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benson1980

Risteard said:

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

I appreciate other people have had problems (including people I know) but it is really important to actually read the content of the reviews. One plumber my parents recently found on there, and had a lot of problems with, had a high rating on the face of it but when you dug into the several negative reviews he’d just responded with the same line denying all knowledge of the customer, yet they were quite detailed explanations of what work he had (or hadn’t) done.

How would you (anyone) interpret that in terms of whether the trader was any good? (without your parent's prior experience)

I might be missing your point, but when several people say they employed this guy and provide detail around what he did and the issues- and he just responds to say it’s a false and malicious review each time, there’s no way I’d be calling him up for a quote. 

The point was how do you know that the bad reviews aren't malicious?

Your starting point was your parent's bad experience, which predisposes you to thinking the bad reviews are true and genuine.

Without that prior experience, do you believe the trader, or believe the reviewer?

It isn't difficult to write a false but credible review - especially if you are in the trade yourself.  You made the point about how the reviews were detailed about the work done, but that doesn't mean anything.

On the balance of probabilities I’d wonder why more than a handful of people, who have other linked reviews on google that appear plausible and post positive reviews for other businesses, have issues with him and therefore I’d be inclined to think that they are genuine.

I know review sites are a bit contentious, but just posting my experience of them.

You don't know that these are a multitude of people - it could be one or two posting multiple false reviews.

I had someone post a false 1-star Google review once, with no text but just ticked the box "Quality" as the reason for the review. However I had never done any work for anyone by this name. Unfortunately Google had no interest in removing it, saying it didn't breach their conditions. I would presume that reviewing work which wasn't ever done would be contrary to their conditions, but there you go - they simply don't care. Don't place too much trust in reviews.

And that is exactly the kind of one star review that I’d be inclined to ignore.

I don’t know 100%. I never said I could know 100%. But you have to wonder who’d go to the effort of posting several detailed negative reviews with profiles built up over time on google, reviewing other businesses. Therefore on balance not someone who Id get in for a quote and this approach has generally seen us do ok from employing people based on checkatrade/google reviews, and seeing what they have to say when they rock up to survey the job.

Section62

benson1980 said:

Risteard said:

You don't know that these are a multitude of people - it could be one or two posting multiple false reviews.

I had someone post a false 1-star Google review once, with no text but just ticked the box "Quality" as the reason for the review. However I had never done any work for anyone by this name. Unfortunately Google had no interest in removing it, saying it didn't breach their conditions. I would presume that reviewing work which wasn't ever done would be contrary to their conditions, but there you go - they simply don't care. Don't place too much trust in reviews.

And that is exactly the kind of one star review that I’d be inclined to ignore.

I don’t know 100%. I never said I could know 100%. But you have to wonder who’d go to the effort of posting several detailed negative reviews with profiles built up over time on google, reviewing other businesses. Therefore on balance not someone who Id get in for a quote and this approach has generally seen us do ok from employing people based on checkatrade/google reviews, and seeing what they have to say when they rock up to survey the job.

I'd suspect another (shonky) trader posting false reviews to discourage people from using good traders, in order to get more customers themselves?

Online reviews which aren't moderated (e.g. unlike the FMB site) have virtually zero value these days, especially when the host takes zero action against reports of false information (as per Risteard's example).

benson1980

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

Risteard said:

You don't know that these are a multitude of people - it could be one or two posting multiple false reviews.

I had someone post a false 1-star Google review once, with no text but just ticked the box "Quality" as the reason for the review. However I had never done any work for anyone by this name. Unfortunately Google had no interest in removing it, saying it didn't breach their conditions. I would presume that reviewing work which wasn't ever done would be contrary to their conditions, but there you go - they simply don't care. Don't place too much trust in reviews.

And that is exactly the kind of one star review that I’d be inclined to ignore.

I don’t know 100%. I never said I could know 100%. But you have to wonder who’d go to the effort of posting several detailed negative reviews with profiles built up over time on google, reviewing other businesses. Therefore on balance not someone who Id get in for a quote and this approach has generally seen us do ok from employing people based on checkatrade/google reviews, and seeing what they have to say when they rock up to survey the job.

I'd suspect another (shonky) trader posting false reviews to discourage people from using good traders, in order to get more customers themselves?

Online reviews which aren't moderated (e.g. unlike the FMB site) have virtually zero value these days, especially when the host takes zero action against reports of false information (as per Risteard's example).

I completely disagree that online reviews hold no value. It’s the content of the review that’s important to me and then looking at those reviewers profiles on google and what else they’ve posted for instance, as I’ve suggested. How could that be a rogue tradesperson and how would they have hijacked multiple accounts that have their own history of reviews? Bit conspiracy theory for me. Possible but highly unlikely.

Section62

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

Risteard said:

You don't know that these are a multitude of people - it could be one or two posting multiple false reviews.

I had someone post a false 1-star Google review once, with no text but just ticked the box "Quality" as the reason for the review. However I had never done any work for anyone by this name. Unfortunately Google had no interest in removing it, saying it didn't breach their conditions. I would presume that reviewing work which wasn't ever done would be contrary to their conditions, but there you go - they simply don't care. Don't place too much trust in reviews.

And that is exactly the kind of one star review that I’d be inclined to ignore.

I don’t know 100%. I never said I could know 100%. But you have to wonder who’d go to the effort of posting several detailed negative reviews with profiles built up over time on google, reviewing other businesses. Therefore on balance not someone who Id get in for a quote and this approach has generally seen us do ok from employing people based on checkatrade/google reviews, and seeing what they have to say when they rock up to survey the job.

I'd suspect another (shonky) trader posting false reviews to discourage people from using good traders, in order to get more customers themselves?

Online reviews which aren't moderated (e.g. unlike the FMB site) have virtually zero value these days, especially when the host takes zero action against reports of false information (as per Risteard's example).

I completely disagree that online reviews hold no value.

That wasn't what I was saying.

It’s the content of the review that’s important to me and then looking at those reviewers profiles on google and what else they’ve posted for instance, as I’ve suggested. How could that be a rogue tradesperson and how would they have hijacked multiple accounts that have their own history of reviews? Bit conspiracy theory for me. Possible but highly unlikely.

No hijacking required.  How many google accounts does your household have? Is there anything restricting them to one per person or one per household?

benson1980

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

Risteard said:

You don't know that these are a multitude of people - it could be one or two posting multiple false reviews.

I had someone post a false 1-star Google review once, with no text but just ticked the box "Quality" as the reason for the review. However I had never done any work for anyone by this name. Unfortunately Google had no interest in removing it, saying it didn't breach their conditions. I would presume that reviewing work which wasn't ever done would be contrary to their conditions, but there you go - they simply don't care. Don't place too much trust in reviews.

And that is exactly the kind of one star review that I’d be inclined to ignore.

I don’t know 100%. I never said I could know 100%. But you have to wonder who’d go to the effort of posting several detailed negative reviews with profiles built up over time on google, reviewing other businesses. Therefore on balance not someone who Id get in for a quote and this approach has generally seen us do ok from employing people based on checkatrade/google reviews, and seeing what they have to say when they rock up to survey the job.

I'd suspect another (shonky) trader posting false reviews to discourage people from using good traders, in order to get more customers themselves?

Online reviews which aren't moderated (e.g. unlike the FMB site) have virtually zero value these days, especially when the host takes zero action against reports of false information (as per Risteard's example).

I completely disagree that online reviews hold no value.

That wasn't what I was saying.

It’s the content of the review that’s important to me and then looking at those reviewers profiles on google and what else they’ve posted for instance, as I’ve suggested. How could that be a rogue tradesperson and how would they have hijacked multiple accounts that have their own history of reviews? Bit conspiracy theory for me. Possible but highly unlikely.

No hijacking required.  How many google accounts does your household have? Is there anything restricting them to one per person or one per household?

Indeed. Most things are possible. Just as it is possible that they are actual customers.

I envisaged recommending checkatrade on here was going to be contentious with some. But, all I can say is I’ve found several hardworking honest tradespeople this way. 

The plumber I have in my house as I write had a one star review. I read the content (all of four words of it), spoke to him when he turned up to quote, and made my own mind up as to how much weight I gave that particular review.