Trustpilot

TMSG

Many years ago, I was a pretty regular poster on the Trustpilot site but after a lengthy spat about a "fake" negative review I did about a cloud service provider (well, fake according to Trustpilot) I've deleted all my reviews and removed my account. I have developed a suspicion that they are biased towards the companies they list and not the punters and I also think they are not as diligent about removing 5-star reviews (some blindingly obvious fakes) than 1/2-star reviews.

Anyway, inspired by a post here about a company called UK Drive, I went to Trustpilot and looked them up (yeah, too much time on my hands ):



You'll note that there are 9 reviews and all 9 of them are 1-star. (I won't share a screenshot of them, just go and check.) And yet the generated score is 2.1... the (i) box next to the score helpfully says this:

The TrustScore isn’t just a simple average of all reviews. It’s based on multiple factors like the age and number of reviews.

Whether or not a business actively asks customers to write reviews also impacts the TrustScore.

I'd really like to know how their algorithm works so that 9 solid 1-star reviews produce a (in my view utterly misleading) 2.1 score. (And I'm not even going into the way the whole system is gamed because one can't give zero stars.)

In this case a certain "bias" in their calculation is pretty obvious but in cases with many mixed reviews it may not be.

I should write a 1-star review about Trustpilot on Trustpilot.

oldagetraveller1

"I should write a 1-star review about Trustpilot on Trustpilot."

I've done that and they published it. Whatever they use to filter reviews is not fit for purpose. Even 5 star reviews I wrote and submitted were being rejected. Totally illogical that they published a 1 star review of them but rejected 5 star reviews of other organisations.

There was nil respose from them when asked why.

Jellynailer

I share the concerns about Trustpilot (TP) and can offer some insights from my research into misleading advertising blurb of an online discount mattress seller (CO = a company) which includes a claim to have million happy customers. TP reports (mid August) CO scores 4.8 repreysenting 54K+ 5 star reviews.

The 5 star trick works like this: CO is a paying TP partner and advertises on TP; CO emails customer inviting review one week after purchase (but elsewhere states that mattresymattresses (CO sends a separate email for feedback on service but without the TP link). By this means, CO gains thousands of 5 star reviews which should go to the manufacturer while avoiding 1 star service reviews.

Reviews via the TP partnership email link are marked as 'invited' on the TP site. TP statistics for the past year show that 91% of CO's 5 star reviews are 'invited'; of the rest, most relate to delivery service within the CO's region and some are so ott that they are suspect. In contrast, only 0.33% of 1 star reviews are invited; the rest of the 4% total for 1 star are what TP calls 'organic'.

Having debunked the 5 star score, I have found that TP is extremely useful for 1 star reviews and what they reveal about a company's attitude to its customers as well as a wide range of failures in service. I do urge MSE forum members to check TP reviews before they commit to buy from any company; only look at reviews that are not marked 'invited'; submit your 'organic' reviews citing order number (to avoid an evasive response); and stating the name of manufacturer or delivery company. All of this will help others to avoid losing money rather than getting the bargain that CO promotes.

P.S. Since I posted two reviews 8 weeks ago, 1 star reviews for CO have doubled from 2% to 4% but my posts have been deleted. In addition, my review of CO's delivery company has been followed by 20 pages of 1 star reviews.