Negative Review left on eKomi

[FutureM]

Hi All,

So we have ekomi obviously to increase trust for potential customers.......

So now we have a negative one. And in my opinion completely unjust.

This is what happend:

Customer purchased a football goal which we sent to them on next day delivery as we always do.

About a week later I received a phone call from the buyer stating that he didn't receive the carry bag with the goal, as it says he should in the product description.

I apologised and informed him it shouldn't say that, but will of course send a carry bag to him FOC.
We did that, and then changed the product description. All seemed well and the guy on the phone said "Good man, thanks for that".

THEN the review appears that was written at 4am hours before i spoke to the guy on the phone and this is what it said

(1 Star) "False advertising is not a great way to start. It clearly states on football goals website that the 8" x 4" fun goal comes with a carry bag. When this did not arrive with the order i called the number to see why and was told that this is not the case, yet it is still being advertised with a carry bag."

It turns out for some reason he rang the manufacturer of the goal first and not us. This review was written before we spoke to him, or were made aware of the problem.

Surely this review should be removed? I have tried to open dialogue with the customer but had no repsonse yet.

What do you guys think?

 

[Tradebox]

Hi OP

Most review services will provide you with the opportunity to respond and this response should be visible on the review. I think most 'viewers' understand that negative reviews can often be left in anger, which sounds the case if its written at 4am!! I think if you can leave a response the explanation you give above sounds really reasonable.

We have just started using Venstr.com which is a B2B directory of suppliers for online retailers (we're a solution provider). This includes reviews which we can respond to. Just started on venstr so only have a couple of reviews so far. However, I do buy into the 'power' of external reviews as opposed to self hosted reviews. However, the credibility of the review site must rely on it being autonomous which is probably why you are not getting a response from eKomi in terms of having the customer review removed.

Best of luck

 

[AndyP]

The bottom line is that customers can leave whatever feedback they like. Leave it for a few hours and then post a reasoned sensible business-like response and move on. The world won't stop turning. I believe I am correct in saying that eKomi does not publish a negative feedback if it's taken to arbitration and you have responded. I think the customer then has a set number of days in which to re-respond. If this doesn't happen the case is closed and the feedback is never published. But even if it does end up being published and you have left a sensible response the sky won't fall in. Suck it up, put it down to experience, think nice thoughts, move on and enjoy Christmas

 

[antropy]

Surely this review should be removed? I have tried to open dialogue with the customer but had no repsonse yet.

If you spoke to him on the phone before perhaps you have his number and can give him a call to explain the impact a review like that can have on a business and ask nicely if he could remove or re-write it?

 

[FutureM]

Thanks for the replies. I haven't approached ekomi at the moment, but the review was published immediately. I have resonded to the customer on ekomi (which others do not see) apologising as well as commenting on the review so others can see what the problem was for the customer.

I won't call the customer because they work nights so I risk upsetting them further. hopefully they will respond to my dialogue but i doubt it.

the most anoying part is that the review starts with "False Advertising" it really doesn't look great. Hopefully people will read our other reviews as well.

 

[antropy]

I won't call the customer because they work nights so I risk upsetting them further. hopefully they will respond to my dialogue but i doubt it.

What about a text? If not, how about set an alarm for 4am

 

[AndyP]

I just saw your response. That's all absolutely fine. It really won't impact on customer confidence. It's one neg that has been sensibly explained and the rest are all positive. I know it's frustrating but put it down to experience and move on. No point in taking it personally.

 

[Steve_g]

Hi,

We have used Ekomi for a while and gathered about 2k reviews so have a good bit of experience with this. it looks like your pretty new so maybe dont know the process.

When a customer leaves a review less then 3 stars the review you will be informed and have the choice to publish and reply to the review (looks like what you have done) or to start a mediation process so you can communicate with the customer to resolve the issue, the customer then has the choose to submit the review or to change the review.

It seems like you have slicked the wrong button at some point (easy done as the back end doesn't have the best Dutch to English translation.

I would call Ekomi and let them know the situation, they have been very good dealing with us in the past.

Dont ask them to remove the review as it doesn't break any guidilens, they wont entertain the idea but they will likely be willing to hide the review and put it in mediation to give you the chance to resolve with the customer.

Cheers

Steve