Trustpilot - a dawning realisation that it's a scam!

dad22

Hi all,

Just a word to the wise for those of us that thought that Trustpilot reviews were a useful tool in doing "due diligence" prior to a purchase. My recent experience of Trustpilot has opened my eyes to the fact that the companies which it hosts reviews of are in fact their CUSTOMERS! These companies pay Trustpilot a fee to be on the site - paying the fee gives them certain powers to be able to filter and limit the comments that are made by consumers.

I posted a less than flattering, but honest, review on a villa in Portugal that I rented from Affinity Villas.

In an instant, the Affinity Villas had reported the post and an instant later it was removed from view. For brevity, the text on my review of 12 Vale Verde, Quinta do Lago can be found here (copy and paste to browser):

earthgrid.com/Just_Me/Admin/12-vale-verde-quinta-do-lago.html

Nothing rude, just my experience of one of their villas and the insects surrounding it.

Shortly afterwards, the Affinity Villas review thread started filling with complementary reviews. In the whole of August they received 19 reviews. Within the 24 hours of my posting they received 21 reviews, almost all of them gushing in their praise.

Smelling a rat, I wrote to Trustpilot and pointed out this strange behaviour. Companies are allowed to invite reviews, but the scale of the response would seem unlikely. Also, their website states:

"Companies must invite all their customers

All customers must be invited equally and identically, without exception, to leave a review about their purchase experience. In turn, reviews should always reflect that experience accurately."

I have received no such invitation.

All this peaked my interest, so I had a little dig around. There are plenty of articles out there which explain how the Trustpilot business model of asking for payment from companies perverts the course of reviewing those very companies. Their subscriptions allow them wide powers to affect what is and what is not seen on the site. In my case my review, if it ever re-appeared would be long gone from page one of the reviews.

I found that it is widely believed that companies pay third party agencies to write multiple false reviews and that Trustpilot only enforces the rules that advantage the companies that pay it fees.

I was invited by Trustpilot to edit my review to make it more customer service oriented; this I have done, but the edited version has not been re-instated. It, too, can be seen here:

earthgrid.com/Just_Me/Admin/12-vale-verde-quinta-do-lago.html

What really strikes me is that any reputable company would want to be associated with Trustpilot, but I guess 99% of people haven't woken up to this sham. Perhaps a few more will be made aware by threads like this one.

BJV

MMMM I have to be honest but I never take reviews as gospel ( a pinch of salt at best ) but I do read the reviews from people who have actually bought it/ been there or done it. E.g Agros and Curries where they publish the good the bad and the ugly.

Surprised at Trust pilot though I would of expected better!

Naf

I posted an awful review of Yodel on there. It's still there, and it also got my issue resolved same day. So I don't think they get total control of what is posted or removed.

JReacher1

Its not true. Trustpilot will not remove reviews because a company asks them to.

There are strict rules over what can be published and I would guess you said something that isn't allowed. It doesn't have to be offensive it can literally just be something like mentioning the price.

LadyDee

BJV wrote: »

MMMM I have to be honest but I never take reviews as gospel ( a pinch of salt at best ) but I do read the reviews from people who have actually bought it/ been there or done it. E.g Agros and Curries where they publish the good the bad and the ugly.

Surprised at Trust pilot though I would of expected better!

I always used to take the greatest notice of "Verified Purchase" reviews on Amazon, until I read a review where the writer said they'd been lucky enough to buy the item secondhand on Shpock. The review was headed "Verified Purchase". I queried this with the reviewer and she replied she had no idea how this happened!

Is anything these days what it appears?

likelyfran

dad22 wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a word to the wise for those of us that thought that Trustpilot reviews were a useful tool in doing "due diligence" prior to a purchase. My recent experience of Trustpilot has opened my eyes to the fact that the companies which it hosts reviews of are in fact their CUSTOMERS! These companies pay Trustpilot a fee to be on the site - paying the fee gives them certain powers to be able to filter and limit the comments that are made by consumers.

I posted a less than flattering, but honest, review on a villa in Portugal that I rented from Affinity Villas.

In an instant, the Affinity Villas had reported the post and an instant later it was removed from view. For brevity, the text on my review of 12 Vale Verde, Quinta do Lago can be found here (copy and paste to browser):

earthgrid.com/Just_Me/Admin/12-vale-verde-quinta-do-lago.html

Nothing rude, just my experience of one of their villas and the insects surrounding it.

Shortly afterwards, the Affinity Villas review thread started filling with complementary reviews. In the whole of August they received 19 reviews. Within the 24 hours of my posting they received 21 reviews, almost all of them gushing in their praise.

Smelling a rat, I wrote to Trustpilot and pointed out this strange behaviour. Companies are allowed to invite reviews, but the scale of the response would seem unlikely. Also, their website states:

"Companies must invite all their customers

All customers must be invited equally and identically, without exception, to leave a review about their purchase experience. In turn, reviews should always reflect that experience accurately."

I have received no such invitation.

All this peaked my interest, so I had a little dig around. There are plenty of articles out there which explain how the Trustpilot business model of asking for payment from companies perverts the course of reviewing those very companies. Their subscriptions allow them wide powers to affect what is and what is not seen on the site. In my case my review, if it ever re-appeared would be long gone from page one of the reviews.

I found that it is widely believed that companies pay third party agencies to write multiple false reviews and that Trustpilot only enforces the rules that advantage the companies that pay it fees.

I was invited by Trustpilot to edit my review to make it more customer service oriented; this I have done, but the edited version has not been re-instated. It, too, can be seen here:

earthgrid.com/Just_Me/Admin/12-vale-verde-quinta-do-lago.html

What really strikes me is that any reputable company would want to be associated with Trustpilot, but I guess 99% of people haven't woken up to this sham. Perhaps a few more will be made aware by threads like this one.

Thanks for posting this.

I was one who was taken in by Trustpilot's cleverly chosen name and by the amount of reviews it posts.

Year or so ago, I posted a review about one of those 'we'll pay cash for your mobile' type online firms.

Honestly can't remember all the exact details but the firm did something wrong/dodgy so I did a Trustpilot review on them.

Had an email from Trustpilot to say review was posted, so far so good.

Very soon after they contacted me again asking me to provide 'proof'/evidence whatever they called it.

This had actually been provided, in line with Trustpilot's instructions.

Confused, I provided it again.

They now told me it wasn't proof and basically were ***holes about it.

My fair and honest review remained removed/unposted.

Another s88t company I've had the misfortune to deal with recently, there's complaints about them all over .... but they have an extremely high score on good old Trustpilot!

I now know that Trustpilot is completely untrustworthy and will never rely on its ratings again because they clearly don't give an honest picture.

likelyfran

JReacher1 wrote: »

Its not true. Trustpilot will not remove reviews because a company asks them to.

There are strict rules over what can be published and I would guess you said something that isn't allowed. It doesn't have to be offensive it can literally just be something like mentioning the price.

I'm going to try to find my review.

The fact that it was passed by Trustpilot and posted and then removed and other mullarkey, is very suspicious imo. OP's post just confirms my suspicions.
Perhaps different companies have different sway with TP?

Just had a look thru my Hotmail.

Looks like what I said happened happened, then TP kept bugging me with 'send us your proof' emails for no reason (after everything was supposedly unsatisfactorily concluded so they're incompetent too) , this was part of my reply:

' ...- the company knows full well that what I've said is true - I saw that you allowed them to comment on a DEFINITELY PUBLISHED review by someone else (who must have provided proof to you, yes?) - and imply that they were confused and must have got the wrong company!!!

What a fiasco!!...'

so CIYG (the company in question) lied, basically, and TP colluded with them, not just in my case but in at least one other that I saw. Nice!


Edit: Aha!

What it was, was that CIYG (Cash in your Gadgets) promised that their collection company, DPD, would text us with a 1 hour slot time for collection.
This is part of CIYG's official standard message guff.

DPF then texted a DAY slot, not an hour.

Felt it all wasn't boding well so emailed CIYG to say we were cancelling the transaction - no replies - EVENTUALLY replied saying DPD had assured TP that collection would be made that DAY and would be in touch that with us shortly.

Er, no thanks!!

So - CIYG reported the review, probably lying that they'd never transacted with us, TP, having recieved the proof that we had and subsequently posting the review, then basically lied too!!

So there you go - dodgy.

peter_the_piper

So, basically you have to provide cast iron proof that the company was faulty but none is needed if you are the company disputing the post, ie only positive posts allowed.

Stevie_Palimo

peter_the_piper wrote: »

So, basically you have to provide cast iron proof that the company was faulty but none is needed if you are the company disputing the post, ie only positive posts allowed.

It works both ways I believe as a burden of proof can be requested on either count for good and bad business practices, We have people that have posted good and bad stuff about us on there and can go on to reply to them and resolve or dispute of which when I did dispute a few posts and showed trustpilot my findings they then removed the fraud post that a individual added to try and muddy my Company name.

oldagetraveller

I'm becoming increasingly wary of product reviews on Amazon U.K. with many 5 star (usually)with a declaration that the reviewer received the item free or at a discounted price in exchange for a fair and honest review. Really?
I, personally, take those reviews with a very large dose of salt and try to avoid that particular product now.

fleshandbone

Some people love to go out of there way to ruin a businesses reputation, which in turn could cause job losses, which could result in people becoming homeless.....too many bitter people about that just want to be hurtful.

If you are like the above, then TrustPilot has every right and is correct in removing malicious hateful comments.