Trustpilot

gesdt50

Been following Trustpilots rise for what feels like a decade not sure if they've been around even that long, have heard them interviewed on BBC consumer programmes a couple of times of the years(You & Your) & maybe 5 live aswell, was good to hear of them and they seemed to work really hard to be accounting for themselves & checking companies profiles etc.. however for the last 3and a half years I have been losing faith in them as I see what seems to be away to much bias in favour of companies and reviews been given to them, having worked for a few companies that I can see the lies that were been written on there about how good the company was when this was not the case and people were been exploited, workers & and people with less life experience were fodder for 1 company in particular and many of the other companies were just incompetent or would turn a blind eye, deaf ear to safe there own skin or job which I can understand having been through the grinder numerous times for been honest or telling the truth had cost be my job on many occasions working for agencies/companies that would get rid at any sign of speak up if they didnt like what you said; in anycase this is about Trustpilot and wondering what others opinions are?

Albermarle

Active thread on the subject.

Trust Pilot - can they be trusted? — MoneySavingExpert Forum

gesdt50

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81884547#Comment_81884547

Thanks great thread, also note Trustpilot has a lot of blank and generic used text that take up an awful lot of space even on a 1 or 2 word reviews that will appear by default on every review which many companies are well aware of so a well written review can be buried within a couple of short reviews very quickly

Pescur

I joined Trustpilot a while back and it was a clear demonstration of how implementing AI poorly can completely screw up your business.

I decided that I would only leave a negative review if I left a positive review for someone else, just to keep me balanced.

Well "Computer says NO" has been replaced with "AI says no"

So the AI first told me that one of my reviews (a 2 or 3 star I think) has been taken down.

It did not give a clear reason that I could understand, I replied asking for what reason and the AI just kept sending me the same message over and over again.

Then they were asking for receipts from the company I had reviewed but it is not that sort of organisation, it was absolutely clear to any human who read my review that my review was genuine, but no human was involved.

I then left Trustpilot itself a review, sharing my experience of their company and how I felt AI was ruining their business and reputation.

That kicked off another AI missile attack and you guessed it, they wanted receipts from my experience with Trustpilot.

I tried to get a human involved but that AI did not like that and they deleted my account.

Two weeks later I was having dinner with some friends who had invited some other friends and I met a chap from a company that is involved in some of the finance of Trustpilot funding rounds. We discussed my experience and he told me that he had heard something similar from other sources.

It is inevitable that there will be competitors to Trustpilot but hopefully they will not allow a very poorly implemented AI system ruin their business.

Ectophile

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81917100#Comment_81917100

it seems to me that the AI is doing just what it's meant to: obstructing bad reviews while letting good ones through. If the customers (the businesses) are paying for the service, they don't want to get bad reviews.

Pescur

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81917338#Comment_81917338

Well if that is what they have programmed the AI to do then they have ruined their business because consumers have to TRUST trustpilot.

I know that Trustpilot sell mechanisms to encourage positive reviews, but if I want to gauge what a company can be like, then I start with the 1* reviews.

I look at what is being complained about and how the company being reviewed responds.

On Amazon if a product has more than 5% of 1 star reviews I know not to buy it, on Trustpilot I try to look for issues that I might be wary of if it would happen to me.

If Trustpilot uses AI to delete legitimate reviews and even delete your account, the of course consumers will share their experience on other platforms and Trustpilot will no longer be a place to TRUST.

As it is, negative reviews only last a year from date of event, then it won't be long before Trustpilot will not be fit for purpose and users will abandon it.

Undervalued

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81918748#Comment_81918748

In as far as I take notice of these types of reviews at all (e.g TP, Amazon, Google etc) I only really look at the 2, 3 and 4 star ones as there is a slightly greater chance that they will be genuine and / or reasoned!

Dixielnd

Its easy to spot the fake reviews; they're all 5-star reviews, all invited, and only a few words long. Surely its a huge conflict of interest for Trustpilot to review themselves, especially when most are absolute gibberish?

There are reviews that contain www links which don't get taken down. Where is their automated software for this?

I left a genuine review, and the company immediately flagged it and claimed it wasn't genuine, there is no reason for them to do this. Of course their page is full of 5* reviews, and they flag every bad review to get them taken down which is why their rating is so high.

Trying to talk to a real person is nigh on impossible. I kept asking questions and just get sent the same copy-and-pasted automated nonsense.

Dixielnd

I sent proof and Trustpilot replied saying they wouldn't be putting my review back online and to protect the integrity of the site they wouldn't be telling me why. You honestly couldn't make this up.

rollingmoon

Trustpilot is a paid for service. Businesses that pay can remove bad reviews at will, and obviously faked 5* ones will be mysteriously overlooked.

Trustpilot is one website absolutely nobody should trust…

Topllesz

I'm probably preaching to the choir when it comes to Trustpilot but they are truly abysmal

Twice companies have flagged my genuine reviews and both times they've been taken offline.

The companies are disingenuous claiming they suspect my review isn't real, but there's absolutely no proof of that, they just can't handle bad reviews.

Trying to reason with Trustpilot content integrity team is a waste of time. You just get the same email sent ad nauseam.

Trustpilot say businesses can't get reviews removed but what they don't tell you is if they flag them Trustpilot will take them taken offline.

That's not my idea of a trustworthy site