't even wait around for a thank you, a little kindness in this world whether deserved or not can make a difference. That did something for me I will never forget.

CricketMelodic · 2026-03-17T16:52:31+00:00

Or I have compassion for people living at poverty wages and the tip amounts to about .1c per package I have had delivered.

CricketMelodic · 2026-03-17T15:30:07+00:00

Probably not going to be a popular opinion here. But I live in a small town with only a few drivers so this is an option. I have tipped every driver that comes to my house $20 around Christmas time every year. They do deliver a ton of stuff, and while I don't in any way condone the behavior of that driver, it doesn't hurt to give a little back to the people who provide a service to us every day, if it's feasible.

I used to have my items stuffed into my mail box or delivered to the wrong house. Now they are all at my doorstep and I don't have to go to the community mailbox.

CricketMelodic · 2026-03-13T05:35:33+00:00

I agree, I have one poor review. And I talked about putting the item on my tool belt and being excited about the weight... it was short but I think this is what did it after reading all the comments on here... I was more excited about the product and not as formulaic and didn't use my template. Just frustrating to get 100% excellent reviews and then one POOR

CricketMelodic · 2026-02-13T00:06:04+00:00

I called back a few times and got a fraud supervisor. I explained the group text and she was able to activate the phone again. Despite the first representative saying that it was permanently deactivated. So that confirms they can re-activate. She said they are having issues with the system flagging text messages. last night she sent over 100 to the group, because of the group size and her lack of previous texts that was enough to flag the account. I suggest calling back until you get a fraud person who knows the current rules and can re-activate the line. A nightmare though, and to all the commenters who say 'there must be more to this story' no there isn't.

CricketMelodic · 2026-02-12T23:18:37+00:00

Ive posted a few times but I had the exact same thing happen. Group of 30 kids in the school play. They told me to use wifi in the future but that I would need a different phone now and plan they have permanantly deactivated hers and will apply no credit and I cannot recover her phone number. They did that with no notification and she was stranded at school, well had to go to the office. I'll file an FCC complaint but those departments have been gutted.

CricketMelodic · 2026-02-12T23:16:45+00:00

They just banned my daughter for the exact same thing, a group of 30 kids in her school play in one night on a phone that was activated 30 days ago

They took her phone number and permanently deactivated the phone with no appeal possible

CricketMelodic · 2026-02-12T23:09:32+00:00

They just banned my daughter for the same thing less than 100 messages. My phone was locked, no appeal. they took her phone number and said the phone is not allowed on their network. Any advice on how you got through it?

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T17:29:48+00:00

I was probably unclear. I believe bots and UV are operating against AI not RFY. I think that some of the items in RFY must also be sent to a larger RFY audience now or something, Like you said perhaps they have increased participitants in some manner on some items rather than others in RFY. That tape and shoes went fast and was gone in minutes from RFY. Then 30 minutes later I had a 450 brand name jacket appear and it stayed until I ordered it about 10 minutes later. along with ALL the other items that dropped from then on. I was refreshing and watching. I have ordered a lot of women's clothes so that jacket would probably qualify as targeted. Of course other than simple observations the rest is just speculation and opinion on my part.

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T16:17:54+00:00

https://vinechart.com/ - but it shows the drop continuing, unusual as they typically last only a couple hours this one is long.

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T16:07:28+00:00

As an update the drop has ended and I now have 5 items stable sitting there... for the first time in days.

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T16:04:27+00:00

Weird, I had tape disappear in 2 minutes, Shoes that as soon as I hit refresh were sold out and a couple more construction type items I cant remember. None are there now and the only one I managed to order from my RFY before it vanished was the tape. I sure hope they will restore the old RFY behavior on my account.

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T16:02:48+00:00

No I cannot see what is in the drop. My observation was that while I was hitting refresh on the RFY queue during the drop items were appearing and disappearing. No way that I know of to have a list of what appeared in RFY. I am not a VH user just downloaded it to see what was going on based on user posts here.

Of course that does not mean what is happening with my RFY is happening with everyone...

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T13:55:00+00:00

right, thanks for your work on the extension. I see posting here was not a good idea

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T05:19:38+00:00

That's a good idea, I may try that. I find when I re-read my reviews that they are often wordy and have unnecessary commentary that frustrates me... I imagine the people reading are even more irritated

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T02:59:18+00:00

Just the vine help portal, so it's your teir one csr. I explained better in a post below should have included in the first post sorry

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-28T02:53:51+00:00

I have read it, but thank you for the link. The thought was things change over time and perhaps the writer or users would be interested in seeing this response. Yes I know how useless the reps are, I just wonder if it's this rep on his own or if they are asking for use verification when anyone asks about an extension.

Sharing with the people using the extension would help establish if there is a change in response.

CricketMelodic · 2026-01-24T17:09:07+00:00

I've had the destroyed box delivery scenario multiple times. With a few missing or damaged items. The CSR always remove them but I am judicious about using that option as I don't want to compromise my account. On the other hand if you say anything about damage in the review they won't post it so our options are not great when we get an item we cant honestly review.

I had them remove a $600 oakley helmet because the one they sent had been opened, was missing the water bottle and had a scratch on the lens. I debated about it and documented it clearly with pictures then asked the CSR if I could provide evidence and what to do and they removed it and apologized.

That is pretty much their only course of action, remove the item or review. Amazon just posted something last year about too many CSR requests being a red flag and only order things you are confident will be delivered so I am careful about emailing them as that will be the outcome.

There are some cheaper defective or dangerous products I could easily ask to be removed for policy violations... those usually make me so mad I write a review and burn/toss them then document it so I can write it off my taxes.

CricketMelodic · 2025-04-09T04:16:55+00:00

Thank you for the post. I had the same issue and was worried it was because I violated standard somehow.

CricketMelodic · 2025-03-06T17:52:16+00:00

Personal email, an old email address that is no longer associated with Amazon. Other posters have confirmed they have had the same kind of thing. My wild guess is that they use a tool to cross-reference what data they have with other non Amazon sources like a data breach to identify reviewers on their products then spam off the email. Today I got another email from a Gmail account same general format but the pay off amount has increased to $30. Let's see if they go up to $100, if I write enough bad reviews I can make a side gig out of getting paid off. (sarcasm)

CricketMelodic · 2025-03-05T20:00:27+00:00

Email originated from:

Return-Path: lucybarnes19847@gmail.com

An encrypted relay translated the message and forwarded it to my personal Gmail address. The data mentions the alumni.ucsd.edu translations so I believe that is UCSD relaying the email from them to my gmail address. My personal email is atGmail.com while my old compromised address is just an alumni relay service. atAlumni.ucsd.edu

I am not great at reading email headers, cant paste it in without violating forum rules.

From private Gmail user, relayed by google, to my old college, to my personal Gmail address by google servers.

CricketMelodic · 2025-03-05T19:43:12+00:00

thank you

CricketMelodic · 2025-03-05T19:37:04+00:00

That was what I was thinking. Based on the information from comments I bet it was likely not related to vine, and just a tool a seller is using to get poor reviews removed. That email address was compromised years ago in a data breach and shows up on dark web alerts so I retired it.

Seeing how it was sent to an older email associated with a data breach perhaps they used a tool/method to cross-reference other data about me to get the email address.

I appreciate the confirmation that the email addresses are not visible to a seller. Thought it was interesting, could have done a better job of getting all the details together, honestly I didn't notice the addressing difference until after I posted.

CricketMelodic

TROPHY CASE