trustpilot

[TimW]

'We care about your opinion and want to improve our service please leave a review on trustpilot' or some such thing.

A boiler part has not arrived. I paid online 10 days ago and have heard nothing since. I get no reply to my emails. When I look at trustpilot I see that 9% of the reviews give the lowest possible score of 1/5 stars.

30% are less than 5 stars and of the 5star reviews an awful lot of them lack any of the incidental details that would convince you that they are genuine. On this basis trustpilot give the company an overall score of 'Great!'.

I have seen this before. Trustpilot is not an open, caring, sharing, consumer empowerment group but a marketing tool for businesses. If they are good businesses it's fine but when they are shoddy businesses it is very disappointing to see how they work. I for one will be very suspicious of any business which uses trustpilot in future.

Tim W

[Davidm]

Well since TP only makes its money from the businesses that it is "advertising" it is hardly surprising that it doesn't give any of them a bad score. Total waste of time (or worse) IMHO

[Tim Watts]

Yes - it's like Checkatrade.

The only 2 review sites I know of that aren't gash are Tripadvisor and Amazon (the shop).

[alan_m]

You have to be wary with Amazon.

Often a manufacturer of electronic boxes/TVs will have multiple models with different capabilities.

Amazon will group all the reviews together so the glowing reviews for the top of the range model will be applied to the listing for the lower specified model which may not even use the same technology.

This policy holds when a manufacturer replaces an old respected model with a piece of crap. The reviews for both will be combined to made the lesser model appear better than expected.

I have had a negative review about Amazon marketplace sellers rejected for some unknown Amazon policy reason. I was sent out of date items and my complaint about the seller was this fact.

[Scott]

I once saw several - I think on the Philips site - saying that a particular product was rubbish. I was impressed with their honesty!

[Andrew]

And the latter are in league with East Sussex Trading standards providing "Trusted Traders"!!!

Andrew

[simon mitchelmore]

Sadly even TripAdvisor seem to have lost their neutrality now they are taki ng bookings for self catering apartments (and hence have a financial incent ive in increasing bookings). I posted a review reporting ants in the kitche n and the total lack of interest by the owner and guess what - within a few days my review was removed!

In protest I don't waste my time posting on TA anymore. I find booking.com reviews are now actually better and more accurate.

[DJC]

I don't trust Tripadvisor, I find booking.com much better.

[Brian Gaff]

Are you sure this site should not be renamed Trust-Pillock then? Brian

[Tim Watts]

Thank you - noted...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The more I use them, the more I realise these 'free' sites may not have you as their first priority. That is to make money anyway they can.

[alan_m]

Including selling on any personal details (email address etc.) that you choose to give them.

[Theo]

That's another problem with Amazon - people commenting on sellers in the reviews of the product. 'Arrived fast' or 'Packaging was awful' are no good in reviews of the product where they could have bought it from dozens of marketplace sellers and we aren't told which one. There's a separate seller review section but many people don't use it.

Still, it's better than ebay where there often aren't reviews of the products at all (and if there are they're usually generic). It would be handy to have specific seller+item reviews, particularly for all the Chinese merchants flogging cheap tat - all the sellers claim to be selling similar items, but they're made in dozens of different factories and some of them are worse than others.

Theo

[charles]

[Snip]

If the best someone can say about an item was that it arrived fast, then, by implication, they have nothing good to say about the product.

[alan_m]

How many people believe they are buying from Amazon rather than a third party seller?

Saying that it arrived fast gives an indication that the seller and product is in the UK rather than from some Chinese sellers that claim UK stock and a 2 day delivery whereas in reality the goods arrive 4 to 6 weeks later in jiffy bags with a Chinese customs declaration.

My Ebay feedback to sellers is generic and of one of two stock phrases. I've given up reviewing anything on Amazon.

[damduck-egg]

I'm fairly fed up with the tell us how good we are, are you satisfied , how can we improve your purchasing experience , surveys anyway. It has become a whole industry in itself and someone somewhere is making money out of it and putting another overhead on the costs of running a business and in most instances an unnecessary one. We have got to the stage that a lot of online business triggers an enquiry to report back "How did we do, have I been good" in a manner reminiscent of a toddler seeking praise and comfort from Mummy because it has got through the day without soiling its nappy.

If the purchase is for some reasonable complicated piece of hardware that most will not be purchasing frequently like a TV there is some justification to seek out peoples opinions, but asking how a customer feels about something mundane like I was asked how I felt about some vacuum cleaner bags is ridiculous, I'm sorry John Lewis but they are just vacuum cleaner bags and I find it difficult to get excited over such things. You stocked them ,the price was competitive, I purchased ,you delivered, Job done . I don't want to hear from you again about it. If for any reason they or your supply of such fell short of expectation then I would have been in touch. I suppose the next stage is that some bright spark will come up with a scheme for the purchaser to " reward Peter who picked your package and Angie in accounts who approved your purchase by ticking this box" " Ticking this Box means that you are sending each employee a tip, please note that 20% of it is kept by us to cover the cost of fulfilling your generosity.

G.Harman

[Vir Campestris]

Next time use

- or wasn't it something he does?

Andy

[Jeff Layman]

I tried to submit an "excellent" review for a self-catering apartment, but because I didn't have a Trip Advisor, Facebook, or Twitter account it wouldn't accept my review.

[TimW]

It was a Grant Timer. A crappy little clock which they sell for £75 - lol! TW

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

Trust Pilot regularly called me up (before I blocked them) trying to persuade me to pay for their services and how trustworthy and credible the reviews were seen as being by potential customers and that trustpilot reviews commanded complete customer confidence as they couldn't be manipulated and that they were the best thing in the world ever and only a fool would not want to use them... To which I always pointed out their quite appalling 3 stars out of 5 which based on what they'd just told me meant there is no way I'd ever consider using them.

:)