Trustpilot abuse

[Steve Jones2]

I had a dispute with a customer the other day.He has posted not one, but eight 1-star reviews on Trustpilot.
I don't object to one bad review, but this is abuse of Trustpilot. These reviews were all made within 30 mins of each other.One of them actually uses the word C**ts, written with the asterisks.There is no doubt these are from this one customer.He's admitted to it.
The customer has told me for every positive review in future, he'll post 6 bad reviews under made up names.
Have spoken to Trustpilot and they are very unhelpful.
Is there anything I can do?

 

[Mr D]

Civil action against the person would-be expensive.

Perhaps not use trustpilot? They have been known to fiddle things themselves including removal of honest reviews.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Are you a paying customer of TP

 

[Steve Jones2]

I'm not a paying customer of TP.
TP won't allow you to cancel your account, so I can't even pull my listing.

 

[DavidWH]

Can you respond to said reviews, in a positive manner... ie: Explain you believe the review to be false, and have no record of them being a customer, if they'd like to contact you, you'll endeavour to resolve any legitimate complaint.

Any genuine customer will see through these spurious claims, and replying in professional manner, will demonstrate you actually care

 

[Nochexman]

Have spoken to Trustpilot and they are very unhelpful.
Is there anything I can do?

You can report the reviews to Trustpilot. Accusative language is a legitimate complaint to get a review removed. Also, if you know that all the reviews have been written by the same person, report this to Trustpilot as a reason to have the reviews removed. Let us know how you get on.

 

[MBE2017]

When you say the client has admitted to this, how did he do so, verbally or in writing? Will trust pilot provide ip addresses etc to show this?

 

[Steve Jones2]

thanks
the admission wa verbal.
TP has a compliance system whereby you have to use different IPs and email addresses to post reviews.She's clearly got her friends to each use their computers, so each review is in a unique name.
Have reported each review to TP, who are "investigating".

 

[Nochexman]

...TP has a compliance system whereby you have to use different IPs and email addresses to post reviews.She's clearly got her friends to each use their computers, so each review is in a unique name.
Have reported each review to TP, who are "investigating".

Well, if it is two different people with two different addresses, there will only be one transaction to verify, so one review - at least - will be removed.

 

[Steve Jones2]

Well, they done their checks and they are allowing the reviews.
I knew his would happen.

Thing is, I can't prove they are mates of the customer, even though some of the reviews actually state they are friends of hers!
As i can't delete my company from TP I guess I'll just have to collect more good reviews to offset the 12 bad ones she and her mates posted.

 

[Clinton]

As i can't delete my company from TP I guess I'll just have to collect more good reviews to offset the 12 bad ones she and her mates posted.

No, no, no, that's exactly the wrong thing to do!

You post good reviews and they'll flood Trustpilot with some more bad reviews. And Trustpilot love bad reviews as it encourages businesses to sign up with them and pay money.

You can't win that game. When someone is not playing fair, you can't play fair.

You've got to change the rules of the game.

So fire up TOR (to give you different IP addresses), and start posting a few dozen one star reviews for your business. Yes, one star reviews!

Here's some copy to get you started:

"This company is the best you can hope to find, but I'm giving only one star because my 10 year warranty on their product is not up yet. I'll upgrade my review after 10 years if the product doesn't fail"

"This company provides a great service at a fantastic price but today is Tuesday and I never leave 5 star reviews on Tuesday"

"This company is a fantastic company but I'm giving them only one star because I don't like Trustpilot"

You get the picture. Enjoy!

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

@Clinton Have you been smoking that dopy smoky stuff ! I bet you even had Bob Marley on the sound system when you typed this

You cant go posting negative reviews for your own company and you cant send the OP into a war with TP and himself .
Next year he will have forgotten all the reviews he has posted and be back on here complaining that somebody else is leaving fake reviews when it was him all along !

I don't think this is a very good idea and It is very rare for me to disagree with you
I love @Clinton but he is talking Boll£cks here

Sorry mate honesty is the best policy and all that stuff

 

[Nochexman]

Well, they done their checks and they are allowing the reviews.
I knew his would happen.

Thing is, I can't prove they are mates of the customer, even though some of the reviews actually state they are friends of hers!
As i can't delete my company from TP I guess I'll just have to collect more good reviews to offset the 12 bad ones she and her mates posted.

Wow, they are pulling all the stops out for you! I usually have to wait at least a week before anything to come back from Trustpilot after I report a review.

It really doesn't matter if the reviewers are mates of each other; they both need to demonstrate they have had an experience of using your service.

The thing is if customer A makes a purchase and you challenge Trustpilot to verify customer A's purchase and they do - OK tough luck.

If you challenge customer A's friend's purchase, Trustpilot need to verify that this is a different transaction, otherwise the review is removed because customer A's friend can't demonstrate that they have used your service.

If you have not already done so you should ask Trustpilot to confirm that these two reviews do not relate to the same transaction.

 

[bodgitt&scarperLTD]

I agree with Clinton. As business people, we know TrustPilot is bullshit. The sooner the public cotton on the better, and this is a great way to do it. Everyone loves checking out one star reviews- Clinton has masterminded some reverse psychology to convert that into sales!