Martin McKenzie, the head of allAgents.co.uk, a property review site, has renewed his call for Trustpilot CEO Peter Muhlmann to quit.
He claims that Trustpilot’s reputation and credibility is in tatters over what he describes as “the fake reviews scandal”.
McKenzie said: “In order to begin building the reputation of Trustpilot, then regime change is required at the top and Muhlmann should step down.
“This saga has brought the whole review industry and credibility into disrepute.”
McKenzie claims that Trustpilot only removed fake reviews about allAgents after instructing high court action, which, if correct, may explain why there is a growing rift between the two firms.
McKenzie says their repeated requests for them to be taken down were simply ignored.
It was only when senior lawyers were about to lodge paperwork with the court that Trustpilot finally took action, he alleges,
McKenzie said: “Trustpilot in the past have asked to partner with us, however we declined on the basis that we did not regard them as a credible review website to work with.
“Based on our own experience, we can categorically state that they were turning a blind eye to fake reviews. Subsequently over a period of time, fake negative reviews began appearing on our profile page.
“Our lawyers brought this to their attention on a number of occasions, however they got ignored.
“It wasn’t until they found out that we had instructed counsel and legal documents were prepared for lodging at the high court that we got the 11th hour call from their legal department and the fake reviews began getting removed.
“This is an unacceptable practice. For many businesses, this expensive option to deal with fake reviews may not be open to them.”
Trustpilot has strongly denied claims made by allAgents this week that the reviews site has been ‘turning a blind eye for years to businesses posting their own positive write-ups on the review site’.
The fresh attack by allAgents came after Trustpilot revealed how they are clamping down on companies and businesses who exploit their site with erroneous reviews.
But a spokesperson for Trustpilot said that the allegations made by allAgents are “sensationalised, unfounded and incorrect”.
Trustpilot, which removed more than 2.2m fake reviews from its site last year, says that it has enhanced its automated fraud, enforcement and anomaly detection technologies, which safeguard the platform from misuse.
It has also pledged to take legal action against firms which continue to abuse the site.
The Trustpilot spokesperson added earlier today: “The reviews reported by AllAgents were largely alleged to be defamatory rather than fake, and largely 1 star reviews about AllAgents.
“These reports were handled in accordance with our usual reporting process at that time, which offered the opportunity to the reviewer to amend their review. In the majority of these particular reviews, the reviewer didn’t respond, following which the reviews were taken offline.”
Comments (4)
We all know that reviews have been gamed (in almost every industry sector)- this is why more and more consumers prefer google reviews above all else. Whilst it’s great to see issues in this area addressed this did not happen without the platforms being aware. Whilst it’s good to see bad practice called out- one party in this argument got us to engage with their platform years ago after a mysterious 1-star review appeared against us. They refused to validate or remove the review insisting it was legitimate (even though the name of the ‘tenant’ didn’t match any of our records)- effectively forcing us to drive client reviews to the site- this is a story I have heard from a lot of agents. People in glass houses and all that……
“We all know that reviews have been gamed… this is why more and more consumers prefer google reviews above all else.”
Google reviews can be bought.
Google reviews can be posted by friends and family.
Google reviews can be posted by employees, Managers, Directors and xxOs (insert copious relevant initials).
Why, then, should “consumers” prefer them?
We have received a couple of spurious 1* reviews on Google from parties we have never dealt with, so they are not immune.
5* reviews and nice comments are a reward for treating everyone with kindness and professionalism. For most of us estate agency is a vocation and as certain sections of the media like to knock our profession it is good for moral to get a pat on the back.
‘Why, then, should “consumers” prefer them? It’s not a case of consumers preferring Google reviews. It’s what they are faced with whenever they make a search. Google reviews all the way; the likes of Trustpilot, Feefo and allAgents are all but invisible now.
So businesses need to focus their efforts there: on Google. Your three points – about buying reviews, friends and family and employees – are all valid (we came across a large London agent where branch managers had all been asked to write a review of their neighbouring branch – some had even done so using their real names!).
But, and this is a BIG ‘but’ – any business that does so is breaking the law (the CMA rules) and Google’s T&Cs; when a staff member leaves and whistleblows I wouldn’t like to be that business.
But that doesn’t mean consumers won’t reference Google reviews and businesses shouldn’t focus all their efforts on getting them. They (consumers) will and they – estate agents – should.