WalMart Gluten-Free Cream Soup

I write the occasional product review on Amazon—Normally it’s because I really liked something that I bought for some reason. There are ALWAYS plenty of critical reviews out there, but precious few honest reviews of praise. I use my real name, and if my name is attached to an Amazon review, it’s an honest review. A couple of days ago, I reviewed a group of “Amazon Partner” retailers. I’d never done that before, but here’s the upshot of the whole thing:

My bride has decided to try to go gluten-free. That’s fine by me. Turns out, gluten-free products are expensive and sometimes hard to find. She wanted to make a casserole (or something) that called for a can of cream-of-something soup. We discovered that there’s a WalMart branded selection of cream soup available for about a buck and a half a can. WalMart.com was sold out.

Figures.

Checked Amazon.

Sure enough, it’s available in quantity from a handful of Amazon “Partners”. For about 9 dollars American a can.

So I wrote the following review and sent it to Amazon for their review process—Here’s the review and response from Amazon—BTW, I’ve never had a review declined by Amazon before:

-----

Rip Off
 
This price for this product is completely outrageous. As a "partner" of Amazon, and the product being "fulfilled by Amazon", you'd think that Amazon itself would pay a little attention.
Here's the deal--This is a WalMart house brand and it sells at their stores (when they have it) for about a dollar 50 a can or so. On Amazon, here, there are 5 "partner retailers" who are selling that dollar-fifty can of soup in packages of 2 cans for between 14.99 for 2 up to $18.18 for 2.

Amazon should take action to disassociate from these thieves. "Gluten Free" doesn't mean that the price can be confiscatory. Nope. Further, it's not on the shelf at WalMart, and not available for purchase on their web-site either (out of stock, you see) I can only surmise that these unscrupulous retailers have purchased all of this product that exists.

It gets one star because I can't give it less.

Amazon’s response, a few days later, reprinted here in it’s entirety:

Thank you for submitting a customer review.

Thank you for submitting a customer review on Amazon. After carefully reviewing your submission, your review could not be posted to the website. While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines:
http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines

Interestingly, when I clicked on the link Amazon provided for their guidelines, I landed on a “page not found” filler.

I did look into it and discovered that you’re only allowed to review the product, not the seller, regardless of just how evil that retailer might be.

I suppose the same rules would apply to the massive number of Asian based Amazon “partners” who routinely sell counterfeit name brand merchandise—Like Levis, f’rinstance.

It’s not like I’m going to quit buying at Amazon or anything, but Gee Whiz guys……...If you can deliver by drone, you ought to be able to take care of this sorta nonsense.

In the FWIW file, we went to WalMart in Longview, Washington and found 4 cans of WalMart branded gluten free cream soup on the shelf at a buck fifty per. We bought all of them, but not for retailing.