Google Reviews

Andy_King

Hi ive been told to post in here


Does anyone know how to report a company that are posting there own 5 star reviews and also getting staff to post reviews to mislead customers and boost there ratings on google and other review sites

They get a bad review then they post 5 star reviews and ask staff to do the same


Ive flagged the reviews but nothing seems to being done as the reviews are still up on google

They are also in the process of being struck off at companies house

I dont want people being ripped off this company

Thank

JReacher1

I don't think there is much you can do.

I would question how you would know they are fake reviews and being posted by staff. Things like that are difficult to prove so I am unsure how you can know 100%

I would just post a negative review of your experiences and then people who want to use the company can decide what to do.

Andy_King

ok thanks for your reply

KeithP

As above.

How do you know they are false reviews?

askmeaboutsofas

You can report reviews to Google that you believe to be fake or otherwise inappropriate. There are instructions here:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/4596773?hl=en-GB
I think the policy violation if you believe it is a fake review would be something like "conflict of interest". It has been a while since I've bothered reporting fakes though, Google always er on the side of caution which usually means it's unlikely they'll remove them.

I don't know how you know that these particular reviews are fake, but it can be easy to spot. For most of them, all you have to do is click on the name of the reviewer. If they have reviewed the same business in several different locations, for example, it may be fake. Or if they are the owner of the company, or a relative of the owner, and they're daft enough to use their own name/photo to post the review.

Having said that, just having a bunch of positives following a negative review isn't proof they're fake. They may have reached out to their happy customers to request reviews, in response to getting the negative review. If they have a lot of customers, this can happen naturally - most of the time, happy people don't bother to leave reviews unless they're asked, but they might be prompted to leave a positive review when they see a negative just to balance it out.