Is leaving reviews on Trustpilot…

viv_andersons_nana

viv_andersons_nana

Well-known member
… a sign of middle age? I’ve left two reviews on there in the past couple of weeks, one good and one bad. I’ve just had a realisation that there was a time when I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing this sort of thing. And is it even worth taking the time to leave a review anyway. Surely it’s either 5 stars or 1. Who’s giving a postal company a 3? How are you marking that.

I had an email saying my reviews are proving popular. I checked and saw 18 people have read them. Not exactly a stampede. What’s happening? Is it just middle age? Does anyone else leave reviews or does everyone have lives to live?
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
… a sign of middle age? I’ve left two reviews on there in the past couple of weeks, one good and one bad. I’ve just had a realisation that there was a time when I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing this sort of thing. And is it even worth taking the time to leave a review anyway. Surely it’s either 5 stars or 1. Who’s giving a postal company a 3? How are you marking that.

I had an email saying my reviews are proving popular. I checked and saw 18 people have read them. Not exactly a stampede. What’s happening? Is it just middle age? Does anyone else leave reviews or does everyone have lives to live?
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It depends on how old you are. I've just done similar, am I middle aged? 😁
 
The company I ran had a Checkatrade account. I was amazed to discover that it is a complete con.
In a previous life I was involved with customer satisfaction surveys and we went to enormous lengths to keep them independant and unbiased.
These new companies Checkatrade, trust pilot et al are paid for by the companies being surveyed and so the results are manipulated so that they can be used as a marketing tool. If there was negative comments that parent company would get involved and try to sort it out. These trust scores are so biased they should not be trusted.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
It depends on how old you are. I've just done similar, am I middle aged? 😁
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I turned 40 this year. I’ve finally got around to building a vinyl collection, attend more non-league games than professional ones and have begun the transition from nondescript Eurofizz lager to IPA and more specialised beers. It does ‘feel’ middle-aged but I could be a 40 year-old man, as I am, or a 27 year-old hipster I suppose, based on that description.

The first Trustpilot review I left was about Southeastern trains. It is a terrible, terrible service and EVERY time I’ve used them in the past 6 or so weeks the train has been late, severely late or cancelled completely. This is every time. I couldn’t take it any longer and left a one star review. Their reviews on Trustpilot are appalling and the service continues to get worse, so why do we bother I suppose.
 
Boro in Devon said:
The company I ran had a Checkatrade account. I was amazed to discover that it is a complete con.
In a previous life I was involved with customer satisfaction surveys and we went to enormous lengths to keep them independant and unbiased.
These new companies Checkatrade, trust pilot et al are paid for by the companies being surveyed and so the results are manipulated so that they can be used as a marketing tool. If there was negative comments that parent company would get involved and try to sort it out. These trust scores are so biased they should not be trusted.
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I work as a copywriter and when the latest CEO was appointed he was obsessed with mentioning Glassdoor. He would talk about it in every company-wide meeting or conference call. One day he said please do not leave negative reviews on Glassdoor, come to me or us personally and we will deal with it. And then one time he said something like ‘thanks to whoever left that review on Glassdoor last week, we’ve been in discussions with Glassdoor about what we can do about it…’ and then a few days later it was removed. It just disappeared.

I took those things at face value before that to be honest. It was probably very naive on my part.
 
Boro in Devon said:
The company I ran had a Checkatrade account. I was amazed to discover that it is a complete con.
In a previous life I was involved with customer satisfaction surveys and we went to enormous lengths to keep them independant and unbiased.
These new companies Checkatrade, trust pilot et al are paid for by the companies being surveyed and so the results are manipulated so that they can be used as a marketing tool. If there was negative comments that parent company would get involved and try to sort it out. These trust scores are so biased they should not be trusted.
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What would you say about the state of Southeastern trains’ pitiful reviews on Trustpilot? Have they just not got around to fixing them yet?
 
Boro in Devon said:
The company I ran had a Checkatrade account. I was amazed to discover that it is a complete con.
In a previous life I was involved with customer satisfaction surveys and we went to enormous lengths to keep them independant and unbiased.
These new companies Checkatrade, trust pilot et al are paid for by the companies being surveyed and so the results are manipulated so that they can be used as a marketing tool. If there was negative comments that parent company would get involved and try to sort it out. These trust scores are so biased they should not be trusted.
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Trustpilot isn't a con and can actually be trusted.
We do pay them a fair bit every year so that we can publish the reviews, scores and use other marketing tools - but they are very strict regarding the credibility of the reviews.
We can't change them or pick and choose which ones are made public. If we think a review is malicious we can report it but they rarely get removed.
I can't comment on Checkatrade, Checkatrade Dot Com.
 
A company set up as a direct rival to the one I was working for at the time and they had been in business for exactly 3 days. They had glowing reviews on Trust pilot for work they had supposedly done which due to lead times for the type of business would have taken months to organise and complete so couldn't possibly be true.
I looked at who had been leaving reviews and using reverse searching etc discovered they were either direct employees of the firm or people in their friends group on Facebook etc.
I gave detailed information about all this to Trust Pilot to say this was all fraudulent etc and needed to be investigated. Despite repeated contact they did not take any action whatsoever.
I'm sure many of the reviews on many sites are genuine, but due to my experience, I do not place any confidence in any reviews.
 
Rofesleg said:
Trustpilot isn't a con and can actually be trusted.
We do pay them a fair bit every year so that we can publish the reviews, scores and use other marketing tools - but they are very strict regarding the credibility of the reviews.
We can't change them or pick and choose which ones are made public. If we think a review is malicious we can report it but they rarely get removed.
I can't comment on Checkatrade, Checkatrade Dot Com.
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Sorry, I admit that we didnt use Trust Pillot so it was unfair for me to include them in my criticism. However I would be suprised if there wasnt some commonality between how most of the companies operate.
I did however deal with Checkatrade, I used to work in customer satisfaction surveys for a house building company and also a visitor attraction organisation. These companies used the findings to improve the offering/product. Checkatrade could not justify to me, how they calculated scores, it certainly wasnt using net promoters or any other statistical way of producing a score. I am a mathematician/statistician by training, and so was interested about what I was paying for and how it could be used. My company was a small part in a much bigger franchise operation and so there was a lot of money at stake and they did everything to present the business in a positive light, including having a system that passed through referrals to us.

If there was negative feedback/comments these were referred to the parent organisation before publishing. I really wouldnt trust them as a customer because one bad apple can affect the whole industry.
 
Northerner said:
A company set up as a direct rival to the one I was working for at the time and they had been in business for exactly 3 days. They had glowing reviews on Trust pilot for work they had supposedly done which due to lead times for the type of business would have taken months to organise and complete so couldn't possibly be true.
I looked at who had been leaving reviews and using reverse searching etc discovered they were either direct employees of the firm or people in their friends group on Facebook etc.
I gave detailed information about all this to Trust Pilot to say this was all fraudulent etc and needed to be investigated. Despite repeated contact they did not take any action whatsoever.
I'm sure many of the reviews on many sites are genuine, but due to my experience, I do not place any confidence in any reviews.
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Yes, companies can leave reviews themselves or even pay 'professional' reviewers.
But that is down to the individual companies really, not Trustpilot.
If our reviews are placed as a result of an automatic invitation following an online purchase, they show 'verified'. If someone leaves a review without a purchase it doesn't show that.
Once a review is left it is nigh on impossible to get it removed.
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
What would you say about the state of Southeastern trains’ pitiful reviews on Trustpilot? Have they just not got around to fixing them yet?
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Interesting situation, I guess they dont really care. Most people know how bad the services are, but what other options do you have. I would imagine they are a monopoly.
 
Do Trustpilot / Checkatrade do any research or vetting themselves or is it completely down to the reviews of internet users?
 
I thought I’d never done a review before, so I tried to sign up to Trustpilot just now. Turns out I’ve already got an account. I submitted 2 reviews…..starting when I hit 40. 😔
So yes, it appears it is a middle aged thing.
 
I think it's important - in the consumer sector it stops people getting scammed and supports genuinely good businesses.

In education the feedback model helps educators to decide if they want to be involved with a certain organisation or not, which I think is a good thing!
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
I turned 40 this year. I’ve finally got around to building a vinyl collection, attend more non-league games than professional ones and have begun the transition from nondescript Eurofizz lager to IPA and more specialised beers. It does ‘feel’ middle-aged but I could be a 40 year-old man, as I am, or a 27 year-old hipster I suppose, based on that description.

The first Trustpilot review I left was about Southeastern trains. It is a terrible, terrible service and EVERY time I’ve used them in the past 6 or so weeks the train has been late, severely late or cancelled completely. This is every time. I couldn’t take it any longer and left a one star review. Their reviews on Trustpilot are appalling and the service continues to get worse, so why do we bother I suppose.
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Trustpilot reviews on train companies are a waste of time. They are so poor they will attract negative reaction daily. It’s the small companies and tradespeople that it really helps (or hinders). I think it is very useful and helps choice.
 
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