Got a leg to stand on against trustpilot?

[macmacman]

Just discovered some reviews about us on trustpilot. Only a few but they are false and negative.

I didn't set the page up, you know what they do.... just set up a page for small businesses and let people write what they want.

Can we do anything?

 

[arnydnxluk]

Sign up for a free Trustpilot business account. From there you can either respond to the reviews or if they're completely fabricated then report them to Trustpilot for removal.

https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/202194328

Good luck.

 

[macmacman]

I don't want to register or sign up to them, that's what they want by doing this. So you then work with the false negative reviews and sign up to TP paid plans.

I want them to remove the reviews. They can't just have people (not even customers!) slagging small companies off. So much of this going on, Google reviews is just as bad.

Anyone got an legal advice?

 

[arnydnxluk]

We had a loosely similar situation in which a noncustomer posted a review about us on a niche reviews website. It wasn't too bad because the "customer" rated us 4/5 stars but it was false nonetheless, probably even malicious to knock us down the website's rankings.

I asked for the review to be removed (or at least for them to challenge it, e.g. ask for a copy of the non-existent invoice). I was told no, they're unable to remove any reviews from their website because they receive too many requests but "if you can consider an ad campaign, we can get a review or two removed on the day the ad campaign launches so let me know if you can review a quick proposal".

All trust was lost then, I could only think the website in question may have added the false review themselves to sell us advertising They didn't even care that the review was false, they would make any review disappear as long as we handed over the dough... crooks!

We're not a Trustpilot customer but I do feel they're a bit more legit, their website suggests they take false reviews seriously and it seems as though they would remove them if you work with them.

No idea on the legal aspect, I'd imagine it's between you and the customer/author. No doubt the effort involved to take action is not worth the cost or time in most scenarios - it's going to be much easier to grit your teeth and play ball with Trustpilot.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Try to manage these reviews as already advised Invite your real customers to comment .

This is the modern age like you I don't want all this review balls@@@ but its the world we live in The only way to make it work is to get involved and use it to promote the business You will not be able to fight this

 

[Mr D]

OK not the easy route then.
Have you tried instructing a solicitor regarding the libel?

 

[Ashley_Price]

I want them to remove the reviews. They can't just have people (not even customers!) slagging small companies off. So much of this going on, Google reviews is just as bad.

Why not do as I did on Google reviews when a fake customer left a negative review? You cannot get them to remove it, because how can you prove they weren't a customer. However, you get your real customers to leave reviews which then bury the fake one.

 

[macmacman]

Why not do as I did on Google reviews when a fake customer left a negative review? You cannot get them to remove it, because how can you prove they weren't a customer. However, you get your real customers to leave reviews which then bury the fake one.

That's the point. I can have a better go of proving they aren't a customer than TP or G can prove they were. They don't ask reviewers for copies of orders or invoices. We don't use TP so of course the few unhappy customers have gone out there way to leave reviews for us on there so they are mostly bad.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

If they can make a post without being a customer, what is to stop you doing the same but in the company's name refuting the other post

 

[Nochexman]

Anyone got an legal advice?

Would be interested in whatever legal advice you receive.

 

[Ashley_Price]

That's the point. I can have a better go of proving they aren't a customer than TP or G can prove they were. They don't ask reviewers for copies of orders or invoices.

Do you really expect TP, G, and all the other sites, to provide the administration required to check every review is genuine?

 

[Annoying Donkey]

...of course the few unhappy customers have gone out there way to leave reviews for us on there so they are mostly bad.

Why let it get to that point. Why not follow up after every transaction and ensure you've got 100% happy customers...

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Do you really expect TP, G, and all the other sites, to provide the administration required to check every review is genuine?

The wage bill would bankrupt them Its a moaners charter . Everybody knows a nice place to eat but are baffled by the negative reviews . These are the type of people you are up against

 

[Ashley_Price]

Another thought is how important is the Trust Pilot site to your getting business?

If you never had a page on there before, then you weren't getting business from it anyway. This obviously wasn't a problem or else you would have set up a page long ago. So, the fake reviews change nothing because you're still not going to get any business from it.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

Another thought is how important is the Trust Pilot site to your getting business?

If you never had a page on there before, then you weren't getting business from it anyway. This obviously wasn't a problem or else you would have set up a page long ago. So, the fake reviews change nothing because you're still not going to get any business from it.

You don't have to get business from the site. When people search on business name and a bad review comes up, it can put people off... Same for farcebook and others...

 

[Aileen B]

No legal advice from me, only a consumer view.
If I saw a negative review on trustpilot which was replied to by the company in a calm and factual way: e.g "This person has not purchased an item from us", It would put my mind at ease and I would think the reviewer was maybe a disgruntled competitor.
If you can't get the reviews removed, I would urge you to reply to them.

 

[Mr D]

Have had some bad experiences with high review companies so tend to discount trustpilot and similar sites.
Lots of raving reviews and a few bad ones and no clue which is telling the truth or whether both types are.
Hence discount them.

The one time I left a negative review for a company on trustpilot (an old supplier of ours) the company and trustpilot were emailing multiple times a day to get it changed.

 

[okanda]

yes we need to do something

 

[alex360]

I find unbelievable that some people have time to post fake review what a sad life they must have, if they competitors that tell you they envy you try to turn it into a positive

 

[Ashley_Price]

You don't have to get business from the site. When people search on business name and a bad review comes up, it can put people off... Same for farcebook and others...

Yes, but only for those prospects who are on the Trustpilot site.

As the OP has never had a page on Trustpilot we assume the site never generated any sales for him (as anyone searching wouldn't have got his business details). Now, because there are (fake) negative reviews on the site, isn't going to make any difference... he still isn't going to get any sales generated from the site.

Remember, he has said he's not interested in signing up with Trustpilot anyway, so it's not going to make that much of a difference.

If, on the other hand, when someone did a search in Google, it brought up his Trustpilot rating, that might be different.

 

[macmacman]

Yes it does bring up the TP page when you search for company name reviews. They are now trying to get me to take ownership of the page and sing up to the paid service. Dirty trick if you ask me. They must just track people searching for company names on their site and if enough people do it they set up a page without the consent of the company.

 

[Nochexman]

if enough people do it they set up a page without the consent of the company.

They set-up the page when someone writes a review for your business on Trustpilot. The issue you have now is when someone searches for your business they will see the Trustpilot' Trustscore among the the top search items. You have to decide whether that is OK without engaging with Trustpilot or whether you should engage.

 

[arnydnxluk]

Yes it does bring up the TP page when you search for company name reviews. They are now trying to get me to take ownership of the page and sing up to the paid service. Dirty trick if you ask me.

You can take ownership of the page without signing up to their paid service, you can even respond to reviews or report them.

 

[Diesel]

I lost all faith in TrustPilot when they removed a 100% factual review of mine because their client didn't like it. It did ultimately get re-instated after I scanned them the invoice and correspondence that was trying to sort the issue beforehand. I then note that there is a policy by this company of having staff false review the company (often bigging themselves up individually by name for 'superb service') that buries the mostly disgruntled legitimate customers tales of woe and warnings. They do this daily and are mostly unverified. I conclude that it is completely untrustworthy site as I flagged dozens of these fake reviews (often 3 word ones) as false but Trustpilot reply that they cant prove that they are false so they stay up. Nothing could be more blatantly and obviously false so the TrustPilot site is completely untrustworthy and misleads customers - sadly ironic really.

 

[ineedadollar]

ahh these fake reviewers
I was running a competition on our facebook page and someone left me a 4 star, messaged them to see what they had ordered and they told me red velvet cake. which we had never had so knew it was a fake, and I had never seen them in the store either. Don't know why they do it but they do
Had another guy come in with his wife, turns out he was a friend of one of the competition. we spoke for a bit and he asked about a job. They were in to have a look around but didn't buy anything
Later on, had a 1-star review from a fake account which had left a 5 star to the competitor's shop
it stated our cakes are wrong, our shop smells, there's an odd noise coming from the back and it's spooky. Reported it to facebook and it seems to have been removed

We get plenty of people who order through just eat then threaten us with negative reviews if we don't compensate them for "cold food" "banana milkshake didn't taste like banana" "not enough ice cream" etc
then you get all your happy customers who don't leave reviews

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Feefo is a better system in that you upload your customers emails to it and it picks a random selection to contact the customers for their review, so only genuine customers can make a review